This is the end of the second week already!

WOW, we have come to the end of the second week of this project already.  This week held several new experiences for us and was a fun week.

 

When Sunday arrived the morning was quite cool so Billie was able to wear the beautiful fur coat that a lady from Miller had out grown.  It really is a beautiful thing.  The coat is nice too.

This is the road leading to the campsite.  believe it or not, there is room for a 40 foot motor home pulling a pickup to maneuver down this path.  It is pretty tight in some spots but passable.

 

While we were walking around on Monday we spotted damage to the old pump house.  We were asked to repair the damage and as we started deconstructing the building we found that the termites had almost eaten the whole back out of the building and the falling limbs had destroyed the roof.

 

Two days later we had removed the bad sections, rebuilt the back and the roof and shingled said roof.

 

Meanwhile, the campers have planned a "show" this coming week end so the ladies started cleaning and organizing the costume room so they could find just the right costumes for the show.

Boy, there are a lot of costumes to be sorted and stacked! 

 

We were just ready to start another project when Roger,the young guy in the picture, got an emergency call form the "Fish House" (where the campers are staying) that the elevator had gone to the top and would not go down.  That is a real problem as there are several of the campers in wheel chairs.  After several hours of searching we found that of the cables had caught on the frame of the elevator on the way up and broken two wires in the loom.  After a splice job and a test, the elevator was back in business.

Meanwhile, the girls decided that they would like to have several poodle skirts for the show.  Since there weren't any poodle skirts in the costume room, the ladies set to work making them.

The job of cutting, sewing and fitting the skirts took a couple days....

 

...and nights to complete.

 

Roger and his family live in the house called "The Crossroads".  It has been used for several things in the past but now it is their residence.  The area leading to the bedrooms was open to the living room on the top and they wanted it closed.  So, we set to adding the wall extensions to make it soundproof.

To keep the mess at a minimum we did all of the cutting outside on the street in front of the house.

 

There were too many costumes for the available hanging space we we purchased a roll around rack for them on which to hang the costumes they planned to use.  Some assembly required?

Friday was a rainy day so we decided to take a drive.  We ended up in Branson at lunch time and decided to eat at the College of the Ozarks, also known as Hard Work U.  We visited there last year and were really impressed with the quality of the dining and the fact that the students were the servers.  On our way into the dining room we passed the dessert tree.

After consuming our lunch we stopped for a photo with our server.

Them Billie took some time to sit by the fireplace in the lobby.

The school is very supportive of the nation and military.  The above photo shows a group of the founding fathers kneeling in prayer and the US flag being sewn.

 

Fun begins at Camp Barnabas

We arrived at Camp Barnabas last Thursday and went right to work on Monday, October 1.  There was a group of high school students from New Covenant Academy in Springfield, MO.  They came here to do a service project and were very helpful.

Check out this gate.  It took a welder (and artist) two years to complete it.  Great way to show off God's creation and the gifts He gives to men.

 

Here is our camp site.  Right in the middle of a bunch of beautiful oaks.

 

Now we are officially here, the cloths line is up and ready and our name tag is displayed.

 

We have another couple sharing this project with us.  They are Ralph and Joyce Rockwood from Michigan.  They are on their way south like we are.  They have been on the road part time for 14 years.

 

When the campers are here, some 500 of them through the summer, all of which are physically and/or mentally handicapped, the camp has a full staff of doctors and nurses and this is the facility they live and work in.

 

In 2005 the camp was the reciepient of an Extreme Makeover.  At that time the crew now only built a new house for the Teas, the couple who started the camp, but they also built a building to house the summer helpers and a building where the kids could go on a rainy day.  This is the rainy day building.  The seats of the chairs are made from 10,000 TV guides which were bolted together about 25 at a time.

 

Of course there has to be a place to feed all of the campers.  Isn't it wonderfully named.

And out back they have one of their cooking venues.

About 9:45 this morning these busses pulled in from Springfield.

 

Here is the crew they brought in. 

  

Last year there was a lot of wind that blew through the camp, uprooting a number of trees and breaking off a lot of smaller limbs.  These kids raked leaves and picked up limbs as well as moved all of the wood which had been cut up by an earlier group.

