Category: News

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2009 04 30-Third day of work

3rd day of work at the site.

Katrina 2009 04 30-3rd day of Work

Your video for the day:

Steve’s notes on Chris and Keith’s Group

The day started cloudy,cool and abit breezy, a perfect day in my book to do manual labor. After our site manager, Brad opened our time with a quote from Martin Luther King, which was quite good for a young white guy doing an impression of a deceased black guy. He shared that you don’t have to be an Einstein and understand Relativity. or the second law of thermodynamics in order to to be great. And you don’t have to be rich or famous in order to be great. To be great, all you need is to be able to serve…

Most of the guys from Chris and Keith’s group (also affectionately called Go With the Mo) went to our site which basically consists of a foundation and floor joists. We were intending to finish nailing on the OSB sub-floor, but we soon found out that the foundation on one side of the house was not straight. Kev and Donna, a part timer from the nearby air force base were nailing the blocking between the joists and were the ones that discovered the misaligned foundation. So…Ward, Roy, and Donna used these baby crowbars called cat’s paws to remove the nails that attached the joists to the sills. Meanwhile, I was touching up the three painted doors from our completed home.

Afterwards, Mo, Roy and I did piecework nailing a special vertical support consisting of a king stud and a jack stud. Very boring work but it was nice to make fun of Mo because he is so precise even when it really doesn’t matter.

Vic, one of the Americorp assistant supervisors that works with Brad had the unenviable task of crawling under our finished home (which we found out wasn’t really done) to staple fiberglass insulation under the crawl space. He asked for volunteers and three servants that took to heart MLK’s speech…Gary (who pretty much had to because he spilled a can of paint on the porch that took an hour to clean up), Keith and Rich. Chris said that these three were not “smart enough to say no.” They spent a couple of hours under the house nailing R17 on their back and when they came out they were filthy from crawling in the dirt and itchy from the fiberglass particles. I say that no good deed goes unpunished.

Let’s see, Ward was today’s jack of all trades which included cutting a bunch of lumber to length. So after we solved the alignment problem, we all pitched in and finished sheeting the sub-floor. Chris, Roy, and Duane assembled the cut lumber into one wall frame. We didn’t get to raise it…maybe tomorrow.

We ended early today to get back, shower and get to the Shed before it got crowded. Obviously, priorities are priorities.

Randy’s notes on Craig and Tommy’s Group

We were blessed with overcast skies and mostly comfortable weather on Thursday. Work moved forward on several fronts, culminating in completing installation of the roof sheeting, placing underlayment on half of the roof, sheeting the gables, finishing the rear deck, and installing nine windows. Because of an HFH meeting, work was halted slightly early, although some continued to press onward.
Later that evening, we ventured out from SUMA for dinner. The Shed is an award-winning BBQ joint – a loose assembly of corrugated tin roofed structures. We sat on picnic benches and wiped our ‘cue-covered hands with paper towels. No vegetables were served (unless you count the potato salad) – just tasty slabs of ribs, piles of pulled pork and hot links. Since The Shed is further inland, the temperatures increased as did the cholesterol counts.

We invited Jim, Greg and HFH friends from past trips to dinner and were plesaed they were able to join us. We were able to pray with Jim and Greg before they left to fly home through New Orleans. Since we slept, ate, and worked alongside them all week, we were grateful that everyone enjoyed each other’s company. We wished Jim and Greg a fond farewell along with good wishes for Greg’s upcoming SAT’s.

No day in Mississippi could be called complete without a visit to the local Walmart store, where we once again stocked up on supplies.

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Day 6 – Return to Los Angeles

We spent the night at Antioch House, which was a blessing in itself.

The home was comfortable, peaceful, enormous and a fantastic value.

We had our morning devotional and breakfast with our hosts, and took a picture outside with Stanley.

We flew back through Biloxi, Houston, and arrived at LAX.

At the Biloxi Airport, we saw people arriving for the JRCWP, and Paul was more than eager to shake hands, smile, and let them know that he had helped prepped the work they were about to do..

Met some nice people on the plane back, and Peter once again almost flew back on a different plane. This time he volunteered to be bumped, which was later found not to be necessary, but he and Kevin enjoyed his meal voucher at the Houston airport.

