2010 Mission Team - Day 1
The people at the St. Bernard Project thought the “Finish Strong” on the back of our team t-shirts was great!
Here we are after orientation. Do we look anxious to get to work?
This is inside the “shed” at St. Bernard Project, where the training was held.
Another picture of the training.
Aaron and Sam, working on their flooring.
Tibby and Jim, working on THEIR flooring . . . it’s a race!
Keith . . . doing whatever Keith does!
Have you ever tried to lay tile with no light in a small space? Go Tim!
The is the font of the Barlow’s home.
This is Mr. Mendoza’s house that was dedicated today.
On the left is Zach, the co-founder of the St. Bernard Project; Mr. Mendoza is on the right.
We began our Mission Trip experience today with the “standard” orientation meeting. Since this was the first year that the St. John’s Mission Teams have worked with the “St. Bernard Project,” (SBP) this was somewhat new to us. We gathered in the shed, connected to the backside of the modest St. Bernard Project headquarters. There were several other Mission Teams present — most of which came from New England! There was a group from the YMCA in Cape Ann, MA — a group from three small churches on Cape Cod — a large team of 44 people from a church which is south of Boston — and us. There was also a team of people from Church of the Brethren congregations across the country.
The orientation was conducted by Sister Judy and Lindsey (an Americorp volunteer), from the staff of the SBP. They did an excellent job of setting the background for our work. Sister Judy related how “family” was so important to the people of Louisiana, and “family” was how one received one’s support. Well when family wasn’t able to help family, they were in crisis. She also spoke about details of the storm (i.e. Hurricane Katrina), and how its effects were felt across the area. Imagine having whole counties under water at the same time. Lindsey helped us celebrate the fact the SBP had completed 275 homes since its inception — 100 of which were completed in 2009. They hope to complete 125 more homes this year — and grow each year thereafter. At the moment they are working on 50 homes! But, we found out later in the day, from Zack Rosenburg, one of the founders of SBP, that in St. Bernard Parish there are still 1000 households living in FEMA trailers (remember hearing about those homes — discovered to be unsafe to live in?!?!) — and there are 4000 other households living in cars, or borrowed rooms, or someone’s attic, etc. They predict that the work will continue for another 10-15 years.
After the orientation our Mission Team was split into two work teams — The Mehle Street home in Arabi, and the Barlow Family home about four miles away, in Violet. The Mehle Street home is a home that the SBP will continue to own, and rent out to a family. Because of the shortage of reasonably priced housing, there is a great need for affordable rentals. This home will become one of those — and the rent will enable the SBP to continue its work. It is a three bedroom/two bathroom home. It is directly behind a home that our team work on two years ago — the home of Erving Carr! We haven’t connected with him yet, but plan to do so soon. I’ll fill you in on the Barlow family in an upcoming day’s blog.
The work at both homes is pretty similar: installing flooring, painting, finish work, etc. At the Barlow family home Cheri Nixon is painting; Tim Strate installed peal ‘n stick flooring in two bathrooms; Logan Cloutier and Jake Adams installed a door; And I’m not sure what RJ Bolian, Keith Launchbury and Mike Weinberger did — I’ll have to check that out and update you tomorrow! Sorry ’bout that, guys!
At the Mehle Street home Sam Gaskin and Aaron Strate finished the laminate flooring in the living room; Tibby Thibideau and Jim Avrett wrestled with the laminate in the “front room” — a small, odd room just inside the front door of the house. I say “wrestled,” because the floating laminate floooring that we were using didn’t install the way that it was supposed to. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Patrick Murphy and Mark Alley put the final coat of paint on one of the bedrooms, and then set the subfloor padding — in preparation for the laminate.
At lunchtime we all took a break and went to the dedication of the 275th home that SBP has completed. It is the home of Mr. Anthony Mendoza, who has been living in a FEMA trailer for four years. Lots of wonderful affirmations were expressed toward Mr. Mendoza — as well as toward the many volunteers who worked on his home, the SBP, and the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency. Anthony has lived in St. Bernard Parish for 45 years. His home was flooded with 12 feet of water. It was a moving ceremony for everyone in attendance. The celebration ended with a tour of his three bedroom home. It was eye-opening, to say the least. Apparently Anthony loves bright colors, as the home was decorated throughout with dayglow orange and green paint. I know it sounds odd, but I think most of us thought he did a nice job pulling the colors off in an attractive way.
We are working with and around quite a large crew of Americorp volunteers from all around the country — young adults who give a year or so of their time and work in various “assignments” all around the country. They are intelligent, motivated individuals who want to make a difference with their lives. They are an inspiration to all of us. Their presence is visible all over the Parish (i.e county), as they wear their uniform-like outfits of Americorp distributed shirts, shorts, work-boots and even scarves. They are very visible. The site supervisors at both of our homes are young women who are Americorp Volunteers themselves. In addition to the supervisors, each of our sites has two other Americorp volunteers working with us.
We went to Covenant United Methodist Church, in Chalmette this evening, to visit with their new pastor, Monica Monk, and an old friend of ours, Dr. Hugh Craft. Their congregation is still struggling to “make it,” but they are a faithful congregation which is aware of God’s hand at work in their congregation and this parish. They bless us as they say repeated how thankful they are that we — and other teams like us — have come to help out. While we were at the church we worshipped, and shared communion together. It was a Spirit-filled service.
Not long after we returned to our housing — the Reaching out in Love Center — Keith Launchbury pointed out that two of the toes on his left foot had been swelling and increasing in discomfort. Off to the hospital — in Slidell, because there is still not a hospital in New Orleans yet! Can you imagine it? Well you won’t believe this, but Keith was in and out of the emergency room within 45 minutes!! And who says miracles don’t happen? He was diagnosed with Atheletes Foot, and was given a prescription for antibiotics, and headed back to the Center. The next task is to make sure that all the guys have flip-flops!!
That’s it for today. Hopefully I’ll have my act together to post pictures tomorrow.