Polar Bear Plunge

  With no volunteer teams this week Paul pitched in each day so the work could continue. We have moved one of the storage units to make room for Tim & Vickie Etheridge’s camper.  They will join us next weekend and stay for the year.  Some of the other work included installing a tub and hanging sheetrock at Jayne’s house and finishing some sheet rock at the Jolly’s house.  On Saturday we went to the beach for the Polar Bear Plunge.  Thankfully it was a much warmer day than we have been having. Paul has connections and was able to get us on the beach so we could get an up front view of the plungers going in and coming out.  Traffic was bad but they raised a lot of money ($1,184,448) for Special Olympics.  Of course the traffic didn’t bother us because we walked.

No teams this coming week either.  Have you booked your week to come and minister in New Jersey yet?

Back to Work in New Jersey

If you missed us last week we were back at home for a week.  Billy did some repair work, Ann worked at the Yellow Dog Bread Company and both spent time with family and friends.  This week we are back with a team we really enjoy from Region 8.  Joyce Beam with that team journaled their week on Facebook so she is letting me use her posts as a guest blogger.

Monday Morning: We are in New Jersey. It is beautiful outside as it snowed last night. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast this morning and then to get our schedules of work for today. Pray for us as we minister to those we come in contact with today as we work in homes in the area!  Monday Night: A busy day in New Jersey. Was assigned fire watch from 4-6. Helped cook breakfast. The men left to work at a house and the ladies organized a bunk room that had been piled with storage items and then we organized all the Baptist Men's shirts so Ann will have an easy find. This afternoon we went to a home and sanded Sheetrock. Darlene, Dianne, and I took a cold stroll to the beach. Now we have showered and are going to help Jane fix supper!  Tuesday: We worked in a home putting insulation in the bottom floor. The owner was working also to put in electricity. It is very cold here as you can see so we came back at lunch and Dianne and I climbed under my electric blanket to get our feet warm!  Wednesday: Worked today filling nail holes with putty, rolling walls, and painting trim. Some of the team put ceiling insulation in Andy's house! A very good day working for The Lord! The team in New Jersey ended the day with a Bible Study from James by Pastor Todd!  Thursday: The New Jersey Team worked in 3 different houses today. Some were painting, plumbing, putting up storm doors, and odds and ends. It was a busy day but we took time to go out and eat lunch at The Crab shack!  Friday: On our last day in New Jersey, our teams from First Baptist Hickory and Elizabeth Baptist Shelby, Zion in Shelby and Mt. Zion in Casar painted doors, walls, and trim, framed doors and windows, put putty in nail holes,carried lots of trash off. We have worked in three different houses this week. Along with our work in the houses the five ladies cooked for the 17 of us.  On Thursday night a new team from Grace Haven Church in Wake Forrest came in.  They have installed cabinets, flooring, insulation and a storm door.  Tomorrow they are taking a trip to NYC and attending church there.  The team will be here until Tuesday.

Region 5 Feeding Team or Rebuild Team?

  John Johnson was scheduled to be our feeding lead for this week.  Unfortunately we did not have any rebuild volunteers coming.  Billy told John that he did not have to come to feed but he was welcome to bring up a rebuild team and he did just that.  His team was from Pleasant Garden Baptist in Greensboro.  Carl and Richard came too and this made their 5th New Jersey trip. The group worked on sheetrock most of the week.  They finished up Bruce’s house (for those of you here the week before). Local resident Paul has become Billy’s right hand man.  He has been so much help.  We had snow again this week but on Monday the weather was nice enough that Ann took a walk on the beach in between her cooking and other duties. 

We don’t have volunteers for next week so have gone home for a visit.

A Snowy Week at the Jersey Shore

  1-Region 4 Feeding Team; 2-Westwood Baptist Church, Cary; 3-Billy helping Jersey Shore United unload their freebies from Home Depot; 4-Matthews Baptist Church, Matthews; 5-Jim from Westwood helping Billy; 6-Pastor Todd is doing a Wednesday night bible study on James at our site.  Everyone is welcome; 7-Our last night with Vicki and Tim for awhile.   Wanda Temple led a hard working feeding team.  They prepared great meals and kept the showers and common areas clean.  Even though we had snow and it was very cold they went for several walks on the beach.Although it has been an unusually cold and snowy week the teams stayed steady at work.  The Westwood team installed insulation, hung sheet rock, moved sheet rock inside, mudded, taped and sanded sheet rock and painted.  They still found time to help homeowners shovel snow.     It was so cold here that the Matthews’ team actually built a air condition platform inside and then carried it out to install it on the concrete pads.  They also built a raised floor for a washer and dryer.  They did more sheet rock finishing along with installing counter tops.

Yes it is cold here in New Jersey but many home owners are still not back into their homes.  I am sure as you read this your are relaxing in your warm confortable home. Please pray for the many volunteers who are answering GOD’s call to go and serve.  At present time we are working on 10 different homes.  We have new requests to help rebuild 6 others.  All 16 will be very happy when their homes are completed so they can move back in and relax.  Also each week we receive additional requests from the Long Term Recovery Group for help with additional homes.  So yes, long story short we are in need of volunteers now and through the coming months.

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.