MMDC March 2015 blog post #1

On Sunday, March 15, Jay & Karen Cutler and Susan & Carl Jacob will leave right after church for Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Chatham, Illinois (near Springfield).

Here we are last November at MMDC.

We will spend the week doing whatever tasks we are asked to do for this UMCOR site. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has 7 of these sites around the U.S., and this is the collection and distribution center for the Upper Midwest.

Those school bags, layette kits, birthing kits, health kits, Cover Them With Love quilts, and school desks that we have all been working on will be weighed in on Monday morning. (Then when those supplies are shipped around the U.S. and to other parts of the world, each load is weighed out to keep an accurate accounting of all donations.)

Two other Iowa churches from Gladbrook and Cedar Falls are also sending volunteers this week. We will stay on campus in the dorm, sharing the noon meal and going out to eat in the evenings. In addition, day volunteers will be coming from churches in Illinois and Missouri. We all work together and get to know each other as we do this mission work.

The MMDC staff will assign us tasks. The Lord loves a willing worker, so we could be building desks in the wood shop, sewing hospital gowns or school bags, sorting and counting donations, packaging boxes of health kits or school bags for shipment, preparing a newsletter for mailing, cleaning and organizing the warehouse, and more.

If we are lucky, there will be a shipment to “pray out” while we are there. Staff and volunteers gather in a circle and bless those who donated, delivered, and will receive the items after the semi is loaded. That makes us volunteers feel so good because we know we helped, and the load of supplies will help others.

You may participate in our journey by including us in your prayers. After seeing the photos and details of our activites posted here throughout the week, please consider joining us on our next trip.

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Moved and getting settled

So, we moved on October 1. Then Carl was gone from the 4th to 9th to his Non Commissioned Officer Corps reunion at Ft. Benning, GA, and I took my mom to visit my sister from the 6th to the 16th. NOW we are emptying boxes in earnest. We’ve been able to get both vehicles in the garage for a week, and the other day we really sorted the boxes and organized them together in the garage so that it will be easier to find things.

Today they finally fixed the street out in front of our condo. They dug out the gravel that filled in where the water and electrical lines came into the property. The cement is poured and the street will soon be ready to drive on.

Here's the garage--somewhat organized--with room for both vehicles.

Here is our unit on the right. Our neighbor’s guest room is tucked behind our guest room.

The address is 411 Meadow Lane.

From the garage we enter the laundry room.

Looking into the kitchen (and dining room) from the laundry room.

The left side of the kitchen shows the under-the-counter LED lights.

The living room has a gas fireplace in the corner. The master bedroom door is to the left of the fireplace.

We have LOTS of room in the master bedroom. There’s a recliner beside the bed...

...to watch TV. Through the door you can see the office area.

 Here’s the office beside the stairway to the basement.

The master bath has two sinks...

...and a walk-in shower.

Love my little shampoo niche in the walk-in shower!

The master bedroom has a walk-in closet.

 The front foyer has room for a bench. Off to the right is the guest suite separated from the foyer with a pocket door. There’s a linen closet in the hallway to the guest bathroom.

The guest bathroom has a combination tub and shower.

We moved this vintage mirror from the Riden Circle house for the guest bathroom.

 We have a covered patio off the dining room.

You’re invited over for a tour of our new home. We find it very comfortable. At present the guest bedroom and the basement (just under the kitchen and office area) are being used for storage. My goal is to find everything (and making a pile for my 3rd garage sale this year) in a month and have it all put away before Christmas.  Wish me luck!

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Final Details & Moving Day

It's been a busy week as the final touches were completed 

and we wound down on packing.

Here are the Levolor cellular blinds in Dove Gray.

The walls are "Unique Gray."

Within the last few days the sidewalk was poured from the garage, around to the back of the house by the patio. Here are the egress window well and the A.C.

Carl asked for a 4'x4' pad to have a place to put the hose reel below the faucet.

 All of the boxes were organized by room in our old garage.

We dealt with the clutter as we packed--even had to unpack some items

to keep living there.

And a little before 8 a.m. on moving day, the truck arrived.

It took all of Tuesday and half of Wednesday before the truck was on its way.

We got the furniture in yesterday, and today started on the finishing touches. 

Still too many boxes to count.

Our temporary house number.

Sunset at the "new" homestead.

Here is the interior, but it's not totally put together. Tonight I put shelf paper in the cabinets here on the right side of the kitchen

Living room furniture really fills it up.

And now the sorting begins in Four-Eleven.