Forth day photo slideshow
Day 3 Pictures and Video
Third day photo slideshow and video
Day 2 Pictures
Second day photo slideshow
Day 1 Pictures
First day Photo slideshow (updated!)
Coed Team is En Route!
Coed Team at LAX
With all 11 team members and their respective MSG (Missionary Support Group) members in attendance, the first-ever Coed team met at LAX.
Pastor Kyle prayed over, and then encouraged each of the team members, reminding them that this is not necessarily about putting up walls with hammers and nails, but a time to bless others with their efforts. Each person was encouraged to stay focused on trying to “listen” to God throughout the trip not only for opportunities to share the love of God, but also to experience it for themselves as they serve.
Men from previous and the upcoming Katrina trip were present to bless, encourage. Chris, who will be returning to Biloxi in a few weeks with the men’s group, said he was not there in an official capacity, but remembers how encouraged he was when he was sent out for his own trip. It was important to him that this team knew how much we supported their efforts.
Returning team members are Team Leader Mo (All previous trips), Steve (all previous trips), Mathias and Frank (both returning since the first Men’s trip)
Helen, Hilda, Joy and Co-Team Leader Carol will be going for the first time. Daryl, Yosh and Pastor Ron will be going to Biloxi for the first time as well.
2009 04 30-Third day of work
3rd day of work at the site.
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| 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.
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.
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…
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.
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..