Today we split into 4 groups.
Lenny (III), Ray, and Jesse went to wrap up the work we had started at Winnie’s house to finish the work from yesterday’s job. Before we left, Ray and Winnie exchanged contact information and promised to keep in touch.
Elisa, Bonnie, and Rebecca went to an older lady’s home, named Sherrill, and were later joined by Lenny (III), Ray, and Jesse once they finished Winnie’s house.
Sally has been working with the administrators which is a hugely important job. The admin work sets up the work the field teams do. She spent the day today calling over 100 homeowners who have sought assistance from our partner organization, Operation Blessing. Most of them have lost everything in their homes and now mold is taking over, leaving them displaced due to the unhealthy conditions. It was her job to ask them to assess their needs going forward and to try to give them encouragement and hope. She was taken by surprise by the fact that in many cases, they gave her the courage to make just one more phone call. She was able to pray with a few of them and give them some sense that they were indeed not forgotten. Unfortunately, the need is great and the resources are scarce so this is a hugely important task - making sure people know they are not forgotten. This turned out to be a theme for our day.
Lenny (IV) was asked to join another team and he stepped in to help the team lead guide the work. This primarily involved completely gutting a bathroom which included moving a cast iron tub.
Our resident engineer has calculated that Harvey would have drained all of the public and residential swimming pools in the U.S. 56 times.
Operation Blessing has more than 500 requests for help in their scheduling system and more come in every day. The first two houses we were in had significant damage but had been mostly cleared out and we just came through and finished the demolition. These people can just now begin to rebuild their lives, two months after Harvey.
Today, at Sherrill’s house, we saw a different story. Sherrill is a widow who had lost her husband nearly ten years ago. Since then people have taken advantage of her and she lost trust in people and withdrew. A concerned neighbor let the organizers here know she was a little worried about her as she hadn’t been out of the house much at all since the storm and no one had gone in. The organizers here had to convince her that what was being offered was completely free and volunteer based. The organizers warned us that she was having a very hard time letting go of things and she just had a general sadness about her. Rebecca, Elisa, and Bonnie went in first and just spent some time with her and got the process of moving things out rolling while Lenny, Ray, and Jesse finished up at Winnie’s house. It was at this time we had an experience with seeing God’s incredible provision. Sherrill had a lot of fragile possessions that needed to be packed but had no dry packing material. Rebecca called Jesse to see if we could get some paper on the way over so they could finish this work. As it turned out, at Winnie’s house, Jesse was standing in front of a giant roll of butcher’s paper. When we asked Winnie if we could take a little to help Sherrill across town she told us to take it all!
Sherrill opened up to our team during the day and by the end of the day she told us that this was the happiest she had been in a very long time. Elisa, Bonnie, and Rebecca were key to really connecting with Sherrill. We think she had felt forgotten and even a bit guilty that she needed assistance. As we chatted and talked with her you could see a sense of relief knowing we were there only to help her, expecting nothing in return. You could see hope return to her face more and more as the day went on.
Her house had not been touched since the storm and it got several feet of water throughout. We removed the walls at least 4’, in some places to the ceiling. We completely removed floors down to the subfloor. We are likely going back tomorrow where we will be going room to room doing the same exact thing. We want to create a mold-free space for her where she can spend time without risking her health, or the health of her three sweet dogs.
All of these people have applied for help with FEMA but many of them have not heard back yet. The neighbor who had raised the alarm for the person we were helping today found out that FEMA is coming for her house on Wednesday and she was so happy she cried. Her house is already completely gutted and the roof had been totally destroyed. These people had apparently sunk a large part of their savings into renovating their home which they had finished in July. Harvey destroyed it a month later.
It’s hard not to work yourself as hard as you can for these people. We have had some great experiences during my life and this ranks right up there with the very best. We are playing a very small part in a huge recovery effort but today we got to play a very outsized role in the life of a complete stranger.
