Tuesday report

Today most of us moved to a new project house. The owners had taken the opportunity to redesign some of their home to better suite the needs of their disabled teenage son. They installed wider doors and moved several walls since the interior had been completely stripped due to water damage. Their home had 4 feet of water inside. In the neighborhood were many FEMA trailers and all of the homes were significantly effected by high water damage and mold from hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, Rita and Ike. The home owners were living in a FEMA trailer park since a trailer would not fit on their lot, but came by to talk with us about their experiences with the storm. One home across the street had been completely demolished by the owner rather than try to repair it due to significant mold issues, even though they bought it just a few years before the most recent storm. Today we installed insulation in all the walls and started the installation in the ceiling and prepared for drywall installation.

John's team continued their work on their project house, installing wall paneling and crown molding.

Scott and Karen continued to work on projects in camp, and Kelsey is feeling much better today.

Their was a brief crisis when the hot water connection failed on one of the water heaters and some of us had to shower off with only cold water, but all were happy to wash off the sweat and fiberglass from a hard days work.


The home owner and her neighbor, who chose to demolished his home due to severe water damage.


Donna and Sandi working on insulation.


The back yard, the structures were finished just before Ike and survived the storm. They have a pool and sauna to help with their son's disabilities.


Delivering 6 pallets of drywall to be installed in the home.

Monday work teams

In-Camp Team:
Scott and Karen plumbed the hand washing sinks - which was a much harder job than you think.
Donna sorted and prepared first aid kits for all the teams to take to work sites.
Sarah cleaned up pod scraps, got bitten by a fire ant and located all the hospitals in the area (unrelated).
Theresa, Donna and Sarah cleaned and mopped out some of the unused pods.
Sandi cleaned and organized the camp kitchen
Gary, Donna and Theresa organized the wood pile. Gary also installed new locks on the job site trailers.
Tom installed mirrors on the wash stand, built a lumber rack and installed another light in camp.
Everybody helped to clean and organize camp to make it more organized for all of us to enjoy.
One extra excitement came when the lawn mover threw a rock and broke the window in the screen door of the dining tent.
Kelsey took a nap and worked on recovering from the crud.

Brent and Steve went to finish a couple small jobs at a home that needed some more flooring installed, replaced weather stripping on a door and some interior molding. Then went to help John's team.

John, Steve, Chris and Ka'Donna (newlyweds) worked on a home replacing interior paneling, base board molding, repairing some light fixture and a window replaced.

Christian, Audrey and Kurt retarped a roof in 20mph winds.

This is the home were Brent and Steve worked.

Brent installing some molding

Steve replaced several panes of glass in this antique door.



















This is the home were John, Ka'Donna & Chris worked














We taught Ka'Donna how to do the proper wife stance.

Sunday

Sunday we spent time getting ourselves settled (and warmed back up), we attended worship here at Trinity Presbyterian and then spent the day driving over to Galveston to see the town and some of the harder hit areas right along the gulf coast. We took a little ferry across Galveston Bay to get there, then looped back past Houston to get back to camp.

We made it!

Well, we're all here, except the Baileys and Karen, who plan to come on over today after spending time with local family. The weather was a bit colder than expected last night at around 40 degrees, so it was a bit chilly in the pods. The weather and mosquito forecast for the whole week looks great, and I don't think we could have asked for better. We're planning to spend today doing a little sight seeing and getting oriented, then it's off to work tomorrow.

The camp is quite nice, with plenty of pods, a shower trailer, two kitchen trailers and boardwalks all around since the ground gets quite wet any time it rains. There is no bathroom trailer, only porta-potties, but otherwise the camp couldn't be nicer. The sun was up early this morning, we had a nice breakfast and now I'm just waiting for the work to start.

I'm ready to go!

Well, everything is packed - I think. My suitcase doesn't weigh too much. I'm praying for safe travels and my ride is due in 30 minutes. The next post will be from Texas.

Mosquitoes? Thunderstorms? What will the weather bring?

Here are some helpful links to see what the weather may bring while the mission team is in Texas.

Mosquito Forecast - some helpful pest information is provided in links at the bottom of this site.
http://www.weather.com/outlook/homeandgarden/home/mosquito/forecast/77707?from=pif_locallinker_health

10-Day Weather Forecast
http://www.weather.com/outlook/homeandgarden/home/tenday/77707?from=36hr_topnav_home

Getting Ready

Well, there are still a few weeks to go, but I have to keep reminding myself that the time is coming up fast. I think I've been putting off my mental preparations until now. Sometimes it seems like it's no big deal to go and work for strangers all the way across the country, but then sometimes it is really scary and intimidating. What will camp be like? What will I have to do? Will the people I help appreciate it? Will there be too many mosquitoes? :) Then I remember that I will be doing Gods work, and that no matter what I do, what conditions are like or the kind of reception I receive, it will be good work.