Old Friends and New Friends

This was a great week with a great bunch of men and women.  Most of them have been here before and have plans to return soon.  Some of them were on their first mission trip and plan to come again too.Phil and Billy with the feeding team did a lot of odd and ins around the church while Hollis and Kaye did most of the cooking – good choice. The Biltmore and Rocky Hock teams hung sheet rock, repaired framing, painted, finished sheet rock, built more bunk beds and under skirted the shower unit.  We have been having issues with the outside and inside showers so several of them lent a hand so we now have properly operating showers inside and out. 

We only have one week in February with volunteers.  If you are available give us a call.  There is lot’s of work to do.

A New Year, A New Location and New Staff

This week we have been busy making some more improvements at our site. We welcome Tim & Vicki Etheridge who have agreed to help with the operation in New Jersey during 2014.  Our team this week was from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. They were a hard working group from VCU’s Aspire program. Our cooking/plumbing crew was Gerald & Hervy. They cooked breakfast every morning and then plumbed the rest of the day.  Ann was in charge of supper with help from Tim and Vicki.  Ann was also happy to do some sewing even if it was just hemming shower curtains.

The college team hung sheet rock, helped Gerald plumb, cut up a dock that floated into a yard, poured concrete and installed a ramp.

NCBM is now staying in Seaside Heights.  Not as much room as we had at Grace Tabernacle but most of our work sites now will be from just a few blocks away to 10 or 15 minutes.  Several teams have already booked their return trip dates.  Still many weeks to be filled so get your team together, set a week and call Mary to book it.

FYI – The new location is 2 blocks from beach and boardwalk.                                                                                                                         

Home For Christmas and Moving Week

We had a wonderful week home for Christmas.  We worked in the bakery on Christmas Eve and spend many hours enjoying family and friends.We traveled back to New Jersey on the 30th and we celebrated New Year’s Eve by beginning our move.  We did not have any teams here but our good friends Paul, Chris and Elaine pitched in to help.  We got snow Thursday night.Here is our new home.  Top two pictures are our new kitchen with all donated equipment except for the stove.  Bottom two pictures are of our lounge and dining area.  We now have bunk beds.  We are ready for volunteers.  Get your 2014 week (or weeks) booked now before they’re gone.  Space is limited.

PS-Happy New Year!!!

Alliance Bible Fellowship’s 4th Trip to New Jersey

Most of our group were returners.  Some actually spent last Christmas break in New Jersey doing tear outs.  However this was their first rebuild project.  They agree rebuild is totally different from tear out.  They were able to meet 3 of the home owners and spend some time with them.   As you see it did snow again this week.  The good part of snow in Jersey it is usually gone the next day.  Our feeding team was from Reg. 2 and Reg. 8.For one team most of the week was spent hanging sheet rock.  The other team painted walls, stained molding, hung insulation and moved furniture back into a home.

We are in need of people to finish sheet rock.  We have three  jobs waiting to finish and another one gets hung first week of January.

We will be home for a week to celebrate Christmas.

Cooks Become Rebuilders

With no rebuild volunteers this Region 1 cook team could have stayed home.  But they didn’t  because they knew joy awaited them in Jersey.  The guys were delayed by snow and ice and didn’t arrive until Monday.  They spent the rest of Monday painting at our soon to be new home.  The rest of the week they spent laying flooring and being blessed by the Peterson home owners.  Thanks AB, Keith and Elton.Billy was leveling these shelves and really getting into the job.  Ann has painted a second coat on the floors of the Seaside Heights church.  We are ready to move in as soon as the inspectors give us their blessing.  It’s looking a lot like Christmas around here with decorations and snow.  We have had three snow storms in one week.  Wonder if that is a sign of what the winter will be like.

Home for Thanksgiving & Almost Ready to Move (a 2 week post)

With no volunteers for Thanksgiving week we headed home.  It was great to be able to attend church and visit many people around Momeyer for the week.  We also helped out at Yellow Dog Bread so they could fill the many Thanksgiving special orders they received.  Since we will be back home for Christmas and have family there on Christmas morning we began decorating.   On Thanksgiving day we ate lunch with Tanya’s family and then headed off to Nags Head to spend time with the Batchelor family including a little holiday light tour.  On Friday we went to Salvo for the day to visit with a few of the many friends we made while we were serving there last year.Region 8 feeding team came in on Sunday evening and did the cooking and they were our rebuild team for the week.  We love flexible volunteers.  They all spent the first three days working on the church in Seaside Heights doing last minute things so we can request a Certificate of Occupancy and then move the NCBM operation there.        On Wednesday night Pat & Leonard arrived with the truck.  So on Thursday morning  after they moved our storage trailer to Seaside we all pitched in and unloaded it into storage units and the church.  Didn’t realize Tennessee had sent us so much paper products.  After the truck was unloaded most of the guys went to Margaret’s and started hanging her sheet rock.  On Friday we all enjoyed a seafood lunch at the Crab Shack.  Ann decided that even though we have not moved into the Seaside Heights church that it was still in need of some Christmas cheer.  The ladies had a “Hanging of the Greens” and now it doesn’t look so deserted.  Friday night the homeschool co-op put on a fund raiser Christmas show in the gym which was enjoyed very much by our volunteers.  Ann rode the train to NYC on Saturday to spend some time with her NC friends Marsha, Susan and Deborah.  She enjoyed being with them and seeing the Christmas decorations.  One of the advantages of moving to Seaside Heights will be   volunteers will be able to walk to the boardwalk in the evenings and get ice cream.  Well, maybe when it warms up some.

