2015 Spring Break - Thursday

Last work day today, and we did, you guessed it, more drywall. We really made a lot of progress this week, and got the last big bit of sheetrock hung (Will, Connor, Adam, Kyle, Luke and Westin)  and most of the first coat of mud up (John).  Laura and Taylor finished mudding the master bedroom, bath and closet (with a little help), which was a huge job; April got the dining room taped and floated, and Debbie and Julie got the corners done in the front 2 bedrooms (including the closets, one of which had weird angles between the walls and the ceiling).

Mark and Taylor were with us in spirit all week.

Luke, Connor and Kyle working on sheetrock. 

Westin shaving off excess sheetrock.

April in the dining room.

Connor and Kyle (and Luke's hand, because he wouldn't let me take another picture).

Talking with Milton, the Epworth volunteer who acted as our contractor and ran the site for us, the house is very close to being ready for the family to move in. He seemed very excited with how much we got in, and I know the family is excited to see progress. They're ready to move in and be together as a family again (they're currently spread out living amongst other family members in town).

One of the cool things April had us do today before we left was to walk through and look at how much we'd done and how God had worked through us this week. It's humbling, really. You don't necessarily think about it when you're up to your elbows in sheetrock mud, or cutting yet another piece of sheetrock, but it's really amazing to think that we could make such a difference for this family.

Left to do: a devo, communion, and the drive home. We'll be traveling in two groups again (the van carrying the counselors is leaving early, and the McCollums and Reasons will follow later).

See y'all tomorrow!

A&M UMC's team, with the homeowner and her daughter.

The entire group -- Aggies and Minutemen, plus the homeowner and her daughter.

Spring Break 2015 - Wednesday (Hump Day!)

Work day number 3, and we did more drywall -- lots of taping and floating again, plus hanging some more sheet rock (Will says it seems like every time we turn around, there's another place to hang more sheetrock; today, it was the returns in the windows).

The front of the house we've been working on.

Laura and Taylor finished mudding the master bedroom.

Will hanging sheetrock.

Julie in the closet (still).

The dining room.

Taylor and Mark came along on the trip.

Luke fixing a hole in the porch.

Corner bead.

We "only" worked a half-day today, then we got to play.

Team McCollum (minus Luke) and Team Reasons went on a swamp tour. Highlight of the tour: watching wild hogs swim to get marshmallows. None of those expected to see that when we got up this morning. :)

Gator!

Wild hog coming for a marshmallow

Everyone else (including Luke) went to New Orleans.

One more day of work, and then we're homeward bound.

-Julie M

Spring Break 2015 - Tuesday

Day two of working. Can you guess what we did?

If you say drywall, you'd be correct. :)

We did have a small group that went up into the attic and did some insulating in the morning, but they ended up doing drywall later, too - hanging it in the dining room and entryway. The rest of us were either sanding or taping and floating (Yes, still. It's a seven-bedroom house). April, Debbie, Laura, Taylor and Julie are becoming quite proficient at taping and floating corners and even garnered a compliment from Will: "That doesn't even look like an amateur did it." I'll take it. :) I've also decided that closets are evil. (Not really, they're just hard to tape and float. You have all the corners of a big room, but you're crammed into an itty-bitty space, and there's no room for anyone else to get in there and help.)

Getting ready to leave in the morning.

Tyler sanding.

Daniel in his sanding gear.

Debbie doing a corner.

An example of some of the joints we had to tape and float.

And a finished room. 

And we had a little bit of time for fun today.

Lots of beautiful old trees on Lake Pontchartrain

Luke in a tree.

Climbing down is scarier than climbing up.

Reasons family photo

Taylor and Laura, just a-swingin'

One other thing we've noticed: You can tell the Aggies and the kids from U Mass apart by our choice of collective pronouns. We say "Y'all" (of course); they say "You guys."

Tomorrow... more drywall! We're only working a half-day, though, and then we're going to spend the afternoon/evening in New Orleans.

- Julie M.

P.S. Proof that (1) I'm actually on the trip and (2) working:

Spring Break 2015 - Sunday and Monday

On Sunday, 15 March 2015, 16 members of A&M UMC, ranging in age from 8 - 47, left the comforts of home and traversed into a new and different land, to do some of God's work...

Okay, that might be a little dramatic. We did travel to Louisiana, but so far, it doesn't seem all that different. The weather this week is actually a lot like what we have in College Station - warm and muggy. But! The sun is shining, which is different from what we had last week (and, apparently different from what the folks here in Slidell had, too). I don't know about the rest of the group, but the sun is a blessing.

We traveled in 2 groups yesterday: April and the youth counselors left early, and then the McCollums and Reasons followed after (because they have the church employees who had to actually be at church all morning on Sunday). The trip was mostly uneventful (at least for the second group), if you don't count the three accidents we passed in Houston, Beaumont, and just inside the Louisiana border. We arrived in Slidell at Aldersgate UMC at around 9:30 and pretty much set up our beds and collapsed.

Aldersgate UMC is very mission-oriented. They told us this morning that they typically send at least 12-14 teams out on missions every year, and they run a full time ministry in the Epworth Project. Epworth is set up to be a full-time relief effort. They're doing hurricane relief from Katrina (yes, still), but they help families who have lost their homes in fires or have had trees fall on them, plus other stuff like helping elderly clients by building wheelchair ramps.  They pretty much have people staying here year round. Last week they had something like 60+ volunteers from 7 states; this week, there's a group from U Mass and then the contingent from A&M UMC. There will be another group next week, and the week after...

So we got up this morning, got dressed, had breakfast, and then went to an orientation meeting, where they explained Epworth's mission and gave us a bit of an idea of what we were going to do.

The answer, at least for the A&M UMC group (plus a contingent from U Mass): Drywall.  Lots and lots of drywall.  We're working on a house for a family with 11 kids (and one on the way). Their house was originally hit by Katrina, and they'd had some work done on it when a helpful family member came by with a back-hoe and tore down the back of the house, making it completely uninhabitable. Then they had a tree fall on it, and a fire... just a lot of very bad luck all around. In the end, they leveled that house and started again on a new house, which is being built on some donated land. The house is dried in, but it needs to be finished inside, which is where we come in.

Most of the sheetrock in the house has already been hung; we've got a small group working on that 

Quote of the day: "That looks more right than the last time." (Sometimes cutting the holes for vents and lights gets a little...confusing.)

And then the rest of us spent the day taping and floating:

Laura (in the master bath)

Maggie in the master bedroom.

Even the senior pastor got in on the action. :)

Westin in the living room.

April and Tyler

Debbie working on the corner (while April and Taylor supervise).

One thing I can say for sure: our skill level (or at least my skill level) improved over the day. (Another thing I can say? I think I may be sick of taping and floating by the time we leave.)

On tap for the rest of the night: A devotional and sleep. On tap for tomorrow? More drywall. :)

- Julie M.

Day Eight: We're Baaaaack!

Today was our last day. We slept in a little, ate breakfast, had one last morning devo, and said goodbye to our friends.












We drove to Belize City, had lunch, and made our way to the airport.

And had fun on the plane.










To quote Kip, God goes before you to show you the way, behind you to encourage you, beside you to befriend you, above you to watch over you, and within you always to give you peace. I think we experienced all of this this week.

What a wonderful week serving the Lord and the people of Belize! We are truly blessed.

- Julie W.