Whew....we made it back to Florida....along with the other stop-n-go traffic on I-95 and I-75. But we are grateful....we had prayed for a safe and uneventful trip, and we had that....it just took an extra hour and a half! Must be all those snowbirds and Disney vacationers! I had to take a picture of the sombrero at South of the Border...I had been hearing about this place for years, but don't remember ever seeing it. Well, now I've seen it and, well, what more can you say?!

We were more than a little glad to make it back to warmer weather (a high of 84 today) - the day after Christmas was less than pleasant in VaBeach....in the 30's, rainy and winds up to 35 mph! So now we are sitting in the motorhome with the windows open, listening to the night sounds....what a way to spend a quiet evening at home!

We flew - well, not literally - up to Virginia Beach last Wednesday - 850 miles in 13 hours (including fuel and pit stops)! But it was worth it when we were able to be present at Jennifer's pinning ceremony on Thursday, the 20th. Nineteen months of non-stop classes and then clinicals led to the receipt of an associate's degree and her RN designation, praise God! All that she has left is her state boards (probably in late February), and she has already been offered a job on the floor (cardio/med-surg) where she did her externship!

Jenn and Mrs. Weir, her favorite - toughest instructor!

Jenn waving to Brandon after he called out for the whole assembly to hear - "That's my mom!"

We enjoyed having my three kids together for a few days (Jenn has gone to PA to spend Christmas with her dad and Jon has flown back to Nashville), and we look forward to spending Christmas Day with Janelle, Chris, Zach and Nathan. We were able to spend an evening with Becky, James and Cody on Saturday (thanks for dinner and the birthday cake, guys) - especially nice since it was Willie's birthday - Happy Birthday, Babe - may there be many, many, many more!

We spent Sunday afternoon helping get ready for the parsonage open house, and then were able to see quite a few of our friends from the church here and also spend some time with Ted and his friend, Dawn. We look forward to seeing more of family and friends before we head back to Tampa and our motorhome...only to get ready to move to Bonifay and Teen Challenge Ranch on Jan. 4th.

(We'll be putting some family photos from our trip on the Family Scrapbook blog in the next couple of days, so be sure to check that out!)

We wish for each of you a Christmas filled with the love that can only come from the Savior above and a day filled with the blessings He bestows!

We are certainly experiencing some of that cooler weather....down in the 30's both last night and tonight...but then it heads back up into more seasonal temperatures...just in time for us to head out to VaBeach!


Early Sunday morning the cold front moved through and we experienced some pretty rough weather. Some small limbs landed on the roof of the motorhome, but no damage, so we are grateful. Once again (as when we were on projects in Smithville, TN and Talladega, AL) a tornado touched down no further than the next county....we have certainly felt God's protection!


We spent most of the day Sunday in Lakeland, meeting up with friends (Jerry and Janet Cox) that we had met earlier this fall. Their church is First Baptist Church on the Mall...the church IS the mall! We really enjoyed the service and were impressed with their pastor, who delivered a "point-on" Biblical message. We had the opportunity to meet some of their friends and just enjoyed sharing and getting to know each other better....thanks for lunch, guys!


Earlier in the weekend, Willie and Gary Carter did some spur-of-the-moment sightseeing in St. Pete and had a great time....I've included some of the photos from their morning.

Today is another beautiful day....bet some of you are tired of reading that!! But it is, and we are enjoying it...but we are actually looking forward to a little cooler weather this weekend....YEAH!!

Last night we had a birthday/anniversary celebration here...not with cake but with four delicious homemade apple pies...all made by the men! Thought I'd share a couple of photos of our celebration, our mid-morning snack time (under the trees, no less) and our morning devotion time. It does get a little crowded in our little SOWER building, but at least we have a place to meet!

Looks like we did a pretty job on those pies!

Break under the trees - just watch out for the fire ants - I had a close call this day!

Morning devotions - at 7:30 a.m! And, yes, I'm usually more than a little awake - with the help of a couple of cups of caffeine!

