10 Teams and Counting!
Next trip October 2010??
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Our 10th Katrina Mission Trip - D'Iberville, MS
January 2010
Saturday morning 6:45! Where are you Dave T!
6:57 Where are you Mike!
Well, we almost made it on the road by 7:00 A.M.
Saturday was uneventful as our crew made their way to Birmingham. After the shaky start we arrived in the best time we ever have. Paul, our contact at Gardendale UMC didn’t answer his phone. After several attempts to reach him we decided it was time for supper so we went to Logan’s Steak house for dinner. Paul finally called us about half way through our meal and we settled in for the night. Or at least half of it for some of us. Dave T. only made it half way through the night before his stomach started rumbling. That was the beginning of a rough day.
Sunday - We wanted to see several of the houses we had worked on in New Orleans before we headed to D’Iberville, so we headed for N. O. We were thinking if Dave was too bad we would have to divert to D’Iberville.
We proceeded toward Tuscaloosa where the substitute driver began taking us in circles looking for a restaurant. After a dizzying 10 minutes we parked in front of IHOP. Dave B. blamed it on the rain. 5 of the 6 went in for breakfast after which we headed for N. O.
We drove by three houses that we knew had been worked on by our mission teams and then stopped by Leona Bullocks house. She is not moved in yet but the house is looking very good.
We proceeded to Gulfport to assess our Monday morning project. We met Sarah Stallworth, her uncle Levi, daughter Keisha, and Sean.
Our final leg of 12 miles was uneventful and we settled in. Dave T. did get some better Sunday afternoon but only had a hamburger all day Sunday and was the first to bed Sunday night.
Monday morning… Everyone seems to be healthy this morning. Thanks you God.
Monday morning started off well. We had a helper – Don – stop and have breakfast with us. He is a construction worker and he wanted to volunteer to work with us throughout this week.
We are working on Sara’s house this week and she had coffee waiting for us as soon as we arrived. Much has been done, but there are many problems that still need to be corrected before finishing work can continue. First thing that we noticed as soon as we pulled into the driveway was that the flashing over the porch roof was installed incorrectly - on the outside of the clapboards and must be re-done. There is a hole in the roof where a roof was installed into the side of the house. The roof did not meet the side of the house and didn’t have flashing installed. There are 4 sections of floor that was very soft and one spot that we couldn’t step on because we would go through the floor. We were able to get 3 sections of the floor corrected – had to install sisters along the existing floor joists and cut out and replace a joist. We also hung drywall and were able to do one bedroom completely and started on the living room.
Levi (Sara’s Uncle) brought us lunch – Cajun fried chicken with corn bread, butter beans and greens.
Team at Sara's House
Team working on drywall
Break Time
Next trip October 2010??
http://neworleansmission.xanga.com/
Since May 2006 St. Paul's has sent nine teams to the gulf coast in the wake of Katrina.
St Paul’s Katrina missions started in May 2006 with 19 people, thirteen St. Paul’s members and 6 friends from other churches.
That first mission we spent the last day, Friday working on Pastor Joe’s house in Gulfport, MS. We have also worked on Pastor Joes house on several subsequent missions. We’ve had people from Good Shepherd UMC in Benton Ridge, Kilbourne UMC, Kilbourne, Otterbein UMC Charleston Ill. and a few others.
The question used for inspiration was, “What would you not do for Jesus?” Some of our team really needed to hear that because the homes they were in had been molding for 9 months.
Since then we have had 8 adult teams of 2 to 19 people, two youth mission teams.
We served 626 work days or about 3200 hours.
Before 
After 
Our teams have worked on 18 houses and put the finishing touches on 7.
We have spent close to $30,000 in fees and donations from people who didn’t go but wanted to help.
We also took 10 industrial sewing machines with us on the first trip to give to some one who was doing work for the needy and Leona Burdock gave about 50 of her paintings to a thrift store to help the needy.
God’s hand has been evident on every trip but never any more than the September 2009 trip. The plan was to dry wall the house that we gutted in May 2006. On Friday the day before we were to leave, we received a call from our contact in New Orleans. “The electrical inspection hasn’t been done.” We left on Saturday morning not knowing for sure where we would be working. Before Saturday was over we had received a call informing us the inspection was done. On Sunday when we looked at the house we decided the ceiling should have a heavier sheet rock. On Monday morning we ordered the heavier material. We received it and began to hang it before the fire inspector showed up and informed us that we must use the heavier sheet rock not only on the ceiling but also on the wall between the two halves of the house.
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