Evergreen SGV Relief team Sgvserve.org
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.
We’re about to eat dinner, but wanted to give you some pics from today..
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 🙂
We met at 10p at LAX and were sent off by many well wishers.
The support is remarkable, and speaks volumes of those that we represent.
We proudly represent our church, our friends and our family.
While meeting, Pastor Kyle prayed for us, then our Leader/Captain Craig spoke encouraging words for us, praying for the families we would be leaving behind to work in Biloxi. He prayed for them to know they would be left in God’s hands, and that we left to serve in part to honor our friends and family.
It was a long flight, as mentioned before, the 1 hour layover in Houston wasn’t bad, but we spent 2.5 hours on the tarmack, where most of us fell asleep.
Thanks to those who saw us off..
We’re in the airport in Houston, with our one hour layover to Gulfport. Steve O wants to make sure his photos and comments get uploaded..Here are his first few shots, including one from the plane..
Click on the photo to see all his pictures.
We’ve been eating a ton of food from the sendoff. Peter’s MSG brought an entire duffel bag of munchies, and we started eating it minutes after we got inside the terminal.
The sendoff was much appreciated and set the tone right for the trip. We prayed for our families and friends and focused on what we needed to do.
Thanks guys
Finished 2007 Home
Dennis, our leader for the project, received an email from Bracky, our foreman for the project. What a difference a few months make. It’s nice to know it’s complete. We have no idea who worked on it after us, but with all the volunteers making their respective efforts, we all were able to make a home. It’s just one, but it’ll matter to the ones that live there. We hope they’ll have a home of blessing, love and hope. We hope that no matter where their lives lead, that they’ll know that many people, including a team from a church in Southern California, wanted the best for them. They should know that they will not be forsaken by God or even their fellow men. God bless you guys.
We came as a church. Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization.
I know that there’s been a lot of interest and questions regarding the work we were doing, and between doing the actual building and keeping you informed, it did seem to get a little wrapped up in the task at hand. Besides, we’re guys.
But other things were going on as well. We grew as men, and men of God.
Prayer Walk
Today was our last day on the site on Prince George Street. We’ll miss the house, working together, and working on this house, but mostly we’ll miss the people we met, and we wonder about the home that will one day fill the house.
We took our last moments on site to pray.
We prayed for the future tenants, the local area, for Habitat, for Bracky, Diane, David and all the others seen and unseen. We prayed for peace within families, especially the family that will call this their home. We prayed for God’s protection over all these things and prayed for a blessing on the home. We prayed most of all that they know that we came because we wanted them to know that Jesus loves them.
Each one of the ten guys sat or stood in a room and prayed whatever he felt. It was good. It was moving. Many of us cried. It was humbling. I’m glad that I belong to a church that believes in prayer and has guys that are used to praying, especially publicly. We walked around and prayed for the neighborhood, especially because Habitat owns the lots to the left and right of this one, as well as several others in the area.
We pray that the right families get the homes, and we pray that they know that God loved them enough to send 10 guys with not a lot in common to build a home for them.
It was humbling to be part of a greater plan, to be a small part of a small team that was a small section of the life of this house. God could have done anything with anyone, but He chose this method and these people: Habitat, volunteers, us, to bring this home together for no other purpose than to let them know that God is so loving and powerful that He could orchestrate so much for a family that is in need.
God loves people regardless of what they can give Him. He just loves them.
So we prayed. And we became better men because of it, and because of this trip.
We’ll tell you some things over the next few weeks about why this was a significant thing for us to do, and for the particular timing. And Oh My Gosh I’m glad that we’ll have some time to catch up and post things without having to go to sleep and get up and start hammering by 6 am.
But we wanted you to know that we pray for you out there that are part of this experience.
Katrina Prayer Walk Day 5
Thanks so much for the encouraging blog comments, emails and phone calls we’ve been getting. We miss you and will be flying back tomorrow, but now to the pictures and the house:
Just to let you know the technical aspects of trusses (that we all learned too well): They are connected to this home at two points, each side of the house. They are kept in by some hurricane brackets, but initially are positioned with four toed-in nails to a side. The peak of the trusses are kept the same distance apart by a 2×4 that is nailed near the top.
