Your Mission Team sharing lunch on Sunday north of Dayton, Ohio. |
Farmington/South Lyon UMC Mission Trip 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Safe Back Home
The Mission Team arrived home to Farmington at about 5:45 P.M. on Sunday. Our trip back was pleasant, clear roads and nice fellowship. The Team would like to thank all of you for your gifts, thoughts, and prayers. We'll have a presentation at church to describe what we did but in summary, we served the people of our churches and Christ by serving the people in Louisiana.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Half-way Home
How many of you have been wished Happy Birthday at 5:30 A.M.? |
Bringing Pecans home seems to have become a team tradition. |
Most of the day was an un-eventful drive talking, reading, doing crossword puzzles, etc. while the country zipped by at 70 MPH. We did stop at Priester Pecans, south of Montgomery, Alabama to "sample' some pecans and bring a few home.
There's nothing better than a surprise birthday cake. |
Today was Pastor Bob's birthday. The mission team had carefully planned several events for him. It began with balloons in his truck and a banner presentation at 5:30 A.M. We then spent the day riding in the trucks. Once we got to Bowling Green, Kentucky, we checked into our motel and then headed off to the local Olive
Gardens for dinner, another team tradition. The team surprised Bob with birthday cards we'd lugged from Farmington to Slidell and back to Bowling Green for his birthday. The restaurant was kind enough to provide Bob with a complimentary birthday cake.
Tomorrow will be another early departure. It looks like we'll have good weather for our trip back to Farmington.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Day 5
Why are there smiles BEFORE
the work day begins?
|
Temperature high 60's and rain on and
off the day... there, the weather is done. Put on a second coat of
paint, cleaned windows and floors and got the second house almost
ready into move in... there, now you know what we did as far as work.
But one of the best things we did today was lunch.
With all the good food we have
why is he eating a brush?
|
The homeowners
from our first house invited us over for pizza for lunch. They told
us what it was like to live through Katrina when they got 8 feet of
water in their home to Issac where they got 4 feet of water (not the
3” someone had told us earlier.) Now that their house has been
restored they are applying for a grant to raise the house. Yes, raise
the house. The one's across the street are 13 feet off of the ground
and grants are available to help pay to raise the house above flood
stage.
Methodists at work. |
We leave early tomorrow morning. If all
goes well we'll be in Bowling Green Kentucky tomorrow night.
You may not know it but each member of
the mission team has been writing different posts for the blog.
Tonight we're all going to write this blog post. The question we are
each going to answer is “what was the most important part or parts
of the week for you?” Note: No names are listed. Can you guess who
said what?
- At least winning one game of Rummy
- To be able to serve Christ by serving the people of Louisiana
- Hearing the story of determination from the family that owned the first house
- To be able to make a difference in someones life
- Finishing up a house so that the owners can move back into it this weekend, they have been out of it since August
- Having all of the kids from Western University in London Ontario join us for grace before our morning meal
- The bread pudding
- Throwing my diet caution to the wind
- I like that the group worked together as a team
- Being tired at the end of the day but knowing that good work was done
- Fellowship, sharing the mission experience with the team
- Meeting the family from the first house
- The opportunity to help people who are obviously in need
- Unexpected blessings
- Frank's leadership
- The look of joy on the face of both women who received quilts from the Piecemakers
- A week of great Cajun food
- Helping people we were not intending to help
- Enjoying the camaraderie of your team, especially Bob and Joyce
- All of God's blessings for the beautiful week we've had down here
- Having devotion time with my church friends
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Day 4
Rustoleum does wonders! |
We had a busy but productive day at our
second house. We applied the first coat of paint to all of the
trim and interior doors and cleaned most of the
windows, while Ron Smedley painted the security bars on the front
door and windows, and exterior trim. Thunderstorms were
forecast all day, but they must have passed around us.
The gentleman who owns the home has lived in the neighborhood for most of his life, and his father still lives here. While we and other teams have worked on his home, he has been living and working four hours away.
Close quarters and little natural light. |
The
neighborhood where we worked in East New Orleans is located in a very low, flat, treeless area adjacent to Lake Pontchartrain, and is relatively poor. The houses were well-maintained, but a few had
not been touched since Hurricane Katrina. Our house is just now
being repaired from that storm, now seven and a half years ago. We learned from a neighbor that the
entire neighborhood had been under about 3 1/2 feet of water. During
Hurricane Isaac, the worst they encountered was a power
outage.
We were able to divide up the work among several rooms at a time. Because the house did not yet have electrical power, we had to run extension cords from a meter at the street to work lights in the darker rooms and closets.
After we quit for the day, all pooped out, we stopped
at frozen yogurt shop, for the second time this week. Upon our return to camp,
we learned that the owners of our first house have invited us to
lunch tomorrow.
