We Have Volunteers in New Jersey Again

  1-Region 8 Feeding Team and Rebuild Team; 2-Lakeview Baptist, Albemarle, NC; 3-Momeyer Baptist Church, Nashville, NC (our home team).  With volunteers back at work we were able to accomplish a lot. Tim and Chris finished the cabinets at Paul's.  The Momeyer group painted the walls, doors and trim and installed most of the cabinets at Michelle's.   The Region 8 team split up and worked several jobs. They did final paint and clean up at Jayne's, did touch up paint and final clean up at June's, did trim work and painting at Paul's and installed 2 sets of cabinets on Dupont Street.  The Lakeview Baptist team did insulation, tear out and clean up.  They insulated Paul and June's crawl space, tore down a foundation and floor system, did a complete tear out and started two more.  I believe they would have finished all three but the dumpsters were full.  They also cleared the sand off Barbara's lot so we could see what we had to start working with.

It sure is great to have volunteer coming to help again.  Without volunteers the work effort is very slow.  For the ones of you who have been asking about when are we starting Barbara's house - She now has permits and we are hoping to get the foundation started next week.  So if you can frame we would like to hear from you about helping out.  Hoping to get foundation done and floor system in by Thanksgiving.  If that happens then we want to start framing when we return to Jersey on December 2nd.

Two Weeks With No Volunteers

  It’s been mighty quiet around here for the past couple of weeks with no volunteers.  We have continued to work and visit.  1-Ann went to the boardwalk to enjoy the rides before the cold sets in.  2-Ann and I took a trip to Ohio to see Kim and the guys.  After revival Sunday evening we went by Dairy Queen. Tim and Vicki went home for a few days also. 3-Billy installed an exhaust vent at June’s house while Ann, Tim and Vickie finished the painting.  As soon as her appliances arrive she home will be complete. 4&5-Tim and Chris installed the bamboo flooring at Paul’s.  6-Saturday ended up being busy.  We were asked to attend the North Jersey Net (a Southern Baptist association of churches in the northern half of New Jersey) meeting to speak about disaster relief and rebuild on Saturday morning. We enjoyed worship with a great Hispanic praise band from one of the associational churches. Then we returned to Seaside and attended a Lions Club Beafsteak dinner where we were thanked for our work in the area.

PRAISE-Barbara Hastings finally got her building permits this week so please call and make reservations to come and help build her home. 

We are now waiting on three volunteer teams to arrive.  Sure will be nice to again have some help.  Got to remember GOD has control of all and all must be in His timing.

Region 5 Rocks!!!

  I’ve lost count of the number of time that Region 5 volunteers have come to NJ with a feeding and rebuild team combined. They were small in numbers but came with a heart to serve GOD. The ladies cooked some great meals and did some fall cleaning.  With so many volunteers coming through it is nice to have a group every now and then to do a good deep cleaning.  The guys started out the week moving belongings at a home that is going to be raised.  The rest of the week they spent at the Gross home adding a layer of floor decking and bridge blocking the studs for sheet rock and trim work later.  Tim and Billy worked on finishing up the new vinyl siding.  Ann, Vickie, Tim and Billy also did trim work, caulking, painting and final plumbing hook ups at June’s home. We celebrated Frances’ birthday on Wednesday.

We don’t have any volunteers for two weeks so think we will just go fishing.  Just kidding, but seriously we could use some help.

