Friday, August 2, 2013

Day 2


Thursday August 1, 2013 Today started off at 5:50am with Mike’s eagle’s call phone alarm waking up all the men….except Mike! Obie, the church’s sextant, was already there with a smile on her face. Terry, the artist redoing the murals, was also already at work! A quick breakfast of cereal & juice, then packed up some lunch. Tom showed up about 7am and we followed him to Atlantic Beach where All Hands Volunteers is headquartered. To my surprise we wound up in a residential neighborhood and pulled up to a rather nice house. This is where they’re headquartered??? Yes indeed. We walked in the front door and found a bee hive of activity amongst the mostly young volunteers. After filling out some paperwork we were ready to go. However, we were asked to split up. Katie and Bob went with one team while Mike, Lynn and Greg went with a young girl from Chicago named Abigail. --We (Lynn, Greg, and Mike) had an hour-long drive to the northwestern side of Long Island and ended up at a house that needed mold removal in the basement and garage. We started with sweeping, scraping up some mud followed by dry-vacuuming. We covered all electrical outlets and then began to apply Shockwave to the walls followed by scrubbing. The home owner, Susan, showed up and was upset about some shoddy plumbing that left water in her family room and was getting her belongings wet. She doesn’t currently live in her house, but still has much of her life’s collection of “stuff” in this house. Much of it was in boxes and green trash bags. She wanted to us to help her move these bags to a higher location in the room so she could get the wet items off the floor. While this wasn’t our primary reason for being there we each took some time with Susan (mostly Greg) to sort through several of her bags of photos, negatives and baseball memorabilia. She had been a sports photographer and was very particular about how we handled her items. Patience was the key word while we worked with her as she went through each bag piece by piece. While we weren’t able to help Susan go through all of her bags we made a noticeable dent. Back to the garage/basement…after scrubbing, Abigail power washed the walls and floors. We then had to wet-vacuum the floors and then set up drying equipment…six large fans and three industrial sized dehumidifiers. We moved a few of Susan’s belongings back into the garage and closed it up. The rain and cool temperatures were very welcoming. Susan is in need of prayer. She takes care of her mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, her brother hasn’t been around in months, she and her mother live in a hotel room and there is much work to do on her house. --We (Bob and Katie) went along with 2 site leaders, named Dave and Geoff), to a home about 45 minutes from the All Hands ‘office’. We were also joined by two college-aged guys – Brandon and Brenden. The home we worked on had suffered a great deal of water damage from above and below. The wind ripped off many pieces of their roof causing water to drench the interior of 2 story home. Also, the water flooded the foundation and basement. Because the water had dried by the time the insurance company arrived, their claim was denied, but clearly upon demolition you can see and smell the rot and mold. All Hands volunteers had already demo’d and mold treated the upstairs. We were given the task of demo’ing the kitched and its adjacent room. Dianna’s frustration was evident. All of her belongings from 3 gutted rooms were stuffed into the living room and her bedroom along with a POD and the garage. While there, we were given direction to pull out the cabinets, which were tossed into the dumpster. Shortly after, we were instructed that the cabinets were to be kept, so Bob and the other guys went dumpster diving. Dianna’s entire family would love to receive your prayers. Within weeks of Sandy, she had buried her newborn twin grandsons. Then Sandy arrived bringing months of headaches and stress. She lost her job a few years ago, and they can’t afford any of the repair work on just her husband’s salary. They have 2 boys at home and one of their daughters, who has a newborn, wants to return home because her husband is being deployed (they are currently based in Guam). Her other daughter is pregnant again, due in November, and struggling with conflicting emotions of grief and joy. --We were all reunified at the All Hands office and made our way back to base camp, where the guys fixed the showers and the girls threw dinner together. After dinner and showers we started our bible study shortly after 9. In preparation for our upcoming day we talked about Dianna’s and Susan’s families. The All Hands workers are also in need of prayers. They are all very young people who have dedicated months of their lives to helping others. Their housing has changed a few times in just the last couple of months, and they share it with up to 30 others at a time. They are learning how to work with both volunteers and home owners, at various stages of coping. We pray for their sustenance.

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