Monday

Monday was intense. Another group from NC is staying at the church. Its a small group of mostly older men. This is their 2nd or 3rd visit. They are eating and working with another organization. Kelly and Jan went to Wal-Mart to get food. After breakfast the group did devos while Tom and I ran the minivan to the Chrysler dealer.
We were on two sites. John, Jan, AJ, Holly, Sara, and Maddy went to the home of a 66 year-old woman on dialysis. Her son has been working on the home and is finishing up the drywall and painting. They began painting and were invited into other projects when their hard work and compassion was evident. They cleaned out a fridge full of things from before the storm. Most food became unidentifiable. The woman has resigned herself to dying. John spent an hour explaining about the kidney transplant process and she seems to be changing her thinking. Kids stopped in and helped work. Lots of people time.
The site the rest of the group is on the homeowner isn't present. Clarence is the neighbor to the west. We get additional power from his place. He said it cost him $18,000 to get his house fixed up. The interior still only looked semi-finished. The house had most of the drywall hung and little mud done. But they weren't real careful so we had to redo most of the seams and finish one closet. Its probably a 900 sq foot house that needs to be completely done. There was lots of sanding, taping, and mudding going on. Caleb and Rob kept the taping going. Dan, Nate, Kevin, and Michael were mud slingers. Tyler was putting in ceiling screws with no ladder. Clint worked on the closet. Kelly stapled insulation. Tom trained a crew to finish the windows. I went to Biloxi (to do boss stuff) to find an insulation blower and blow in material. After lunch (once the attic was preheated to 325 degrees) we had Jordan L, Logan, Erik, and Jordan C go up and blow in the attic in two-man shifts. Jordan L had a flashlight duct taped to his arm. Jake Z manned the machine and grew fuzzy as he put the bales in. In all a hot, dirty, dark job well done.
Everyone on the trip is a warrior. The attic blow in earned them hero status. If they accumulate 3 hero point they can become champion. Two champion points and you can become a legend.
We wrapped up work at 6 for dinner. Pizza night. Its about a 1/4 mile to the sites, so we can walk to and from church for bathroom stops or meals. John worked on sore bones and muscles on his treatment table and we celebrated Logan's 16th birthday at our evening group meeting.