Praises – Time to rest and renew, thanks for your prayers-March 6 renters moving in, God’s timing in all things!
Prayers – Getting scaffolding (on sale?), music ministry, recording and getting songs online
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength. O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!” New Living Translation, 1 Chronicles 29:11-13
Hello to our family, friends, and followers:
We continued at Friendship Bible Church the first Sunday in February then moved to Keystone Heights Christian Church for the rest of the month, finding a smaller congregation with great interactive Sunday School, Bible-based messages, and communion every Sunday. They have a Wednesday night fellowship meal (the pastor is a retired Army chef) and message which we attended on roast beef night with a study of the 4th commandment, remember the Sabbath. We invited our fellow volunteers to attend with us for a special guest gospel music service and had three couples come along. Our Sunday church drive always included a stop for a few grocery needs at Winn Dixie as we drive by, then a restful afternoon with a nap for John. We will miss our new friends!
There were a few excursions during our week between volunteer ‘projects’ and more planned for the end of the month before traveling to our home base. The first was to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville on a beautiful partly sunny Wednesday morning. They have a 1 mile and ½ mile trail that loops through various types of vegetation. We spent over 2 hours enjoying a lazy morning, seeing our first cardinals of the year, turtles, squirrels, koi (which John had to feed), our first butterfly of the year, and a fingernail plant. We had hoped to see some hummingbirds, but not much was blooming and January’s cold weather killed the tops of some plants; it was still a great place and not busy. We had a Chinese lunch, visited a Guitar Center, and (of course) did our shopping.
The next day we travelled to St. Augustine to find parking first then the restrooms at Lightner Museum. This is a huge collection of ‘gilded age’ museum pieces (cut glass, big wheeled bicycles, furniture, and lots more) in the former Hotel Alcazar resort, finished in 1888 complete with saunas, massage parlor, and huge pool that is now a restaurant. After several hours of meandering, we stopped at the Metro Diner finding great food at reasonable prices for our late lunch. We continued down the Atlantic coast stopping at Jungle Hut Park, a public beach where we relaxed in the partly sunny 77-degree afternoon breeze and spotted dolphins, gulls, cormorants, and a pelican flying. John walked and found a few shells to bring home and Connie was able to get her kite flying and had to walk in the salty surf before leaving.
Connie saw the hawk again on the electric lines and finally saw a pair of sandhill cranes flying over our RV – they were squawking at each other in flight, sounding almost like honking geese. We were able to be an encouragement to the camp Director and office Registrar over breakfast one morning. Our laundry facilities here were great, except for the night after our project ended when all 4 washers/dryers were in use along with a window air conditioner. The breaker kept tripping, our 2 loads of laundry were started 3 times before the cycles finally completed and clothes were moved to the dryers (third time is a charm?)! We retrieved them, nice and warm, at 9:30pm far too tired to get them all folded. Warning alert – we learned when something is too good to be true online to pass it by. We tried both of our credit cards to make an order; thankfully our companies flagged the charge and denied them, but it led to one account being closed and waiting for a new account/card to be delivered. On work days we were up at 6am, weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) we managed a few times to sleep-in till after 8, and once John said ‘no thinking until noon’ when we needed to start making plans for our travel back to Mississippi!
February near Gainesville, Florida was unpredictable, just like everywhere else this year! We had highs of 52 and 82, lows of 30 and 65. There were sunny days allowing a bit of sun bathing, foggy mornings, dark clouds with wind and heavy rain, misty foggy nights, and heavy dew mornings. We found our occasional leak drips around our bathroom ceiling fan moved and are now collecting in the nearby light fixture, meaning John will have to get up on the roof with a caulk gun soon.
In February there were many volunteers and a lot was accomplished. John and others were able to complete the plumbing connections for bathrooms and kitchen (inside and under) at the old chapel addition, dig to locate the cause flooding in the hotel, repair barn door rollers, help with a cement landing pad for stairs, scrap and caulk more ceiling from the scaffold, repair picnic tables, rejuvenate three kitchen marker boards, and add solar light caps to posts. Connie and other ladies did a lot of painting – crawl space and ramp trim rails, ceiling and window trim, repainted and added an arrow to an office sign, dorm room interior doors, an assortment of outside chairs including a few rockers and gliders, and finished the girls bath house window trim. The camp was very appreciative and treated their staff and all of us volunteers to a lunch of grilled steak our last week!
February was another busy month with our music ministry. We coordinated two more music jam nights (had two flutes playing duets) with finger food once and a potluck the last time. John’s birthday included the potluck jam! We signed up for a 25-minute slot at the local music store open mic night; it was different and a lot of fun listening to other musicians as well. We led one devotion this month and had a lot of practice time. We were able to work with another couple allowing them to try guitar, auto harp, and dulcimer; he is blind and wants to learn an instrument. They had fun and will likely own a dulcimer in the future. We were very encouraged and, after some printer and ink delays, were able to make up 14 of our ‘Tis a Gift CDs to give to staff and volunteers that wanted to “take us home” with them.
We are getting older, and that includes being more accident prone along with just plain stupid stuff! We were both tired and stiff a few times this month. Two of our SOWER couples backed their trucks into a tree (no, not us and they chose different trees) causing John to get a tree bark sliver under his nail. John has used his hearing aids all month and they have really helped! He will see the audiologist with a few questions once we’re back. Connie slacked off on her morning exercises and finally got started again, it helps but it is so easy to get out of the habit. She had a few slightly dizzy spells toward the end of the month and didn’t work one day after some tunnel vision turned into a migraine headache – she needs to remember to drink lots of water! Connie woke one Sunday morning with some pain across the back of her right hand like the tendons were sore. It got worse overnight, was slightly swollen the next morning, and there was no strength. How is it that we know what to tell others what to do when they get aches and pains, then neglect to apply it to ourselves? That evening John asked if she had used ice; that worked and by the end of the next day her hand was working fine.
After almost ten years Connie now considers herself a southern girl. Although still not comfortable above mid-70’s, sadly she has to put on socks and shoes when it’s in the low-50’s! She didn’t get much done on our taxes but did finish the 33×33 baby blanket and started a modified pattern dish cloth scrubby. We had lots of February fellowship including a few camp fires, men’s and ladies Bible studies on Tuesday morning, a Valentine’s Day breakfast, a game night where Connie came in 2nd place twice, star gazing, and attending another Thursday music bingo night to use up our free appetizer coupons before we leave in March. There were three nearby SOWER couples that brought over ice cream, toured our camp, provided lots of fellowship, and Connie got 4 ant bites. John was able to practice outside quite a bit, watched the Super Bowl Game with others here at camp, washed the truck (lots of pollen here), and accompanied Connie to our camp beach for some sun rather than driving back to the coast.
It was a great two months in Florida – reuniting with some old friends and making lots of new friends; encouraging others and being encouraged. The camp has used some great materials and color palates that gave us new ideas to finish up our addition. We look forward to a visit to a teaching zoo and our drive back home in March to get our own project finished up!
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:13 New International Version
Please keep us in your prayers . . . and THANKS for traveling with us!
John and Connie Nicholas
Salty Strings Music Ministry
Contact Information:
Mail: John & Connie Nicholas
Salty Strings Music Ministry
30A Hwy 367Burnsville, MS 38833
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
- March 5-8 Traveling, Mississippi home base for a few months
- May 14-early June – Aiken, SC and Fredericksburg, VA for music and family
- Future plans include Illinois and Wisconsin; volunteer work, visits to friends and family