Mike and Ruth Allford were of retirement age and liked camping.
They also had an interest in mission work, having traveled on past work trips with their church, Shirley-Wilkinson Community United Methodist Church.
So when Ruth Allford read in a church newsletter about a ministry for retirees to take mission trips in their RVs, it seemed like a good fit.
NOMADS (Nomads On a Mission Active in Divine Service) is a United Methodist mission outreach in which teams of retirees in RVs meet up at a common site, such as a church camp, a children’s home or another ministry. There, they spend about three weeks offering volunteer labor to check items off the organizations’ to-do lists.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
“A lot of these places have maybe one maintenance person — maybe,” said Ruth Allford. “They just don’t have the help that it takes to maintain a camp …
“Whatever is needed, we just go in to serve.”
Later this summer, they plan to visit a church camp in northern Indiana and help it get ready for winter. Since they started working on NOMADS projects in 2009, the Allfords have traveled to multiple states to work on a variety of projects.
On one trip they might paint interior cottage walls or refinish headboards at a United Methodist children’s home. On another they might help build office space for a ministry that trains missionaries in sustainable farming methods — methods to help them and those they serve on the field grow food, even in less than optimum conditions. On still another trip they might help a homeowner rebuild a house after a natural disaster.
On one trip, Mike Westrich, another local NOMAD, built a chicken coop for a camp’s nature experience.
In June, he and his wife, Linda, helped clean at Pine Lake United Methodist Camp in Westfield, Wisconsin. Their team devotions were outside, and amid COVID-19 distancing they turned outward from their circle when they sang, but they sought to help the camp catch up after previous work trips for this year were canceled amid the pandemic. The group installed stairs on a slope leading down to a lakeside worship space with benches.
The Westriches attend church with the Allfords, who helped influence them to join NOMADS.
“Sometimes retirement can be a little bit boring,” Linda Westrich said. “It’s something that gives us a purpose. That’s kind of what NOMADS is, it’s retirement with a purpose.”
A coordinator with the United Methodist Church puts out the call for workers for each trip, noting how many RVs are needed and what types of work group members might expect. Trips span various seasons of the year, with winter trips being based in warmer states such as Florida. As the weather warms up in spring and summer, the NOMADS venture into northern states such as Wisconsin.
Volunteers can sign up for a trip or two or string several together. A few of the NOMADS have sold their homes and travel full time.
Working on trips over the years often means meeting up with some of the same people at work sites. As they gather for daily devotions and work together to aid ministries, friendships are born.
“Everybody’s got the same heart and the same purpose,” Ruth Allford said. “I think we’ve made some lifelong friends. When you’re that close for three weeks … there’s just a bond that comes real easy.”
“They’ve become almost like family,” adds Mike Allford.
The Allfords keep a binder with photos and information from each of the work trips where they’ve served. One of the favorites was a trip to a children’s home, where among other tasks the team stripped a floor in the large dining room.
Before the team left, the children made a poster and signed it with their first names.
“It makes the emotions run deep that they appreciated that work,” Ruth Allford said.
“I guess that’s why we do it … to try to make a difference in our little way.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the NOMADS” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
NOMADS (Nomads On a Mission Active in Divine Service) is a group of retirement-age people who like to travel in RVs and shared their Christian faith through acts of service at church camps, children’s homes and other sites. Volunteers do not have to be members of the United Methodist Church. Find out more at www.nomadsumc.org or 866-4-NOMADS.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
