Work Day #4

After today, things are really starting to progress at both remaining worksites~ it is very exciting to see WALLS instead of studs, and to see the shapes of the rooms and the anticipation of what it will look like completed, even if we won't be the ones to fully complete either of these two sites.

Vans took off again this morning around 8:00 am to go to Bob's house (Don's crew) and to Torris' house (Randy's crew). We were fed a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, biscuits, and bacon. Thank you Sue, Mary, and Sharon for cooking for such a large hungry bunch!

At Bob's house, we needed to finish up with the insulation and already had begun drywalling the day before. The guys set to work on the drywall, and the kids started to finish the insulation... and ran out. There were a few other needed supplies that resulted in a trip to the Bogalusa Lumberyard (only a FEW miles down the road). At Torris' house, the drywalling was progressing well on Wednesday and so they began to tape and mud along with continuing to hang drywall. The peaked ceiling will need to be done tomorrow. More supplies were needed at this site as well, so everything was picked up and distributed throughout the day. Kathy enjoyed a tour of both sites a couple times during the day as she was the gopher and chauffeur for the supplies and some of the kids as they went from one site to the other to help out. Much was accomplished again and we hope to finish up at least the first coat of mudding at Bob's house tomorrow, and maybe some sanding too.

In addition to the work on Bob's house, we were also able to get one of his three vehicles running and drove it around the yard! He was quite enthusiastic about this.

Tomorrow we anticipate sending our crew out to both sites again to get as much done as possible before coming back, packing up, and heading home sometime in the late afternoon. The weather looks great for our return trip and we are looking forward to sharing all of our stories and experiences with you when we get back.

Work Day #3

Today was a mixed bag of results for our work groups.
We enjoyed the feeling of success upon completing another job site, along with the mixed emotions of small frustrations due to lack of equipment to do some of the work and too many people at times on the job sites. We managed to make it a very successful day in spite of this!

Some of the girls along with Mary and Gerda stayed at home base to clean things up and do laundry for the group. The girls worked hard for a few hours until we were called away to the different job sites when they were ready for us to start drywalling.

Dean Wubben's group (Andrew, Matt, and Dan Wubben) managed to complete their job site for Mr. Lester Peters and he now has a new handicapped accessible shower stall! There was also installation of some flooring done for his home in addition to the shower stall. It was great to know that there was one more job completed for WEROC this week.

The other two job sites have been dealing with electrical wiring, insulating walls and ceilings, and putting up new drywall. Randy's group is a little further ahead of Don's group... maybe there will be some competition tomorrow! At Torris Bascal's home the insulating is completed and they have drywalled some of the walls and will possibly start mudding and taping tomorrow (Thursday). Don's site had a few minor setbacks with the electrical wiring, so this is taking a bit longer than we had anticipated. Hopefully on Thursday things will be smoothed out and our work groups will see some more progress!

We were treated to a nice lasagna dinner at the First Baptist Church of Franklinton~ a very larger, older church in town. They had their fellowship room set up to serve quite a few people! Once again we were able to meet some very friendly people who took the time to talk to us and express their thanks to us for working down here. It continues to amaze us how truly appreciative they are of the work that we do, and we are so happy to be here and to be a blessing to them in this way.

It looks like we might be getting some thunderstorms later on tonight, so we'll be keeping an eye on the radar.... hoping for nothing too severe! Tomorrow should be in the 70's and very comfortable as we continue to work on these last two job sites. Thanks again for your prayers and your support!

Work Day #2

Another beautiful day in which we accomplished many tasks! The weather was sunny and 81 degrees with a really nice breeze~ those of us who worked outside painting and doing yard cleanup really appreciated that. The group of people who painted Mrs. Parker's house completed that project today at 5:00 pm. We had a very nice time of prayer with her after we finished up for the day, and took some pictures with her standing in front of the house. Several of us enjoyed taking time to talk with her each day, listening to her stories about the hurricane and the damage that was done to her home and the neighboring areas. She was just so thankful for the work that we were able to accomplish at her home.

Some of the group who painted in the morning were redirected to another work site after lunch; they did some insulation and wiring and preparing for drywall tomorrow at Mr. Torris Bascal's home. Another group did about the same thing at Mr. Bob Dillon's home. No, not THE Bob Dylan :) There were no guitars laying around anyway! Dean Wubben's smaller group is working at Mr. Lester Peters' home installing a handicapped shower stall, and this work is progressing very well too. Other than Andrew and Matt attempting to install the shower wall upside down, that is... thankfully they figured it out in time!

Tomorrow we head out for more work on the three sites that are still in progress, and hoping to get them all completed by the end of the week. Those who were painting for Mrs. Parker will be divided up amongst the other work groups to help with the drywalling and mudding and more electrical work. We are all enjoying a great time of fellowship and getting to know one another better as we work together, and listening to the kids go around and tell about the highlight of their day after supper is a real joy. You can see the love they have for people and giving of their time and talents to help someone else; they really grasp this concept well and they are living it this whole week!

