10.21.08
Impressions from the Newest PS Team Members
The team ended the week by doing the same tasks at Miss Thelma’s house that had been done at Miss Viola’s house! We tiled the kitchen, laundry area and bathroom, built a side stoop with steps, built a raised platform for the A/C unit, installed handrails on the front porch and painted all the trim and doors inside the house. This house was also one our April team had worked on, so while it was great to be a part of the finishing parts of the house, it was also sad to know that the homeowner still was not in the house yet. We were thrilled, however, to meet Miss Thelma Riley (a relative of Viola’s) and hear her plans for her yard, the house and the joy of finally moving out of her FEMA trailer.
Friday evening after dinner, a few of the team members went to the South Plaquemines High School football game. It was Homecoming for South Plaquemines and the home stands were full! It was the beginning of the second half when we arrived and the score was 41-0, South Plaquemines. We found out later that the coach had played his 3rd string quarterback the entire first half and he is an eighth grader!! This is the team that won the state 1A championship last year and are looking to repeat that accomplishment this year. (The book about this team and the road to recovery after Katrina is in our church library.) We got to see our friend Jeremy Sylve play and enjoyed sitting in the stands with his family.
Travel home on Saturday was uneventful and everyone agreed that the definite advantage to flying was avoiding the loooong drive and arriving rested instead of exhausted from two days in a van! Two of our first time team members to Port Sulphur have written a little about their experience and we leave you with their thoughts…….
This was a real first time experience for me. Not a first mission trip, but the first one like this. I felt that we were tackling a never ending job in helping people put back together lives that were forever changed by a natural disaster. The spirit of the people was refreshing. They had so little, but were thankful for what they had and extremely thankful for all we could do to help.
The effort to help that we were a part of spearheaded by the VA Baptists is amazing. The people here have a heart for the task and the work.
We had the opportunity to meet the women that were moving into the houses we were working on, and their faces as they looked round was enough to make the trip worth the effort. The houses were not palatial, but the recipients looked at them like they were castles. Getting back into a house was getting the people back to a sense of normalcy that had been missing for quite a while.
The work time was intense. This was a long way from teaching school. I learned how to lay ceramic tile. I remembered how to move heavy stuff from here to there. I got to use some of the skills I learned back in college as we built porches and helped get the house ready to move in. The days were long and the work hard, but somehow it was not “tiring” since I really felt that I was doing things that needed to be done and the work was helping. It may have also helped that staying up late during the week was staying up until 9:15.
Finally, it was great to work with the people we brought. It was really a team effort. No one was above any job. If anyone needed help with a task, everyone would pitch in. I was blessed to have such a great bunch of people to work with, and look forward to being able to do it again.
Wilton Johns
The first day I visited HRBC I heard about the trip to Port Sulphur and wanted to learn more. I knew this was an opportunity to follow God’s will for my life. So, I packed up and went to Port Sulphur with eight strangers from a church I had only visited a few times- brave!
Well, it didn’t take long to become one of the gang. I was amazed to see the camaraderie and love that was obvious from day 1. Not only that, but there was a light hearted spirit of fun that I could definitely identify with. Okay, maybe I would be able to handle these strangers for a week!
Port Sulphur is a desolate, extremely poor town. It amazes me to see that kind of poverty in our country. There were only a handful of houses. Mostly, there seemed to be family compounds where they all put their campers and trailers on the same small patch of land. Family pets (pit bulls) were chained outside on large chains with only a small amount of room to roam. Kids were crammed into small rooms that are the size of many master bathrooms- two kids or more to a room. What amazed me even more was that Virginia Baptists seemed to be the only ones there trying to help.
Our team worked ten hour days and barely scratched the surface of what needed to be done on two houses. What about all of the other displaced families living in FEMA trailers (nearly 3000)? Port Sulphur needs our help and I am proud to be involved in a church that focuses on mission opportunities. I highly encourage anyone to go. You will get so many benefits to bring home with you. (Julie didn’t pay me to say that!)
I was blessed in many ways throughout the week. One of the biggest blessings was getting to know HRBC people. Another blessing was meeting Ms. Thelma and Ms. Viola (the owners of the homes we worked on). The smile on their faces made all those cuts, blisters, and bruises fade away.
My experience in Port Sulphur has changed my life. I look forward to seeing God’s will for my future mission opportunities and hope to continue work in Port Sulphur!
Diana Morgan
10.16.08
Perks & Pitfalls
Thought you might be interested in some of the out-of-the-ordinary pieces of our trip. We like to call them Perks & Pitfalls. Every time we visit PS things are different. We can be staying in the same location, sightseeing at some of the same places, working with families, renewing old friendships …….. But things are always different!
Perks:
1. Our team got to babysit precious little LIllian LePoint Tuesday night. She’s the 11 month old daughter of Bruce and Erin, the volunteer coordinators. Lillian is the most gorgeous, happy baby you’ve seen. Well ….. happy until the spaghetti stops coming or until Wilton walks by!
2. Slap Yo’ Momma burgers from Ann’s Restaurant. All I have to say is it has to be a heart attack waiting to happen!
3. The shrimp boil provided by Bruce. Comes complete with corn, potatoes, sausage —- and enough cajun spice to light up your life.
4. Seeing Port Sulphur friends and HRBC friends meet, hug, smile and it seems like they never parted.
5. Laughing with HRBC friends until your stomach hurts!
Pitfalls:
1. When the A/C breaks in the middle of the first night on mission.
2. When the electricity goes out — taking the repaired A/C with it — the second night.
3. When the contents of your suitcase appears to be moving when you open it first thing in the morning. Gotta love those ants!
