Today we divided into 2 groups one back to the church to finish up and the other to Regina’s house – following are accounts from each of the teams.
When we arrived at the church we saw that there was a lot of work still to do. But we grabbed our brushes and dug in. By the time the second coat of paint was applied, it really looked GOOD!!!
During the day, Pastor Jeff related the story of how the church was used for relief. In fact he said most of the damage done to the church was not done by the storm, but by relief workers breaking down the door so as to use the church for medical purposes. In fact, Belle Chase Community UMC was the only hospital facility in the whole parish (county). They treated 60 to 80 people per day and there were 15 people sleeping there for a while—a huge number considering the small quarters.
While we worked, several people stopped by. One couple to bring us fresh fruit—straight off the tree, to give us moral support and to volunteer to make us gumbo. One man named, Calvin (we never did get his last name) stopped by to help. He said he was from Alabama and was looking for work as a construction contractor. But be said he was a church-going man and stopped to help. He worked all afternoon using skills we really needed. He worked with Mike to install baseboard and corner round. We ended up inviting him and his wife to share our gumbo on Wednesday.
While they were doing that, the rest of us finished the painting, clean-up and scrubbing. Then we put the tables back and set out the brand new green chairs. By the time 5:00 came we had accomplished our mission—to help Pastor Jeff WOW!!!!! his congregation and offer them encouragement. All in all, a job well done!!
Our group was sent to the house of a middle-aged woman named Regina, and she needed to have her kitchen floor completely removed and re-tiled. She also needed her gutters worked on. This was certainly an interesting job because when you are tearing things out, you don’t know what to expect underneath.
When we got to the house we immediately started to rip up the two layers of linoleum and particleboards covering the asbestos tile in the kitchen with pry bars and hammers. We pray that through the grace of God, none of us will be adversely affected and develop cancer someday. We assure our audience back home that we took all of the necessary precautions with medical facemasks and works gloves.
We had about four people ripping up the boards at a time while others removed debris and swept. We were instructed to leave the tile, so we sprayed Clorox bleach to kill the mold and disinfect everything before we concealed and contained the asbestos with sheets of Durarock. Many of us had the opportunity to learn how to use a handsaw as we cut the stuff to fit the floor.
After the sheets were screwed in. Some of cleaned out the gutters that were still in tact, while the rest of us helped lay tile in an adjacent room. Once these two projects were accomplished, we started measuring, mapping, and spacing the tile in the kitchen with chalk string that didn’t work very well, but we were pleased with the work we were able to accomplish as we began gluing the tiles with goop that resembled Plaster of Paris.
Two members of our group, Adam and Wally, had their work cut for them as they removed the boards that made up the eves of the house and assessed the damage underneath caused by a leaky roof. They determined that they were going to need new wood, and a lot of paint to do a quality job to meet not only the homeowners standards, but their own. Therefore, they had commute to the local Home Depot and get the supplies they needed.
Neither of our two subgroups finished their projects, so they are anticipating finishing the kitchen floor and roof tomorrow with smaller groups.
