Team 7 Friday Report

Oh, today was interesting. I have a new respect for demuckers. To think people come here (Sharon ;-) with the sole interest in cleaning out stinky, moldy, damp, disgusting houses filled with bugs, mud, frogs, cats, and other strange stuff. All the time I’ve spent here, I managed to avoid this task till today.
I can’t say how many times I nearly barfed. Full freezers that have been flooded and had no electricity for 4 months have a special kind of odor when they pop open. If you’ve been here, you have an idea.

We hit the house today with 17 people. The plan had been to split up and half the group would do a house a few blocks away, but that one fell through over legal decisions. That turned out to be part of His plan as it took all of us all day to clear out the house we did.

We removed all furniture and possessions from the house which were quickly grabbed up and dumped by the end loader working the neighborhood today.



This kept us from building another Mt. Kevin (that man flinches at nothing), but there really wasn’t room for all the stuff we pulled out if most of it hadn’t been taken away immediately.




We met Mr. Vincent Culotta who had lived on the street since his birth over 70 years ago. All his family lived on Culotta street which was first settled by his father when the Chalmette sugar cane plantations were broken up and sold. The street ends at the oil refinery on St. Bernard Avenue.
He and his wife Cybel have been collecting plants to decorate the front of their FEMA trailer in front of their house they paid to have gutted and have been treating for mold.

Fortunately for our crew they had cleaned up the bathroom and gotten it functional.





When we broke for lunch 6 of us walked the 5 blocks back to Paris Avenue to get a PoBoy at a trailer set up on the corner. Ray Gramilian came over to out table to see what we were doing and thank us for volunteering to come down to help them out. He says God is blessing his family so much in this tragedy.



This guy who’s lost two houses feels blessed that we came down, that he has a place to live (the condo of his son who just moved away), and that his best friend and neighbor who weathered the storm in their attic survived. They called him on their cell phone to tell him they could only see the point at the top of his roof. He says they told him they couldn’t have chopped their way through the roof to escape because of the coyotes and wild hogs that had perched there for high ground in the flooding.

He had such a positive attitude through the tears of telling that story. We were walking back to the house and one of the guys said, “well guess we don’t need more motivation than that!”

Our Dayton contingent headed for home today so we are all praying for their safe travels.

They drywall guys finished Miss Ella’s house today. Praises! She was so thrilled with their acceptance of Brian, her son, with his disabilities. He’s been helping them the last two days at her house. Kyle said they couldn’t have gotten the job done without him.




After a little plumbing and electrical work plus a coat of paint, they can move back into their house!








I got to talk with Janet Hines here tonight who put this whole program together. You all should know this woman. She is so energetic and so passionate about serving in this mission you can’t help but catch the bug.

As much as I have the bug, and the guys have gotten it working here this week, though we’re all ready to see our families again. We’re gassed, mostly packed, and heading out at 7:00 central tomorrow morning.

I’m amazed at how this works though. Several of this team’s members have talked about this person or that person who they’re going to ask to come down. That’s how this has to work. We have jobs and only so much time to take off to do this ministry, but we can continue to spread this movement to our church members and friends to keep help flowing in here.

Love to all our families! We’ll see you late tomorrow night!

John McGuire
Servants Unite!