Please continue to pray for safety and good progress on the work we have left to do this week. We appreciate the comments on the blog (so we know someone is reading it!) and the many who we know are praying daily for our group. God Bless!

Work Day #1

After spending an afternoon/evening out on Sunday in New Orleans and on the beach in Waveland, we crawled into bed Sunday night knowing that our wake-up rooster call from Sharon would come early the next morning! And it did, promptly at 6:30 am. Tired and sleepy people quickly jumped out of bed and got dressed, ate breakfast, and made lunches for the day. Job assignments were posted on the white board in the main meeting room and we gathered there to eat and pack coolers and load up the vans.

At 7:30 am we left Trinity Baptist to head out to our job sites. The people we will be helping all week have sought help through the WEROC agency; not all are strictly hurricane-related rehab or repairs. These are simply needy and poor people who have no where else to go for help. There was a large group going out to the home of a single, older woman that needed the exterior primed and painted, along with some yard work. When we arrived at her home, her arm was in a sling and we learned she had suffered a fall in her home a few weeks earlier and her shoulder was dislocated. Smaller groups went out to look at some plumbing work, electrical work, and to scout out a couple other possible work sites. The painting group finished one coat of primer and paint on the entire house in about 7.5 hours and will return on Tuesday to put a second coat on parts of the house, and finish up some raking and yard cleanup. All groups will be returning to the same work sites on Tuesday to continue their efforts and possibly finish up some of these projects.

We were treated to a wonderful potluck meal provided by another church group for our supper at 6:00 pm. After dinner we had a time of devotions led by Hannah Damsteegt, and we took turns sharing experiences about our day. We are also very blessed to be in a place where we are fed good meals, have hot showers, sleep in air-conditioned comfort, do our laundry on-site, and have a nice place to hang out at night to play cards or games or whatever we would like to do. We are so thankful to be here to do the work God has led us here to do, whatever it may be. Keep our group in your prayers as we work this week, and pray especially for safety and good health.

Easter Sunday~ He is Risen!

Happy Easter... praise the Lord, we serve a risen Savior!

We began the day by waking up to Randy pounding on all of the doors and shouting "Good Morning!!!!!" to all. At 6:45 am. After everyone was up and dressed and helped themselves to breakfast, then headed out to the sanctuary of Trinity Baptist Church for the 8:00 am Easter service. Our group sang the song "Amazing Love (My Chains Are Gone)" and enjoyed listening to Brooke Wolthuis, April Wubben, Angie Tiemeyer, Ashley Tiemeyer, and Ann Smit play their instruments; Pastor Stan delivered a powerful message in the true and typical Baptist manner :)

We departed Trinity Baptist Church and then piled in vans to head for Sunny Hill Baptist Church, which is smaller and more rural and this is where Joe and Sharon are serving. Our group again sang, played instruments, and Brooke Wolthuis provided the entire service music as their pianist was ill. She did great! We got back just a little while ago and will be enjoying a delicious Easter meal together very soon, consisting of ham, potatoes, and vegetables before heading out again to go to either New Orleans or Waveland beach.

April 2 and 3~ Photos

Arrival In Franklinton, LA

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!
Our group departed from EMCRC on Friday afternoon at approximately 4:30 pm and drove through the night through some very intense thunder and lightning, wind, and pouring rain to reach our final destination this morning at about 8:30 am local time. We were all very thankful to have arrived safely!

We are staying at Trinity Baptist Church here in Franklinton, and have received a very warm welcome from Pastor Stan. To see where we are staying and learn a bit about the church, click on this link: http://www.trinityfranklinton.com/ This is also the same church that the youth group stayed with two years ago, so for some of us it is great coming back to a familiar place!

We have 32 people in our group traveling with four minivans and one car. Our group includes Randy and Mary Bouman, Hannah and Josh Damsteegt, Stacie Haveman, Mary and Matt Lynema, Chris Paufler, Ann Smit, Ashley, Angie, Bruce, Sue, and Ben Tiemeyer, Andrew, Megan, Jason and Kathy Westendorp, Josh Balkema, Brooke Wolthuis, Alex, April, Leah, Jenna, Don, Dan, Gerda and Dean Wubben, Aneta Peterson and Erin VanDusen. Doug and Mary VanDerMeulen have joined us here too, coming from Arizona. As of this writing, all have arrived safely~ praise the Lord!

The organization we will be working through is called WEROC (Washington Parish Emergency Recovery On going Cadre). The parish (like a county) is located about an hour North of New Orleans. The focus is still on the repair and rebuilding of homes of the most vulnerable members of the parish. Washington Parish is a poor rural parish and, as in most of the cases WEROC has served, the common variable has been lack of income. Now, five years after the hurricane those with the means and knowledge to help themselves have done so and have returned to their normal lives, but to the elderly and/or disabled living on a fixed income and those living at or below the poverty level, the aftermath of the hurricane is not over.

We will be posting pictures later tonight and tomorrow-- thanks again for all your support, whether it has been financial or through prayer. Praying each of you have a blessed and meaninful Easter celebration. To God Be The Glory!