|
A Word from the Pastor
Arcadia Friends and Family,
Wayne and I are Nomads-- Methodist Nomads. What are Nomads, you ask? The best description comes from their website: Nomads are a primarily Methodist organization of retired people who travel in their RV’s, to do mission work. The Nomads do new construction, remodeling, and repairs for churches, children’s homes, camps, colleges, outreach missions, and disaster rebuilding historically for Methodist connected institutions all over the USA. “We demonstrate God’s love through our work and by listening to the people with whom we work”. As we say at home, “we are God’s hands and feet”.
You might remember this past spring, our first trip was to Southern Illinois to work at Little Grassy, a United Methodist Church camp. One of the many jobs we did was cleaning out an ancient and giant burn pile to separate metal to be sold for scrap and the rest moved to a new pile to burn. We sorted out parts of an old piano (boy, do they have lots of wires-I mean strings) auto parts, bed springs, and you name it, then pitched them in the back of a big old dump truck. We also made 10 wooden picnic tables and built a deck ...among other jobs. It was physically hard but rewarding work. And the added bonus...it’s nice to visually see the result of your work.
For our second trip, we left Halloween morning (this morning), to travel to Ashville NC to work on flood victim’s homes. The campground where we will stay starting Saturday is in the church yard of Covenant Community Church (a United Methodist Church) in Ashville. We will be staying in the Scotty, our 2004 Newmar Scottsdale motorhome, pulling Jenny, my gray duck-adorned jeep. We will park the camper and travel to the work sites, which may be anywhere from 15-45 minutes away.
As you might realize, when you are traveling in a motorhome one doesn’t just zoom down the interstate weaving in and out of cars and trucks. Or zip around fast food drive throughs or gas stations-- it’s slow going. Even slower when you miss a turn.
So... we were on our way to our over-night stop outside Cooksville TN. It was tedious driving; climbing higher and higher, around one hairpin curve after the other--Jenny, barely hanging on for dear life. When all the sudden the GPS is telling us to make a U-turn!
What? Where? One doesn’t make U-turns in a motorhome pulling a jeep, nor do you pull in and back up. She tried to have us turn down gravel roads, most of which were marked,” not an exit/dead end”. Finally, she directed us to an old cemetery perched on the side of a steep hill--but you could clearly see a gravel road circling the perimeter. The first problem was getting the Scotty under the low arched sign at the entrance to the cemetery. Wayne crept under very slowly and we made it without scraping the air conditioner off or getting one scratch on the top!
Then, we finally got back on the right road. However, talk about rural.....we were out in the “sticks”. If you’ve seen the movie Deliverance, you might have recognized the banjo’s playing in the distance! But the scenery..... when we finally reached our destination, the views made all the problems so worth it! God’s handiwork is so very evident in the breath-taking views.
Wayne and I are very excited to be part of God’s church reaching out to those in need and are very fortunate to be part of Arcadia Church who sees the benefits of sending folks out to be his hand and feet. Wayne and I are so blessed...and we are already being rewarded by the beauty of his creation.
Blessings, Pastor Sherry
click here to see photos.
Ps. We’ll send more photos for Brent and Carl to show at church....see you soon (God willing and the creeks don’t rise...again).
| 