We arrived to find a large contingency of family and friends waiting for us at baggage claim. Some had signs, some had smiles, some had tears…

It was great to be back, and we thank all our supporters.

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Day 5 – Day Off and Debrief

In preparation for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, all volunteers were given Saturday off.

That meant we had the day free to explore New Orleans.

We had coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde, and then toured the French Quarter, having lunch/dinner.

While standing in line for lunch, we ran into the girls from U of Findlay again.

We did a little shopping, with Will telling us how much money we could save at the flea market, and we thought we lost Steve O at Margaritaville, he was actually buying an alligator head, and a special tie for his fake son…..

We returned to Pass Christian, to the Antioch House, a Christian Retreat Center. After an orientation meeting with Stanley, we talked about the NBA playoffs..

We had our debriefing meeting, scheduled to last 60 minutes, it went on for over two hours… Peter had to apologize the most, but you already knew that.

Here are the photos of the day…

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Day 4 – Done

We finished up at the beach…

We started today with doing our devotional with everyone on our work crew at the beach. It was quite an honor and great experience.

They took about half the work crew away, including the Findlay girls, to do more work in prep for the JRCWP in a few days. Meant more work, hard work, but we finished the job.

Note: Peter found out that the pebble in his shoe since day 1 was still in there all this time. Ouch. Also, he’s as red as a lobster (okay, Crawdaddy) .. another ouch. 🙁

Thanks for all your support and prayers.

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Day 3 – The News

A local TV Station came to the site today and shot some footage in preparation for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work project… Some of our team can be seen in the video, but featured in the interview is our very own Steve C. Take a a look at http://www.wlox.com/global/story.asp?s=8292504 the content of the article:

Habitat Volunteers Participate In Framing Frenzy In Biloxi
Posted: May 8, 2008 05:58 PM
Updated: May 8, 2008 06:43 PM

BILOXI (WLOX) — In the parking lot adjacent to Biloxi’s historic lighthouse, several new homes are going up at an amazing pace. And despite all the hard work, the volunteers are having fun doing it. They even have a pet name for their unusual construction zone.

“They decided since we’re in such a gorgeous location on the beach, it’ll be banging beach,” says Site Manager Vic Fasolino.

But these homes aren’t staying on “banging beach.” They are just part of the pregame show for the soon to kick off Jimmy Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity. Fasolino calls this the “framing frenzy.”

“Normally during the Jimmy Carter Work Project, we have a bunch of houses that are getting built all at one time, from beginning to finish in five days,” says Fasolino. “And that’s the five days that Carter is present. In this particular case though, we’ve decided that we’re going to build the wall sections for the next 48 Habitat houses that are going to get built in the Gulf Coast area.”

That, combined with the 60 homes to be built or renovated across the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the coming weeks punctuates for volunteer Steve Chen of California the need that still exists on the Gulf Coast. A need that he says is too often forgotten back home.

Chen says, “Most people out there, they’re like, Katrina what?”

He and his fellow church members from Evergreen Baptist in Los Angeles say this is their way to remind people what big things volunteers can do in just a little time.

“A lot of homes have been rebuilt and renovated and those are positive signs,” says Chen. “But it looks like there’s a long way to go.”

The Carter project includes more than 250 homes to be built through the end of the year across the three state region affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

by Don Culpepper

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The Girls From Findlay

One of the benefits of working with this larger crew has been meeting new friends.

One group has been Lisa, Pam, Gail and Alicia. These four girls are officers and members of their local HfH chapter at The University of Findlay.

School just let out this week. Gail graduated on Saturday, by Sunday evening they began a fourteen hour drive to Biloxi, just to volunteer together. No church sent them, no Missions Support Groups.. just to serve.

All four of them have been so encouraging and inspiring to us all. Craig mentioned that at their age, his biggest concern was probably about his car. But to see these girls so outward-focused was quite humbling.

Tommy and Peter were able to work with Gail and Alicia

Pam worked with Will, Kevin and Steve C.

Lisa worked with Craig, Chris and others on the team.

To these young ladies, actions speak louder than words. Their thoughtfulness and unselfish attitudes have touched us all and their friendship has been one of many blessings and inspirations that we have encountered on our trip so far.

