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2018 Day 3-A bittersweet midpoint

Wednesday, and our last work day is Friday

The teams are settling into our assignments, and now we’re realizing we only have 1.5 days left at the homes!

Paul and Denise will be returning home Thursday Night, and Chris H, on Friday.

The week has moved by too fast. All of the teams are making great headway on their respective homes, but also building relationships too.

And as much as Ryan has been administering all three sites well, it’s still a handful. We’re very thankful that Paul, Denise and Chris H have been here to run the sites

Tonight, at our team debrief, we’re getting in the habit of showing photos from the day for each site, then commenting on what the heck they’re about.

We opened with Roz’ Devotion from Psalm 16, where “You (God) will not abandon my soul”

Okay, a summary and some photos:
Team 3 (Miss Susan’s home), 1 and then 2

Team 3 (Miss Susan’s home)

  • Removed the washer and dryer from laundry room – primed and paint
  • Miss Susan shared songs and poems she had written. The team found them incredibly articulate and moving, one titled “Chasing Rainbows” was about her neighbor’s experience during the storm. It painted strong imagery while talking about the human aspect more than the flood’s destruction.
  • Team also went to lunch at a local Po’ Boy place and learned more about Miss Susan, and she came back to the church for a mini-tour and met Pastor Tim.
  • Miss Susan has been through a lot, but not broken, and has said in recent days, “The feelings are coming out,” and “a healing has begun.” We’re hoping that she would be a joy to her neighbors.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CiYZNgvul8uKawKF2

Team 1 (Shipley’s home)

  • Bu got a guide for the screw gun, to help Pam
  • They were running a bit short on materials, it was decided that EBCSGV will cover the cost for the rest of the materials. 
  • Psalm 23:1 Ladder -Venetia helped her go up and down the ladder
  • Mr. Jeff joined closing prayer
Team 1’s Photo Gallery for today

Team 2 (Josh and Sarah’s Home)
  1. Eph 2:20 was written the last corner piece for the living room, we all signed it. 
  2. Finished the living room and the hall
  3. Had a time of prayer in the house for the family and that they would know the Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7Im56Qv5utgQX6vE2



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2018 Day 3-One Word-Art and Nate


One Word

We asked team members to try and sum up their feelings about this trip in one word…
Here are Art and Nate


Art

Art has been coming on these trips since the beginning, and he still sees the team in a certain light



Nate

Nate is a newbie for 2018, but has brought a lot of energy, hard work and encouragement to the team.

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2018 Day 2-One Word-Tommy

Tommy’s One Word

Tommy’s been coming since the beginning.
He reflects on this trip, with his “One Word” including his time at Miss Susan’s home, and how it’s full of music and hope.

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2018 Day 2 Summary

Three times the fun

Since we’re split over three sites, each evening, we’re having a debrief to stay in touch with the other teams.

Here’s a rough sketch of what’s going on:

Today we shared in this order:
Team 2, 3 and then 1

Team 2 (Chris H, Chris C, Linda, Nate, Patrick, Virginia)

Josh and Sarah’s home
Laminate flooring got started on the cutting today
Lots of progress. Laying the floor, finished floor in the Master Bedroom and closet.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6LRG5B4T591I6tt83

Team 2 Photo Album https://photos.app.goo.gl/6LRG5B4T591I6tt83

Team 3 (Denise,
Craig, Lorin, Peter, Roz, Tommy)

Miss Susan’s home
Peter and Tommy worked on the AC and fixing a couple of the toilets. 
Paint and primer in the living room and hallway
Denise, Lorin and Roz made a nice connection during their lunchtime Prayer Walk with 
Shelley, a woman they met while walking in the neighborhood. Still a lot of hurt in the neighborhood.
We continued our growing friendship with Miss Susan, and learned about her passion and history with music

Team 3 Photo Album https://photos.app.goo.gl/fHXTXWumvmswHK8fA

Team 1 (Paul, Jeff
H, Art, Bu, Jimmy, Pam, Roy, Venetia)

Shipley’s home.

Jeff’s “first day of school”
Jeff was finally feeling good enough to come and work today
Shipleys were able to join the team for lunch and we got to know them a bit better.
They’re Prepping for their daughters graduation 
Pam and Venetia got to pray for Miss Cheryl 
And the team was able to finish part of the roof

Team 1 Photo Album https://photos.app.goo.gl/jrG31bN860ytzSTN2


Thanks, so much going on! Keep us in prayer!




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2018 Day 1-Team Member Profiles Roz and Peter

Two more “One Word” videos

Roz

Roz returned after her debut last year. She’s more confident and comfortable than ever with her tools, but really exercising her ministry skills.

Peter

Peter has been on every team (just like Tommy), so far, but he’s still learning about himself, this team ministry and God.

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2018 Day 1-First Work Day

The Roster

We’re working on three houses, and this is how we’re split up

House 1-Shipleys House 2-Sarah and Josh House 3-Miss Susan
Paul Chris H Denise
Jeff H Chris C Craig
Art Linda Lorin
Bu Nate Peter
Jimmy Patrick Roz
Pam Virginia Tommy
Roy
Venetia


Ryan, the supervisor from ReachGlobal, is overseeing all three houses, but on-site, we’re having Paul, Chris H and Denise run the sites.


