Welcome back to Camp Jo-Ota.  We finished our second week here at Camp Jo-Ota with the 60th anniversary of the camp.  We worked hard all week preparing the camp for the many visitors that were expected for the celebration on Saturday. 

The celebration began on Saturday with a bar-b-que lunch, then speeches by many of those that had attended the camp and some that had worked/lived here over those 60 years.  The highlight of the day was supposed to be tours of the camp to show people the many improvements that had been made over the past years.  But, it rained.  It rained.  And, it rained.  It started raining as soon as the first guest arrived, until the last one left.  The rain did not stop the indoor activities though.  A good time was had by all as the shared past experiences and a good lunch.

As I said before, we spent a lot of time getting the camp ready for the anniversary, let me show you some of what we did.

George and Scott removed and rebuilt the main gate to the pool.  They worked hard to make sure the gate was hung to withstand the continuous opening and closing that the gate will get.

Sharon and Marilyn spent two days painting the fence around the pool.

Dave and I even washed some windows.  Yes, I said we washed some windows.  I washed, Dave rinsed, even getting water on the windows sometimes, and not always on me.

Scott built a box to put a large trash can in.  The box will cover the trash can and will have a door on the back to allow the can to be removed to empty.

Terry is putting on a finish coat of seaming compound on a door frame that we installed where we removed a double door.

Marilyn and Sharon spreading mulch at the Living Cross devotions area, and Scott bringing another load of mulch.

George and me repairing a foot bridge across part of the lake.  We installed some supports to the rails to strengthen them from moving as you cross the bridge.

George and Scott installing a wall between the showers and dressing area in the pool bath house.

Marilyn and Sharon are painting trim in one of the cabins.  Marilyn is painting new trim around the lights that George and Scott put up last week.

Dave and I are building a new door to go on the entrance to an old cabin that is being used to store building materials in.

As you can see we stayed pretty busy this last week, and there was even more done than these pictures show. 

We start our last week here tomorrow with lots of work to finish, so come back next week for another week what we have done here at Camp Jo-Ota, and remember

God Loves You

Gary

Welcome to Camp Jo-Ota in Clarence, Missouri.  Clarence is located about fifty miles west of Hannibal, Missouri.  To let you know how far out in the country we are, we are about 15 miles from the closest Wal-Mart.  NOMADS judge how far away from civilization they are by the distance from the nearest Wal-Mart.  I think this is the furthest we have been from one in a long time, probably since we left Kentucky in March.

Camp Jo-Ota is a lovely place.  The facilities here are great.  There are several cabins for campers, a pool, very large well equipped dining facility, a couple of outdoor chapels, and a great RV parking area.

Sarge and Marisa, the camp directors are great host.  They have made our visit here one of the best, and that is a lot since we have been at some great places this year.  Scott, the head maintenance guy, has been a wonderful lead on the work we have been doing.  He not only has made sure we had the right materials, and tools we needed, he has been working with us providing us with his experience and his back when needed.

We started off our week last Sunday with morning worship at the Clarence First United Methodist Church.  We were blest not only with a great message from God's Word, but also with some great music from the church choir and special music from a soloist.  As all the small town churches that we attend, the people were very warm and welcomed us to their church. 

After church we went to lunch at Kemp's family restaurant.  Kemp's menu offered everything from sandwiches to plate dinners.  I can tell you that all of us really enjoyed our meals.  No one left hungry.

Later on Sunday afternoon the team met for our first get together to meet and greet each other.  Our team is made up of NOMADS from Indiana, Arizona, Tennessee, and of course Alabama.  George and Terry, our team leaders, started our meeting with a short devotional and prayer.  A wonderful way to start the project.  Our team members, Scott, Dave & Marilyn, Sharon & me, and George and Terry.  Sarge and Marisa also attended our meeting to tell us about the camp and to let us know about some of the work they had for us to do.  Sarge had supplied George with a long list of things that needed to be done around the camp.  At the head of the list were things like repairing benches at an outdoor chapel and putting down new wood chip mulch, replacing some doors in a couple of buildings, closing up the pool for the winter, much painting, rebuilding some outdoor metal framed benches with new wood, and many more repairs to camp facilities.

