Our last day started out with the team divided again. Don, Chris and Jim headed up to start framing walls for the new house off Hermitage Road, while Laura and Bob went to our third house to poly the hardwood floors. Part of the other team from Richmond (they are from Lyndale Baptist Church) was there working on the kichen cabinets. We were able to have a good visit with these folks while we worked together. Part of their team was loading up some wood for the new house, so when all was done there, we all headed up the road to unload wood and help with the framing. Our friend, Russell Drewery drove down from NOLA today to work along side us and we were so grateful for the extra set of hands!

Rick had to leave early to go to NOLA to pick up his truck that has been in the shop all week. We were left with the task of putting the plywood sheeting on the two outside walls. Unfortunately, we were not able to raise those walls yet……some other team will get to do that! That will be an interesting job, considering the house is being built about 10 feet off the ground. We felt like we were building a tree house today, we were so far up in the trees!

Friday dinner just doesn’t get much better than what we experienced! Bruce LePointe, Volunteer Coordinator for CPR, served up a southern LA shrimp boil with shrimp, potatoes, corn, and sausage all cooked together. He also grilled red fish and speckled trout on the grill. Needless to say, we all ate and ate and then ate some more!!

Saturday morning ended up being part of a work day for Laura and Rick. Since the electrician was in the third house where we worked on the hard wood floors on Thursday, we weren’t able to put poly on the floor until Friday morning. Since the poly needs to dry for 24 hours, the second coat was going to be left undone. We didn’t want that to happen, so at 7:00am this morning, Rick and Laura headed over to the house to put that second coat of poly on the floors. We were pulling back into the church parking lot at 7:45am!

By 8:45 we were pulling out of Port Sulphur Baptist Church, headed to the airport. We stopped at the little gas station diner up the road for a full breakfast and then on to NOLA! We are now awaiting our flight in the NOLA airport and are anxious to arrive home to family and friends and to share stories that didn’t make it on the blog. It has been a wonderful week of work, fellowship and learning and all are ready to do it all over again! Thank you for your prayers and support for this continued partnership with our good friends of Plaquemines Parish and Port Sulphur Baptist Church.

Well, we were off and running early this morning. We are working about 25 miles south of Port Sulphur, so we’re putting some miles on the rental car! We dropped Don and Jim off at their house so they could get started on the finish trim work and the multitude of little odd jobs that needed to be done. Bob, Chris and Laura then went to the first house on their list that needed floors sanded and stained. Rick had told us that it would take about 7-8 hrs. to sand and stain this 3 bedroom house. We were done, loaded up and moving on to the next house by 2:00! We were able to get part of the next house sanded before we decided to call it a day.

Tomorrow we’re back at it and will probably return to the first house to start the multiple coats of polyurethane. We had some weather issues today……the heavens opened on us for about an hour, but the storms have moved on for now. We enjoyed wonderful breezes all day long which helped tremendously since the humidity was so high!

Thank you for all your prayers – I think all of our backs will need them in the morning!! God bless!

Wow….where did the day go? We attended church this morning with our brothers and sisters of Port Sulphur Baptist Church. Lucky for us, it just happened to be the Sunday that all the church comes together after the worship service to have lunch together. Baptist pot luck is some of the best pot luck and things are no different here!! Although I would be willing to bet that there haven’t been too many pot luck dinners served in our neck of the woods that included “rabbit”! No, I did not try it…..but I hear it tastes a lot like chicken!

After lunch, Rick Kesterson, Construction Coordinator, took us to some of our work sites for the week. Now, remember…..we are a small team. There are only 5 of us. Rick took us to four different houses to show what needed to be done. There would have been a fifth, but we were too late for the ferry and wouldn’t have gotten back in time for the evening activities at the church. Here are just a few things that are on our “to-do” list: House #1 – sand, stain and poly the wood floors in the entire house. House #2 – finish trim work, install thresholds, storm doors, metal shelving in the closets, caulk in the kitchen, some wall repair and ceiling repair. House #3 – sand, stain and poly wood floors, install storm doors, build and install countertops in kitchen, install light box over kitchen sink. House #4 – sand, stain and poly wood floors, finish hanging kitchen cabinets, finish trim on countertops……That’s just what I can remember when I was making the list after we returned to the church. Needless to say, our team of five will become two teams. I think Rick has become used to the idea that when a team comes from HRBC, what needs to be done gets done. So, we will start out bright and early in the morning and get to it! Don and Jim will go to house #2 to start the finish trim work, while Laura, Chris and Bob will start the wood floor job in house #1.

This evening , PSBC sponsored a “Date Night” with a free pizza dinner and then showed the movie “Fireproof”. Our team provided the childcare for those with little ones so they could watch the movie uninterrupted. There were about 6 couples from outside that church that attended along with a few church members. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and wanted to know when the next one would be! PSBC is considering offering a monthly movie night to the community with some of those being designated as the special “Date Night” movies. One man who is a member of a local Catholic church asked if PSBC could show the “Fireproof” movie again soon so he could invite some of his friends. He said he knew they would all benefit from seeing a movie with such a powerful message. God is Good!!

Well, time for bed because tomorrow is a work day and we have a lot of it!! Keep us all in your prayers as we work to help put at least four more families in homes for the first time in almost 4 years! Praise God!!

The HRBC team arrived this afternoon in Port Sulphur, LA.  After a quick trip to the grocery store, the team headed to dinner at the infamous Lil G’s and ended the evening on the levee watching a cruise ship go by.  Tomorrow, the group will attend church at Port Sulphur Baptist and go to an airshow at the naval base.  Please pray for the team as they continue to nurture relationships built in Port Sulphur and as they prepare the work ahead of them this week!