West Virginia Mission Trip, Day 6, August 11
Today was our last day to help the people we had
been led to by God, and of course we awoke with the break of dawn anxiously to finish
our mission. After a quick breakfast and
a group prayer we headed off to our two work sites.
We had originally thought in the planning stages
in June that we would be helping victims of last year’s bad flooding in this
area. But it turned out that the need is
so great in this area that there are many people not directly affected by the
flooding that desperately need help. On
our way through the town of Rupert to get to Joni’s house we passed many
run-down houses and businesses, with apparently nobody able or willing to fix
them up. Some may have been abandoned by
their owners after the flooding, who did not have the resources to fix what had
been damaged. But one gas station at a
street corner had a big hole in the roof, and trees growing inside the store. I compare this to my community of southwest Butler
County in Pennsylvania, where real estate is too valuable to let an abandoned
place last very long. The Post Office
that we pass seems to be the newest building in town.
So what did we do today? With
Kelly and Dave at the helm, the dry-wall muddying was for the most part
finished in the whole house. I knew
better than to attempt to duplicate their work.
As Kelly said the other day, the 1st year you are a Learner,
the 2nd one a Doer, and the 3rd year is when you may
finally Teach others how to do it. Good
words of advice from a shop teacher.
Hence sanding was still my favored level of expertise. Gary showed up to help Donna with installing
the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen, as well as put up the range hood, and
moving the stove back into place. Jean
was so helpful finding and retrieving stuff, and was willing to once again
clean up the mud pans and trowels. Shawn and Greg finally connected all the
sewer pipes together, after only one quick stop at the local hardware store,
when they realized that the last two pipes just would not line up on their own. What a sigh of relief from our whole
team. Makes putting the flooring back
down seem a breeze. Of course our only
regret is that we cannot stay longer.
For there is still much work to be done:
painting the walls and ceiling, putting in the bathroom sink, tub,
etc. And in the kitchen there still
needs to be the countertop and sink.
Hopefully Joni can find others to help her out. Our group worked through Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance and the West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps,
run by West Virginia Presbytery. The
next mission group is not expected until October.
On to Team Michelle. Pastor Bob helped to finish the roof, putting
the new valley in the metal roof further from the wall, keeping water from
splashing on the wall, which had led to some of the problems before. He also completed the framing for the new
wall, as well as erecting the new door.
Elvis was up on the roof, completing the eaves, flashing, and chimney.
And working on his suntan as well. Busy
inside were Pastor Peter, Becky, Autumn, Kyle, and Pete. They finished insulating the new wall, and the
drywalling! Michelle and daughter Tiara
cleaned the place up alongside us. Both
were quite impressed with our work, and very appreciative of everything we did
this week. As a reward for such hard
work Team Michelle treated themselves to ice cream afterwards. I think the members of Team Joni had enough
sweets at the Fair last night.
Once again let’s thank God and our Savior Jesus for
a productive and safe week. Our evening
devotions were devoted to reflections of the week, and what we brought back
from it. We had great comments about how
are lives were changed. Kelly was
gracious enough to conclude the evening with his beautiful guitar playing and
singing, including a backup chorus of Becky, Jean, Kyle, and Donna. John Denver’s “Country Roads,” about West
Virginia, was the final song. We all read a special Thank You card from Michelle,
who added that our special personalities made us one of the best groups of the
summer!
And so I look forward to another mission trip,
maybe next year.
Signing
off and God Bless, Clark.
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