Day 4 with Jeremy and Bobby

Peter B., Bernie , and Brian made a delicious French toast casserole for breakfast.  We started the day with the team at Bobby's home for morning prayer.  All of the team members got to meet Bobby and Max.  Bobby accepted the prayer blanket for his family.  God is so evident in the way He gives these families the courage to rebuild amongst the destruction.

Bill and Bob finished the j channel for the ceiling of the porch and the soffit.  Bob encouraged Bill so that they could finish the last strip of siding over the window.  Jeremy talked about his vision of how the porch would look with the railings, swing, and pots with flowers for Misty.

  Jeremy, John, and Pete H. continued to work on the plumbing.  The clean water as well as waste water pipes were becoming visible.

Lydia helped Jan fill in the trenches for the exterior pipes running to and from the house.  Lydia did not want to have her picture taken.  We also had to break up a lot of clumps of dirt at Lydias direction.  She had specific ways she wanted the work to be done. 

Lydia told Bill that he had to smile for pictures when he worked on the dormer siding which was mostly done.  Carol and Bob provided the siding pieces for Bill.  Pete H. talked with Jeremy who accepted the idea of our team purchasing a washer and dryer for his family.  He said that Misty would be off work on Friday and would be glad to go with us to the store.  Roger said that Gary's TV and Appliance store had been very helpful to the victims of the tornados.  Jan and Cathie continued to play/entertain with Lydia.  She used short scraps of rebar as drum sticks on the bottom of a plastic waste basket.  In addition, she used some 2x6 boards that were stacked unevenly as a teeter totter.  We had her stack piles of wood scraps on the other end and jump on the near end.  She loved watching the blocks fly.  When her brother's got off the bus, she had directions for them also.

Bobby and Max joined their team at the Henegar Baptist Church for lunch.  The rest of the team was there also. This church supplies lunch every day for workers that have come to help out in the area.  It was great food and we got to talk to people from different parts of the country. One group was from Pennsylvania and another from South Carolina.  Both of these groups were United Methodists.  We arranged to have dinner with the group from South Carolina tonight.  Ellen Ditto suggested Katy's Katfish.   

The number of teams working simply underlines the willingness of so many people in this country to help out whenever and wherever there is a disaster.  With faith, rebuilding is possible.

 Back at Bobby's home the team of Bernadette, Phillipa, Brian, Peter, and Jay continued to put up the hardie board siding.  There was much merriment along with the work.  Phillipa continued to be the quality control person with gentle persistance and her team continues to lovingly call her "annoying".   The siding on the back was level also.  Brian and Peter B., and Bernie worked on the second story scaffolding while Jay and Phillipa provided the correct sized hardie board.  Phillipa developed another skill, cutting hardie board with the "nibbler".  Bernie also worked with Bobby to do some of the prep work.

After work, the group at Jeremy's returned to Asbury UMC and cleaned up for a trip to Little River Canyon on the mountain east of Sand Mountain.  It was peaceful and quiet there.  The colors and trees were beautiful.  Jeremy said that we were going to the beautiful mountain.  He was saddened by the loss of the beauty of his mountain.

Jeremy and Bobby lost their houses and are slowly rebuilding with help from all over the country.  They talked of Muscatine vines, pecan trees, fir trees, a weeping willow, a rose bush all destroyed but waiting to be replaced. In the description of the plants and trees that used to be, we hear the belief in a rebirth of life as cuttings are taken, vines re-grown, and families finding home in a strange and new landscape, but home nevertheless.
 God’s grace at work is a marvelous thing to see.  

The group at Bobby's wanted to stay and finish the siding on the back because rain was expected Friday.

We all met at Katy's Katfish in Rainesville with Ellen Ditto and her husband, Buzz.  We also met the team from SC.  It is great to share mission experiences.  Brian shared his humorous story of the day.  The owner of Katy's Katfish related the story of how all of his employees waited out the tornado is the bathroom at the restaurant.  They all survived without injury.  The restaurant was built with three log cabins (logs joined by cement).  The roof was destroyed.  

Ellen thanked us all for our service to Upper Sand Mountain Parish and explained the services offered to the local families year after year.  She was happy to be assigned to Tanya Raines because of Tanya's committment to her home community.  Ellen offered devotion and prayer.  Back at Asbury UMC the team gathered for sharing.  There was talk of how the week affected us as well as the families.  We began to say our farwells as a group and plan for how the monetary gifts would be distributed.  Most of our team had plans to leave from Jeremy's tomorrow.  Snow was expected on the way home....in October.   

The week was amazing.  The team had gathered from 6 churches and did a lot of work at the different sites.  It was a blessing to know that we could do something for those families.  Though they might think that all the blessings were from what they received,we received as much back.  The willingness to share with us about the losses in their lives and where it had brought them was humbling.  Could we face as much adversity and still maintain faith and hope in the future?