Presentation of the Piecemakers quilt. |
We had two special treats after dinner tonight. Our cook Andrea brought her 85-year old mother, granddaughter and other family members. It became a lively and wonderful evening. the granddaughter was so excited to join us and to be our server. Andrea's mom entertained us with comments and stories. In gratitude for the great food Andrea has been preparing for us, we gave her mother a quilt the Piecemakers made. It was well received since she just recently was released from the hospital.
One happy pastor! |
In turn, Andrea prepared for us some awesome, hot bread pudding, topped with browned meringue and praline sauce. Some of our team members knew that their diets for the week were shot for sure.
We're looking forward to meeting the family of our first house tomorrow, finishing up as much as we can of our second home, and preparing to return to Farmington First on Saturday, to share more of our adventures with you.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Day 3
How many Methodists does it take??? |
What do you do when you
finish one house and it's ready to be re-occupied by its family? Of
course, what you do is start another project. While our first house
was only ten minutes from the Epworth Center where we're staying, our
second house is 20 miles away on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain
in the city of East New Orleans (pronounced Nawlins). We spent the
morning taking supplies to this new project house, taking stock of
what work needs to be done, making a list of the things we then
realized we still needed, and developing a plan. With that serious
and hard work accomplished, we spent the rest of the day exploring
the French Quarter of Nawlins.
Visiting Nawlins means two
things – food and music!
No, that's not the Magic Kingdom, it's Saint Louis Cathederal. |
Our first stop was Cafe du
Monde where we enjoyed their famous coffee and beignet (a donut kind
of thing with lots of powdered sugar – mmmm good!). Then we headed
to the old U.S. Mint building, which is now part of the Louisiana
State Museum, to hear a talented local jazz pianist play a concert
(also mmmm good!). For lunch, we went to a local favorite, the
Gumbo Shop, where we enjoyed crab cakes, po-boys, chicken and
andouille (with alligator sausage), and other goodies (again, mmmm
good!).
Tour guide Frank leads the team on it's walk. |
After listening to some
street musicians and admiring the architecture, we returned to the
Epworth Center for dinner (yes, dinner – this time crawfish
spaghetti – one more time, mmmm, good!), we found that we were
being joined by a group of 28 students from Western University
(London, Ontario) who came to Slidell to work on Habitat homes but
had to change accommodations. There's plenty of room for them here
and they will be eating their meals with the nine of us.
Now it's time to get a
good night's rest so that we can paint, paint, and paint some more
tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Day 2
Guess who found himself trapped under the counter while installing a drain line for the dishwasher? |
Hi Church, it's our second day at the
house on Slidell Road. Ron and Bob managed to hook up the dishwasher
and it works! They finished the kitchen sink drain which had a small
leak. So, once more off to the hardware store to buy more parts. No
leaks! Larry and Ron fixed the drain to the hot water heater. The
team divided into two parts. Joyce, Nancy, Ann, and Ed spent most of
the day painting including the kitchen and laundry room, all
of the baseboard trim, the living room ceiling, and the final touch
ups. While they did that Rena
became the bath tub cleanup expert. Larry and Frank focused on the
windows, inside and out, low and high. Once the painting was done
everyone helped in cleaning the floors, dusting, cleaning ceiling
flans, cleaning up plaster dust, etc.
How many Methodists does it take to replace a furnace filter? |
On the way back to the camp from the house we stopped
and asked a teenager for the nearest ice cream store and he told us
he didn't know of any! But he did know of a yogurt shop. The problem
is that traffic was bad and the only way to get to the yogurt store
was to take a short cut through a bank. Yes, we all waved at the
teller as we drove through the drive up line. The kid may not know
ice cream but the yogurt was great.
We're glad we did God's work today.
We're all tired and looking forward to having Jambalaya for dinner.
We'll probably work on a puzzle or read and then have an early night.
Tomorrow we'll start a new house. God bless all.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Day 1
Our house is a very very very nice house ... |
After a delicious breakfast made by our
cook, Andrea, we set out for Slidell Avenue where our house is
located in St. Tammany Parish within the Slidell city limits.
Fortunately, our entire team worked together today, painting
ceilings, walls, trim work, finishing three bedrooms and one of the
two baths.
The home is owned by a family who
suffered water and roof damage from both Hurricanes Katrina and
Isaac. The entire home was submerged in 3 inches of flood water.
Guess who put the tallest guy on the ladder... |
Some of the team worked on the hot water heater, moving it's location
and placing a drain tray underneath. A new kitchen sink and faucet purchased from Home Depot with our
church gift cards, was installed by Pastor Bob and Ron Smedley. Tomorrow they will see if it actually
works!!! We sure hope so since some of us spent more time at Home
Depot then inside the house today...no further comment needed!
We are happy we accomplished so much
today, and following some pain medication and a great dinner prepared
by Andrea, Cajun red beans and rice with homemade cornbread, we are
ready to rest our muscles and prepare for more adventure tomorrow!!
Good night...
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