The teams from GA and TX went out today on a mission! The GA team was split in three ways, I took one of them to a home on the water where the home was damaged to the point that the owner is looking at a long rebuild. His yard was covered with not only his things but the path of the storm brought in most of his neighbor's things as well. We focused on the twisted cyclone fence and removing a washing machine that was wedged in a hole near his house. The plan was to send an additional team to clean up the rest of the yard next week but as it turned out one of the projects was completed early so the entire GA Team went back to the property in the afternoon and blessed the owner and included most of the neighbor's yard as well. this couple both work for UTMB and it was announced that 3500 jobs at this medical complex will be losing their jobs due to the damage that occurred to the complex. Most of the people who work there have also lost their homes. Imagine that!
The other homes that GA helped with went very well. They were able to finish gutting out the apartment that they worked on yesterday and help a grandmother pull up some carpet, some insulation, some wet walls. Miss Susan had been given full custody of her 14 and 9 year old grandchildren. They have been helping her gut out the house but it just got to be very overwhelming she simply needed to be blessed with helping hands.
The 5 people form TX and 3 others from another GA team went to Miss Ninfa's home to find out that nearly everything needed to come out of her home. The water level was 7 feet in her 5th generation family home. The pile on the street was already incredible but the team kept adding more. Within an hour one of the contracted removal teams drove up and began loading it up in their trash trucks. This hose has so many drawers still filled with water, the appliances needed to come out and if you have ever done removal of a refrigerator that has not been opened for weeks without the electricity running to it and it was full of food... look out! It gets duck taped shut so there is not a chance for it to open but the stench is still unbearable even for the strongest of stomachs. Many people have lost lunch over this. The walls in this home were painted over drywall, the next layer was wallpaper over another layer of drywall and not it's down to a layer of tongue and groove and who knows... on Monday we may find another layer of drywall before we get to the insulation and finally the studs. This was just one room but time ran out for the day.
Even with all of that going on each and every member of all the teams were moved in such a way that they were brought to tears. What a great God we serve!
The three men from GA pulled out at about 3:00 to get to their flight. As dinner was being prepared I needed to pick up a couple people from the airport, friends from my home church. it is always good to see home church people!!!! The rest of the home church team who were driving had reached Arkansas by this time so they expected to arrive at about 2a.m. The other GA teams' plan was to leave at about 4a.m. so needless to say I was in for a busy night. CTR Team from home made it in at about 3:15a.m. so with the GA team leaving within an hour... I have been up since. It is now about 5:30 so it's time to start the day. Sunday mornings, there are no cooking staff so I will be getting breakfast prepared for 8:00.
I know that I will be blessed with another great day so I am giving praise to God for all that has happened and will happen.
The 3 Men
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