Month: April 2015

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Pam and gary

Back where we worked last year with Jose

Okc 2015 day 4 Pam Gary blue board: http://youtu.be/mEVwxImO5KQ

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2015 Day 3 – 26th Street

Morning Devo by Matt

Matt spoke about taking anything that might irritate us and pray about it.. God has given us the Holy Spirit to soften our hearts towards… and do you want to choose the change of heart that God has offered us. Because you have to choose it, in big and small things.

26th Street home

Rehab site, under the same Critical Home Repair program at COHFH. It was located 5 minutes away from Leo’s, where we ate the night before…. A good sign…

We learned more about the CHR program, where the partner families have to put in sweat equity, just like any other HFH program. In this case it was from 40-60 hours, 20 of which have to be on another homeowner’s home. We also learned about the budget… “Critical Home Repair projects typically cost just $3,000 to $5,000.” The home we were working on yesterday, as well as today… Even with the free labor (us), would have to work pretty hard to stay under the budget allocated.

The home had a lot of water, rot and storm damage. The paint needed to be redone, and each problem compounded another. The rot made problems for the siding, which allowed more siding to be damaged, the surfaces below, and sometimes causing large holes to be evident in the home.

But we removed the damaged wood to be replaced with new, and we tried to salvage/reuse as much good segments we could find, which were few and far between.

As we removed much of  the siding, insects came out of the rotting wood, and it was a bit unsettling. Wasps were irritated and flew around us, including at lunch.

Today proved to be much warmer than the previous days, with many of the team changing into shorts as the day progressed.

All three newbies got to work with various power tools, including Eric’s (site supervisor) stepping away from the chop saw to make sure that Virginia got to learn how to use it.

This team is working well, and our love and support for each other is quite evident.

Several team members noted missing some familiar faces not being here, including Uncle Roy, whose work ethic could be seen in newcomer Matt and Shirley.. although unlike Roy, would eventually take lunch with us. Roy would have kept plowing through if he were here 🙂

Margie

The homeowner’s name was Margie, and she got to talk with a few members of our team, including newbies Virginia and Frank. Frank was very touched by her story of personal loss, as well as a beautiful image of Jesus that her son had made before he died. Virginia had a tearful talk, hug and prayer with her about how both had lost husbands to serious diseases, and the difficulties and realities of life after a spouse. Virginia spoke of similar feelings of questioning God due to the hardship, but offered her honest story of hope she has in God, and how we are honestly here to let her know she is not forsaken. It was really quite touching.

James

Housemate to Margie, James was born missing a forearm. He was very plain and simple about it, and his work attitude was humbling. He was chipping and stripping the siding pretty vigorously.

Chris and Eric

Our site supervisors have differing personalities, and differing roles, but they are a joy to work with. Chris wants to make sure he does good work and really focuses on taking time with the volunteers as well as making sure it is a job well done.

Eric is a strong leader, with a strong joking side as well.. they both know how to shift the balance towards care for the volunteers and homeowners while Eric’s slightly more focused on keeping the budget for materials and time.

The team spent the full day on this site, and there was some question if we would have to split the team (we’re flexible like that) tomorrow, but we got late word that we’ll likely be working together at the new build site from last year

Evening

We had a team meeting tonight, with some awesome music/worship from Matt. The room was small enough that you could really hear everyone singing.
Peter did a devotional about your identity: both how you see yourself, and how God sees you.

We ended the evening sharing about the trip so far.
Everyone feels it’s going well, and our care for each other and those we meet is real, not forced, and quite honestly, led and empowered by God.

This team is full of nice people, but as they’re trying to be led by God moment-to-moment, they really are quite selfless. It’s something that you have to experience to really understand, and it’s a really beautiful experience.

Going to bed, and as we transition from rain jackets to shorts, we hope it doesn’t get tooo hot.

Tomorrow is team dinner, with a few invited guests, like Eric and Chris, and local friends like Aron.

Good night!

Click here for Today’s Photos!
Videos:

Walkthrough 1 (when we didn’t know what we were getting into)
Walkthrough 2 (when we realized what we got into)
Walkthrough 3 (as we dealt with what we got into)
Gary’s Daily Recap Video!

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Okc 2015 day 3 house walk around 2:

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2015 Day 2 – Grand St

The day started out drizzly, but not as cold as yesterday.

Pam’s Devo

Pam shared about a new type of Bucket List, one where you don’t focus on things you want to do before you die… which are typically achievements or experiences, but this “new” version is more about finding and listing ways to bless people. It’s a much more God-centered and fulfilling (and self-centered) list.

Rehab work on Grand Blvd

 

Today would be our first work with COHFH for this year.

 Today’s work was at the block 600 SW Grand Blvd OKC, OK 73109 through Habitat’s Critical Home Repair program

 Our site lead was Chris, working under Eric and another volunteer, Jeff. Today’s task was several tasks:
  1. “The Great Door” : Tommy, Jeff, Art – reinforcing the threshold and replacing the main/great door

    Door Team
  2.  Replacing outdoor siding: Lorin, Virginia, Matt, Shirley, Denise, Pam, Jeff and Gary – a tiring, dirty job of removing composite siding, revealing asphalt siding, then replacing it with new siding
    Siding Team
  3. Drywall : Matt, Chris, Frank, Peter and Craig. Prepping ceiling drywall for bedrooms. Insulation and drywall on the back porch. And Craig/Peter’s special plywood project, covering the floor of a closet.
    Rear bedroom in need of drywall
Chris (supervisor) moved up the ranks of COHFH, including a position as Volunteer Coordinator, to site supervisor, and along the way, marrying a HFH homeowner… He was proud that he had a very energy efficient home at a low percentage loan 🙂

 The rehab work we did was rewarding and utilized our team well. Everyone was busy and either teaching, learning or figuring things out together….

Chris was enthusiastic, inclusive and focused on supporting our volunteer effort. He swapped stories and info with Paul and Denise.

Checking out alternate sites

After finishing our work, we prayed for the house, and headed for Church of the Harvest, to see if it would be a good fit for our housing in future trips. We’re happy with Hilltop Baptist, and we love the staff, but some locations are closer to our work sites, saving us an hour of commute time..

The facility is enormous, well staffed and well equipped. The dorm rooms have triple stacked bunks and sleep…. wait for it…. 42 
42 Beds!

Leo’s BBQ

After poking around Yelp, Jeff and Tommy settled on Leo’s BBQ
As we pulled up, it looked much too small to handle us, but open the door, and see all the people, it was much larger on the inside than the outside!
Side Note: on a pretty regular basis, team veterans, Tommy, Art and Peter visit a BBQ place near Tommy’s work in El Segundo. So to have them surrounded by their team members was an added bonus
As much as we don’t want to admit it, Jeff picked a good place. Some of the best BBQ to be found, especially the collard greens (with beef brisket)!
It was a great way to wrap up a great day of work.

OKC Memorial

As a repeat for team members, and a new introduction for the newbies, we went to the OKC memorial.

It’s a sad place to visit, but having the company of friends is helpful to share the experience.

OKC Memorial