Arrival and Day One - May 8, 2006

Trip and Arrival
The group left FCC, Paducah Sunday morning, May 7, at 4:30 a.m. The group took turns driving throughout the day and we arrived at Beaumont, Texas at around 5 p.m. With a few minor navigational errors with outer roads, highways, and turnarounds we arrived at Northwood Christian Church and met our site coordinator, Kim. We unloaded our sleeping gear and set up in an activities building which will be our new home for the next 5 days. We ate dinner at Chili's, again after a few detours due to navigating the highway and outer roads, but we finally made it.

Day One
Our work assignment changed and we are learning that they weren't kidding about being flexible. We are working on home that was damaged by Hurricane Rita. The work day began at 8 a.m. The couple, Daniel and Alice, who own it are retired and they have a 15 year old son living with them. They were fortunate enough to get a FEMA trailer which is sitting in their driveway. They also still use parts of the house that were not damaged by the hurricane. Our day consisted of tearing out dry wall and paneling both upstairs and some down mostly in bathroom and laundry areas. The upstairs bathroom had to be completely gutted down to the studs and everything removed. The attached master bedroom had to have the carpet removed. The area under this master suite is a family room area that was damaged from water in the upper part of the home. In this family room area, which the family still uses, we removed the ceiling tiles and tore out drywall in the laundry room/shower area as well as a small half bathroom.

All of the drywall and tear out had to be bagged in garbage bags and hauled to the curb for pick up. Due to dust and mold in certain parts of the home many of us wore surgical type masks which made for difficulty breathing in some instance and also were incredibly hot. The temperature here today was at least 85 degrees and high humidity. We called it a day around 4 p.m.

Upon returning to the church the shower facilities got a good workout. Around 5:30 the minister of the congregation here, and his wife, and another lay member brought us dinner. We had BBQ - sausage, beef, beans, rice, and banana pudding. Ben and Kay Henry arrived around 6:30 from Dallas to join the group.

We are glad everyone made it here safely and that we are injury free after the first day. We would ask that you keep us in your prayers as well as the family we are trying to help. The husband of the family whose house we are working on, Daniel, is a licensed minster at one of the African-American Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregations here in Beaumont. He had to go into the hospital yesterday with heart problems and as of 10 p.m. this evening we don't know if he had a stent or open heart bypass surgery.