This week Willie has been helping hang soffet (sp?) and painting, while I have been helping put together SOWER packets, organize supply closets and organize books in a small library. I think Willie moves on to concrete work tomorrow, which he had some practice at this summer at the Cove!

We are eagerly anticipating our trip to VaBeach next week, but before then, we head over to Lakeland on Sunday to get together and go to church with a couple we met at Breckenridge Lake Resort in Crossville, TN, earlier this fall...it's wonderful how God leads us to like-minded believers in so many instances!

Jenn - Hang in there....countless prayers are being sent heavenward on your behalf over these next several days!

HOPE CHILDREN'S HOME - Reaching out to the children who are abused, abandoned and neglected. We have been very impressed by the way this facility and organization are run....solely through donations!



Hope Children's Home not only houses and feeds the children, they also have a school here on the grounds. Speaking of feeding, how would YOU like to feed 80-100 kids plus staff three meals a day on a day-in-day-out basis? Not me, but look at PJ, the "chef", still smiling after all those meals! By the way, this has been done for 40 years...totally with donations. Not once have they had to purchase groceries....our God truly is amazing!


What an absolutely gorgeous Sunday this has been! We are rejoicing that the temperatures here are in the low 80's and not the low 30's - our sympathies to those of you who have the misfortune to be enduring colder weather!


One of our ladies had to fly home to Michigan today, due to a health issue...please remember Bev Carter and her husband Gary in your prayers.

Hope Children's Home, our "home" for the next few weeks.

Our "nest" here is a little cosier than at most projects, but it is a beautiful setting and a wonderful project. There are nine couples, an unaccompanied male, and two SOWER on Assignment couples here, with PLENTY of work for all! The men have been busy renovating a couple of cabins/residences, while the ladies have been doing everything from laundry in both the girls' and boys' dorms to painting, helping in the kitchen, sorting donated clothing and deep cleaning of office and reception areas. On Tuesday the ladies met for a time of testimony and sharing....what a blessing it was to all of us! We are so enjoying getting to know even more people who desire to serve the Lord during "retirement"!

I covet your prayers as I have been asked to consider being a part of the board of Loaves and Fishes (the non-profit that sponsored the mission trip to Ukraine last summer). I want to be sure that I follow His leading, so I ask that you pray that I will clearly see His direction and not mine!

It's almost that time again....time to change the neighborhood! We leave Friday for the long (?!!) drive over to Hope Children's Home in Tampa....should take us about an hour! Our friends, Lee and Esther, are group leaders so they will be leaving tomorrow to make sure everything is ready for the rest of our group (10 couples on this project). We look forward to another project....and are already wondering what we will be doing....don't think there will be any steam-cleaning of pews! We also don't know what the internet situation is over there yet, but hopefully will be able to update everyone at least once a week. So until then....God's blessings on you and be grateful for all He has done!

I thought you might enjoy some photos from our Thanksgiving! At Living Word Church where we helped serve dinner

We sat down to our own dinner with Lee, Esther, John, Sharon and their family.

We wish for you a blessed Thanksgiving...we give thanks for you (our friends and our family), for life, for health, for purpose, but most of all for our Lord and Savior.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

It's officially over - our project here at Word of Life, that is. It may be officially over, but we will be here until Nov. 30th, so are continuing to volunteer while we are here. Willie is assisting with some electrical (that could be dangerous!) work and some washing machine repairs (THAT he is VERY familiar with). I will be helping out in the bookstore some...this afternoon we will be cleaning and decorating for Christmas.

This morning we said "See you later" to Mal and Debbie Wall....earlier we bade "Adieu" to Doug and Eve Peters. It won't be long before others start pulling out....and we'll wave to each one as their rigs start rolling!