As thirsty guys, we had to go buy Gatorade for ourselves, and we offered some to all the other volunteers. The girls returned the next day from Wal-Mart with some Gatorade to replace the ones they had drank, this coming from students who paid their own way to come down here… Their selflessness extends from beyond their involvement with HfH to us.

Tonight, we were treated by them to ice cream they had bought specifically to share with us. We made it a point to return from our dinner to join them, but were treated to more…. The common room walls of Yankie Stadium, have turned into a virtual walk of remembrance for various volunteer groups. The Girls from Findlay made their own mark, with their names and a drawing, but also drew one for us, using the Evergreen logo, copied from the business card we gave them.

Not only was it a nice way for us to sign the walls ourselves, but more importantly, another witness of their generosity.

Thanks Gail, Lisa, Alicia and Pam, you guys have been really too kind.

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Day 3 – Framing Frenzy Part III

Okay, so now we know why it’s called Framing Frenzy.

The JRCWP that will be happening here next week will have one of their main media centers at the beachfront location we’ve been working at.

Part of the set up will include showing how Project Home Delivery (or house-in-a-box as we call it) works.. So they’ll be taking the lumber that we’ve cut into section and assembling them together into framing sections for future homes.

So with all of our efforts, we’re helping affect about 50 or so homes.

It’s been sunny, hot and today, pretty windy. The work is hard, the blisters have grown, but the work and people are well worth it.

We begin each day with a devotional, and this morning Craig reminded us to speak in more encouraging terms, to bless those around us with wholesome thoughts and words. We’re called to be a blessing to others, whether on this trip or at home, let it be true here. We prayed for some of the new friends we’ve made.

We started the day with the entire work crew talking about why we’re here. We were the largest group, Tommy explained that we had come last year and wanted to return, we told them that we wanted to bless people in a practical way, and Vic, one of the leaders correctly guessed if this was a mission trip.

The other team members were students, friends, a couple that wanted to take a vacation that made a difference, one woman who herself was living in a trailer, drove up last week and asked if she could volunteer. She’s apparently in the process of applying for HfH, but in the meantime, just wanted to work on the projects.

We made a big push to finish up the homes that we were assigned and made incredible progress, especially with the help of each others. As the teams finished up some of their jobs, we interacted a bit more.

We’ve met a lot of good people, and it’s an honor to serve alongside them.

Here’s the day’s pics.. stories to follow..

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Day 2 – Return to the ’07 House

After dinner at The Shed, we returned to the house that the ’07 team had worked on.

We prayed for the future homeowners and the neighborhood.

We also prayed for Dennis, and hoped he could return to serve with us on a future team.

In the meantime, his hammer, DC Hammer, represented him.

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Day 2 – The Shed

Tonight’s dinner was a feast of ribs, chicken, pulled pork, sausage and everything else barbeque’d at a local hangout called the Shed. The food was delicious…if you don’t believe us, just ask Chris!

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Day 1 – Framing Frenzy

What a day it has been.

First day actually working. It was clear to us that most of our work will be in preparation for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work project (JRCWP) , which this year is being held in Biloxi. We’re preparing cut sections and framing for the crews to come out and assemble next week.

It’s exciting and the HfH staff is a bit proud, excited and a tad anxious. But we’re proud to be part of an effort to get a large number of people in their homes next week.

Many will be new builds that are assembled in the week, and also some local refurbs.

The nice part is that we returned to the Biloxi lighthouse, a site that we first visited when we arrived in town. This is where we saw the HfH staff prepping for us yesterday. Today we were the labor.

This section by the Lighthouse will be the main media center for the JRCWP next week, so all the better.

We split our team into five crews. Peter and Tommy; Craig, Paul and Steve O; Kevin, Steve C and Will; and Mo and Chris worked on their own.

This was different from last year as we weren’t all working on one house, which has its advantages and disadvantages, but it was great to be working with other volunteers and hearing their stories.

In particular, Chris was moved by working with one Habitat Client, a person putting in “Sweat Equity” time in order to receive their home.

Well, it was a long hot day, and.. here are the pictures..

And yes, Chris and Steve O wrote a lot of the captions, so enjoy.. their sense.. of humor 🙂