The spacing of these trusses is crucial (we learned all too well) because the plywood that will rest on it needs to be properly nailed in at regular intervals. Well due to our work and re-work, we got the trusses set appropriately apart, but somewhere along the line they fell out of true. This required a little extra help/coaxing
After the trusses were set, (and lunch)
It was Rob’s Anniversary, and he was spending it with us …
.. we went to work on putting up the rest of the plywood on the roof.
At the same time, the rest of the team was putting together, or rather, taking apart a doorway that, like the window, was the wrong size. This time though, we had to tear the doorway apart and widen it..
After a hard day of work, we took photos and went to dinner. We left a signed reminder for the homeowners.
The Shed was amazing. We said our goodbyes to Dave, exchanged contact info and wished him well. He’s a good guy doing a good thing and we’ll be praying for him and his family.
We hope you enjoy the photos of our workday and our dinner
Construction Day 5
Katrina Dinner Day 5
And of course, you have to watch Art reveal his meal..
Our 2nd to last day in Gautier.
We woke up to thunder and lightning, and were briefed about our work. If it’s inclement weather, Habitat will often take workers to homes that need interior work done. That makes sense.
Today, we were told just to ride out the storm. It would pass in a few hours. We arrived to our work site 2 hours later than normal, and then proceeded to spend over an hour emptying it of water.
We had to hold off on the roof because of wet conditions, and also we had to fix the trusses. They have to sit directly on the outer walls, and some were bumping into the interior walls. We had to cut notches in them to let them float.
Windows Windows Windows
We got to put in some windows. Two windows were ordered too small for the opening that was made for them. We had to adjust the window openings
The front door, wrapping the home in moisture barrier, some paneling for the roof and the front gable were all highlights of the day.
I (Peter) also got to run to BP (local gas station) to pick up an Oyster Po’Boy and a bunch of fried chicken to spice up our sandwich lunches. I got to spend some time talking with Dave, our project manager and getting to know him better. He’s a good guy that loves his kids. Likes things simple and knows what’s important. His family lost a lot during the flood. It was good to build our friendship.
Hope you enjoy the slide show
Actually, we’re still on site, wrapping up, but wanted to post this thank you before we wrap up for the day.
So we’ll take you back.. three days..
We wanted to thank all our families and friends, both who could come out to the airport to see us off, or to wish us well in our meetings before we left.
Each team member has an Missionary Support Group to give us support and help us feel connected to our church and family during the prep for the trip.
At the airport, some of them were able to come out and pray for us before we left. Because of the time and distance, we know it was hard and told many to stay at home. We appreciate all.
Some pictures from the sendoff
We flew out of Ontario, CA at 11:15pm, went through Atlanta (where we saw the sun rise) and arrived in Gulfport in time for breakfast.
We tried to sleep in the plane, but got most of our sleep during our two hour layover in ATL.
Pictures from the airport
While on the flight to Gulfport, I (Peter), had the most interesting conversation with a resident of Biloxi. Heard a rather interesting and exciting and heartbreaking story about his experience of Katrina. I hope to have time later to share it with you later. Really put some perspective on the extent of the damage, both in property and how it shattered lives, and how his family has kept it together.
When we arrived into Gulfport, we had breakfast at Waffle House, made a run to Walmart to get our supplies and sleeping bags, and saw some of the cities (Gulfport and Biloxi), both damaged and recovering.
Checking out the local area
We arrived at Yankie Stadium, home of the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity’s effort in the local area.
It was different than I personally expected, but incredibly well furnished with showers and bathrooms. We’re in a room with about 10-12 bunk beds, sharing with some other volunteers.
Orientation happened that evening and we met the other teams. Supposedly there are just under 100 volunteers working this week. Some for the week, and some young adults working for several months.
Pictures of our arrival to the stadium/orientation
What’s interesting is that on the side of the bleachers/stadium is the high water mark for Katrina’s flooding. Art and I looked around and realized that all around us, this whole place was under 5-6′ of water. The only thing that would have been visible, if it wasn’t floating away, would have been the bleachers.