Thanksgiving will be spent helping out at Living Word Church for their annual dinner (setting up, serving and cleaning up)...then we will go with Lee and Esther to their friends' house for a turkey-fest. Seems like each one of our Thanksgivings are so different....we could almost write a book on the different ways we have celebrated! But we will miss being with family....so we wish a Wonderful Thanksgiving to each one of you, and know that we miss and love you! Even apart we have so much to be thankful for....our blessings are innumerable!

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the Women of Faith Conference here in Tampa, FL. Five of us - "SOWER Ladies" - were able to attend and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! The keynote speaker was none other than Max Lucado, and one of the highlights for me, personally, was to hear Nicole C. Mullins sing "Redeemer"! It brought down the house, to say the least, and of course, Sandi Patty was her usual stellar self. We laughed, we cried, we sang, we prayed, we praised and we were uplifted and encouraged. One of the really neat things was the church group that we went with (Living Word) also provided lunch for us on Saturday, and a couple of the SOWER men put it together and brought it down to us. Not only did they bring it to us, the Tampa police allowed them to set up in a little park across from The Forum! A blessed weekend, all in all.

A personal note - Jennifer finished her last regular clinical rotation (psych) and has less than 40 days until her pinning....way to go, Jenn!!

I've gotten behind in updating everyone, so I'll try to do several here in the next couple of days...barring any unforeseen circumstances, that is! At least we are through with the removal of the old and installation of the new refrigerator....and, yes, it did make our finances go "ouch", but God helped us to get a good price with delivery in four days. Willie and the guys here were able to get everything done in about an hour! Talk about COLD...and, boy, is it ever nice!

We have finished our second week of work here.....I think I am finally through with cleaning pews....hopefully I'll be in the greenhouse this week. Willie is still working on making and hanging doors...will probably continue on that project this next week. Just a couple of photos of some of the wildlife around here.......these sand cranes seem to be permanent residents here....are frequently seen near the entrance. This walking stick is reported to be poisonous....I didn't stick around long enough to find out, tho'! Still haven't seen any of the resident alligators....maybe this week!

Last night we went to a free family movie night at one of the churches in the area...and if you have never seen "Facing the Giants", we highly recommend it. It was an awesome story with a wonderful message...definitely worth watching!

Today is absolutely gorgeous....a perfect day to be on the Gulf Coast of Florida! We feel like we are parked in the "high rent district", but we are thoroughly enjoying our little nest here.

Both the sunrises and sunsets have been pretty and we look forward to seeing more of the area. Willie has gone metal detecting at Hudson Beach....tho' he says it is more rocks than sand, so a little hard to go digging around in, but he did come home with a handful of coins.

We have finished our first week of work here and are enjoying a couple of days off before picking up our saws, hammers and steam cleaners again on Monday. The students from the New York campus that are a part of the big Christmas musical will be arriving next week - I understand that there are about 150 students that are involved in the musical, so this place should be hopping.

Have a wonderful weekend, and a blessed Lord's day!

We started working today....Willie spent the day demo'ing, and then rebuilding doors, while I spent my working hours steam-cleaning pews....UGH! Actually, it's not bad, just a little hard on the back and shoulders...guess I'll have some biceps to brag on when our three weeks of work are done. Yes, I'll be doing pews the whole time we are here.....there are LOTS of 'em! But we are here to do whatever needs to be done, and since that is what needs to be done....that's what I'll do!

We are enjoying getting to know the folks we are working with here....feel like we are already making new friends.

Pray for us as our tentative plans for January and February are kinda' out the window, so to speak. We are waiting to see what the Lord reveals.

We are now in Hudson, FL at Word of Life Conference Center and Bible Institute....and just about settled in. There are eight SOWERs couples here....as always a wide variety of ages and experiences....always something to learn from everyone. This Word of Life Campus has been in existence since the '90s and has over 100 students in residence, training for a variety of Christian service opportunities. There is an RV park for volunteers - some who come and stay for months at a time to support the students in numerous ways. We are looking forward to doing whatever work is put before us and also to enjoying some of the locales around here (Willie is looking forward to metal detecting on some of the nearby beaches).

