Monday special treat

It was a busy day in the warehouse. We are doing a large Bible-sort. Hundreds of  English Bibles of many versions and styles need to be sorted by ISBN so they can be repackaged for resale. This income is a significant part of the ship's ministry operating income.

A team of workers from Logos Hope arrived this weekend and helped us with the sort. This really sped up the work. 

We celebrated by treating the whole team to ice-cream cones and bars mid-afternoon.

 It was a long evening so we did a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle.

Sunday in Florence

We attended church this morning at the Florence Baptist Temple, a conservative evangelical megachurch nearby. Beautiful choir music and an enriching message from the pastor reminding us that that a church that is not evangelizing will be fossilizing.

Two of our young lady friends stopped by to play games for a couple hours.

After that Heather had to get her head into the Zoom Good News Club she teaches each Sunday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon Skip Bo party

Today (Saturday) was a day off from the warehouse work. However, we were busy with guests. Mark, a missionary engineer with OM Ships, joined us for lunch in the RV. His wife, Ruth, is in Texas helping her parents move to Florence. They have purchased a house large enough for her parents to live with them. Mark drove us to the house and gave a guided tour.

Later the three women we mentioned yesterday, Naomi, Saki and Arika came by for some games and to chat. We played Skip Bo several times and had some real good conversation. It was good fellowship.

Naomi is from Finland. She has an American Dad and Finnish Mom. Her plans are to go to the ship Logos Hope for a year if she's accepted.

Saki is from Japan. She's a medical doctor on a break from studies. At the beginning of July she's returning to study surgery. She was raised in a Christian home.

Arika is also from Japan. She's married and they have a business over there. Her husband gave her leave to visit the USA! She was saved as an adult.

The day is ending with the rain that has been promised for several days.

TGIF, at least that's what they say.

We spent the workday sorting a new section of containers, mostly containing Bibles. FYI in case you're interested, these large corrugated cardboard "boxes" are called Gaylords, and they sit on wooden pallets. They are so deep we need to cut out one side of the box to easily access the contents.

Today we made friends with three women...one from Finland and two from Japan. OM is a very international mission. It's really amazing to meet others from around the world who love Jesus and want to serve Him as missionaries.

All set to serve at OM Ships in Florence, SC

On the way to Florence, SC we traveled Interstate 40,  which was heavily damaged during the recent Hurricane Helene. Traffic was cut back to one lane in each direction for many miles. Seeing the damage first hand was quite a sight. Entire lanes of I-40 eastbound were washed away. The reconstruction effort is massive.

We arrived on Tuesday and parked the RV in our regular spot with all the plumbing and electrical connections we need to stay here for a week.

Our work is primarily sorting wholesale pallets of books by ISBN numbers so they can be re-sold. This generates income for the ships and also provides inventory for the ships to sell around the world.

Here's a link to a youtube video one of the volunteers shot showing the work going on inside the warehouse.

The work has us unpacking huge pallets of books and is hard on the back, arms and feet. The individual books heavy aren't heavy, but the reaching, bending and lifting leaves us worn out after a day's work.

On Wednesday night we attended a Bible study and prayer meeting here on campus.

We see some pretty sunsets here. The ground is actually level but the tree line gets taller.

Weekend in Cookeville, TN

Leaving our friends in Collierville, TN we headed toward our visit with Jim and Nancy in Cookeville, TN. Nancy is a second cousin to Roger.

We stopped along the way to tour the Casey Jones Museum. He gave his life at the engine to save the passengers. His last words were to his brakeman, "Jump, Sims, jump." He did and lived to tell the story. (A train ahead had not pulled completely off the running track. The signals were all green. He couldn't see far ahead - it was dark and there was a corner just before impact.) Casey's was the only death.

We arrived in Cookeville Saturday afternoon but spent an hour trying to get the RV leveled on their sloped driveway.

We enjoyed attending Church with them on Sunday morning. Both the Sunday School and the sermon were very inspiring. In Sunday School we covered our "position" as sheep - and the "shepherd's" responsibility in I Peter 5. The sermon was centered on Matthew 28:19 - GO. While many Christians know the Great Commission, they don't practice it daily.

Another travel day---Friday

 

We left our friend Marsha in Arkansas this morning and headed to Collierville, TN. The roads were great compared to a few days ago.

We stopped at a Love's Travel Stop to dump our sewage tanks. Our last tank dump was a week ago in Rapid City.

We  took on 60 gallons of gas at another Love's before stopping at our Collierville friends Steve and Joye.

Since 2016 we have traveled about 150,000 miles in our two motorhomes. We always look for the best prices on fuel. Love's and Pilot/Flying J stations are usually the choice.