Praises – Always blessed – wonderful showers after hot sweaty travel days; fresh garden produce and sweet corn; hotel bath tubs; fresh flowers (forgot to take a picture); April 2022 medical bill finally cleared up; John’s hand/wrist and back injury better; great weather for outdoor concert, thanks to everyone who prays for us!
Prayers – Safe travel to Illinois, then back to northeast Mississippi; John’s knee, continued healing and wisdom to see doctor or not; finding contractors for house work needed to get it rented
The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms . . . If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:7, 10-11
Hello to our followers, family, and friends:
It has always seemed strange and awkward saying we’re going to work. Even adding volunteer or retired as a disclaimer is weird. Another volunteer pointed us to the verse above – we are servants. We don’t work – we serve, and it doesn’t happen in our strength but with God’s provision. So, as we write this, we are still trying to leave the old behind and embrace the idea of serving.
Our July volunteer service hours were 83 plus another 7 from last month making a total of 90 hours labor to help Little Galilee, our ‘home’ camp. Every place we have served is always so grateful for the help they get from volunteers – we don’t seem to do much, but every hour helps them fulfill their ministry purpose. John has had lots of frustration this year with body aches and injuries. He was down almost a week with his back (just getting out of his chair after breakfast), and wearing a wrist brace before that. Connie helped with shoes and socks a lot, John was quite creative with his silverware technique, and he couldn’t eat rice or ramen with chopsticks either. It is hard to keep going with pain and discomfort, but we all can make a choice to be miserable or be happy – we remain blessed by our loving God.
It didn’t take long for the humming birds to find our feeder. The last time we were here John was able to stand right underneath and have them fly all around; the beautiful ruby throated birds this year were not as bold even after John hung his hat on the ladder right next to the feeder. The RV area has a wild prairie field across the road so we had pheasants, lots of rabbits, red-wing black birds (and lots of other kinds too), and a few deer sightings. Coming home from church Connie saw a spotted fawn standing on the edge of a road curve intently watching a yellow crop duster plane head towards it, pulling up right before the curve to circle back. The most interesting was watching our deformed baby humming bird grow up a bit. He arrived one late-morning and hung onto the feeder all day, barely drinking, still clinging tightly even as night started. His beak was slightly off center, joined his head at a strange angle, and he appeared to be a bit touched in the head. We expected to find him dead on the ground the next morning, but when Connie checked in the night he was gone. He came back the next day, the other birds ignoring him, and eventually flew off as night approached. As the weeks went along his feathers smoothed out, getting more vibrant in color, more agile (even chasing others away), and was able to get his beak into the feeder easier. We wonder if we’ll see him again on our next visit.
July weather has been varied. The first week Connie took a daily morning walk to avoid the heat; she walked a mile one morning and it was ‘feels like 80’ at 8am. That previous night there was a beautiful large orange moon and vibrant sunrise just starting at 4:30am. We had many windy days, typical of our stays here, along with a few good thunder storms; one from 2-4 am that caused enough of a power fluctuation to trip the gfci breakers on our electric box outside. We had many days with a heat index over 100. Two interesting coincidences – when we arrived in Illinois the end of June the blessing of rain came a few days later AND when we arrived in Wisconsin the end of July the blessing of rain came as well a few days later (both areas were very dry). On June 29 (IL) we headed to the camp tornado shelter with a tornado warning after supper AND on July 29 (WI) we headed to a basement in a staff building with a tornado warning from 11:30 pm-12:30 am. The first trend we don’t mind, hopefully the tornado warning trend will end!
Connie, with all the heat, didn’t do much for serving at the beginning. One morning it promised to be nice so helping John with the bench painting at the fire pit seemed like a good start, until the epoxy paint was mixed – it sets up fairly quickly and doesn’t flow like regular paint. It was a very rushed 3 hours, the last half hour almost like painting with tar, but we finished up by lunch time. After the newsletter was finished, she went to the old office and sorted through photos to make framed collages for “Self-Control,” the dining room hallways. All together 14 photo frames were filled with 2000-2011, 2012-13, and 1974-79 camp pictures. Visitors and previous campers enjoy looking at the photos when they stop by and it was fun seeing all the different camps, themes, clothing, and smiling faces.
Salty Strings Ministry provided worship music twice in July. The first for our home church was the Connie-Connie duo since John couldn’t stand up straight or walk very well from his back going out on Saturday morning. Connie headed in to church with our backup plan of finding the songs somewhere out there with internet searches; however, another Connie that sings on one of the worship teams happened to walk in and agreed to sing with our folk instruments. She practiced in the truck as Connie drove back to camp to get the instruments, then practiced during Sunday School, and the service went well.
