The Nagles

After finishing up with helping our Arch team with the service trip in Brevard, North Carolina we traveled through South Carolina and Georgia.  We used this time for cleaning and organization of our RV.  There was also a learning curve with figuring out how to best level out the RV at the five campgrounds that we stayed during this time.  Georgia allowed us to spend some quality time with family.

Our co-pilot Sam did incredibly well and adapted quickly to life on the road.

In mid-May, almost a month after leaving Brevard, we made our way north back to North Carolina. This time around we were heading to our first official helps ministry stop in Candor, North Carolina. Here we would be assisting Tabernacle Baptist Church with technology needs and painting a mural for their nursery.

Tabernacle Baptist Church – Candor, North Carolina

Tabernacle offered us incredible flexibility as the church had a water and 50-amp hookup on the property that we were able to use. This allowed us to be able to be on site for as long as the work required. We were super thankful to have the power especially as we had some quite warm days and air conditioning was welcome to have without running our generator. Our stay in Candor ended up being our longest stay in any one location – almost 2 weeks.

We were thankful for our spot on the church property

Greg helped install a new computer that was used to display songs, scripture, and other information on the sanctuary projectors. The program used was a newer version from what the church had been using since 2015. Data from the old computer was backed up and moved over to the new system. Greg also spent time with the Pastor to go over the new updated software and making sure the upcoming services were ready to go.

Greg prepares the new computer for the upcoming Sunday service

During the second week, Greg began work on the mural for the nursery. The nursery was going to be receiving a major remodel over the next couple of months. This mural would be done on a 4×8 sheet of finished plywood so that it could be installed once the renovations are completed. Communication with the church prior to our arriving helped establish the theme and style of the mural. With this mural, the theme would be Noah’s Ark and we wanted to make sure that there would be plenty of color and animals. As nursery workers ourselves, we understand how important a distraction can be to help keep the kids in the nursery happy.

Nursery wall that the mural will be installed on after renovations

The initial idea was created from several ideas that were found online and combined in Photoshop. Once the mural idea was set, a 4k projector was used to overlay the image onto the plywood so it could be traced. For complicated images like this one, the tracing cuts down greatly on the production time and allows for more time to be spent on the painting. Overall, the mural took around 35 hours to complete.

We were so thankful for the kindness and the love of Christ the church showed towards us while we were there. They were all an incredible blessing and was such a pleasure being able to serve alongside them. In the future, we hope to be able to work with Tabernacle Baptist Church again. This first official stop was an incredible joy for us and gave us hope for what is to come in our ministry.

Joel and Charis Potter (left), Pastor Mike and Sherri Free (right)

We are incredibly thankful for God’s safety over the past 45 days. The weather was often threatening significant damage potential from hail or high winds, and we are thankful that we just saw a lot of rain. Travel was certainly the biggest challenge that we faced, and God seemed to be looking for ways to help us grow. We had high winds, impossibly narrow lane clearance, heavy Atlanta traffic, torrential rain and learning how to drive steep hills. Thankfully, we made it through, and Greg is feeling more and more comfortable behind the wheel. Our last couple of travel days have been smooth and event free. Again, we are just thankful for God’s protection and his provision all along the way.

Returning home, we will be taking all we learned from this first trip to prepare for our next journey out. We have some small issues on our RV that we want to get addressed while we are home.  Thankful that the RV performed so well and really became a home for us over the past couple of weeks.  Future modifications will help keep us safer on the road and hopefully, help keep us flexible with where we go. 

Thank you to all that prayed for us during this journey. Your prayers were certainly appreciated on those crazy days on the road or during the rough stormy days.  We look forward to being able to share more soon about our future opportunities to serve.

We always try to include local spots – especially for ice cream. And yes, Sam gets his own.