NOMADS Annual Meeting 2017

On Monday, some of us took the bus tour of the Amana Colonies. The tour centers on the villages as they existed during the communal period which ended in 1932.

First stop is the school and Heritage Museum which are part of the original communal village.

Next stop is one of the general stores, this one in the Village of Homestead.

Next stop is the bakery and the baker to the right treated us to fresh baked goodies.

We passed by the Farm which is the center of all the farming operations in the community.

Last stop is the meeting house.  Men to the right and women to the left.  This is not called a "church" because they rejected the church in Germany and came to America for freedom from "the church".

Next day we had the Love Auction to raise money to support the various projects around the country.  Here Avis demonstrates the Hula Hoop she donated so that NOMADS bidders would get the idea.

Wednesday night after dinner, we were entertained by The Browns whose home base is in Iowa (they recently performed in Manheim) and a class of NOMADS joined in with line dancing to respond to the performance.

Thursday night was the banquet followed by

the NOMADS choir performance which ended the week of meetings.

We headed east toward Chatam, Ill. but stopped in West Branch, Iowa to visit the Herbert Hoover Museum and Presidential Library.  This is his birthplace home and his father's blacksmith shop to the right.  His father died when he was 6 and his mother died when he was 11 and he was moved to relatives in Oregon but he always called West Branch home.  He and his wife are buried here.

The Quaker meeting house where his mother preached.

Seperating men from women was a really big deal in the Quaker meeting house.

The Presidential Library was very interesting and we learned much about Hoover that we had never heard before.

We have moved on down the road to the Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Chatham, Ill where 8 NOMADS rigs have gathered to work for the next 3 weeks.  Not sure what we will actually be doing yet but this is a Disaster Distribution Center so we will most likely have a lot of work for the Hurricane Relief.  We'll keep you posted.