Good to Have Returning Volunteers

  Our volunteers this week:  1-Biltmore Baptist, Asheville, NC (A team from this church comes every other month.); 2-Grace Haven Baptist Fellowship, Wake Forest, NC (Their second trip); 3-Robin from Biltmore helping Ann make fall decorations to brighten our dining tables; 4-Region 6 Feeding Team-Marlene, Tom and Sharon (Sunni)-They came up on short notice and were great to work with; 5-Matthews Baptist Church-Matthews, NC (This group of men have made several trips here.)  The Grace Haven group took on several different task this week.  They finished up a set of stairs for Bob who can now enter the upper part of his home without the need for an extension ladder.  They went to Rick’s to do final touch ups and clean up.  Then they went to Michelle’s to finish hanging the sheet rock.  Their final job was also hanging sheet rock at Richard’s.  The Matthews group went to June’s and decided to stay there all week.  They replaced 2 windows, laid flooring, installed cabinets, laid tile in bathroom and then installed fixtures, laid carpet, installed doors and trim work.    The Biltmore team as normal is large so they split up.  The ladies helped the Mathews group by painting Junes house and trim.  Most of the guys spent the week at David and Moe’s house.  Most of the week was spent on removing what was left of the old torn up siding and replacing it with new siding.  They also installed two new doors, built steps, repaired walls, built knee walls and reframed 3 ceiling areas.  The ladies did join the men a couple of days.  They removed screws and nails left in the walls and ceilings during tear out and then did a great job cleaning up the site.

It was great to have three teams return for yet another called mission trip to New Jersey.  They all worked hard and made a big difference in the homes we are working.  The best part of the week was the time that was spent sharing why we are here with the home owners, neighbors and others.  One thing I heard several times this week and will never grow tired of hearing is “FOR THE GLORY OF GOD “

Our volunteer numbers are very low at this time and GOD is providing us with great weather.  So I ask you to think about what for now is my favorite saying – “What are you doing for GOD?”  Hoping and praying to see each of you and many more soon.

Lots of Sheetrock Hanging Going On

  Our volunteers:1-Johnnie and Vivian from Norman Park, GA; 2-First Baptist Asheboro (Charles, Tami, Mike, Ernest, Nelson & Dennis); 3-Dennis and Nelson catching a nap after lunch; 4-Happy Birthday Vivian; 5-Happy Birthday Nelson.  We had two small teams this week but that didn’t stop them from getting a lot accomplished.  First Baptist Asheboro finished hanging the sheet rock at Paul’s, then hung insulation in another home.  After that they hung insulation at Michelle’s and almost got all the sheet rock hung. They would have probably finished but as you see Nelson had a birthday and became an old man.  I think that extra age got to him.  Johnny and Vivian helped work out some issues at Jayne’s and then helped finish a a/c platform for Chris.  After that they helped First Baptist hang sheet rock.  Ann went to the dedication for the towns entrance carousel horse.

The summer heat has left the area so we are having great working weather.  Great time to come to New Jersey.  Give us a call.

In His Time

   We didn’t have any volunteers last week so Ann skipped the blog.  However Tim, Vickie, Ann and Billy did work all week.  This week we have gotten all rough ins done and now waiting on insulation inspection so we can hang rock at Paul’s.  A lot of that insulation was installed by a local volunteer couple.  A team of four from Central Assembly of God, Canonsburg, PA came in to work Friday and Saturday.  One of the men did a little heat duct and plumbing work while the others built a set of steps for Bob so he could quit climbing the ladder to get to his attic area.  We had been donated some materials I didn’t see us using in New Jersey so Rudy and Robin came up with trailer to haul it back to Elizabeth City.

Again this coming week we have no volunteers. Tim and Vickie will be watching the site and working on homes while Ann and Billy have gone home for the week.  At present time we have 4 homes to help with major rebuild, 3 minor jobs to finish and 1 home to build from scratch when Barbara gets her permits.  But the sad news is we only have a few volunteers signed up to come and help through next spring.  I know the LORD has the volunteers we need planned but my fear is some of them are not listening.  I know He has a way of working all things out in His time and we must wait.  We look forward to seeing each of you soon.

Praying for Volunteers

   We have spent a lot of time this week on our knees and reaching up.  After several hours of laying tile, filling grout, sanding and painting ceilings I know I was praying that GOD would send us the volunteers we need to do his work in New Jersey. Then HE shows me Paul, Chris and Charlie along with homeowners who we are able to spend more one on one time with.

Sue is a home owner who Charlie has been helping rebuild and now NCBM has been able to help them hang insulation, hang and finish sheet rock and this week started painting. We are still doing some of the final work at Rick’s house.  We got all the tile installed this week.  Nick and Mary’s house is also close to finish.

