WALKING TO MEMPHIS

 We didn't walk to Memphis for the NOMADS annual meeting this year, but we did fly. We decided to sell our RV in the spring. Having it parked by our house for so many months wasn't good for it or us. We loved living in it when we were full timers, but we are now enjoying our house.

 We are still working as  project coordinators for the SSE jurisdiction. We have done several site visit around Florida looking at churches that would like to have NOMADS. Pahokee is a new agency with a project in period 4 of 2019.

It will be a great project with beautiful lakeside parking.

 Jim did a terrific job of putting on the annual meeting. There were 103 RVs and a total of 210 people.

 Tammy was the new choir director.
  Sorry, I was too busy singing along with Jayne each morning to get her picture. She sure got us in the mood each day.

Quite a few of us got up early each morning to have Bible study with Louie.

Devotions were held each morning. Bill started off the week, then we heard from several area pastors. All of them had great messages to share.

 We had a large group of NOMADS that were new or never had been to an annual meeting before. 
 Nancy and the membership committee hosted the new timers to a pizza dinner and introduced them to the board and explained how the love auction works.
Sunday evening Terry had a beautiful memorial service recognizing the 25 NOMADS who had gone to be with the Lord this year.  We need 150 new NOMADS a year to keep our membership steady.

On Monday we took some tours. We chose to go to Graceland.

 Tuesday was love auction day.

 There were almost 500 items donated. The silent auction brought in a little over $20,000.

 Wayne was the auctioneer for the live auction, as always he did a great job. We had fun and raised almost $18,000. The total was a little short of the amount the auction had hoped to raise, so a hat was passed and a grand total was reached of $48,000. Truly a love auction. The money is used to help fund projects that need some financial assistance.

 Gary was encouraging us to give. He makes it fun and he will be missed next year.

 This was the 30th anniversary of NOMADS.

Today we have 900 active members and 215 alumni. 75% of our new members are in their 60's or younger and 12% of them are single. 40 % are from the center of the USA and 15% are full timers.

 There was a luncheon for the alumni that attended, the board members and  the members who have worked more then 50 projects.

 The entertainment on Tuesday was a NOMADS Variety Show. Cheri was the MC.

 Tammy played the sax.

There was a trumpet solo.

 Dave did a comedy routine. You might be a NOMAD if....  Very funny.

 Sonny and Cher and also known as Joe and Jayne.

 Playing the saw, he couldn't play in the group because he didn't have a band saw and we couldn't dance to his tunes because he didn't have a jig saw.

 They may be ragged and funny but they travel along, singing a song, side by side.

 The evening ended with a little jam session.

 There were several workshops on Wednesday and then a potluck dinner. A lot of good food.

 Elvis entertained us after dinner. He wasn't home when we went to Graceland.

 Nancy presented Bill and Meredith a quilt she made them. It was made out of shirts from some of the 70 projects they have worked over the years.

What a great couple to show what NOMADS have accomplished and worked in 30 years.

 Each board member shared what their position entailed.

Dave is promotions chair, and as you can tell he takes it very seriously.

Gary shared about the disaster recovery projects that are scheduled. There are openings on many of them.

It is always good to see Carla and hear her report each year. What would we do without her.

Thanks to Gloria and Larry for teaching us some line dances again this year.

After a good catered dinner by Corky's BBQ the choir gave a concert.

Marti accompanied them on the keyboard.

After the choir performed a few songs the came out to the tables and sang with us. It was a nice closer to our annual meeting. Hope to see you in Illinois next year.

FLORIDA GATHERING

 On Friday the NOMADS had a luncheon at the Life Enrichment Center.

 There were 116 attending. Many were there for the first time, a few being new to NOMADS and some alumni were also present. It is always a good time to see old friends and make new ones.

 Nancy and Linda discussing the  promotion items that Nancy brought to sell and give away. Everyone left with a pen, note pad and a brochure which I had at their place setting.

