Category Archives: SOWER Projects 2019

The Wrap-up

My goodness – there are so many things to wrap up around here!

There’s the December SOWER project wrap- up:
Once again, those three week just galloped by! The guys finished up painting ALL the bathrooms in Swann Lodge, and Gary finished up tiling and grouting those three showers.
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Meanwhile, back at the inventory counting, we ladies came up with a plan for being able to identify different sizes in the myriad of tee shirts and tanks that we were counting. Since we were rolling all the stock, and securing them with rubber bands, we suggested that they use different color rubber bands for the different sizes. Genius, right? Well, maybe not genius, but at least it solved the problem. Our only complication was that they could only find bags of ‘assorted colors’ so our first job was to un-assort them!
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We were fully qualified to do the task, and eventually we had all the stock neatly rolled and banded by color. Hopefully the rubber band concept will be a help in the days to come!
As we wrap up the SOWER project we marvel once again on the blessing of new friends and seeing how God is working through this camp!
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Wrapping up Atlanta
OK, there really is no wrapping up Atlanta. There is so much to see and do in this area, but we found one big drawback to this area – the TRAFFIC. Oy! So many cars!! We really did a very bad job of seeing the sights of Atlanta, and the closest we came to exploring the history of the area was a Sunday afternoon drive through nearby Covington, to check out some of the Antebellum homes in that town.
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The best Atlanta area thing we did was connect with my cousin Hannah and her daughter and a couple of her grandboys. They live on the other side(ish) of Atlanta, so we met in the middle at a nice park and had a delightful afternoon of reconnecting and catching-up.
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Love being able to see family along our travels!
Wrapping up Christmas
Literally – wrapping up the presents!
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Bet you’ve been doing some of that too! We only had one box to ship this year, and we got that out of the way last week.
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Yea for Gary who did the honors in the rain!
The rest of the packages just get loaded in the truck since we’re heading north on Thursday to love on our Ohio kiddos and grands! It’ll be a long drive, but oh-so-worth-it!!

So that about wraps up this post!   Thanks for stopping by, and just in case I don’t get back this way ( ’cause you know – Grandkids!) for a bit –
May your days be filled with joy and gladness as we celebrate the miracle of the birth of our LORD!
Merry Christmas!
Steph

A bit of a walk about

As our first week at Camp Westminster drew to a close, I thought it was about time that checked up on the guys to see what they’d been up to all week.  We ladies finished the week by working on a mailing, but most of our time was spent inventorying their latest shipment of camp tee shirts.  So many options, so many colors!
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It also seemed like a beautiful day to do a bit of a walk about of the camp!
This is the dining hall and the first building you see when you enter the camp.
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Can you spot Lizzie over on the left? We’re enjoying being parked pretty much in the middle of things at camp! I started down the loop road
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and came first to one of their main lodges up on the hill.
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Can you see it up there through the trees?
Just a bit farther down the road is the lodge our guys are working in. See the truck? I found the right spot!
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Although Gary has been doing some miscellaneous ice machine work, the basic job the guys are tackling are painting and tiling three bathrooms in that lodge. And tiny bathrooms they are! Pretty much only one guy can work at a time, so they are rotating between painting and priming and tiling.
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By the end of the week most of the painting was done and they were ready to start grouting the first shower, and they felt fairly confident that they should be able to get all three done by the end of the project. And that would be a very good thing!
But enough distracting the guys…..
Continuing down the road
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past the cabins that previous SOWERS were instrumental in renovating
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and onto the horse pasture.
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So pretty!
Next up was the ropes course and rock wall
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and then finally the lake!
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It’s pretty quiet here at the lake this time of year, but I hear it’s a pretty happening place in the summer!
I continued down the road
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and eventually came back around to the RV area!
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It was a great walk, and it was easy to picture this camp full of kids, having adventures and learning about Jesus!

This coming week most of the camp staff will be attending the national Christian Camp and Conference Association conference in Orlando,FL,  but we have promised to stay busy (I know there are lots of tiles for the guys and plenty of inventory for us to count!) while they are away. =)

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was quiet, but lovely! Don’t we all have so very much to be thankful for?
Steph

From Rural to Urban

We left French Camp Academy after a great project month
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traveled a bit up the Natchez Trace
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navigated our way through downtown Atlanta (at 5PM no less!)
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(Trust me, it got way uglier than this. We just stayed in our lane and plodded along with all the other 9,435 cars that were also on I20 heading out of Atlanta)
and finally made our way to our December SOWER project – Camp Westminster in Conyers, GA. (Check out the Where are we now page for a map of our location!)

