N = We are nomads and NOMADS

Oakley, KS

We left St. John this morning and headed Oakley in the High Plains area of northwest Kansas.   In keeping with yesterday's topic of movies, I've been looking again for Clint Eastwood - The High Plains Drifter.   We are settled here for the next week.

Today's blog from A to Z is N:

We are nomads and NOMADS.   The small case nomads means we travel from place to place.   We left our home in NJ in February 2010 and have been nomadic since.    This suits us just fine.   Our first year took us as far west as Texas and south to Georgia and back up to NJ.

Our second year we got as far west as Yuma, AZ, and north to Rhode Island with lots of places in between.

This year we have been as far south as Mobile, AL, Louisiana and Texas.   We are headed north to Wyoming then east to the Buffalo, NY area and again back to NJ.

Next year?   We don't know.  We are nomads.


We are also NOMADS with all capitals.   NOMADS stands for NOMADS on a Mission Active in Divine Service.    But some say it means Nutty Old Methodist's Avoiding Deep Snow.    Check out NOMADS on  www.nomadsumc.org.    

NOMADS are a mission of the United Methodist Church.  They were founded in October 1988 by a few people who live or travel in their RV's and assisted at some agencies in Texas and Oklahoma.   It grew from there.   Last year NOMADS worked 156 projects in 30 states.   There were 1,150 NOMADS who worked a total of 110,800 hours at a labor value of over 2.37 million dollars.  

NOMADS volunteer their labor and we pay our own expenses.    We work at various agencies related to the United Methodist church such as retreat centers, children homes, colleges, campgrounds and churches. One does not have to be a United Methodist to be a NOMAD.   Projects are 3 weeks in length with a four day workweek.

We choose the projects for where we want to volunteer.   Leonard and I have worked in Jacksonville TX, Vienna Ga, Hayesville NC, N Scituate RI, Gore OK, Fayette MO, Austin TX, Moss Point MS, and Tucson AZ.     We are on the way to Nebraska for a project and then in August to Wyoming for another one.

We are truly nomads who are NOMADS.     We continue to meet the nicest people.    And feel a satisfaction that we are helping in some small way.

Did you do volunteer work either before or post retirement?