Here’s a brief summary of each of the houses
House 1 (The Shipleys): A family with two kids, the father being a pilot. They’ve recently left a FEMA trailer and are continuing restoring their flood damaged home. The Shipley’s damage to their home got so bad they boat had to rescue them off the roof during the flood. Interestingly have some farm animals on site, a pig and a goat.


Continuing installation of a metal roof. Interior restoration including moulding and water damage.


House 2 (Sarah and Josh): This couple also had flood damage, but 18 months after the flood, their outlets are still shorting out. We’re removing tile and prepping the floor for possible tile installation.

House 3 (Miss Susan): Miss Susan’s home also has flood damage, where we’re redoing paint, doing mildew treatment for the brick and installing some features like ceiling fans. Miss Susan has a passion for music and loves to play music from the 20’s

Challenges

>There is a challenge for the team to feel unified being spread out over 3 sites, but before we leave, we have a team breakfast/meeting/devotional, and in the evening, we’ll be debriefing so we can catch up on the practical and spiritual aspects of our work.




>Each team member wears a green ReachGlobal Tshirt (we wrote our names on the front and back) on the job site. Since we’ll be here for a week, Bu and Chris H are washing them every night. Well, our clothes dryer is having some problems, so they were up at 1230AM last night trying to address the problem.
Our clothes were hung on hangers and dried by the morning. Thanks Guys




>Man Down! Two team members, Paul and Jeff H have been hit with some sort of bug or something. Paul was able to make it to the job site today, but Jeff stayed home to recuperate . Also, Denise has been losing her voice.

Schedule

General schedule for each day is:

  • Breakfast
  • Devotional
  • Go to Job site
  • Morning prayer, possibly with homeowner
  • work our butts off
  • Break for lunch
  • Prayer walk (walk the neighborhood and pray for the area)
  • work our butts off some more
  • Closing prayer time
  • Clean up and call it a day!

Cool things along the way today

> A member of the host church volunteered to pick up our washed t-shirts. A few hours later, we had dried and folded t-shirts!

>We were really able to make some progress today. Some of the teams made more progress on the work side, others, on building relationships with our homeowners.

>Chris H and Nate were pulling into the church parking lot when a man pulled up and asked if someone could help him install a window air conditioning unit. After clearing it with Ryan, Chris H and Nate went to the man’s home and did the installation. It was a nice, much appreciated visit, and we even got a bowl of chicken gumbo!

Enjoy the Photo Album!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DcsGmJNLvGPlwW4v2

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2018 Day 0-Photo Album

Photos from today

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c4cKZMtK49KSv7ic2
As our leaders prepared us for the various sites, we plan on being flexible and seeking God for the multitude of decisions in our next few days’ work.
We will be trying to put people more important than the project, and that’s difficult because we also want to do our best, and sometimes that’s measured by building progress.
But we’re here, and as Chris C said “God doesn’t choose the equipped, He equips the chosen“
Here’s a photo album from today…

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2018 Day 0-Notes from Nate

Nate’s a newbie for 2018

Nate volunteered to write an update for today’s events, from his unique point of view.




Today was a day of new experiences. From experiencing a new church setting to a new style of eating, today was a day of learning. It was a drastic change for most of the team experiencing a church of 20 as opposed to a church of 750. 
It was a new experience and it was groovy time seeing the church body (specifically one person) share his testimony straight from his seat to the entire congregation. After a great sermon, we reconvened to fellowship and more importantly, decide where to go for lunch. It was decided that we would get some local flavor and try a local chain that specialized in seafood. The highlight of this feast (and that it was) was the unexpected amount of crawfish that was “accidently” ordered by Bu. Apparently, a “normal serving” of crawfish is 5lbs per person. This was not known. After trying his best, Bu gave in and relinquished the crawfish to Nate, who proceeding to gleefully partake in this rare treat. He finished about 4lbs of crawfish, much to everyone’s astonishment and disgust. After lunch, we parted ways as some went for a  Wal-Mart run, some went to scope out the job sites, and others went to explore Bass Pro Shops. 
After these “expeditions” we started to trickle back to the host church and fellowshipped over our new purchases (not all of these purchases were completely necessary). Dinner was another hearty fare of fried chicken, salad, and biscuits made by our wonderful kitchen team. After dinner, we were briefed by our ReachGlobal host about our jobsites for the week and what to expect, both from the properties  and the property owners. All left the briefing encouraged and anxious for the week ahead and hopeful for what God has in store for us this week.


By the way, found these photos in Google photos
3 of the 4 were from a church Harvest Festival in October 2008. Nate 10 years ago podiumed in an eating contest.. Today, he is fake eating a dead bug






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2018 More profiles of our team-Lorin and Chris H

Sorry, we thought we had posted this one on Lorin, here it is again 




It’s special this year to have Chris H Volunteering with us in Louisiana. After serving as COHFH staff and being our supervisor for our times volunteering in OKC, Chris has taken some time off his regular duties to volunteer with us for a week in Denham Springs, LA

He drove down and met us in Denham Springs, and is bunking up with us at the church.

It’s been great having Chris as a friend, but having him as a peer/leader has been incredibly resourceful as our work here has us working over three separate sites, and Chris is helping us with leadership and knowledge.