Tuesday, April 20, 2010

WOW!!





























They came from Connecticut, they came from Michigan, they came to work and they came to bless!
Monday morning orientation filled the church. Some are returnees and some are on their first mission trip in a disaster area.
Rich and his team of all high schoolers from Connecticut are divided in 3 teams. One team is working on the punch list at Mel and Billie's to prepare everything for their house blessing this Friday afternoon. They are in every room, every closet and nearly every corner touching up, fixing, patching and everything else they find to make it "spit shined" by Friday afternoon.
Another team of his is working back with Kim at her place. They are painting and doing most anything needed to get her home wrapped up also. She's getting closer and closer each passing day.
The 3rd group started a new job at Collier and Justine's house. They had quite a bit of gutting to do and did an amazing job! They met the usual "inhabitants" of roaches and termites but got the job done and cleaned up nicely to prepare for the rebuilding to begin. You can see the girls with the old cabinets lined up at the street "free for the taking." The usual plumbing "issues" are arising and the team is working through them one at a time.
Groups of teens can be an amazing blessing with their enthusiasm and energy and strong backs! This group has great leadership and thus it's quite the learning experience for each teen.
Our group from Michigan is divided between Joyce's and Lawrence and Arnesha's. You can see the windows going in at Lawrence and Arnesha's along with some major re-framing to accomodate them. Their windows were very old and odd sized so we have to make some structural changes for the new, hurricane rated ones. They are also continuing the plumbing work and making good progress.
The other part of the group is installing kitchen cabinets at Joyce's along with the demo of a shed that was in the back yard. You can see the pile of debris that came out of it -- and that wasn't all. Monty has been driving trailer loads of trash for the past 2 days and has another full day tomorrow. They are also digging the post holes for the new fence and will need to divert their digging to assisting the plumber tomorrow. With the extensive problems we will be digging up the entire line going from the house to the city hookup -- which is the width of the entire lot! I did go and get them some new spades and shovels -- "gifts" take on a whole new meaning in this type of work!
It's been a very busy couple of days and it will continue throughout the week. Thresa's house blessing is tomorrow afternoon, another team of 24 volunteers partially arrives on Thursday late afternoon with the rest ready for orientation on Friday morning to work through Saturday!
The freight train is rolling full steam ahead and we are so thankful that the teams keep coming because the work keeps coming!
Until next time . . . pray for our volunteers! Susan and Monty

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