Several of you are very heavy on my heart today....know that you are in our thoughts and prayers....

UPDATE! Last night when we were reviewing our recent postings, we (Willie and/or I) noticed that we had forgotten to 1)include a photo of the infamous toilet bowl races, 2) mention our early morning wake-up call, and 3) share with you the after effects of eating Blue Bell "Super Hero" ice cream! So here goes.... These racers ARE motorized and can really scoot, even doing wheelies!

Our wake-up call came at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning....the warning siren about 100 feet outside our rig went off...first with the traditional "WOOH, WOOOH, WOOOOH" that went on for what seemed like forever. Then we heard "PLEASE EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS A TORNADO WARNING. TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY....DO NOT DELAY." That will definitely wake you up....with an adrenaline rush, to boot! So we were obedient and left our rigs to go to the designated shelter. After about fifteen minutes it was all clear, so we returned to our rigs none the worse for wear....unless you count elevated blood pressure! We were blessed to have no damage in our immediate area, but the tornado did touch down about ten miles from Shocco Springs and did some minor damage. As for the after effects of "Super Hero" ice cream....Willie had been warned that his tongue would turn blue. It did. Along with his teeth, his gums, and his lips. All short-lived, thank goodness. What they didn't warn him about was the AFTER after effects.....like the next morning....also bright blue!!! Need I say more?!!!

On that note, have a wonderful and blessed day!

On Monday Willie had the chance to go to the Motorsports Hall of Fame - he seemed to enjoy meeting and talking with the research librarian most, tho' he did enjoy meeting "Red" Farmer, a race car driver who is a member of the Hall of Fame. He also liked several special cars, including this one driven AND wrecked

by Michael Waltrip, who walked away!

Of course, he had to get a picture of the hood of this car - wonder why?

Wednesday we left Shocco Springs, headed for Word of Life Youth Camp and Conference Center in Hudson, FL. We caravaned (can you call two rigs a caravan?) with Lee and Esther Smith and spent the first night at Teen Challenge Boys Ranch in Bonifay, FL, where Gary and Stephanie Conrad who worked with us at the Shocco Springs project are now working. The next morning we headed out....with the rear end of Smith's rig a constant in our sights! We parted ways when we reached the Hudson area, looking for overnight parking. We ended up in this WalMart parking lot, where we witnessed our own version of "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha' gonna' do" when we pulled in....someone had robbed a woman inside WalMart and their undercover guys had chased him down and held him until the cops arrived. The rest of the night was a little tamer, but we were glad to see dawn arrive!

We are now set up at Word of Life, and will find out tomorrow what we will be doing while we are here.

We continue to remember each one of you in prayer as God brings you to mind.

Saturday was field trip day! We took the roundabout way (does Willie know any other way when it comes to field trips?), and had loads of beautiful scenery to look at during the drive. We made it up to highest point in Alabama - Cheaha Mountain State Park. What a gorgeous little park! The climb up to the top of the lookout tower was not very taxing (NOT a very tall tower), but the view was beautiful. What we enjoyed even more was eating our lunch on the pool deck for the hotel that overlooks the valley....I think we might learn to relax after all?!!! We will definitely have to make plans to eat at the restaurant there next time we are in this area (maybe in March). As we were leaving the park we started talking to a gentleman who was getting ready to do some mountain biking. Turns out he used to manage the Picadilly cafeteria at Greenbrier Mall and now owns his own restaurant/catering business in Oxford, AL! As it turns out, he is also next door neighbors with a Nazarene pastor....talk about a small world! As we were making our way back to Shocco Springs, we spotted the "Hopeful Baptist Church" - now, granted, it is located in an area called Hopeful, but it got me to thinking.....about how thankful I am that I'm not just hopeful, I am certain where my salvation lies!

'Til next time....

