NOMADS Rally - first few days.

Marion,  NC

Welcome Center at Lake Junaluska

Monday was tour day.  We decided on a tour of Lake Junaluska which is a Methodist Conference and Retreat Center about an hour and fifteen minute drive from the Rally site.  Lake Junaluska center is about 97 years old.  It, along with the Hinton Center, are owned by the Southeast Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church.  

There are multiple homes on the compound, some privately owned and lived in, others are rental properties. There is also a hotel, cottages, golf course, meeting facility for up to 2,000 people and, of course, the lake.

As you walk inside the welcome center, on the wall are these decommissioned pipes from pipe organs.  They are wrapped with bits of fabric that came from the shawls worn by Methodist ministers.

Mission chapel

There were rose bushes and flower gardens are over the place.  Can anyone tell me the name of this flower?

It grows on a vine and was climbing stone walls.



This facility hosts an extensive museum related to the United Methodist Church.  There were books once owned by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, original manuscripts of songs written by his brother Charles.   You can hardly open a hymnal without finding songs Charles wrote.

Trunk used by Francis Asbury.  He was an itinerant preacher who came from England to US and never went back.

Leonard standing at a portable pulpit used by John Wesley in the late 18th century in England.

Monday nights entertainment was a take-off of the old TV program Hee Haw performed by NOMADS members.

Tuesday morning was spent in singalongs and meetings.   Then came time for the silent auction and later a live auction.   Bids flew as a major part of the funding for NOMADS is through its members.

This "PITA approve" flyswatter sold for $100.  It has a hole in it so the fly will not get hurt!

This Quilt sold for $600.

This Man and Dog statute sold this year for $320.  It is a tradition that whoever buys it returns it the next year to be sold again.

This homemade Dulcimer brought $825.

Len started the bidding on this handmade doll house at $200.   We finally dropped out of the bidding at $550.  It sold for $625.  Sorry, Charlotte Pop Pop tried.   You will have to be happy with the dollhouse we gave you last month!

One couple issued a challenge for members to donate $20 a year for each year they were married.   Quite a few took the challenge including one couple who are married 52 years!   

The money that is raised goes into a fund to assist agencies that can not afford materials, etc for projects we work on.  NOMADS pay their own way and work for free but agencies must provide RV sites and supplies.  Sometimes they have a difficult time doing so.  Last year NOMADS awarded over $75,000 to those agencies that had a need but not enough funding.