Praises – Finishing the rental house; safe travel; volunteer work at a Christian camp with SOWERs again; property good through the cold and ice; John’s knee and back are better and holding up well.
Prayers – Good renters for the house; continued exercise and health; sharing music; recording and getting songs on web site.
Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Put My yoke upon your shoulders – it might appear heavy at first, but it is perfectly fitted to your curves. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. When you are yoked to Me, your weary souls will find rest. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30 The Voice
Hello to our followers, friends, and family:
January started with a whirlwind of activity to finish up the rental house. Lots of trips to the shed and our lower-level multi-purpose room to clear out the house, porches, and car port. We had our mission student back for vacuuming, more Old English, and a few window cleanings. Finishing touches included hanging the master bedroom door with a new lock, trimming the shower curtain, electric outlet repairs, cover plates, some shelf paper, a bit more paint touch up, and scrubbing the dining room floor paint specs from spraying the ceiling.
January 4 we were getting back into travel mode – pack truck, check trailer/truck tires, disconnect water/sewer and signal booster, and winterize the outside RV water lines. Connie had lots of laundry to do as well as getting things ready to travel inside. We left at 9 am Friday, a bit later than planned, and had an uneventful trip. We didn’t plan our travel stops very well and we do need to get a check list (we forgot to “lock” our refrigerator). We arrived about 5pm to a dinging “refrigerator door open” sound and found a few small things on the floor, 2.5 smushed tomatoes, and the milk was still good! Setup went smooth and we beat the rain as we headed into town for a perfectly cooked T-bone steak and pork chop celebration meal. We missed our turn on the way back in the dark and rain, ending up on a packed sand road for about half a mile back to the highway to the camp, very thankful to be on a volunteer project again.
We have lots of ladybugs or Asian beetles driving us crazy trying to keep them vacuumed up, flushed, or flicked outside. There were at least 4 pair of cardinals hopping around the truck and some glimpses of yellow and blue our first Sunday. John has been able to sit outside with different instruments (and coffee, of course) as well as spending several hours ‘learning’ how his new amp works and making his fingers sore. Connie was told of two great movies over the summer and we finally watched them – Nefarious and The Sound of Freedom. John replaced our CO2/Propane alarm in the RV, making several trips to the dining hall where his tools were. We’re still running out of energy quickly, but that is getting better as we relax and rest a bit this month.
Before starting our volunteer work, we toured this 100-year-old camp and its many buildings; there are plenty of things to do! Painting was at the top of the list, finishing the dining room walls, the whole kitchen, three wood serving line carts (two coats), trim, and crown molding. All these painted items needed to be cleared, cleaned, scraped, and sanded in some areas before painting. The kitchen was challenging with the cabinets and drawers and getting around the vent hood and various pipes but we made it in our 4-day time window. The guys built a new frame and replaced a window as we started, and finished priming our next paint area before the end of our January work. We love being back on a volunteer project, each morning starts with a devotion giving us a chance to share what God is doing in our lives and ministry, and we are encouraged by others as they share their life stories.
Before leaving Mississippi we had a meal with our realtor and her husband; our first Sunday in Florida we ate at Pizza Hut getting to know the couple we would be working with this month. The camp has invited us for meals when guests were here – 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, and several supper meals – some with a high school volunteer group and a few with members of the board on work days. A favorite spot is a Mexican grill where we had our celebration meal and our end of project meal with our fellow volunteer couple and the camp director and his wife. We also really enjoyed our neighbor’s propane campfire a couple of evenings, staying until it got too cold to be outside.
It seems our bad weather streak is back; we were again heading to the shelter (dining hall) for tornado warnings a few days after our arrival. The first front went through, then we were at the shelter at 5:30 am for several hours as multiple storms passed through the area with no damage here, praise the Lord! There were several power outages and radar checks throughout that night and we learned that rising temperatures especially during the night with rain usually means severe weather is coming. Winds here can come from any direction and change throughout the day, a bit different from the Midwest. Being January in the Florida panhandle the weather was on the cool side. There were a few nights below freezing when we turned our water off and we did run out of propane around 2 am one morning. There were a few damp days with highs in the low 40’s, many nights in the mid 30’s, we used our gas furnace lots of nights, and then those perfect upper 40’s nights and sunny high mid 60’s days. One morning we needed a window scraper for the frost on the truck, and one day we needed the air conditioner in the trailer – welcome to January in the Florida panhandle!
When not painting, John helped with setting up the dining area for weekend guests, putting lots of chairs and tables into a storage area, cleaning the stainless-steel counter edging in the kitchen, creating a paint brush extension pole to get around the pipes and vent hood, taking down some very high shelves (and putting them back up again), caulking around new window replacements, rebuilding a window sill, and spent an afternoon walking around the camp opening faucets to drip for a couple of freezing nights.
