Been a bit since our last update and as usual lots to share! I’ll start with my health. My hernia surgery went better than I imagined. I was able to get back to doing things a few days after surgery and within a month there’s nothing, I’m not able to do as far as my hernia is concerned.
I had no idea that the hernia was making my other health issues worse. I still have lower back disc issues, some slight tears in things around my right hip, thigh, and knee, and arthritis on my knee. Since the hernia has been fixed, these areas all feel a lot better. I still do my exercise/stretch routine every morning and still must be careful with what I do and how long I do it, but overall, I’m feeling much better.
There were also some issues with my bladder and digestive track, all of which were causing a lot of pain and discomfort that was causing me to start thinking about some gastrological and other issues that could have been serious. I knew the hernia existed, so I started there. My doctor and all the nurses said that I’m very healthy and since they did robotics from just above my stomach down to the hernia repair, they were able to see everything, and I was told again that I’m healthy in those areas and nothing to be concerned with. Since the surgery all those types of pains, discomfort, issues, etc., have totally gone away! Praise Jesus!
I stopped in to see my doctor to make sure everything was progressing as normal with my healing, and he assured me all is well and the areas I was concerned with will just take time for my body to adjust. I had this for at least 15 years so there’s lots of adjusting to do! I shook his hand and thanked him for my newer lease on life as the Disaster Pastor!!
Mary Jo continues to have issues with her back and neck, something she’s lived with for many years and that will never go away without The Lord’s healing touch here or when she gets home! She must be careful with things she does as well and tries to swim laps at the pool a few times a week as this and the occasional deep tissue massage seems to work well for her to manage the issues. She started having “floaters” in one of her eyes and she researched it and then had an appointment with an ophthalmologist. They did a full eye exam and determined that mostly she’s just getting old! He said it looks like it separated fine, as that’s sometimes an issue, and wants to see her again in 6 weeks just to verify.
Mary Jo was blessed to teach a women's Bible Study about Esther here at Calvary Chapel Sarasota. It's only audio, but I converted it to a video so I could put it on YouTube. Click here to listen! If you're a women and ever been around her, you know how much she pours her heart into discipling women both near and far wherever she is. Those who don't have her in their lives like this have no idea the Godly wisdom that The Lord has given her to share with other women and besides daily taking care of her old husband, she spends a lot of time ministering to other women. Keep her in prayer!
Please continue to keep us both in your prayers as we desire to serve Jesus as long as we’re on this earth and the way we’re doing it at this point requires a lot of physical activity!
Mary Jo and I also decided to get together with Brian and Christine, and Hamilton and Melissa, to do a Biblical study every Tuesday evening on marriage and the covenant relationship God designed it to be between a man and a woman. They are friends from our church and who’ve also done disaster relief with us in the past. It’s digging a little deep. We just finished the fourth week so please keep this in your prayers. The enemy wants nothing more than to steal and destroy and especially targets our marriages and families!
Trent and Rachel’s home build is finally making some progress after over a year! We were able to have dinner with them, and they were really encouraged! Their new builder was able to get the architect to change the plans to actually reflect what they wanted including what the county is forcing them to change. They’re still having issues with the former contractor who ripped them off. One of the things he charged them to do was pull a demo permit. He never did the demo, but since it’s in his name the county won’t issue another one. He won’t answer their calls so they had to send him a registered letter and then after he finally accepted it, they have to wait 2 more weeks and go to the county and show them proof of non-response, and then he will be removed and the company that’s doing the demo can get a permit to do it!
The new contractor suggested hiring an engineering firm that is the middleman between them and the county. This eliminates the county inspecting the progress and can help speed up everything from permitting to the final completion date by 2-3 months! We used an engineer like this several years back while serving in Texas and it was a blessing for sure. We’re still going to be involved with many aspects of their home once it’s dried in, so stay tuned for serving opportunities coming in soon!
Rachel recently had her appendix burst and she was in the hospital and then home for a bit but is getting back to normal now. Earlier this year they had to find a place to rent and were told they qualified for a grant to help with the payments for up to 18 months, as long as they were moving forward with their home rebuild. After 2 months, they were dropped by the program. They are on the bottom floor of a newer apartment complex that was pretty empty when they moved in so they got a “better” price on the rent than normal, but eventually someone moved upstairs. Unfortunately, the guy doesn’t sleep well and paces on the floor and he walks with either a walker and/or a cane. This keeps them up a lot and they both work during the day. The apartment complex agreed to let them move without the normal “move” fees and the rent went down a little so that’s a blessing as well. Continue to keep them in your prayers and how The Lord will continue to use us to bless them through this process.
