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| From Katrina 2009 Team |
Steve, Steve, Steve…
Steve was one of the four men that has worked on the Katrina Missions for all three of our trips. His energetic and enthusiastic work ethic, combined with a sarcastic wit and a caring heart when he wonders if his words went too far, make him an integral part of our team. If you’re ever wondering who writes the funnier and sometimes oddly worded captions for the photos, it’s probably this guy.
No matter what the situation on these trips, he’s always kept on target with our goals, helping people, leaning on God for assistance and serving people with God’s help and led by His spirit.
KATRINA SHORT TERM MISSIONS OVERVIEW
Even though we are one team of 21 guys, we were split into two main groups, Keith/Chris’s Team and Craig/Tommy’s Team. And within these teams, depending upon the task, we were divided again and then reconstituted when the job was complete and re-divided and reformed for the next. It made for a quite diverse and ever changing organism.
Keith/Chris’s Team started with just a raised cinder block foundation on an otherwise empty lot. We laid a wood sill all the way around the perimeter to hold the floor joists. After the joists were nailed down, most of us were tasked with installing a plywood sub-floor, a strong but heavy material referred to as OSB (oriented strand board). On top of that, another group measured, cut, and nailed 2 by 4 or 2 by 6 wood studs that provided the framing for all the exterior and interior walls. And another group of guys laboriously sheathed the outside walls with more OSB.
Simultaneously an intrepid or idiotic gang of four, depending upon your perspective, crawled under the house across the street to staple on fiberglass insulation. For those that don’t know (like the guys above), crawl spaces are usually dark and muddy and installing insulation throws off tiny particles that are extremely irritating to the eyes and skin. I personally give kudos to these guys. Another bunch did touch up caulking and door and trim painting on this same house to make this home the nicest on the block.
Meanwhile, down the same street, Craig/Tommy’s Team raised heavy trusses on a third house to form the attic and support the roof. Then they nailed down OSB over the entire roof. This team definitely did more physical labor than the other, took more breaks, ate more food, even ordered a dozen Domino’s pizza to be delivered, and drank more Gatorade. After laying down tar paper, we shingled the entire roof. At the same time, other guys were busy nailing up a Styrofoam house wrap barrier, hanging a bunch of windows and doors, and helping build a back porch.
Literally, between our two teams, WE BUILT AN ENTIRE HOUSE.
It is amazing to me that as you construct a house you see all the myriad components and materials necessary to build it strong, durable and comfortable. All the parts are necessary and no one part is more important than the other. Christians in general are just like parts of a house. God’s house. And in particular, our Katrina team is the same way. We are all different, in sizes, in ages, in skill levels, in conditioning and in experience. But we are all part of one team under God.
We had regular daily devotions and at one of them Tommy shared that he went to Mississippi the first time to follow Dennis Cho. The second time he went to honor him, and this time, he went in memory of him. I pretty much did the same thing as Tommy and consider Dennis the cornerstone of our Katrina missions experience. Now the cornerstone is the first one set when you construct a foundation and is important because all the other stones are laid in relationship to this first stone. Plus the cornerstone determines the position of the entire building. In this same way, those that have followed Dennis on subsequent trips have seen him as the cornerstone and have referenced as their own, his leading and spirit and attitude and direction. Although Dennis is gone, his vision and legacy have grown even stronger. And that is the unique nature of a house built by God.