A Hard Working Group and Some Smart Kids

On Sunday evening our arriving team for the week  from Colonial Baptist Church in Cary took us out to eat at their favorite restaurant in NJ, the Brick Diner. They have worked with us several times before and we can always count on them to work hard and go the extra mile.  Two days they even worked past dinner time to get the job done.  Ann did the cooking this week and did some painting too. One day she had a little help in the kitchen from one of the home school kids.  On Tuesday night the home school Lego Robotics Team interviewed us and showed us their presentation on their idea for a tracking device they were taking to a state competition.Two days the team worked on homes but the other three were spent working on the Seaside Heights church that we will be moving into soon.  They put up sheetrock, installed a vent for our stove hood, installed doors and ceiling tiles and got some of our donated kitchen equipment in place.  We are in desperate need of volunteers to help complete this project and to help us move in after Thanksgiving.  We also have plenty of home rebuilding work to do also.

We are home now for Thanksgiving.

Getting Closer to a Move

We had a great group of volunteers this week.  1-Cool Spring Baptist, Sanford; 2-Oak Grove Baptist, Boone; 3-Region 5 Feeding Team; 4-Biltmore Baptist, Asheville; 5-James with the Cool Spring group showing us some clogging; 6-James and two of the ladies from Biltmore showing some of the handmade wooden toys he made and donated.  You may notice that James is in the feeding team picture too.  I think he liked having his picture taken with the ladies.So much work done this past week.  Teams hung sheet rock and installed parts of the ceiling at our soon to be new location in Seaside Heights.  Rudy & Robin brought up some kitchen equipment and several ladies cleaned it before installation.  The Oak Grove group and Paul finished removing the sand from Joanie’s pool and porch area.  The teams worked on 10 different homes and the church.  GREAT WEEK  Thank you LORD

Although the teams were able to complete several work request we received just as many new ones.  The work requests are starting to come in on a regular basis again.  However our list of volunteers signed up to come to New Jersey to help is very small.  We need help NOW and next year.  As for now – this week with the few volunteers we have we are hoping to get the new church building to a point so we can get a C.O. by Friday.  Then when we return after Thanksgiving (December 1) we will need volunteers to help us move everything from Grace Tabernacle to Grace Evangelical in Seaside Heights and setup our operation there.  Once we move most of our jobs will be with in 5 minutes of the church which will make things better for all.

Blessed to Work With Good Friends

This week all but two of our volunteers were good friends of ours.  Of course now the other two are now friends also. 1-Region 4 Feeding Team-Joanne, Judy and Randy; 2-Ike, Jamie, Eddie & Iva-Momeyer Baptist Church; 3-Sid and BettyAnne Shearin-Littleton BC; 4-Chris the HVAC Guy-Grace Tabernacle Bible Church; 5-Paul-Union Church of Lavalette ; 6-Tim and Vickie Etheridge-Greenville.

Tim, Betty Anne and Sid worked on flooring in Bob’s house two days.  It’s good to see volunteers and homeowners praying together.Our main focus this week has been working on the church building for our new location.  We are working hard to get it ready for our volunteers.  It will be so nice to be closer to our work sites.  With all the sanding, painting, cleaning, insulation hanging, staple pulling, door hanging and bed building this place is really changing.

A Little Time Off

No volunteers for last week or this week so we took a little time off.  On Wedneday of last week we left NJ and traveled to Momeyer. It was nice to visit with friends and family.  Ann worked two days at Yellow Dog Bread and went with Matt and Tanya to the NC State Fair.  Billy visited with his buddies at Rebuilding Hope in Henderson and helped to cut down two trees with the Momeyer Baptist Men.  On Monday we headed to Ohio to visit with Kim, Brandon and Matthew.  He is officially our grandson since the ceremony on October 30th.We got back to NJ on Thursday in time to enjoy Grace Tabernacle’s Fall Festival Trunk or Treat and Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey.  The fall colors are spectacular here this week.  On Saturday we went to our friend, Pastor Todd’s 50th birthday party which had a 50’s theme. It was a lot of fun. Before leaving for vacation (and since coming back) Billy only had Ann to help him work.  We are ready for some volunteers.