We’re still working on Brett and Shanell’s home. The contractors have really dragged this project on! They finally got their kitchen and bath cabinets installed so we went and trimmed out the electric in those areas. There were quite a few issues to figure out as usual, but God was good, and we were able to get those sections up and going! We’ve probably got one more trip back to figure out a few more issues, trim some fixtures, install the kitchen appliances, and get some wires into the electrical panel. etc. Please keep their family in your prayers. None of them are believers and several of us over the past year have shown them God’s love and have had conversations with them and in front of them about The Lord. Seeds have been planted; pray they will take hold and grow!
We’ve been busy with plenty of maintenance projects on our CC equipment. Mary Jo’s van had been out of commission since my surgery. A guy from church thought he knew what was wrong with it and replaced the fuel pump and the ignition coil and it still wouldn’t start. I had a mobile mechanic look at it and he said it was something with the distributor but because it’s a 95 he wasn’t sure he could do it, so I called another mobile mechanic I know, and he replaced the distributor and the ignition control module. Finally, it started up! But then it was making a chirping noise, so I replaced the serpentine belt. Part of the noise went away, but it was still squealing some so I replaced the tensioner and an idler pulley, and it seemed as if the noise went away. She’s only driven it a couple of times but says there’s another noise when she’s driving, so I’ll be looking into that soon. Also, I need to change her oil and filter.
I had some normal maintenance to do on the diesel and the V10, oil change, filter, air filter, and I need to order and replace the air bag compressors on both. The V10 also needs a new GPS as the other one is no longer supported and of course the old backup camera doesn’t work with the new one, so having to replace that as well. I also finally got all the correct parts to put the dash back together on the diesel that’s been messed up for about a year now! I need to replace the CDR valve and gasket and there’s a leak in the AC system. The compressor and a couple other parts were replaced earlier this year. I took it back to the mechanic, and he verified it had lost freon. He put some dye in it and pumped it back up. I’ll run it until it quits working and then he’ll check for leaks. I’m also looking into switching to a different type of brake system in the diesel to help improve stopping, an important thing!
Having some AC issues in the 5th wheel and sometime soon I’m going to need to replace one of the units. It’s also time to start the 5th wheel and bunkhouse fall cleaning from the roof down, cleaning the AC units, cleaning and sealing the roofs, washing the outsides, and hopefully waxing the 5th wheel as it’s been a few years.
I got the kitchen floor and underbelly on the 5th wheel fixed and put back together from the water incident earlier this year and put the trim back together on the 2 slides we fixed when Rob was here. Still have one more slide to tear apart and rebuild, but unfortunately Rob can’t make it back this fall so I’ll probably wait until he can come help again this spring. I also had to replace the fabric in our awning, always something! We had some issues with our kitchen faucet so ended up having to replace that as well!
I finally gave up on trying to fix the roof on our house and hired someone. He figured it out and fixed the issue by redoing the transition from the main part of the house to the porch room and a couple of other things. I sprayed it good with a hose to check for leaks but also wanted to get some good rains before putting the inside back. Unfortunately, we’ve been in a drought and only got a couple of quick downpours, so praying on whether to move forward with repairing the ceiling as it needs reframed a little, insulated, and then drywalled. Pray for wisdom for me on that!
We’ve also been working on several things around the campus earning our keep! We’'ve started a huge project getting a major section of the parking lot torn up, graded correctly, drainage added, and then new asphalt. I need to figure out some electrical and plumbing needs to get done before and during the process and then it can be started. We’ll also praying about redistributing asphalt millings to go under our campers, trailers, and vehicles as well as building a driveway behind us to help when it rains.
We were blessed to be able to attend the CC Deep South Pastors Conference in Stone Mountain last month. Was a great time of worshiping our Lord with so many others and taking some time to sit at Jesus’ feet and hear from Him through the different teachers. It was great to see a lot of our friends and catch up and we had many opportunities to pray with and for others who did the same for us. Mary Jo and I also got away for a couple of days by ourselves afterwards, which was good for both of us as well as for me as I was able to get some much-needed rest! Here's the link for the teachings at the conference, it's worth the time to listen! Deep South Pastors Conference Media.
Not much more I can think of to report and plenty for you to keep in prayers! Please let us know if we can pray for you for anything! Love yas!
If you’re interested in growing in The LORD as you selflessly serve others alongside of Calvary Relief, please let us know! For more info on joining us, click here. Plenty of things to do!
If you feel led to help with any of the expenses with Calvary Relief, please click here.
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
