Hard to believe that it’s March of 2026 already but I’m sure not hard for you to believe it’s been a bit since our last update! Again, we’ve been busy!
Besides all the below, I’m leading a team of 12 from our church and headed to the Tyndale Theological Seminary in Amsterdam in less than a month to help with some deconstruction/construction there. We’re also teaming up with 5 guys from Nebraska. Spiritual attacks have already begun. Kevin separated his shoulder and is in a lot of pain but is pushing through. Mary Jo has had an increase in back pains and now some in her ribcage area. I have an issue with my left foot that is getting better. But this week I started having some pain in my right/lower back area almost to the side, bad enough it’s making it difficult to sleep, and I can’t think of anything I did to cause it besides just doing normal stuff. Cameron got sick this week. Please keep this in your prayers. Looks like the cost for Mary Jo and I will be over $3,000 so if you feel like you want to donate to that, links below!
We’ve finally had some movement at Trent and Rachels!! It’s now been a year and a half since their home was hit by a hurricane and the government has determined that their home must be torn down, lifted, and then rebuilt. Obviously, their insurance won’t come close to paying for all of this. During this time, they still pay property taxes and utility bills on a house they own outright. And then they must pay for an apartment and utilities there, a storage unit, and for Trent to continue fishing for a living, he’s got a lot of extra running around every time before he can get out to fish. It’s been a long journey with very little movement.
Eric from CCSRQ and I went down and helped Trent remove some hurricane proof sliders. One set he’ll use in the space under his new home that he’s not allowed to live in so it will only be a workspace and garage. The other set he sold to some neighbors.
The county finally approved for them to get a temporary electric pole so that they can have electricity for the demo and construction. That took months to get as the county was refusing to do give them the permit. The county continues to try to wear them out!
Finally, the demo permit has come in and they’re working on getting that scheduled! Meanwhile, they’re sitting down with the contractor to figure out the timeline, subs, etc., to be able to move forward with the rebuild.
I spend a lot of time with them on the phone and Mary Jo and I try to do dinner with them often to encourage them and answer any questions they may have as best we can. Most people here have forgotten there were 3 hurricanes that came through here in 2024, let alone that people cannot get back into their homes!
We spent another day working at Brett and Shanell’s. Rob from St Louis was here for a little over 3 weeks in January and he joined me there. We were able to hang some blackout drapes on their bedroom sliders, trimmed out some lights, and chased down another electrical issue. They are still fighting with their insurance company for a payout for damages to their roof, garage door, and sliders and so far, haven’t gotten anything from them. Again, a year and a half later. They did get some flood money, but not enough to cover all the damage and we were blessed to do a lot of things for them at no cost to help cover these expenses. They are pretty much done and living in their home and said that they’ve got it from here, so that’s another one finished, Praise The Lord!
Please keep their family in your prayers. None of them are believers and we had the opportunity many times to share Jesus with them with our actions and our words! They want to continue to stay in touch, so we’ll see where that leads! On another note, their primary income is a handmade jewelry business they own.
They feature their product in a few different places around the area and set up at outdoor art type shows that are prevalent in our area during this time of year. Brett tore his bicep tendon and had to have surgery a few weeks ago. This has really hindered their business, so they had to hire someone to help set things up and tear them down, cutting into their profits.
We spent the CHRISTmas season here in Sarasota and had a great time with some church family on a couple of occasions celebrating Jesus with them! We also were able to do a quick weekend camping trip fellowshipping with several folks from our church between CHRISTmas and New Years that was refreshing. And no, we didn’t bring our bunkhouse because we live in a camper and camp in a real room, which they had at the retreat center.
As soon as we returned Rob joined us and besides our time up at Brett and Shanell’s we had a bunch of things that needed done with Camp Calvary stuff. Our first job was fixing our refrigerator. Our refrigerator is a tiny RV fridge that came with our 5th wheel 22 years ago. This type of unit is not made for full-time living and certainly not in the hot temps we often find ourselves in. The fridge is a smaller unit designed to fit in a certain area, so our choices of what to do are limited.