It’s always an adventure. But we have learned more than once that God is so visible to us. Perks and pitfalls, they’re part of His plan. We’re thankful for them all.
10.15.08
Monday and Tuesday in Port Sulphur
OK, we’ve told you about the construction coordinator down here, Rick Kesterson. We’ll, he greeted us with, “I’m going to have fun this week and it’s going to be at your all’s expense!!” ….and boy has he!! He’s had us working hard the past two days on Miss Viola”s house. Her house sits right behind one of our favorite restaurants in Port Sulphur, Ann’s Restaurant. Our group that was here in April of this year also worked on her house, so we were so happy to see Viola and her daughter, Carla, again and meet her son, Elliot.
Our assignments were to build a side porch with staircases going down from both sides, ceramic tile the kitchen, laundry closet, and bathroom, paint all the trim and doors, install handrails around the front porch, build a raised deck for the outside A/C unit, and install hardwood floors in two bedrooms, hallway and living room. We are proud to tell you that in two days, all of that is done except for grouting the tile, a little bit of painting and the hardwood floor. It’s always amazing to see how the team just seems to divide itself into smaller teams that work well together and get the work done!
The weather has been wonderful so far…….sunshine in and out of a fairly consistent cloud cover, temperatures in the low 80’s with the most wonderful breeze blowing all the time. So much so, today we had to chase down some of our lunch bags as we were eating lunch! At the end of the day, we were surprised to find out that Miss Viola had heard we were curious about the Sno-Ball stand that sits in front of Ann’s Restaurant, so she had purchased one for everyone on the team! What a wonderful treat after a long day of work.
When most of the team left to go cleanup and get dinner started, four of our team members stayed to finish the tile work in the bathroom, so in the morning we would be ready to grout all three areas of tile. On our way back to the church, we were surprised to find out that a church in Belle Chasse (about 30 miles north of Port Sulphur) had delivered dinner for our team and the other team here from New Jersey. You have never seen so much wonderful and delicious food……red beans and rice, hot sausage, chicken salad and chips, bread, salad, macaroni and cheese with chicken, brownies, pumpkin pie, and a cooler full of soft drinks!! We may not have to cook for the rest of the week! The couple that brought the food, Steve and Patty Mattison, stayed and had dinner with us. Patty writes for the TImes-Picayune in New Orleans about things that happen in Plaquemines Parish. She was interested to hear that some of our team had made multiple trips to Port Sulphur and asked if she could interview us. Don Hutcheson, Laura Fowler and Julie Carr were all interviewed and the article should be in the paper and on the website next Thursday!
Rick Kesterson ate with us also, and then shared his story of how he became a christian and the road that led him and his wife, Melissa, to Port Sulphur. Their future after December 31 is uncertain at this time and we ask that everyone keep them in your prayers. RIck and Melissa commited two years of their lives to the people of Port Sulphur and Rick just celebrated his one year anniversary of being here as the construction coordinator for CPR (Committe for Plaquemines Recovery). It’s unfortunate that CPR has not made the same commitment to them at this time. With prayer, we hope this will change as there is STILL much to be done in this area, even after 3 years.
Tomorrow starts bright and early and there is paint, grout and hard wood in our future!! Continue to remember us in your prayers….we have been blessed with no injuries so far, just a few fire ant bites! We’ll be back tomorrow with more tales from the work site and the shrimp boil that is being prepared for us by the volunteer coordinator and his wife, Bruce and Erin LePointe. Yum, yum…..just what we need….more good food!!
God Bless!
10.14.08
Off To Rousing Start!
Hey Friends,
What a difference a day makes!! Well ….. make that one less day of travel! As many of you know, we flew to Port Sulphur this time. Every mile of the trip to BWI, both flights and the rest of the trip into Port Sulphur all went beautifully. We have so enjoyed having the extra day to become familiar with our surroundings. This also gave us the opportunity to worship with the folks at PSBC on Sunday morning.
The adults SS class started at 9:00. Our group made up a little more than 50% of the class! But just like any other good Bible study, there was much interaction and feedback related to the lesson. Julie & Wilton were planning to visit the youth SS class. But when they got there, the room was empty. They were told there probably wouldn’t be any youth in attendance. But about 15 minutes later, 2 young men showed up. So Julie stepped out of the adult class and sat in with the youth.
Worship in the sanctuary was a treat. Several on our team had been here a year ago. It was wonderful to see the completion of the sanctuary — worship in that room 1 year ago would have been impossible!
Sunday afternoon and evening were filled with chores and a little sight-seeing. We made the weekly menu, did some much needed shopping and organized our rooms. We also met with Rick (the construction coordinator) and received our “marching orders” for the first few days.
Early in the evening we received a special treat. A shrimp boat owner we met on a previous trip, took us on a tour of the Grand Bayou in his shrimp boat. That was an experience unlike any other — from the sights all the way to the smells!! He took great pride showing us his neighborhood. He, and generations of his family, have lived on the bayou. We marveled at the different lifestyle led by people in this area.
Many of us have already renewed friendships from the past. We’ve shared many laughs, but we’ve also shared from our hearts about the differences between life here in Port Sulphur and our own lives in Virginia. We can’t wait to keep you up to date on special moments as our week progresses.
Don’t forget to check out our photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/HRBCPhotos/Team8InPortSulphurOct08#
10.07.08
Thanks for Visiting!!
If you’re reading this post, we’re not in Port Sulphur yet!!! We won’t be able to post anything while we’re traveling, but come back on Sunday. We’ll catch you up then!