By the end of the first week we had painted the inside of the garage at the director's home, rebuilt seven eight foot long benches and painted them, removed and re-installed the post for thirteen benches at the outdoor chapel now ready for new wood for the bench, removed a set of double doors from one building and re-installing them in a cabin to enclose two hot water heaters, replaced several vents on the roof of one of the cabins, closed up the pool, and several other small projects.  As you can see we stayed very busy.  We still have a lot to do during the next couple of weeks.

 

Here is the team meeting for devotions and getting our work assignments for the day.  That is George and Terry on the right, they are the team leaders.  Scott is on the end of the table, Dave and Marilyn are on the left.  Sharon is hiding behind Dave.  That is Sarge leaning down on the bottom of the picture.

We have a beautiful place to park our RVs.  It is all in the shade and very quiet.

Here we are backed up into a very nice spot.

George and Scott are discussing what we need to do at The Cross outdoor chapel.  We removed the telephone post that the benches are attached too, cut up some newer telephone poles for post and installed them.  The fire pit was removed and new mulch will be put down when we finish with the benches.

Terry is painting one of the benches that was rebuilt.  Five long benches were taken apart and the metal frames were used to build seven shorter benches.  They will be used to supplement seating at The Cross chapel and other outdoor areas when needed.

As you can tell we were busy this past week.  This next week looks to be just as busy.  We have to finish the outdoor chapel, complete closing in the wall where we removed the double doors, and much more painting and repairs.

Stay with us for more about our project here at Camp Jo-Ota.

You all take care for now and remember,

God Loves You

Gary

Sharon and I have just finished our stay in Springfield, Illinois.  For those that don't know, Springfield was Abraham Lincoln's home when he was elected as the 16th president of the United States.  Lincoln had lived in the area from the time he was a very young man until he moved to Washington, D.C., never to return.

When he was about 17 he moved to a small village on the Sangamon River where he got his first real job.  He started his career by unloading and loading river barges, and move up from there.  The village, New Salem, now a state historic site, has been recreated with many buildings from the time period.  Some are reconstructions, some are original from the time but have been moved to New Salem from other locations.

The day we visited there was a bluegrass festival going on.  A pleasant surprise, nice bluegrass sounds everywhere we walked.

Let me show you some of New Salem.

This is one of the many small groups of bluegrass bands.  I don't thinks any of them were organized bands, just a bunch of musicians that sat down together to jam some good bluegrass.

There were many re-enactors of the time period throughout the village.  This man is showing a young girl how to spin wool.

Another house with musicians on the front porch.

Sharon couldn't resist petting this little pony.

Abe as a young man.  He is holding a book and axe.  Symbols of his quest for knowledge and hard work.

Abe was a noted surveyer.  He surveyed many of the roads in the Springfield area.  He was trusted by many for his survey work due to his well know honesty in his work.

We also had the priviledge of visiting the Lincoln Tomb.  The day we were there there was a small emcampment of Union Soldiers giving a presentation on life during the Civil War.  One of the presentations was given by two men that are descendants of slaves.  Both men's ancestors had been soldiers in the Union army after gaining thier freedom.  One had become a doctor, a very hard thing for a black man at that time, and reached the rank of major while serving in the army.  The other was a color guard seargent.  He had served with great distinction and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic service.  It was very interesting listening to them talk about their ancestors.

We spent some time visiting the tomb, and the cemetary where it is located.  A very solomn place.  I was not aware that all of Lincoln's family was buried in the tomb with him.  That is all but the only son that live, Robert.  When he died his wife had hime buried in Arlington National Cemetary.

Here is our visit to Lincoln's Tomb.

The statues that adorn the tomb structure are made from melted down cannons from the Civil War.

Lincoln is entombed ten feet below this marker.

This statue of Lincoln is the one that was used as a model for the large one in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Sharon is trying to reach Abe's nose to rub it.  You can see by how shiney his nose is that many have been able to reach it, Sharon just wasn't tall enough.

