FIELD OF TEAMS

We enjoyed our summer back in PA visiting friends and family, the time flew by. On Sept. 12 we headed out to go to Amana, Iowa for NOMADS annual meeting. When we went to leave the RV step wouldn't go in. Larry called the step maker and it was decided it was the motor and they would sent us another but we would not have it till we returned to Florida. So we traveled with it strapped up and got good at climbing in and out. Other then that we had an uneventful trip to Iowa.

The Amana colonies was America's longest- lived communal societies. The change came in 1932 when the communal way of life  stopped and they established the Amana Society, Inc. Today it is a thriving community founded  by religious faith and community spirit.

Saturday morning the project coordinators for NOMADS across America had a meeting led by Paul. It is nice meeting each other and talking over any concerns.

Saturday afternoon we shopped and took a tour of Amana.

Our tour started with a film at the Heritage museum.

We then drove over to Homestead to this church.( Amana is made up of seven villages). A woman who grew up in Amana shared lots of information with us.

Saturday evening many of the NOMADS went to the old Creamery theatre to see Footloose, the musical. It was a great performance, we even did a little dancing in the courtyard after the show.

We enjoyed several meals at the Ronneburg restaurant.

Sunday evening there was a gathering for all first timers to an annual meeting. . I am on the membership committee and we plan the meal. It was a nice taco bar.

There were 66 first timers to annual meeting plus all the board members and their spouses, so there were about 100.

Sandy welcomed them to annual meeting and introduced all the board members.

Monday was a day to tour. We first went to this museum in Cedar Rapids. It had some informative interactive exhibits to help understand their countries and history.

The museum is on the banks of the Cedar river. When the river flooded in 2008 the museum had more then 8 feet of water in it. It was decided to move the museum 480 feet and place it on an elevated foundation. There was an interesting movie about the move.

This immigrants house was also moved from across the river. It was lived in until 1980 and it has no electric or water.

The museum also had an exhibit of Venetians by Chihuly.  His glass blown art pieces are always interesting to see.

This piece is put together piece by piece and  may be different every time it is on exhibit.

We then  drove 65 miles north east to where they filmed Field of Dreams.

The house, farm and ball field.

We took a very informative tour of the house and learned lots of interesting facts about the movie and the home. It was an actual farm house. The stove was to heavy to remove after the movie, so the family let it stay.

This picture window was put in for the movie. The family had the right to have any changes they made to the house for the movie put back but they liked the changes.

 From the beginning tourist started coming to see the field. The family lived here for awhile but then moved.The farm has been sold to the woman in the picture and she has plans to build other fields here and make it a Little League place for tournaments to be played.

They do have ghost player games here on the weekends in the summer. This is a picture of the players of the 25 anniversary game. Hard to believe it is almost 30 years since the movie was made.

Sitting on the swing.

I was safe at second,

and made it home.

Our theme was Field of Teams for the annual meeting. Monday evening we watched the movie Field of Dreams. Fun watching it again after being there.

Thanks to these musicians for great music and leading the singing each morning.

We got up early each morning and went to a Bible study about angels. Some of the things I learned about angels are that God  uses angels to give messages  to people to get something done. They can take many forms, not all have wings.

One of the tours on Monday was of Amana. Since not everyone could go on the tour this gentleman came and talked about the Amana colonies.

Another day Gene talked about Martin Luther and reform in the church.

Tuesday was auction day,

with 630 things to bid on. It is always fun to see what you got at the end of the auction.

Wayne is a great auctioneer for our live auction. It is always a good time. At the end of the day with 150 bidders $200 was raised at the country cupboard, $1100 when a hat was passed,  $24,000 at the silent auction and $29,000 at the live auction.  And with a few more donations by the end of the day $57,000 was raised to help fund projects.

Wednesday and Thursday were workshops. Mary Ann and Gene had a workshop on installing laminate flooring.

Wednesday evening we had a pot luck dinner and then the Browns performed for us. Gloria and Larry Moyer had a line dance workshop and taught us three dances to some of the songs the Brown's sing, so we did a little dancing.

Each morning we had great speakers for our devotion time. They were very motivating.

Thursday evening was a delicious catered dinner.

Then the NOMAD choir put on a beautiful concert, with only 3 hours of practice.

All during the week we had a service project going of sewing school bags. From the school supplies we contributed we filed 75 bags, there was 1000 pieces of more school supplies, 573 more sewed book bags and more then 100 cut ready to sew.  433 pairs of black shoes were donated to be sent to Mexico so children can go to school. There would have been 435 pairs if I could have found the two pairs I had brought. ( found them in the car when we got home).

It was a great annual meeting and we are already looking forward to 2018 in Memphis.