The Beachplum Quilters of the Jersey Shore presented us a quilt.  It was to thank us for our help rebuilding the Shore.  They also have presented them to many of the home owners that lost so much in the storm.  Ann is also a quilter so this is dear to her heart.

As of today we now have three new sets of building permits and praying for Barbara’s to be ready next week.  At present that puts us in 12 different homes with the opportunity to share the gospel as GOD leads us.  However, we are very short on volunteers.  Please join us in prayer for volunteers to come to Jersey to help rebuild as GOD has planned.

Ann like to walk on the boardwalk after supper and saw this juggling act one night.

Praising God Through the Trials

I have been putting off updating the blog because of the disappointments of the week and I didn’t know how to express them without sounding whiney. There are so many worse things going on in the world these days and I have so much to be thankful for.  Pastor Todd keeps reminding us to praise God even in the storms so I just want to praise Him for the life we have and for the opportunity to serve Him daily. With that being said I will just give the facts from this week with no whining.   We had no volunteer teams this week, and yes we had plenty of work to do.  Billy and Tim were finishing up Rick’s bathroom tile and Vicki and Ann were cleaning and doing painting touch up.  We thought we would have the house complete by the end of the week but that was not to be.  We had a huge rain storm Tuesday night that caused flood damage in Seaside Heights.  It rained so hard that even our camper leaked.  We were up at 1 AM mopping floors and putting out pans to catch the water.  When we went inside the church before breakfast we found that the bathrooms were flooded from water coming up out of the sewer lines.  We spent all morning cleaning that up.  After lunch Billy and Tim went to check on Rick and Nick’s houses.  Nick’s was ok but Rick’s brand new laminate flooring was ruined. It has now all been removed and we are replacing it with tile.  Progress was made at Nick’s on Saturday by installing his kitchen cabinets.

We have lots of openings for volunteers this fall so let us know when you would like to come.

Small Group Full of Energy

   Our team this week was from Rankin Lake Baptist Church, Dallas, NC. The team, good friends of Tim and Vicki, was led by Pastor Jim.  His wife Delaine and DIL Emily prepared our meals.  His daughter Ashley and son Jason plus a friend Nathan helped on the rebuild. On Monday morning we unloaded another load of supplies sent by Citimpac and World Vision to help NCBM with rebuilding homes in New Jersey.  Then Tim went with the team to help Charlie hang sheetrock in Sue’s home. Later in the week They joined Billy and Paul as they continued putting the final touches on Rick and his mom’s home.  Ashley and her dad Jim started hanging doors at Nick and Mary’s.  With it being such a small group Vickie also joined in on the painting fun. 

With the days still being long it is a joy to watch the beautiful sunsets GOD provides over the bay each day.  And with the warm weather evening walks on the board walk have been popular.

We are now without any volunteers except Paul for 3 weeks. NCBM currently has 8 homes which we are working on and have 4 others that have asked for our help but I will not commit to them due to the lack of volunteers at this time.  If you have some time and would like to serve God by helping us please give us a call.

Nick and Rick Get New Flooring

   This week we had two teams from eastern North Carolina.   The largest team (top left) was First Baptist, Dunn.  The other team (top right) was from different churches in the Eastern Baptist Associations. Tim got three of the young ladies to help him give the tool trailer a much needed cleaning and reorganization. Tim and Billy started installing cabinets in Rick’s home. The feeding team was from Region 4 and they were assisted by two of the ladies from EBA.   The Eastern Baptist group almost finished up John & Claire’s home in Long Branch. They also helped pack up a house so it could be torn down.  The Dunn group split up three ways. One group did painting and then laid flooring at Nick and Mary’s.  Another group laid flooring, installed doors and molding at Rick and Jerri’s (Rick’s mom). The third group did a lot of clean up – church area, five yards and under the boardwalk (which they just loved-NOT).

As of now this is the last of the big groups on the calendar to come to New Jersey to help share the gospel and rebuild homes.  We do have a few small teams signed up but the amount of work needing to be done is way bigger than the amount of volunteers that have signed up to serve in New Jersey in the coming months.  Plans are for us to be here until summer 2015 so PLEASE pray and make plans for several trips to help.  This is your chance to help rebuild homes and lives.