Thanks Gary for putting together another great video!
What Gary said about being able to edit our videos while he’s in L.A.
“I feel so included in the team and still sleep in my comfy bed at night”
🙂
OKC 2016 Day 2-First day on site
Hope you’re able to see our photo updates on http://instagram.com/sgvbuild
we’ll try to put up a couple while we’re working.
we’ll try to put up a couple while we’re working.
Morning Devotional
Denise taught on how she likes to be a planner, but as much as she appreciates being when God has slightly different plans for her day/life, it still requires adjustment. Part of her adjustment this trip was trying to be putting herself in situations where she would share her faith more.
First day on site
It was a new build. So new, that the neighborhood wasn’t fully on the map yet.
Jose welcomed us with a big smile, and really turned up his kidding. It’s fun that he’s so comfortable with us. His family is expecting again, and it was great to work and reconnect.
If there was any day we missed Kelly, it was today.
It was unusual not having “Sarge” with us, but this year, he stayed at home. Jose, our site manager asked about him, and we missed his organizational skills and more importantly, his encouragement.
A new build, it allowed for framing. We were a little stunted because two trusses hadn’t come in yet, and we couldn’t work on the roof, and that meant soffit work. But soon, we started working on the OSB on the roof. Serafin, Jose’s assistant was fast and a good worker, boards were flying up and getting nailed in.
Each of our newbies, made it up to the roof. David, John and Patrick each had their share of air time, and felt the cold OKC wind blowing. But within minutes, they all seemed comfortable.
Christina was a fellow volunteer and had such a great attitude and energy. She gleefully admitted a lack of familiarity with things, but caught on fast.
Denise worked quite a bit with Christina, and all the women seemed to make a very busy and tight working group.
At the end of the day, we had put up a considerable amount of the OSB on the trusses, and Christina allowed the girls to pray for her.
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| Women praying with Christina |
We were pretty beat at the end of the day. Most of the team slept on the ride back to the church.
But tonight was a “free night” and Pam and Art went to visit a local relative, and Peter, Tommy, Lorin, Patrick, Paul and Denise went to visit Peter’s childhood friend, Aron.
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| Art and Pam at dinner with Pam’s Aunt |
At Ronit’s (Aron’s wife) request, Lorin and Tommy taught her how to make potstickers and an asian inspired salad. Paul and Denise ended up cooking and learning as well. In exchange, we learned and observed Kosher rules of food preparation, guided by Ronit. We learned a lot and talked about faith. The best part was, we found it was Ronit’s Birthday!
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| Lorin and Tommy cook their first Kosher meal |
The rest of the team stayed at the church, to relax and enjoy a great meal of salad and stew provided by the church.
Late that evening, we got notice from Gary that some edited videos were available via Youtube... Thanks Gary!
OKC 2016 Day 2-Video Update
Gary’s been home, but working hard at some of our videos. Thanks to his efforts, and the internet, we’re able to give you some sneak peaks at what’s been going on with our team.
We’re posting pictures on Instagram!
Sendoff sunday photos
OKC Day 1-Teamwork makes the … team work…
This is a personal note from the editor.
Originally schedule to be on this trip, Gary is staying at home, to tend to some family matters. As much as he’s pretty important to us, we can always have another team member pick up his responsibilities, but there’s only one husband/father/etc. for a family. He made the difficult and correct choice.
However.. Gary’s also a computer guy. So am I.
I’m a private computer consultant, and when I’m away on mission or other travel, need to have people cover for me when I’m gone.
Gary’s got us covered
It’s worked out that Gary’s been covering and participating with our team even from home!
We’re uploading videos that we’re shooting, and he’ll try to edit them from home.
But also, I’ve had some clients that needed someone on site today, and Gary drove out to take care of them.
His participation on the team, even from LA, is much appreciated. It helps me be at ease knowing someone’s got my back, and being a team member is even better.
Thanks guy!
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| Gary on left |
Maybe California and OKC have more in common than we thought…
We’re a week away from going to OKC
and this was the report on 60 minutes tonight…
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-oklahoma-rise-in-quakes-linked-to-man-made-causes/
Yet another link we have to the area…Earthquakes!
Oklahoma is the state with the most earthquakes, more than any other in our country!
They’re trying to figure out how/why. 60 minutes offers a certain perspective
Instagram?
Yep, we’re giving it a whirl.
Follow us!
https://www.instagram.com/sgvbuild/
Our trip to OKC will be from May 15-22, 2016
Paratus 14 50
Paratus 14:50 is a feature-length documentary on the United States Coast Guard’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The story will specifically focus on Coast Guard air rescues carried out by Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans and Coast Guard Aviation Training Center, Mobile across southern Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi in the first two weeks of the response. These men and women helped contribute to pulling more than 33.500 people from the impacted areas; the greatest single rescue in our nation’s history.
It’s on air over the next few days on PBS
Worth recording.
Very humbling
Difficult decisions for the rescuers often having to choose who would live or die.. who would be airlifted out and who would have to wait longer for potential help.
10 Years This Week
It’s been 10 years since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
10 years ago, there were buildings that stood and people that lived in Mississippi and the Gulf Coast region, that are no longer there.
As a church, we wanted to reach out and help the area. Dennis Cho was the leader of that first team, and I thank him and the rest of the SGV leadership that chose Biloxi MS as the site for our efforts. Through the years, people would often refer to us as the “Katrina” team, and sometimes mistakenly, the New Orleans Team, for we served those first seven years in Biloxi MS.
Biloxi didn’t seem to get as much press as New Orleans. But the damage there was much more sweeping and bore the brunt of the storm itself. The damage in New Orleans was often the result of failing man-made levees. We would see firsthand how the shallow waters of Biloxi’s picturesque Gulf Coast would provide little shelter from a category 5 hurricane. Homes and enormous structures were moved blocks from their foundations.
http://www.cnn.com/specials/us/hurricane-katrina
Since that time, we sent over 10 teams to the area, and then later expanded to other areas of service, including Oklahoma and New Jersey.
We started this blog so that we could document our efforts and what we learned along the way. We didn’t realize some of the side experiences would be creating life long friends, saying goodbye to others, a better understanding and affection for Mississippi, and the wedding of two Habitat staff members.
To this day, people (and even team members) call us the “Katrina” team. It’s a humbling reminder of what happened 10 years ago this week.
A dark moment for so many, allowed us to find and be part of the light to the area. We just wanted to point people towards hope and faith in God, in a difficult time.