Our project here at Shocco Springs Conference Center has concluded, (tho' we will be parked here for a few more days), but not before a lot of work was accomplished (seven hotel rooms remodeled, four decks torn down and rebuilt, lots of painting, LOADS of laundry, office work, housekeeping, etc.). We also found time to partake in some fun activities....like a match play putt-putt tournament, a tour of the Blind Institute, a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory (with delicious samples), a pizza party and last, but definitely not least, toilet bowl racing! Yup....you read it right! It was a riot to see all of us "more mature" folks racing around the gym floor and it really got chaotic when we added "flag football" to the mix!

While we were here, we also had the chance to spend a weekend with our friends Dot and Arky Beal (met while working in Gulfport, MS after Katrina) over in West Point, MS. We took in a Sorghum Festival and spent lots of time playing games, chatting, relaxing and just enjoying being together. I think when we left, they are going to miss Miss Daisy more than they will miss us!

It will be nice to have a few days to just relax and get some things done. I'm going to be doing one of my periodic "cullings" of all the stuff we carry with us....just seem to keep accumulating it, until we have no room left! My scrapbooking is also getting some time and attention, and Willie may even get some more work done on his wooden tugbook model (about two feet long).

Alabama is our new "home" for the next several weeks....Talladega, to be exact! (Guess where Willie hopes to be next weekend? If he can't get a free ticket, he's going to try and work at the track for some $$$ to put in our Fuel Fund.)

We are at Shocco Springs Camp and Conference Center....what a beautiful place dedicated to providing opportunities for spiritual renewal and enrichment. There are six couples with our group, one of which we have worked with before.....not exactly sure what we will be doing, but should find out during our meeting this evening. I've heard rumors that the guys will be remodeling one of the staff houses....Willie thought they ought to document it "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition" style! What a ham!!!! Will let you know more in the days ahead.

We left VaBeach on Sept. 12th, headed for Shenandoah Crossing outside of Charlottesville, VA for a few days. While we were there we were able to visit with Amber, make a couple of trips to the park with one or both of the girls, and we were also able to see where her Habitat for Humanity house will be (foundation has been poured). We also spent time "chillin' out" and I enjoyed feeding some of horses....one in particular was a greedy fella'! As we were departing, the peacocks decided to take stroll across the road, so we had to wait for them to mosey along before we could leave the park!

We are now at Breckenridge RV Resort outside of Crossville, TN after a LONG drive on Monday. It is a small park, but very nice and we plan to return here in the future! Willie has really enjoyed sitting around the communal campfire at night, and we have met some wonderful people....some new to RVing and some who have been at it quite a bit longer than we have! We have have also made contact with a Christian couple and hope to see them again when we get down to our projects in Florida. It's so wonderful how God puts His people in our path again and again....sometimes just for a brief encounter, but sometimes so that we have opportunities now and in the future to minister to each other.

Tomorrow we leave for Lebanon (it will take us almost as long to get to the interstate, as it will to get from there to Lebanon - yes, we are out in the boonies). It will be good to spend time with family there, but we have certainly enjoyed our three days here.....haven't even left the campground!

Winter in Virginia? Not what we had in mind, but the weather has been kind to us so far....and we'll take it! Thanksgiving was a wonderful time of sharing as all of the Shearer sibs, spouses and kids were able to spend a holiday together for the first time since Jon underwent chemo over seven years ago. Our timed self-portrait didn't turn out too bad, did it?

We have to give God praise - earlier this month, during a visit to the doctor, she felt something she wasn't too crazy about....but, then again, neither was I (Sandy) when she told me! They set me up for an ultrasound the following week. In the meantime, we were praying that God would take care of the issue. HE DID! The ultrasound was perfectly normal, and was felt the previous week was no longer there....isn't that a wonderful God thing?!

We are at a temporary location for the next couple of months....after that we will have to see where God leads. It seems that when we try to plan too far ahead, He always changes our plans, almost as if to say, "You foolish one....I know what the future holds....why do you even try to guess what I am going to do?"