Sorry we haven’t communicated much lately but as the title says, we’re done with Ms Reba’s! This is also our final project in the AR/OK area.
Ms Reba was very pleased with how her home turned out. I know during the process she didn’t totally understand why I insisted on certain things being changed, fixed, brought up to code, etc, but now that’s it’s complete she’s very happy with the way it turned out. We also know that because of all the work done, especially all that no one can see for the most part; her house has been put together to last for years to come!
Unfortunately she put off getting her appliances and some furniture that she needs to move in. I’m not sure she actually believed me when I said we were going to finish up soon, or if it was just too much for her to take in. Either way, she was happy that it was done, but a little hesitant to move forward. Without her husband for over 19 years and practically no support from her children and grand children through all of this, it’s been rough and we’ve mostly been her “family” this past year. I know she hated to see us go!
We did leave a couple of non-essential to move back in things, closet doors, for her hopefully her sons to finish because Rona has caused a shortage on some building materials. She also wanted a special glass bathtub sliding door system and one of her sons had a glass installation business, so we left that for him to do as well. Hopefully for the first time in a year they’ll do something to help her since they all live nearby! So sad to see how people so often could care less to help their family these days, even people our age and who claim to be Christians!
At this point we aren’t sure where we’ll end up next. We prayed about a few things that have happened the past few months but nothing seems to have seemed right yet. If you know anyone with any needs, mostly a natural disaster related home rebuild, please let us know!
The last time we finished without another deployment in the works, we moved from CO to TN. We thought we’d have a couple months until hurricane season and within a month we were headed out again. It takes a lot of effort, time, and money to move Camp Calvary and even more so with how much we’ve acquired since then. We also want to make sure we’re being good stewards of The LORD’s resources. For now we’ll continue to live in Arkansas as long as they’ll have us and see where The LORD will lead us next.
We’re focusing on a lot of much needed maintenance on our trucks, van, tool trailer, and RV’s. Usually we move so quick that most of the time we do what we have to when we have to do it and a lot of things get pushed back as we push on to help folks get back in their homes. Currently we have a friend, Jeff, whose been serving with us the past few months. He’s thinking that this is what he wants to do and with us, which is a huge blessing for us. We’ve been moving quickly through some things that I usually get stuck doing myself! We’re also getting some much needed physical rest. The heat index here has been 110-125 for at least 2 months, with no sign of easing off yet and well, we’re old!
We’ve been having some axle based tire issues on our tool trailer, so we took it to our Mennonite friends in OK who helped us the figure some things out with it back in 2016. It turns out that the manufacture didn’t sell us the proper axles when we had the trailer made. We also have a bad tire that needs replaced. It looks like it’s going to cost about $3000 to get it all done and Myron is pretty sure this will be the end of our issues!
We were having some misfiring issues on the V10 a few months back and I spent about $500 in parts to fix the issue. It was running fine until we started heading to Myron’s. It started throwing the same engine codes at us about 40 miles down the road. Our friend Nathan, who introduced us to Myron, said if we were comfortable with driving it on up to where they were, he could help us get it fix as he has a future son-in-law who is a mechanic and his pastor owns a repair shop. Currently they are going through it and we’re praying it is a quick, easy, finally fixed and cheap!
Our seats in the diesel were falling apart since before we got it. A lot of the material was gone and so was some of the cushion due to the way leather was glued to the foam when they were made. It had gotten to the point that something needed to be done. We went to a car upholstery shop and they said at least $1000 to fix both of them, again because of the way they were made! We found a couple of chairs locally that only had a couple small, repairable tears in them for $175! We purchased them and figured out how to get them installed. They sit up about ½” higher than the other ones, but I think they’ll be fine. They were dirty with some type of marker all over the backs, probably from kids, but Mary Jo was able to clean them up really nice. They don’t match the rest of the interior, but it’s a work truck! Matches the blotchy paint job now!
We just replaced all 6 tires on the diesel and all 4 on the van and think they’re pretty much ready mechanically for now. We have had the side and rear cargo door handle mechanisms on the van break so we have to open them from the inside. It appears that the whole mechanism needs replaced so not sure what we’ll do for those as it’s a pain getting in and out.
It seems as if the bunkhouse isn’t having any issues currently but we still have some preventive things we want to do with it such as a backup 110v system like we have on the 5th wheel, only smaller. We’ve got the inverter/charger already so just need about $1000 worth of batteries, cables, and the control panel and then we need to wire and mount everything.
We finally got the microwave installed in the 5th wheel and its working great! It was quite a hassle getting it all figured out and then had some delivery issues, but in the long run we ended up getting a discount because of all our issues so saved about $50! We’re still having major issues with our refrigerator and think we’re going to have to figure out how to get the $1000 and just get it upgraded so it will stay cold. It won’t go below 40 unless Mary Jo keeps 3 Tupperware bowls of ice in it, and then only down to 35. We’ve had some spoilage and it’s just a pain, especially for her doing all the cooking!
Mary Jo’s cancer spot removal went well. It’s still healing and they say she’s 50% more likely to get another spot after the first one so she has to be more careful in the sun. Thanks for all your prayers for her and keep them up, remember has to put up with her husband and you know how he is!
We found a renter for our home in FL. It sat empty for 2 months so we had to cover those expenses and didn’t even get to go home and enjoy it! She moves in Aug 1st. I knew her when she was smaller and I’ve known her parents for several years as they attend our church back home. Besides that she had great references so pray she’ll work out like the last two renters have.
Please keep all of this in your prayers. If there’s anything that we can pray for you about, please let us know!
We have a finished video walk through of Ms Reba’s, click here to view it. Our friend Steve did another photo movie compilation for us, this time of Leo and Edna’s progression from start to finish, click here to view it.
I was just about to post this blog and heard back from some folks we helped in Ingleside, TX. Hurricane Hanna hit made landfall near them this weekend. They experienced over 60 mph wind gusts and got about 8 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. We responded to the area after Hurricane Harvey made a direct hit in 2017. We worked on several homes bringing them up to current TX Windstorm Codes. This not only helps protect their homes from major damage in high hurricane wind conditions, but also saves them money on their homeowner’s insurance. We’re happy to say that they fared well. Don, one of the homes that we did the most work on said his home faired like a battle ship, and he’s a former Navy man! To view a short video we did of just the work we did on the outside of his home, click here.
If you’re interested in helping with any of the expenses with Calvary Relief, please click here.
Love You All and LORD Bless,
Curt & Mary Jo