Our last view of the tomb as we left the cemetary where it is located.

The next day we took a trip downtown to visit the Lincoln museum.  The museum had many displays of articles that belonged to Lincoln, during and prior to his presidency.  There were two very good short films that told of his life prior to and during his presidency.  Both were very well done.

Here are a few pictures from the museum.  There were only a few areas where photos are allowed.  Inside the rooms where all of the articles that belonged to Lincoln were off limits to photos.

Abraham Lincoln and his family.  They are standing in front of the White House.

 This is Abe in front of a model of the home he and his parents lived in when they first moved to Illinois.

We had the opportunity to visit a couple of old court house buildings where Lincoln practiced as a young lawyer.  The life of a lawyer was much different that it is today.  The lawyers during Lincoln's time would travel together, along with a judge, throughout a district.  They would normally travel from June to November to different towns to try cases, and/or settle disputes between individuals over land, cattle, or other matters.  The two that we visited are about twenty miles apart.  In Lincoln's day that would have been about a five hour trip, we made it in twenty minutes.  One of the courthouses is the original building.  The lady that gave us a tour of the courthouse building told us that much of the funiture is from the time of Lincoln, but there is now proof that any of it was there when Lincoln visited that courthouse.  There are a few pieces that they speculate that he did use.

Mt. Pulaski Court House. 

Lincoln actually defended clients in this court room.  Note the number of stars on the flag.

We also had the opportunity to visit the neighbor hood where Lincoln and his family lived before they moved to Washington.  The area is now a National Historic Site.  All of the buildings that I will show you are original.  All of them are still on the same site that they were built on during the 1840's and 50's.

This is the house that Lincoln and his family lived in.  It is the only house that Lincoln owned.  When Lincoln was assinated, Mary Todd would not move back into the house.  She lived with a sister nearby.  We were able to tour the home.  Much of the furniture is orginal to the house.

This was Lincoln's bed.  It was made special for him, it is 6'9" long. 

This wagon was used during the campaign for Lincoln for presidency.

The following pictures are of homes that are in the neighbor hood.  The first one is where the minister lived that married the Lincoln's.

These two homes were used for private residences and boarding houses.

We had a great time visiting all of the places of Lincoln's life in Springfield and the surrounding area.  We saw much more that I have told you about, but will leave some for you to see on your own visit. 

We are on our way to Clarence, Missouri for our next NOMADS project.  We still have about six weeks before we get home.  We go to Lousiana after we leave Missouri.  Looking forward to getting home, but we are also planning our NOMADS travels for next year. 

Hope you have enjoyed our stay in Springfield.  Have a great day.  We will be back with you with our time at Camp Jo-Ota, in Clarence, Missouri sometime next week.

Remember,

God Loves You

Gary

Sharon and I are on our way to our next NOMADS project in Clarence, Missouri after a great stop in Pecatonica, Illinois for the NOMADS annual meeting.  And what a meeting it was.  This was the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the NOMADS mission.  I could go into a long story about the history of NOMADS, but I will let you go to the web site at www.nomadsumc.org and let you read it there.

Again, I want to apologize for the dates on my pictures, still haven't gotten it right on the camera I was using.

This picture above is of our praise band.  They got us started off each morning with great praise songs, and some of the great old hymns.  Each morning started off at 0700 with a coffee and donut social wake-up, followed by a Bible study at 0730.  The Bible study was conducted by one of the many NOMADS retired ministers.  His study was very good, and a great way to start the day.  After the Bible study we had our morning devotions.  This is when we had our morning sing-alongs, a great devotional message, and announcements for the day. 

The annual meeting started off on Sunday morning with church.  We were blest with the Methodist Bishop of northern Illinois and Wisconsin giving the morning sermon.  What a way to start the meeting.  She, yes a she, was very inspiring and gave us a perfect send off for the week.  Her message challenged us to keep on doing the work of the NOMADS, and to never forget that God is our guide and to share that with those we help in our work.  The week was filled with wonderful guest speakers from the Illinois and Wisconsin areas.  Each one challenged us to continue with God's work and to look to the future as to how we can expand our mission.

