Loose Ends, 5th Working Day

This post is one day late. Sorry. We arrived at Camp Hope late last night and left early this morning.

This whole week has been about getting families out of FEMA trailers. Here is a picture from inside one of these trailers. Could you and your family live in one for 2 years?

Yesterday Bob worked with Hanz and finished up two homes. Tom and Merle are ready to move in. They are only waiting on the city inspectors to give the OK. Bob and Hanz also finished up Doug Barber’s house. Doug lives next door to Tom and Merle. Yesterday Doug’s house was inspected by the city and failed. The water heater needed a drain pan installed under it and a gap in the wall between the car port and attic needed to be filled. Tom and Hanz fixed these items and it should pass inspection.

The whole team went to Ms. DeDeaux’s house this morning and presented her with a few gifts from the Church of the Shepherd (COS) congregation. COS gave us two hand-made walnut crosses. These crosses are beautiful. They are hand made by someone at COS and the design is very intricate. COS also gave us two crocheted schalls that were made by members of the COS prayer ministry. After the presentation to Ms. DeDeaux, we went to Ms Riad’s house and presented her with the same gifts. Ms Riad showed us exactly where the cross would be hung; right above the area with all signatures of previous workers. We are humbled the cross will be placed in this honored place. Ms Riad should be in her house before Thanksgiving.

Today, Cathy, Ed, Chris, and Terry went to Ms. Hanna's house. Cathy and Chris worked on sheet rock, cleaned windows, and scraped debris from tile floors. Terry and Ed worked on the electrical systems in this house. They were able to get about half of the electrical circuits working. Now Larry and Barbara will be able to have light in most of the rooms and they will have working electrical outlets to work from rather than a 100’ extension cord. Larry and Barbara are from South Carolina. They have adopted Ms Hanna's house and spend many months a year working on it. Here is a picture of Chris and Cathy with Larry and Barbara .

Brandy, Bob, and John finished up the backer board in Ms Riad’s house. John also worked on some of the plumbing. John finished getting the water faucet attached to that darned kitchen sink. Yeah!!!!!!!!

I traveled with Brian today. He asked me to look at an old house they are working on that has some serious siding issues. This house was twisted off its' foundation by the storm. Contractors were hired to replace the foundation and reposition the house on it. In the process the siding on the lower 20% of the home was destroyed. The house is over 150 years old. Brian and I worked out a plan to make this repair. Brian had never met Larry and Barbara at Ms Hanna’s house, so we went there to visit and see how Camp Hope could provide additional help. Fifty volunteers will be at Camp Hope in two weeks. There will be many skilled workers on this team. Brian wants to deploy some of these workers to Ms Hanna’s house and try to get it ready for inspection.

After work today we took Sam and Bonnie, our Camp Hope hosts to dinner. The Canadians went with us too. We had a great time together. We shared stories and recapped our week together. There is something special about breaking bread together. We got back to camp at 9:00 PM. Our team go together and had our devotion. We shared our stories, read about the Last Supper from the book of Matthew and shared Holy Communion together. It was very moving to hear how team member's lives have been changed by this week of service. We are a changed people. I am reminded of these word from the song we sometimes sing in worship, “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord.”. We have seen God in the faces of the families we serve and the friends we have made. WE all have a changed heart. We have been blessed.