We knew by looking at our Monday schedule that it was going to be quite the day! And was it ever!
We started by welcoming our team from around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area to orientation. They arrived over the weekend and even attended Pastor Bob's church here in San Leon yesterday. It was great for the church to welcome them, to show them a video they had made of the storm and for the team to get a better feel of the community where they are working.
They are all constructing 2 decks for Garaldeen and Joe. I don't know if you remember their story but they lost their entire home and used their funding to purchase a replacement mobile home. We managed to get power and water to that trailer along with having it skirted. We knew it needed front and back accesses but needed to wait until their FEMA trailer had been removed. Today was the day to begin and this team is hard at it. They came bringing their own tool trailer and were more than prepared.
After getting that team settled we headed back for our 2nd orientation of the morning. A team of Presbytarian ministers who are on retreat decided to take one day and do a service project. We were thrilled to put them to work painting Walter's house. They told us ahead of time that they only had 3 hours to work so we figured they would get a good start on his home and we would have another team come in and finish it up! Boy were we wrong! In that 3 hours the 14 of them had the entire home painted, all 2 stories of it! Walter was thrilled to see them as he has belonged to the Presbytarian church all his life and hadn't had that many people at his home in who knows when! And to see the entire thing painted -- he'll go to sleep tonight with the smile still on his face! Thanks to all of those on this awesome team -- we hope to see you again sometime when you can spend more time! And thanks to Chester who did a fantastic job in leading them!
By mid afternoon we were in the final stages of preparing for Paul and Linda's House Blessing ceremony. The Dallas team decided to come and see what it's like to have something completed and to also stand as representatives for all those volunteers who worked on their home and couldn't be here. Paul and Linda were thrilled to pack the house and to have it specially blessed for them! It's such a great blessing for us to do so! We put together a "basket of blessings" that goes as follows; fresh flowers so the home will always know beauty, a loaf of bread so it will never know hunger, sugar to remain sweet, salt to keep it flavorful, a candle so it will never know darkness and the Bible so it can remain standing on the Word of God. It's a neat way to use practical things in a special way. We even threw in a couple of pull toys for Pinkie so she wouldn't feel left out! It's not a goodbye but a Welcome Home!
And that made for quite the busy Monday! What an amazing way to start the week.
Be sure and stay tuned as I have a feeling this entire week has some special things about to happen!
Until next time . . . be blessed. Susan and Monty
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