Team 7 Wednesday Report

The New Life gang from Columbus got to clean out the family's house who has joined their congregation since relocating. This is the crew in front of the house while they were working on it.

This is what the flooded house looked like when the crew arrived.









To clean out the house, everything has to be removed down to the studs. Steve Mohr is working on the wall in this picture.








When they're done the studs are all exposed to be treated for the mold growing on them. In this house, the ceiling was crumbling from the moisture even though it hadn't flooded that high and it had to be removed too.

The "McGyver squad" then used their tyvec suits to tarp the roof of the neighbor's house. She has a FEMA trailer, but electric isn't restored to many of the houses in St. Bernard Parish. The guys got a work order in for her house to be tarped with the real thing and cleaned out.

That's a large stack by the way. The GitRDone board is now a pile as thick as 2 reems of paper by Brendan's desk. There is so much more to do than we are getting done and Gary from South Dayton voiced the same thing all of us who've come here have. "I don't want to go home when there's all this work to do. I wish I could stay here and do this full time." Amen brother and bless your servant's heart.

I worked in the new relief center today since the New Life guys who had been there had other obligations. Mike and Matt from Boston have risen as foremen of that job and are great guys to work with.
Along with Brian and Bill Neis, we spent the day cutting holes in the floor to poor deeper cement footings to support the weight of the volunteer quarters. Bill's hitting it with the jackhammer we rented. This place is a playground for guys who like tools!
Talk about kewl tools. This diamond Concrete Saw cuts rocks and throws fireworks off as a byproduct. Nifty gadget this one. Brian's weilding it here.

The South Dayton group lost Kevin who's been on their team all week demucking as he was showing his fellow churchmates the ropes. A new volunteer named Mandy and two others from New York (Westchester) joined them to clean out another house.

Plans for tomorrow is for the drywall guys plus two new Marines who showed up tonight to finish Miss Ella's drywall so Mike and Matt can do their finish carpentry thing on Friday. Most of the rest of the volunteers are working on a church in Calmette. We may also be cleaning the house of one of my fellow Chase employees.

We love you all and miss you. We're having a very good, very productive week here. Please pray for our continued strength and health as well as those here we are working to help out of the darkness. I see and feel it lifting. Becky, the church secretary, told me today that the Newsboys song Shine is the theme song of this recovery effort and as I roll the lyrics around in my head, they do fit really well. "Let them see good works in men! Let them glorify the Lord.... Shine"

Until tomorrow

John McGuire
Servants Unite!