 

Here is the stack of wood which the boys and girls picked up today.  Some of the pieces we larger than I would have picked up but the students teamed up and threw them on the trailer.  Note the pile to the right of the stack.  Some of those logs are 5 feet long and 20 inches in diameter. 

 

This is Purdy, Missouri.  It is about 7 miles from the camp and this memorial is in the center of town.

 

 

 

 

Whirlwind two weeks!

It has been nearly two weeks since we left Sunshine Bible Academy and we have not let much grass grow under our tires.  We came straight to the farm in Kansas and immediately left for Aurora, Co.  There we were able to spend time with our grandchildren and to celebrate the 40th birthday with our son.

Here is our "baby".  Happy birthday!

We also played in the pool with the grandkids---

---and took them to fencing lessons.

Finally, we returned to the farm to see 14 turkeys just outside our window.

Then the local bucks held a reunion 300 yards from our front door.

We returned so that we could take my sister Marguerite to the hospital for spinal surgery.  On Monday, September 24th we checked her into Heartland Health.  The surgery went very well and we were able to bring her home on Tuesday.

Thank you one and all for the prayers for her surgery.  This Thursday we will go back to

The end of the SOA Project!

Sorry it has been so long since I posted a new entry.  We have been so very busy and most of what we ahve been doing is painting (and I was being a bit lazy).  But, now that the end of our SOA project (Sower On Assignment) has come, I will try to catch you up to where we are.

Remember the glass panel which got dropped and broken?  There was six blocks left unbroken and we were able to obtain the remainder of the blocks.  I rebuilt the panel before we left to visit the projects in Montana and Rapid City.  While we were gone the crew at SBA installed the panel and this is what we saw when we returned.

The new waterpump for the scraper had just gotten there before we left so when we returned I installed the waterpump and---

---away we went hauling dirt.  The only problem was after 2 and 1/2 loads the return hadraulic hose sprung a leak.  We were able to pick up a replacement the next day when we made a Walmart run to Huron.

The new Event Center (gymnasium) is an impressive structure.  This is a view from the west.

Thgis view is from the north and is the main entrance.

When you enter into the main entrance you are greeted by the new concession stand (not quite completed yet).  The ceiling at the rear of the concession stand is 15 feet high.  We had to have the assistance of a scissor lift to get there.  We called it our painter's raise.

One of the first rooms painted is this one.  It will serve as the 3rd-5th grade classroom.

The second room painted was the room that will be the K-3rd grade.

The finished boys restroom, including mirrors and dispensers.  All of the components in the restrooms are automatic, the flushing valves, the sinks, soap dispensers and the hand driers.

The new music room is very spacious, spacious enough to hold a Chapel service there when it was 96 degrees in the Chapel and 72 in the music room.  We built the cubbies in the background to hold the instruments.

The floor in the weight room is covered with an interlocking tile to protect the floor from the occasionally dropped weight.  The tile is made from recycled tires with a covering of hogs hair.  They should last for a very long time.

Back at the house we have the daily fued of the hummingbirds.  This one thinks this is his feeder and he is telling the other two sitting in the tree to stay away.

 

When he leaves the other two came down and ate together.

On September 3 we recieved an inch of rain, the first real rain since April.  The only problem was the marble sized hail and the 35 mph wind.  It stripped the beans from the soybean plants.

Our second Chapel service was a presentation form the crew that went to Honduras during the summer.  It was exciting to hear how the students were affected by the event.

At the end of the September Project the Sowers will all be headed south for the winter.  Before we departed we had to take the couple in the center to DQ to celebrate their 54th anniversary.  Congratulations Ed and Laura.

 

As we were headed out on Friday morning we were halted by a group of kids in front of the office.  It was the freshman history class and they had made a poster for us.  We will cherish it.  Thank you Mr. and Mrs. McClain.

 

After the nine hour trip to the farm in Kansas we pulled into the motorhome site and went wearily to bed.  The next morning we were greeted by the local residents.

This group seemed to be asking, "what is that big white thing sitting there?  It wasn't there when we went to the creek for water yesterday."

 GOD IS SOOOOO GOOD!