Day One

Well we had an absolutely amazing day today.  We were on 4 different work sites today.  A group of us worked on a mission building.  This is a building that in the future they hope to use to house groups such as ours that travel here on mission programs.  They also hope to use this building as a temporary emergency shelter to house individuals and families that have been displaced from their homes due to natural disasters.   They certainly could have used it over the past few weeks.  WE had many different things we worked on in that building.  We put up drywall, taped and mudded.  We built base cabinets for the kitchen. We trimmed out windows, built shelves and we also tore out carpet and then put down new vinyl.  We worked hard but had a great day.

On another one of our job sites we were helping a man whose home has been completely gutted and is being put back together.  We taped, mudded and sanded drywall.  We hung drywall.  We put up window and door casings as well.  WE had a great time getting to know our homeowner as well.  He is a great guy.  

Our other job sites were flood relief.  We worked at 2 homes where they basically lost everything in the floods and now their homes are being gutted, cleaned and put back together.  We saw first hand to utter devastation of water.  There is mud everywhere in the homes as well as on everything that was in the home.  Families lost all of their appliances as well as most of their personal possessions in these floods.  Our families that we helped were no different.  We helped take down solid chestnut walls in a basement that was built by the homeowners father and the only place the homeowner had ever lived.  He is in his 70s right now. He and his wife were amazing.  We not only took out all the basement walls and hauled the wood up to hopefully dry, but we also hauled up the sawdust that was between the walls that was used for insulation. We spent a lot of time bleaching and cleaning the mud on the wood floors, walls and ceilings in their laundry room so they could get their new hot water put in. We also spent a lot of time bleaching all their kitchen things that were under water during the flood. AT the other home we did basically the same type of thing.  We began removing walls  and floors and we bleached the under layment and remaining walls.  We hauled a lot of things out.  Words can not describe how difficult it has to be for these families to see all their personal possessions picked up by a back hoe and dump truck as they are hauled to the street.  It has been a very moving day for everyone. 

We all had an incredible day and are looking forward to tomorrow.