Friday Travels

We left Love's before 8:30am and headed north toward Nashville. 

Heather spotted a sign for the Lodge Cast Iron Museum in South Pittsburgh, TN.

Google's AI says...

"Lodge is the oldest and largest cast iron cookware manufacturer in the United States. They use a traditional sand molding process, pouring a proprietary mix of molten pig iron, steel, and other ingredients into a sand mold. This process creates the grey cast iron cookware for which they are known."

Their museum section has some very interesting and well done displays. Some are video-based, some are hands-on mechanical devices.

Thursday at Love's

We left Florence, SC this morning and are parked for the night at a Love's Travel Center in Cartersville, GA, north of Atlanta. The scenery is pretty.

Heather teaches a Zoom Bible club on Thursdays so we were able to use the McDonald's open wifi signal.

The drive here via Atlanta was crazy with traffic. It took over two hours get through that area so we decided to take the Love's exit. Getting from one exit to the next took about 1/2 hour each time, so to make sure we were set to Zoom, we took an exit that said Love's and McDonald's. Both those places often have free wifi - and that was the way it happened.

Roger liked that he could see our reflection in the truck's rear panel! We followed closely as traffic was barely moving (& often not at all)! Several ambulances and tow trucks went by, and the overhead signs told about stalled cars and road repairs...It wasn't much fun, but we were grateful not to be part of the problem! Around Atlanta at one point there were 8 lanes for traffic going one direction! Guess traffic is an issue here - we'll have to remember that.

This morning we heard that our pastor's wife, Holly Kohls, had passed away. She was in a coma for 4 days. We don't know any more, but are praying for Mark and our church.

Tuesday book-sort

We completed a book sort today of all kinds of Christian books...big, small, thick and thin on a wide range of topics.

Each day before lunch break we take time to pray for the needs of OM Ships ministry.

We had a lot of ice cream treats left over from yesterday, so whoever wanted could help themselves.

Our three friends stopped by the RV for a few minutes after work and tasted Heather's taco dip. It may be our final visit before we leave on Thursday morning. 

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 lively 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.