We have been able to get some internet reception in our RV, a bit from the camp signal and from our generous neighbors, but decided to check into a permanent solution since we spend much of our time in rural areas. After days and hours researching options, we decided to switch one phone carrier, never as easy as they make it sound! We made the switch on January 27, John keeping his old phone; the signal didn’t improve and we found he can’t call out with WiFi calling (not compatible with the old phone). About the same time Connie upgraded to a new phone and is still in the process of making sure nothing has been lost in the transfer. Her phone does get a bit better reception so we’re waiting to upgrade John’s phone until her transition is complete. Through it all (like 3 years ago) we have been reminded to not believe all of what the sales people tell you, it certainly isn’t a seamless switch and their ‘hidden’ fees get you as well.
Salty Strings had the pleasure of sharing some music for a great Anniversary steak and shrimp supper (with baked potatoes, mushrooms and onions, salad, stir fry veggies, and pudding cake). It was our fellow SOWER’s anniversary, and the camp tries to get everyone together once a month; perfect timing and we gained another guitarist.
We attended First Baptist Bonifay our first Sunday, really enjoying their great choir and instruments, and an excellent sermon (if you say ‘yes’ to God you are saying ‘no’ to the world). Our second Sunday we stayed at the camp enjoying worship and a message with a high school group. The last two Sundays we plugged into an adult interactive Sunday School class before the second service at First Baptist.
There were back-to-back shopping trips at the end of the month. The first trip was slightly over an hour to Panama City where we hoped to go to the beach but the weather didn’t cooperate. John found his guitar amp at a pawn shop, then we proceeded with a very relaxed day of thrift stores (clothes and shoes), McDonald’s lunch, a shared branch credit union for some cash, and groceries at the Aldi’s closest to us. The next morning we headed to Defuniak Springs, about 45 minutes away, and hoped to walk a bit downtown around the lake. About halfway through our stops it started pouring rain. We did get new phone service after a visit to our current carrier, stopped in a Tractor Supply for the restroom and saw the rescue dogs mingling about (with their sponsors of course), a stop at a music store for a guitar cord, and Walmart before heading back. We made a couple trips to Chipley, our nearest Walmart, and found a little Christian coffee house in Bonifay, going back for a great chili lunch special the next week.
Connie had only 2 days of cleaning: a large 2-story dorm (showers, sweep rooms and halls, and vacuum rugs in the common areas), the Welcome Center (move furniture, sweep floors, and clean rest rooms), and two motel-like room (tub/showers) – not bad for not liking to clean! She did learn there are many ways to arrange a bunk bed and a full-size bed in a small dorm room. The kitchen painting included removing hardware, trimming and painting two coats on cabinet doors and drawers, and getting the hardware back on.
Aside from the usual bills and laundry, Connie finally backed up our laptop (over 2 hours), put up some of our knick-knacks we haven’t seen in a while, and got some paperwork organized and filed. She has added to her food specialties: an excellent homemade alfredo sauce (using up leftovers), improving her chocolate pudding cake recipe, and the usual homemade mayonnaise, Wassel, yogurt, and cornmeal sausage balls (although she forgot the cheese this time). There have been many hours downloading tax forms and instructions with the rental property and expenses; some of it is coming back from 2007 when we had a previous house rented. She actually took some time to sit outside in the sun and start reading a book for enjoyment!
We didn’t realize how tired and worn out we were from our Mississippi remodeling, but after a week or two we’ve started taking a few walks around the camp and to the trash. John got our bikes ready and we made our first bike ride in several months – 10 whole minutes and we were both winded and chilly riding into the wind. It is hard getting back into the exercise routines but we feel better when we do.
Thoughts from the month:
**Jesus – a different kind of king with a different kind of kingdom. Instead of taking from people, He gave great blessings to people. Instead of gathering a following to control, He gathered a following to set them free. He didn’t rule to take the lives of others, He came to give up His life to rescue people. (Devotion)
**“Humility is not thinking less about yourself but thinking about yourself less.” C. S. Lewis
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. . . “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us . . Psalm 46:1-3, 10-11a English Standard Version
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!
Our Mississippi greenery when we left.
John and Connie Nicholas ~ Salty Strings Music Ministry
Contact Information: Mail: John & Connie Nicholas
~ Salty Strings Music Ministry ~
3916 N. Potsdam Ave. #3962
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Phone – John 909-336-8910 or Connie 909-336-8912
Email – SaltyStrings@hotmail.com
Facebook – Salty Strings Music Ministry
Web site – SaltyStrings.com
ONLINE DONATIONS via PayPal through our web site
TRAVEL PLANS AND UPCOMING LOCATIONS
- February-March 27 – SOWER Project, Bonifay, FL
- March 28-July 31 – Travel to property, Jacinto, Mississippi; travels IL, WI, SD
- August 1-26 – SOWER Project, East Troy, WI and family
- August 27-September ?? – Clinton, IL – Little Galilee
Salty Strings Music Ministry 