Our second worship service was in Bushnell and that went well also, except John had some trouble focusing (the last time we were here was for his brother’s memorial service). We took the scenic route home, driving through the marsh area which was beautiful with no overflow, the first time in many years. July 30, Salty Strings traveled to Portage, WI for an outside tent concert at the Historic Indian Agency House “Enduring Skills” event (www.agencyhouse.org). We spent lots of time researching to find old hymns and music typical of 1830’s frontier days – now we have a few ‘new’ hymns after getting words and chords together. The drive and afternoon were enjoyable (except for the flies), sharing with the attendees, and seeing the exhibits (paper marbling, char cloth, butter making, flintknapping, and more). We had a private tour of the Agency House to see the piano that was brought from the east and used for hymns and gatherings. It was a bit warm but we were in the shade with a slight breeze. Our daughter drove to meet us for an early supper on our way home.
John was anxious to get started and found his service would be preparing benches, tables, and shelters for paint. The fire pit was first – they added recycled bench boards to expand the seating to ~220 for the upcoming weekend use. A volunteer group was to come and paint the tables and shelters so he spent about 2 weeks preparing the very well-built large picnic tables in each of six shelters. Everything was scraped, sanded, flipped, then more scraping and sanding. The second day when he flipped a table, he discovered a seat board that wasn’t fastened tightly; it came loose and landed on the back of his hand and wrist. That slowed things down a bit and all the seats were checked before flipping in the future. All the loose paint of the shelter buildings were also scraped and sanded for touch-up as well. The painting group cancelled so the last week he painted tables and primed the shelters, running out of time so some tables only had the tops and seats painted.
In our free time we made a trip to Champaign to have the action adjusted on John’s Taylor guitar. The drive was after a storm so there were a few areas of flattened crops, tree limbs down, and field porta potties overturned. Our bathroom ceiling fan was still leaking after this storm so John sealed it up then had to wait a few weeks for another rain before putting the trim back, no leaks now! Connie researched computer options and tackled transferring files and programs to our “recording” computer. Our office computer has been slowly dying and getting slower and slower; what a blessing to do our June “Salt Shaker” and publish it from the newer computer with only a few glitches with printers! John took a long bike ride when we arrived, Connie rode her bike getting around the camp on days she was working on photos and eating lunch at the dining hall. It was still a bit warm and muggy most evenings, so our evening walks were few.
We were able to attend our home church, Lane Christian Church, three Sundays this month, getting two “missions” updates and reconnecting with our church family here. The first thing John checked was the sound booth to see if it was finished from our remodel work last summer. It was – the carpet was down, metal step strips were in place, and the shelves were up and working fine. Our other Sunday was with family at Bushnell Christian Church where we shared some songs and attended Sunday School, the topic being worship. Amazing how God orchestrates the lessons so we were able to share various worship formats in churches we’ve attended. Music was by far the hottest topic, from styles to artists, old and new, and finding the best balance for everyone.
July could be categorized as our month of fellowship! John was able to attend a once-a-month “Area Men’s Fellowship” meal and meeting – he said the meal was good but the dessert was fantastic! (He didn’t bring any home to share either.) We visited with Connie’s Peace Meal helper and chatted with four other friends from Weldon, IL (our previous home). We enjoyed a pizza supper meal with a couple we know from Clinton and were treated to a great lunch at Boon Dock Grill with a couple from church. John went to the Coffee Hour at church on Wednesday mornings and we both went our last Wednesday to visit with some friends and say our final good-byes before traveling to Wisconsin the next day. We did an overnight stay with John’s family, had a great visit over a home-cooked supper with his Aunt, a good hotel breakfast, and had six for Sunday lunch at ‘Joe’s’ even seeing Joe again after many years. Our friend from Beloit drove to spend some time with us right as John was getting back to the scraping and sanding, they had some good conversations as they worked together, what a blessing friends are.
We packed up and traveled to East Troy, Wisconsin on July 27 – a short 4-hour trip on familiar roads. The camp here has fairly narrow sites with posts marking the drives and a narrow driveway as well. Their water and electric hookups are way in the back so we parked multiple times to avoid the posts, reach the electric hookup, and avoid the tree with our slide out. It was likely very amusing to watch, but not that funny for us in the sunshine and a high heat index!
A couple of thoughts from devotions this last month:
“When people are crabby, it’s often not about me but about them. When people are nice to me, it’s a special blessing from a loving Lord who put those nice people into the path of my life.”
“Fear is a primal instinct, it is generally negative, but it will move a person toward self-security. Love takes you out of yourself and helps you focus on others, on being of service to them.”
Thanks for traveling with us and being part of our family too!
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
~ July 27-August 24 – SOWER Project, East Troy, WI
~ August 24-31 – Carlinville, IL RV park – visit friends
~ September 1-November 24 – Our property, Jacinto, MS – house repairs/rental
~ November 24-February 2024 possibly – SOWER Project, Bonifay, FL