It took us 2 days of driving to get home. Mostly the traffic was fine. We procured the rest of the materials we needed to get moving for a few days once we landed and MJ got us some groceries to take in. We loaded up about 150 gallons of ethanol-free gas and some diesel and finally got home late in the afternoon.
We were met at CC Sarasota by a few friends, and we unloaded all our “extra” gear into 2 of the containers and left our truck and trailer there.
We then headed to our house. We remodeled the carport into a bed and bathroom years ago before we went on the road full-time, and it has a rear entrance. Our renter knows that if we have to, we will stay here. We have electric so until the friends we want to stay with get electric, we’re sleeping and showering here and using our neighbor’s kitchen!
We’ve got a few trees along the property line that we need to take care of as they are leaning into the neighbor’s yard, they are his trees, but he doesn’t think so, we’ll do the right thing and get it cleaned up!
There’s a huge tree in the neighbor’s yard just east of us that started to fall and is headed toward our house. It needs to come down. It’s a long story with family issues and the daughter isn’t willing to do anything about it yet. I checked to see what it would cost to get a crane that is needed to cut this down, $12k and we do all the cutting! Please pray it won’t fall on our home and that they would get it taken care of. Insurance will NOT cover issues like this until it falls on my house! Hurricane (windstorm) deductibles do NOT work like typical homeowner’s insurance and they dictate what you pay. Ours is over $5k!
We then did dinner at Pastor Jim and Kelly’s with some other friends and set some tentative goals and first needs. They’ve already had several people out taking care of things so a lot of triage in our area is moving quick.
CC Venice lost all their shingles. They are a plant from our church and Pastor Bob has been a long-time friend and married Mary Jo and me! We’re heading there first thing to tarp the roof. My buddy, Todd Stoltzfus, who does remediation for a living and has been a great help to us in ministry dealing with floods, contacted me last night about helping out. I told him about Venice so he’s meeting me down there to do any mitigation that needs done and get the inside cleaned up. They’ve got electric so will be having church tomorrow.
We also checked in with 2 other CC’s that were plants from our church, one is without electric but good, the other had a couple small leaks that are being taken care of. They have electric and will have church tomorrow. One other church that has a CC pastor that just took over the church, is also fine, but no electric.
After dinner, we went to MJ’s mom’s. She lives in a retirement living facility and her street is connected to a different grid than the rest of the compound, so she doesn’t have electricity. We took her some ice, 2 Milwaukee battery lights, and one Mil battery fan! Will take her some Mil battery devices that will charge her phone and hearing aids later today! Otherwise, her community is taking good care of her!
Went back home, went to bed, and now getting some coffee and breakfast to head out! We’ve also got one person needing roof work and Paul and Dean are going to be in Venice working on one of Paul’s wife’s relative’s trees, so we may end up there as well. Of course working on one home, always leads to 10 more after a storm like this!
We’re 99% sure we’ve got a place to set up Camp Calvary, more to come on that later. We’ve got several folks ready to come in. The camp will be a little south of Sarasota as the farther south you go the worst it is. Most groups will go further south than what we probably will as that’s the news focus. There’s plenty to do closer south and east of us, so that will be our focus!
Major prayer need-our V10 should be ready to leave Louisiana by next weekend. We need someone to drive it from LA to KY and meet me with our diesel. Both of those one way are a day and a half drive. It will take us one day to get the RV’s ready to move, then 2 days travel pulling the RV’s to Sarasota.
Sorry not many pics yet except the one of the tree ready to hit our house, if you want to see more, come on down!
Please keep all of this in your prayers!
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If there’s ever anything you need prayer about or just need to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us and let us know!
Here to serve and disciple until He calls us home,
Curt & Mary Jo