~ Jesse
Lenny (III), Ray, and Jesse went to wrap up the work we had started at Winnie’s house to finish the work from yesterday’s job. Before we left, Ray and Winnie exchanged contact information and promised to keep in touch.
Elisa, Bonnie, and Rebecca went to an older lady’s home, named Sherrill, and were later joined by Lenny (III), Ray, and Jesse once they finished Winnie’s house.
Sally has been working with the administrators which is a hugely important job. The admin work sets up the work the field teams do. She spent the day today calling over 100 homeowners who have sought assistance from our partner organization, Operation Blessing. Most of them have lost everything in their homes and now mold is taking over, leaving them displaced due to the unhealthy conditions. It was her job to ask them to assess their needs going forward and to try to give them encouragement and hope. She was taken by surprise by the fact that in many cases, they gave her the courage to make just one more phone call. She was able to pray with a few of them and give them some sense that they were indeed not forgotten. Unfortunately, the need is great and the resources are scarce so this is a hugely important task - making sure people know they are not forgotten. This turned out to be a theme for our day.
Lenny (IV) was asked to join another team and he stepped in to help the team lead guide the work. This primarily involved completely gutting a bathroom which included moving a cast iron tub.
Our resident engineer has calculated that Harvey would have drained all of the public and residential swimming pools in the U.S. 56 times.
Operation Blessing has more than 500 requests for help in their scheduling system and more come in every day. The first two houses we were in had significant damage but had been mostly cleared out and we just came through and finished the demolition. These people can just now begin to rebuild their lives, two months after Harvey.
Today, at Sherrill’s house, we saw a different story. Sherrill is a widow who had lost her husband nearly ten years ago. Since then people have taken advantage of her and she lost trust in people and withdrew. A concerned neighbor let the organizers here know she was a little worried about her as she hadn’t been out of the house much at all since the storm and no one had gone in. The organizers here had to convince her that what was being offered was completely free and volunteer based. The organizers warned us that she was having a very hard time letting go of things and she just had a general sadness about her. Rebecca, Elisa, and Bonnie went in first and just spent some time with her and got the process of moving things out rolling while Lenny, Ray, and Jesse finished up at Winnie’s house. It was at this time we had an experience with seeing God’s incredible provision. Sherrill had a lot of fragile possessions that needed to be packed but had no dry packing material. Rebecca called Jesse to see if we could get some paper on the way over so they could finish this work. As it turned out, at Winnie’s house, Jesse was standing in front of a giant roll of butcher’s paper. When we asked Winnie if we could take a little to help Sherrill across town she told us to take it all!
Sherrill opened up to our team during the day and by the end of the day she told us that this was the happiest she had been in a very long time. Elisa, Bonnie, and Rebecca were key to really connecting with Sherrill. We think she had felt forgotten and even a bit guilty that she needed assistance. As we chatted and talked with her you could see a sense of relief knowing we were there only to help her, expecting nothing in return. You could see hope return to her face more and more as the day went on.
Her house had not been touched since the storm and it got several feet of water throughout. We removed the walls at least 4’, in some places to the ceiling. We completely removed floors down to the subfloor. We are likely going back tomorrow where we will be going room to room doing the same exact thing. We want to create a mold-free space for her where she can spend time without risking her health, or the health of her three sweet dogs.
All of these people have applied for help with FEMA but many of them have not heard back yet. The neighbor who had raised the alarm for the person we were helping today found out that FEMA is coming for her house on Wednesday and she was so happy she cried. Her house is already completely gutted and the roof had been totally destroyed. These people had apparently sunk a large part of their savings into renovating their home which they had finished in July. Harvey destroyed it a month later.
It’s hard not to work yourself as hard as you can for these people. We have had some great experiences during my life and this ranks right up there with the very best. We are playing a very small part in a huge recovery effort but today we got to play a very outsized role in the life of a complete stranger.
~ Jesse