 Jayne and Joe lead us in singing.

 I quizzed everyone about NOMADS. Sharing information about annual meeting, projects and the board and introducing people for each one.

 Mike and Susan talked about the auction and Mike also shared information about the DR projects.

 Nancy gave report on membership and amount of love hours we worked last year. She shared comments from the board.

Larry talked about our experiences as project coordinators for Florida and the projects we have had this year. Also Linda told about projects in the South Central jurisdiction, and after the luncheon Dennis had training for new leaders.

UP ON THE ROOF, DOWN BY THE SEA

 We got the roofing permit and we spent this week up on the roof. Mary  prepared the roof edge by the metal roofing getting all the roofing off the metal and the roof pried up

 Debbie and I also worked on getting the edge lose.

 Barry sealed the roof edge, and any area that may cause a leak. On Tuesday we were ready to put on the roofing.

Under that tarp was all the  rolls of roofing, now how to get it up on the roof?

 There is a big resort behind the church. They had a lot of damage and have been working on fixing it. They had a front loader and were willing to come over and and bring up the rolls. What a blessing for each roll weighed about 100 pounds.

 The first layer rolled out, it's self sticking so no nailing.

 After we got it down and in place we had to roll it with the 100 pound weight.  I felt like I was  mowing the roof.

 Soon after break we had the last piece put on.

 We then nailed on the edging. The day was getting hotter and hotter, and by the end of the day I think we all had heat stroke, even with taking lots of breaks.

 After lunch we started the asphalt layer. It was also self sticking. We almost had it all down by the end of the day.

 We overlapped the pieces and Barry and Mary put on some sealant.

We finished laying the asphalt on Wednesday morning. We really had a system going by the end.  Piece put down, made sure it was even with no bubbles. Knees on, Lift up, Barry removed the paper. Lift up, center down, roll it back.

 We did the second half the same way except Barry  first had to take off the paper on the other piece so they were tightly adhered.

 We started doing line dancing on the roof. We figured we weighed more then 100 pound roller and walked around all over the piece to make sure it was good and secure.

 The last piece.

 Larry rested

 And I'm not sure if Mark is alive.

 Back to work. the last piece cut and being put on.

Mark and Larry cut pieces of aluminum to put under the edge of the metal roof.

 Larry, Mark, and Debbie putting the aluminum under the metal roof.

 Larry screwed in down.

 Debbie screwed the metal roof back down. The roof was done Thursday morning!

 While we weren't on the roof we worked on other projects. The ceiling in the church was peeling and needed to be scraped, patched and painted.

 Debbie did a great job.

The wall needed painted but we didn't have the right color paint.

 Mary put on the final coat of stucco where the door had been. I don't think she was as happy about it as she looks in this picture. It was a hard job to get smooth and to match the rest of the wall.

 She worked on the inside of the door and we tried sanding it off to make it smooth.

 We  grinded off the outside stucco to make it smoother.

 Kilzed then painted them.

No more door.

Larry took off the hurricane ledges from the bottom and top of the windows we filled in.

Barry worked on getting the  window and air conditoner openings filled in with stucco.

The fascia board over the storage room needed replaced, so Thursday morning Mark and Larry worked on it.

I painted it when it was finished, and we called it a day by noon.

Now where did I put the car and RV  keys.? We looked for them all through lunch, along with the pastor and many of the women from the stain glass class.  The last time I knew I had them was when I took the recycling out of our RV and then walked the recycling over to the pastor's house. While I was there I  got the Kilz. So Larry and I went over there and looked through the recycling and all around where the paint had been. We came back to the Fellowship hall and I was telling Mary that the last time I knew I had the keys was when we took the recycling and got the Kilz. At that Jennifer, who is helping at the parsonage, remember she had seen keys on the floor where the Kilz had been and put them on the window ledge. She went back and got them, The keys were found! We can leave tomorrow.