Month: October 2020

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October 24 – 28, 2020 Heading South – ah-oh Aliens! …and Cold weather – YIKES!

It was a bright and clear day to start our next traveling adventure. We left Glorieta and headed to Roswell, NM The highway was a silver ribbon clear to the horizon! We soon learned that “northern and eastern New Mexico exhibit a colder, alpine climate” as stated in Wikipedia.

We were warmly greeted by the resident aliens at our RV Trailer Park in Roswell. They had a sign that said, “Come Crash With Us!” We were pleased to observe that they were immune to to COVID so no need for masks and social distancing!

Driving in downtown Roswell we found a lot of businesses capitalizing on the theme of aliens. To visit he UFO Museum we had to be temperature-scanned (we hope that’s all they did!) Those short & skinny aliens aren’t very friendly – never could get them to smile, they actually looked a bit upset that we were getting too close!

Through the weekend, we kept watch on the weather and when we saw this Winter Storm Warning…we decided to change our plans. We did not want to get stuck in Roswell so we left camp early Monday and headed a little more south to Midland, TX. Brrrr – Let’s GO!

This was our first adventure traveling in the cold since we started full time RVing over a year ago! We were thankful that we avoided the snow and colder temps that Roswell had. We found a noisy RV Park in Midland right next to three busy interstates. It was SO cold and icy; we stayed in and read books all-day-long! The on-site supplied water froze overnight, but our on-board water was still working – Yea! We kept warm with our furnace and electric fireplace – we’re thankful for a very comfortable home to travel and hang out in!

By Wednesday morning the weather cleared up and we left for Brownwood, TX – home of our next SOWER Project. It was a beautiful sunshine and blue sky day! We rested well that night – much warmer and quieter – Ahhhh!

This week in between SOWER projects went fast. Our adventure of new experiences surprised us with aliens and a cold spell (didn’t see that coming!) We’re looking forward to landing at the Heart of Texas Camp and Conference Center tomorrow! What will that adventure be like? (Hint – more surprises!!!)

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October 1 – 23, 2020 SOWER Project #8 at Glorieta Adventure Camps, NM

We were blessed to be the Group Leaders (GL) at Glorieta Adventure Camps in October serving with these wonderful new friends! Dennis & Diane Simmons and David & Brenda Roquemore – this was the first SOWER project for both couples! Welcome to the SOWER TEAM, you are amazing!

So the story is that several renegade squirrels found their way into the coffee and snack shops and found the sweets! (Then went back and told their friends!) The ladies worked hard to clean up after them, such a mess! They also sorted out any expired inventory and organized the shops so they will be ready to go next spring.

The guys were given a dorm house to prepare for the coming college staff in 2021. We removed all the wooden bunk beds and replaced them with metal ones. There is now a very nice dorm house (among many others) on campus that will sleep 48 staff members comfortably. It was a very physical task loading and moving all of those old bunk bed structures to the disposal yard and the new metal ones from storage to be re- assembled in the two level “house”. We were told there is well over 100 staff members every year along with many volunteers. They would normally be hosting over 1,000 guests every week! This is a BIG adventure camp that intentionally exposes everyone to God’s truth through Adventure, Relationships, and the Word. Impressive!

A little change of pace for the ladies for the second week we were there. They finished the folding and inventory of the t-shirts and hoodies that were started during the first SOWER project in Sept. They also were able to get them to the storage/warehouse area and label them for the coming year. In addition, they were given some office work of laminating and preparing handouts for next year. Again, we were amazed at the quantity and size of this camp’s operation. It will be fun to come back when the guests are here!

OK – lets do something relaxing and creative while we’re here! Dennis got out his paints and did his first “plein air” oil painting. It was fun and he learned a lot – he’s looking forward to doing this more often! Lorree has picked up crocheting and is working on some “made-with-love” gifts and continues to finish her new quilt! We both enjoy having the weekends free to either explore, be creative, or to just relax. (Then there are those weekends you have to work on the RV as well – there is always something to work on!)

More physical work – but it was fun! We were assigned multiple “little” jobs including building some shelving, installing 60+ shower heads in one of the “hotels” on campus and rebuilding a 3-sink cabinet in one of the public bathrooms. We were also challenged with painting the trim including all the touch ups outside of the huge dining hall. I don’t think we ever really got used to the tall ladders and overhead rafters -but we can say we finished that job!

Washing windows…..over 20 foot tall? When Corinn and Josh walked by (Camp staff) they saw the difference – they didn’t know this was on the “list” and commented how beautiful the windows were now. Good job ladies – you got this! Let the sunshine in!

Our finale – three weeks of hard but rewarding work – for the Lord! We were able to check off the list of things given to us to do, plus more! We moved and stacked heavy timbers, cleaned and straightened two of the maintenance shops, and ended up painting benches in the Prayer Garden in preparation for the camp’s “Garden of Eden” adventure next year. We are tired – a good and rewarding tired. The camp staff shared they were blessed by the SOWER’s Ministry and were looking forward to many more experiences with SOWER’s in the future!

Our fellowship was sweet with heartfelt devotions every day – most of them were personal life stories of God working – so inspiring! We enjoyed a few meals together (with social distancing of course) what a wonderful group to work with! Looking forward to many more adventures ahead!

If you want to know more about the SOWER Ministry check out our website: www.sowerministry.org “A Christian Couples RV Work Ministry” ~ RV With a Purpose!