EPC Spring 2009 Mission Trip to Orange, Texas: Day Three: Monday, April 6, 2009

Day Three: Monday, April 6, 2009
Not sure about everyone else, but I did not sleep as well. Too much fried alligator I suspect. Except for the the fact that it was much cooler where we all were sleeping. Turns out Peggy figured how to turn on the air conditioner!

Erin and I met at 5:45 and we went for a half and hour run. 7 a.m.

Morning Bible Study with Gary Gubitz @7
At 7 we met in the junior high room for Gary's message on Titus.

We began with some worship songs with Walter and Peggy on guitar. Gary's message began by focusing on verse one. ¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— ²a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, ³and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

and also the last verse
¹⁴Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

And that is exactly what we are doing here this week. Serving God, devoting ourselves to doing what is good. He also challenged us and gave us cards to memorize verses 1-3.

Breakfast
Then at 7:30 we had our first breakfast. Apparently they cooked it at the big church and then brought it over. We had scrambled eggs, biscuits, bacon, sausage, hash browns, fruit and yogurt. Somehow eggs taste even for amazing when they are cooked in bacon grease.

Stuart and Lisa from Community Church.

Off to our first day on the job
We did not leave at 8 as we had planned. It was closer to nine when we all took off. We stopped first at the house close to the church that had the bad sheet rocking and texturing job.

Then we went to a second house that we hadn't been to before where the owner was named Winnie and some stayed there. The next site was a place in house in Bridge City we hadn't been to before and probably close to 20 of us got out there to do a bunch of sheet rocking. Several others went on to the Gator house to work on the floor.

Stuart wanted to use the place I stayed at as a kind of a training site where a bunch of us could learn how to do sheet rocking. He started explaining a bunch of terminology and Gary and I became quickly overwhelmed. :) it also was difficult because there were sooooooo many of us there. By God's grace we soon discovered that the youth pastor from Arcade Wesleyan had a ton of experience doing sheet rocking and after Stuart left, he became our teacher and our leader.

We all started working together on the room with the fireplace and we had to sheet rock the entire ceiling and all the walls. We got started on the task about 10.

The first sheet of sheet rock goes up.

This was the insulation crew with Emily Peterson.

Working in the second room. With Chuck's crew.

We worked almost until six and didn't get back until nearly 6:30. Stuart, Bob and KC didn't get back until nearly 7:30. They were planning meeting about tomorrow.

Dinner was chicken strips, canned corn with tons of butter, mashed potatoes and gravy. Think there was a salad thrown in there too. :)

Zoe dropped a six pack of soft drinks on her toe.

At 8:30 we all met in the junior high room for debriefing. It was great to hear all the tales of the day. God was at work in amazing ways.

Two of the groups got to meet the home owners and hear their stories of the hurricane. One couple we were neighbors had lived here for 44 years and had never had any trouble. The guy who owned the gator house was in the fire department and KC got to go to a fire with him. Casey Noland had an amazing time talking with him.

The group in the second house actually got to pray with the owner.

After the debriefing Gary Frey did a devotion on grace from AE Pink.

Then everyone went down and watched some of the NCAA finals before the 10 p.m. curfew.