The same thing happened over 5 years ago. We found an Amish company who builds the “workings” of these units so that what’s on the inside of the trailer stays the same and it’s cheaper than buying a new one of the same, but a lot more work. We decided to get one of their upgrades. Unfortunately, it didn’t last as long as we hoped and we found ourselves replacing that unit with another one of theirs, and they since have upgraded their units.
While making the change this time, we ran into several other issues, mostly because of the way the change is made, I don’t think they’re made to be redone this way again, but we did the best we could. We literally took the unit out of the wall and laid it flat in our kitchen, ripped out the back, and then installed the new unit and reinstalled it in its place. Part of the process involves spray foaming in an area you can’t see, and this caused a huge mess inside the refrigerator. We did get it up and going, but not sure it was the best possible outcome as we’re getting a lot of interior sweating, and it hasn’t been very hot here since we changed it out, so we’ll see what summer brings.
Rob helped me rebuild 2 of the 3 damaged slide outs when he was here last year so we still had one more to go and this was our next project. Out of the three this one was the easiest, especially since we’d already had some practice! I had some finishing touches to do and was finally able to move it in and out and it looks like it’s all good!
You may recall that we had some bearing/brake issues with our bunkhouse last year while on the road. I was able to emergency fix one of the hubs on the side of the highway but purchased all 4 and hadn’t gotten to the other 3. Rob, Hamilton, and I were able to get those installed and we’ll be road testing in May!
Rob and I also spent a Saturday at Kevin’s, a long-time ministry friend, who’s been trying to do some remodeling at his house since his wife Kim moved to heaven from a long bout with cancer. We were able to help put the flooring and baseboard down in one of the rooms.
We are waiting for permits for a couple of projects at church and that’s required some upfront work on our end. We also needed to change our grass parking area to gravel for all our stuff and a few church vehicles and move one shed from where the new one is supposed to go. We hired a guy to prepare the area, bring in the gravel, spread it around, and then move the “plastic” shed. This was at least the third time it had been moved, and it was literally falling apart the moment we touched it until it was at its new location. Rob and I tried to fix it some, but then after he left Hamilton and I framed out the floor and walls so at least it won’t just fall over and the doors work!
Rob and I also installed the more permanent sewer connection for the bunkhouse like I did for the 5th wheel.
We needed to have some of our AC handlers at church separated because of heat due to not being installed correctly. This involved tearing down some wood fence, expanding the area, having the units moved and then having the area landscaped in place of the fence. Rob helped me with this project too.
Both truck air bag systems had issues. The diesel had a bad electrical wire and a couple of leaks that Rob and I tracked down and fixed. The V10 needed a new pump installed and once that was running, we discovered that one of the air bags was leaking so I ordered 2 new ones for each side and after Rob left, I was able to replace them and rotate the tires.
While working on this I noticed that there was a strange noise coming from the front of the motor, so I replaced the belt with a green belt, which is better quality and of course more expensive. The first one they sold me was too short, so I ordered another one, installed it, and the noise is still there. Next step is to replace the tensioner and a pulley, the two easiest and cheapest things to try. They both look original when the truck was built and over the years, I’ve replaced almost everything else.
Rob and I replaced the front seats in the diesel as the ones in it weren’t the original ones and didn’t fit correctly. I’ll need to get them reupholstered at some point, but it’s nice to have seats that fit and work correctly. I also need to change out the brake system to a hydro boost system soon.
Mary Jo’s van continued to make some noises up front, so I also installed a green belt in her van and the noises went away. She’s back to daily driving it and so far, so good!
We’ve hired a shed company to put in a larger barn type shed and the county turned the permit down because of where we want to put it. Don’t have time to deal with that because of Amsterdam and everything else that’s going on, so we’ll try to figure that out in April. Once that’s figured out and built, I’ll be doing the electric for it.
We’ve also hired a company to put a more permanent, hurricane rated aluminum pole type barn over our outdoor “kitchen” area. That permit finally came in last week and footers have been dug for the posts and cement has been poured. Hamilton and Joseph from church helped me run wires and install a subpanel for the electric so we’re ready to wire that once it’s installed.
