Holy cow was it hot today! Despite the heat and
being Monday we got a lot done. The morning started out with plenty of coffee
and excitement of what the day would hold for us. Once we got out to the
sites and started moving around in the 96+ heat and humidity you quickly felt a
drain on the system though. Rich and Richard had the plans for both houses and
we quickly set about to get our task going. We had people sanding sheetrock,
mudding sheetrock, priming trim and cutting and hanging sheetrock in various
parts of both houses. Everybody was in good spirits even in the heat. One of our
youth, Davis, took to working in sheetrock like a pro. Our other 3 youth,
Peyton, Katy and Kaelyn, enjoyed priming the trim boards outside.
It wasn't long before the granddaughter of the
home owner came by to see us. Her name is Melanie. We asked her about what
damage was to the house. She explained that parts of 3 trees fell on the house
opening in up to the elements. Unfortunately the house sat that way for several
months before a roof was put on the house. The entire insides of the home had to
be gutted. All of the possessions that could be salvaged are now in two pods
waiting to be moved back into the house. Our hope is that we can get most of the
rooms completed to a point that we can unload the pods before we leave.
In the other home, like I said earlier, it's a
little more complicated. That home also had roof damage and sat open for several
months. The owner of the house was so overwhelmed by the disaster that she had a
breakdown and could not deal with it. From what we have been told she basically
closed the house up with her 5 dogs inside. While she did come by and feed them
she didn't clean up after them. When she finally got some help on the house you
can imagine how the house smelled. On top of that when earlier teams came in the
clean up she would go out to the dumpster and bring the items back in. In this
house we are also hanging sheetrock, taping, mudding and sanding along with
painting the walls and putting down sub-flooring in the kitchen.
We worked on both houses until around 3:30. By
then we were dragging. Thank you to all that donated water and Gatorade! We have
gone through a lot already. We cleaned up, packed up and locked up the two
houses and headed back to Henryville UMC. Tonight's dinner was a special treat.
Rich had cooked his special barbeque pork and Colleen had made us a chocolate
éclair cake. Thanks to both of them for this meal.
When we arrived back showers and getting into
some air conditioning was primary. Everybody was exhausted. One of the youth
commented that if Mondays are normally our slow day then what was the rest
of the week going to be like?
During dinner we had a surprise guest. A lady
named Mildred whom we had met back in March with Wesley came by. She is 92,
still drives her car and volunteers twice a week at the courthouse. She had
brought us some cantaloupes, strawberries, grapes and candy. She also had a
handwritten card for the team. She was grateful that we were down at her church
helping the folks in her community. She has no idea how much she is serving us.
It never ceases to amaze me at where the face
a Jesus will show up.
Everyone has gone to bed earlier tonight. Even
the youth are wondering how they will feel in the morning. What ever the day
holds for us we go forward with the confidence that God will be there with us.
Thank you all for your prayers and responses to the Facebook pictures. We heard
some good news from home today in that it has finally rained in Farmville! We
continue to lift up you all back home. Oh and the attached picture is our first
team photo. The head bands are courtesy of Janet Stoner.
Rich is the one who came up with the subject
line of this email. When we got back into our rooms he laid down on his air
mattress and said very sincerely "Thank you Jesus for air conditioning and air
mattresses". Amen!
Peace to all,
Jeff
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