The organizers of this year's meeting did a wonderful job of scheduling free time, seminars, guest speakers, special meal times, and some special entertainment for the closing night.

Sunday, as I stated earlier, started off with church.  We had a free day for most of the day, so we took advantage to do a little sight-seeing.  We were only a short drive from Wisconsin, which if you don't know, is the cheese capital of the country.  We drove to Monroe, Wisconsin, where we visited a small museum dedicated to the local cheese industry.  It was very interesting to see how the production of cheese has changed over the years, and even more interesting to see the many different types of cheese that are made.  After our visit to the museum we went into town to find a place for lunch.  We were surprised to see that the downtown city square was alive with people, and several places open where we could get lunch.  We went straight to Baumgardner's for lunch.  Baumgardner's is known for their cheeses', and let me tell you, I can see why.  We ordered a cheese plate that had three different cheeses' on it.  Sharon and I could only eat half of the order, it was large enough for four people.  the cheese was very good.  I learned that good cheese should be eaten at room temperature, that way the cheese flavor really stands out.  Very good.

We then took a walk around the town square.  The square was decorated with painted animals.  The town's theme for the year is the farming community.  Let me give you a tour.

I thought I would start off with this real Auburn Fan.  This little calf really knows how to get dressed.

 

One of our fellow NOMADS is really enjoying this painted cow.  It is hard to see, but the painting shows the battle of the spirits, wine bottles shooting corks at beer steins, and the beer steins are launching pieces of cheese from catapults at the wine bottles. 

We liked the way this cow was painted.  The cards, and other emblems, painted on the cow indicate different businesses in the area that are related to the wine and cheese industry.  Like her spatts.

One of the cards painted on the previous cow picture.  The is where we ate lunch.  Note the Limburger cheese sandwich next to the glass of beer.  Didn't try any of that cheese.

This little piggy went to the artist studio.

Here is Billy the Kid.  Note his mask, bag of money painted on his rump, and the high top western boots.

One corner of the square displayed several decorated milk cans.  Pretty nice.

There were also some displays of the many crops raised in the area.  Don't think these pumpkins will be used for pies.

If you look hard you can see numbers on this little lamb.  Counting sheep.

Diane, a retired minister from Maryland, and Sharon found this corn farmer standing on the street. 

Don't know how this young lady fit in with the farm theme, but I couldn't resist sitting down next to her.

Our first planned dinner was on Monday night.  A host for each table was asked to decorate for the NOMADS 25th anniversary celebration.  Sharon and I decorated this one.

There were 31 tables set up for the dinner to accommodate the over 240 people that attended the annual meeting.

The annual meeting was held at the Winnebago County Fairgrounds, in Pecatonica, Illinois.  It was a great location for our meeting.  The large building that we used for our meeting place was big enough to allow for many different activities at one time.

There were 120 RVs parked at the fairgrounds.  The facilities were very nice.  We had electric hook-ups with 30 or 50 amp service, water hook-ups. and a honey wagon to empty our holding tanks.  I was surprised at the room we had for parking.  Even though it looks like a large parking lot, we had more space between each RV that I have had at commercial RV parks.

We ended the meeting on Thursday night with a catered dinner of pulled pork (I think that is what they refer to as BBQ up here) sliced beef, and all the fixens.  The dinner was very good, but the entertainment we had after was great.  A Swiss choir from Monroe, Wisconsin gave us a concert of Swedish songs.  I wasn't sure what to think about this until they started singing.  It was a real good concert.  Even though I couldn't understand the words they sang, I did like the music, and the feeling of the music that the choir expressed.

It was a great week of fellowship and worship, with our NOMADS family.  We are looking forward to next years meeting that will be held in Branson, Missouri. 

We are currently taking a little break before we get back to work at our next project which starts next weekend.  We will be at Camp Jo-Ota, in Clarence, MO.  Looking forward to another wonderful work project.

I will continue with our journey sometime next week, in the meantime, you all take care and remember

God Loves You.  Yes, no matter what He does Love you.

Gary