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.
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