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We unhooked our dependable gray truck for the last time (she is, as I write, being driven around by her new owners and will soon be on her way to Montrose Bible Conference where she will experience her first snowy winter!) and got settled in, awaiting our other two SOWER couples.

Once we got the house parked and plugged in, we took off for a jaunt to the nearest Costco for some long overdue eye exams. I’d like to say that ‘nearest’ actually meant ‘near’, but no. However since we were feeling the need for a Costco fix, back into the Altanta traffic we went. After two eye exams, two new pairs of glasses and a run through the store, it was a four $$$$ day. And we didn’t get heading back to Conyers until after three. (We’ve since been told that if you don’t get out of Atlanta by 3PM, you might as well just hang around until 7PM. We are seeing the wisdom in that!)
I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this picture of my eyeballs. Kinda crazy, right?
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But I digress. The rest of our gang is settled in,

we all worshiped together this morning and enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon (which may or may not have included a nap). Tomorrow we start work – the guys will be tackling a multi-shower tiling job, and we ladies will be counting and entering new inventory for the gift shop. For all of my whining about the traffic, we’re looking forward to being a little bit closer to civilization (and shopping – tis the season after all!) this month. The camp is actually quite rural, but it’s only minutes to the interstate, and then voila – you’re in Atlanta!

Have a great week everyone! I’m sure it will a busy one for all!
Steph

Over so soon???

We’re starting to get ready to move on down the road, but before I get too involved with tucking away things and pulling out the bungee cords, I thought I’d do a quick wrap up about our time here at French Camp Academy (FCA). This is such an interesting place – mostly Christian boarding school, but also community center, historic area (including a café, pottery shop, and bed and breakfast among other delights!), observatory, and summer camp. Our work was concentrated mostly on the school campus, where the guys and half of the gals were working on a 5-plex staff building.
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Plumbing, electrical, windows, painting – so much was accomplished at that house!

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Meanwhile, the remaining two ladies (that would include me) were happily sewing away over at our meeting room.
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Come spring, FCA will be hosting a big Founders’ Day Celebration. That’s going to require lots of costumes for all of the participants, and in an effort to get a bit ahead of the game (especially since she had some Sewing SOWERS this month) we started in on making or remaking costumes. I must say it’s been a good long while since I’ve sewed detailed (as in pin-tucks and set in sleeves (with a gusset no less!)), but it was a fun challenge! Let me just say that the second one went much faster than the first one did!
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We also made aprons (4 with bibs and kerchiefs), and even a simple dress to put under the aprons!
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Some of us ladies even expanded our horizons to include millinery skills in the afternoon!
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Who knew??
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Overall, lots was accomplished this month in the ‘work’ department. But I think what really made this project stand out were the people we interacted with. At every turn folks were engaging us with kindness and thankfulness. We enjoyed evenings out with families and friends,
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got together with several other SOWER couples who live in the area
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and even managed a connection with our friends from Oakridge Camp in Oklahoma, who were down at their sister camp, Pineview, in nearby Kosciusko.
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On our off time we (well, Gary mostly) kept busy getting the trucks changed over (It’s amazing how much stuff accumulates in a truck over the years. Even found Gary’s missing Passport – so that’s a really good thing!) and getting the new one ready to tow. I’ve been working on some sewing projects (when I wasn’t working on my hat-making skills), and generally trying to keep on top of life in general. We struggled some with limited phone serve and sketchy internet, but all in all we’ve made it work and have enjoyed our time here. We’ve worked with great people,
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at a Christ-honoring ministry that is touching the lives of young and old alike, and have come to the conclusion once again, that we are blessed beyond measure to be able to do what God has called us to do!

Now I’d better get back to those “we’re pulling out on Wednesday” chores!

Thanks for stopping by! If you’d like to see a couple more photos from the month you can find them HERE. =)
Steph

A Quick Catch-up

Hi!

I’m sitting here in McDonald’s in Kosciusko, Mississippi, taking advantage of some decent cell phone service and a nice clear WiFi signal. We’ve been having a great project, but with our limited connectivity I haven’t been able to do any updates.  Gary’s getting a bit antsy to get on our way so…..

Good News – the kitchen sink saga has been resolved without having to throw away the entire rig.
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Everything seemed to spring a leak – incoming, outgoing, filter- during the repair, but eventually all was returned to normal.
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More good news – the project is going very well. The rain finally stopped and we’ve been blessed a lovely string of beautiful days! Work is going well (more on that in a later post) and probably the hardest thing about work in that in the room right next to my work area THIS is happening –
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Oh, the Smells!!!

Looks like my internet time is about to end – can you see that red truck through the window? Pretty sure the engine is running!
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Thanks for stopping by (and for your patience between posts!)
Steph