Josh, who goes to our church and who’s dad I often bounce electrical issues off over the years, also has his master electrical license. He has moved to teaching at the local vo-tech. He’s got some guys who need some in the field experience, so they will be helping me with both of those projects.
Chris the pastor from Nokomis Christian Fellowship asked me to look at an elderly lady’s electrical issues on her 60+ year old mobile home! A few things weren’t working properly, and she contacted 3 different electricians. One said, burn it down, the other said he’s not wanting to get involved, the third said she needs to start with replacing the electrical panel and that hopefully will fix the issue, for over $5,000!! Josh went with me to take a look, and we found some wires in a junction box that had come loose! We quickly fixed that so she could have more use of her home, but highly suggested that she replaces her panel and a few other things. We’ll be going back after our trip and it’s only going to cost about $500!!
We finally finished the driveway stuff after it was replaced last year. Had a fence company fence in the dumpsters and fix the drive through gates in the back, and the landscapers got the areas finished that were changed for the project and put up new poles with a chain to help stop traffic from driving into the back of the lot.
We’ve been having issues with folks doing doughnuts in the middle of the night in our front paved and grassed parking lots. Our current camera system isn’t good enough to make out details that far from the building, but it’s amazing how close they get to hitting things that would greatly damage their vehicles, but don’t! I wouldn’t mind if they did, so pray for me!
We decided to upgrade the CCTV system for reasons such as this, and for better security for the school and church. This is an extensive and expensive project. Everything was ordered and has arrived, and I began setting the main system up and one camera to get started. We hired Erik, a CCTV guy who is a Christian, to come in and do a lot of the manual labor and helping me setup the system, and we’re hoping to have it live by this weekend. He’s going out of his way to do a lot of extra stuff to help us fit what we need into our budget. This also required some electrical run via conduit to the back of the property and our landscape company brought a few guys to help me lay 230’ of conduit.
If you keep up with us, you know that Eric helps us from time to time. Turns out another skill he has is he’s a locksmith with tools! I was taking him into the building to change out some sink faucets and he noticed all my door keys and mentioned I should have one key for everything. He then told me how it works and that he’d be happy to key everything for us that way. So, he’s in the middle of doing that and he’s also making some other changes to make it easier for us! That will be nice! Of course, he replaced the 3 faucets for us as well!
I also keep busy in my “spare” time putting out fires here and there around the campus which includes a lot of computer and network issues.
I was approached by an older gentleman who lives with his wife in an older trailer. They’ve attended here for as long as I can remember. They had some water issues that they think have been identified and fixed, but now they’ve got problems with some of their flooring. Todd, one of the guys who’s taught me a lot about mold/flood remediation and goes to our church, is going to join me in figuring out what needs to be done and then we’ll see what local help we can get to take care of their issues. They can’t be living with mold and sinking floors!
We’ve got 2 other projects that are going to be done over the school Easter Break, so I’m working on coordinating all of that and beginning to see about getting our main building bathrooms, including the sewers, renovated this summer and then finish some more of the interior work we’re working on over Easter Break.
I still need to finish the AC maintenance on our RVs, clean, caulk, and seal the roofs, and then wash the outside before summer arrives, oops too late!
While it hasn’t gotten as cold as some up north have had it, it still got below freezing several mornings here! This created more work to keep our water stuff from freezing and YES, we survived! Unfortunately, summer arrived this week and I still have lots of “spring” stuff to get done!
Physically, we’re doing good, dealing with ongoing physical issues that will never go away and trying to keep from overdoing things, but it is what it is! Can’t wait for heaven!
In the past month Mary Jo and I have been blessed to attend 2 conferences together and I attended our men’s conference. We also switched our Tuesday marriage Bible study to a class at church and have finished that and will be picking up our Marriage Bible study again probably after our mission trip in April.
All the conferences were great and worth the listen. Here’s the links for all but the men’s:
Hope Conference- Hope Conference — Calvary Chapel Sarasota and then Justin did the Sunday service, here’s the link for that, The Church: A Community through which Christ Cares — Calvary Chapel Sarasota
Southeast Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conference- SECCPC 2026 - Calvary Chapel Merritt Island
As I said, lots of stuff going on! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!
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
