the log of the guinston gutters

THE LOG OF THE GUINSTON GUTTERS
Mission Trip #8
September 2007
We had some new faces and some old faces on this 8 th trip of the
Guinston Gutters. We had four vehicles again, one the “Old Faithful”
diesel truck, “Mother”, driven by Sue and Walt Blumenfeld, the next
was Steve Judy in his SUV with Elizabeth Decker and Zack Hall as his
passengers, followed by a newcomer, Gene Taylor, driving his truck
with veteran Bill Thompson as co-pilot, and finally Linda Jordan
driving her hybrid Toyota Prius (50 mpg!).
With her were faithful
companions, Dolly and Jack Myers and our new angel Diane Ezzell, who
can defy the laws of physics with 18-wheelers!
Three traveled by
air...one in advance of our arrival, Donald Ruff and two after our
arrival, Kent Tompkins and our pastor, Daniel Moore. Thank you God
for an OUTSTANDING team of 14! We pray that our hearts and minds can
stay focused strictly for Jesus and that those we work for will see
Jesus in us giving the Praise and Glory ONLY to God!
We left church fairly promptly – 6:20 A.M. and made our usual
breakfast stop at Ingram’s Diner in Jefferson, VA getting back on the
road by 9:15…a good start so far. At the next road stop, Jack was
kind enough to take over for Linda (she’s retired and getting up in
years and needed a break!) until we stopped at 5 Guys in Salem
(another stop that has become a regular along the way).
At this
time, Linda went back in the driver’s seat. Sue took over for Walt
(Walt’s favorite time of day for a nap), Diane took over for Steve,
and Bill relieved Gene. Made a pit stop around 4:15 in Tennessee and
Dolly noted that Linda had 453 miles on her car and FINALLY needed
gas!
It’s an absolutely BEAUTIFUL 84-degree day as we started down
the road again at 4:30 PM. Dolly noticed two wild turkeys along the
way and the beginning of the fall leaves turning.
We all decided
this would probably not be one of the most brilliant-colored years
for foliage because of the dry weather. Before we knew it, we saw a
sign that read 80 miles to Knoxville. By that time, we had been on
the road for 12 hours. We stopped for our evening meal at the Dinner
Bell in Sweetwater and again did some driver relief switching.
We
then concentrated on a 20 minute ride to a Ramada Inn where we stayed
for the night. By 8:45 we were actually in our rooms. We’re sure
that had to have broken ALL previous records for stopping the first
night! We had been on the road for 14 hours. Everyone was exhausted
and needed a good night’s sleep.
We got up fairly early again on Sunday morning and enjoyed our
complimentary breakfast at the Ramada and began our journey for the
day by 8:00 AM…Oh What a Beautiful Morning…!
By noon it was 70
degrees outside and we were anxiously awaiting another of our
familiar stops at Barnhills for our Sunday Brunch Buffet…a regular
stop since January 2006 in Meridian, Mississippi.
About an hour
later with bellies full, we headed south again…Walter, of course, in
his position of “after lunch nap!” In no time, it seemed as though 4
PM had arrived and a sign for 105 miles to New Orleans appeared.
What a BEAUTIFUL sight! We stopped for gas in Poplarville and Walter
and Sue met a man from New Orleans who needs help rebuilding several
houses for his large extended family.
Walt and Sue gave him the
phone number for Jefferson Presbyterian Church while Linda took his
picture.
We arrived safe and sound by 6:30 PM to be greeted by
Donald and our new friends from AmeriCorps: John, Scott, and Kevin
who are working with the Louisiana Presbytery in the Katrina Disaster
Relief program.
The three young men from Chicago, Ohio and South
Carolina shared the facilities at Jefferson with us for the week as
they patiently wait for the housing they were promised to be
completed.
Knowing the area, we weren’t surprised to find it very
hot and humid. Diane, Dolly and Linda walked to the store for bread,
milk, water, and eggs, but much to our dismay, Diane noticed that the
eggs were outdated by over a week. They examined ALL the egg cartons
and couldn’t find any that to quote Linda, weren’t “dead!” They took
their other groceries to the checkout and Linda asked, “Do you have
any eggs that aren’t dead?”
The two gentlemen behind the counter
seemed puzzled by that comment so she translated the meaning of dead
eggs to them and they declared that these were the only eggs they
had.
Moral of the story…ALWAYS look at the sell-by dates while
shopping in small convenience stores in New Orleans!
Amazingly we
scurried up a pot of spaghetti with meat sauce in record time and
were settled in our rooms and finished our meal by 8:30. We ALL knew
we had a wakeup call of 6:00 AM in order to have time for breakfast
and devotions before our actual work day began.
The next morning came early, but those air mattresses felt MIGHTY
good last night! We arose to a day with the temperature at 79 and
the humidity at 100 percent! We knew what was in store for us…lots
of sweating and lots and lots of water. We were able to pretty much
finish
gutting
the
Perkins
House,
now
owned
by
Jefferson
Presbyterian. We were happy to begin the process of renovating that
house for future use of the church.
Many roaches were encountered, again as we hammered away at the tile
walls and floors in the remaining bathroom that needed removed.
Elizabeth took over for Katie (from a previous trip) by becoming our
expert roach killer!
Lots of screaming by “the girls” each time a
new nest was disturbed.
A lot of rotting boards were discovered
under the tile floor in the bathroom and our faithful craftsmen cut a
hole in the floor for a future day when some “lucky” person(s) will
get to go down under the floor (the “rat hole”) to begin the task of
moving the bathroom and kitchen to other locations in the house.
Walter and his “mighty team” met with Loretta from Jefferson and
ideas were tossed around. Before weeks-end we had agreed on a plan
for
renovation of the Perkins House. After much sweating and hard
work, we all took a break to enjoy the fine lunch that was provided
by our old friend from the last trip, Paul Davis. He brought enough
food to feed us the entire week for EVERY lunch in the form of cold
cuts(ham, turkey and roast beef), cheese, condiments, apple slices,
chips, yogurt, breads, and drinks.
He’s our friend for life and
we’ve fallen in love with him and his beautiful family. That evening
after our work day had ended, we used more of Paul’s kindness by
making tuna melts on the grill with the cheese, tuna, mayonnaise, and
bread that he had provided.
Our second work day went according to our routine… breakfast followed
by Bible study in the book of James, and ending in our circle prayer
asking that God will guide us and be in control of everything we do
and say.
This was another hot and humid day (80 degrees with 100
percent humidity). We were sent to East New Orleans to the home of
Inga and Ricky Johnson to finish the detail work at their house in
order for them to satisfy electrical inspection, then call the
electric company to install a meter and turn on their electricity.
This would allow them to move into their home again after more than 2
years of being displaced. Ricky is a disabled veteran who suffered a
heart attack during the storm and has since had a triple by-pass and
is recovering. His wife Inga has her own health issues with diabetes
while working in a nursing home many long and hard hours each day.
Although at first glance it appeared as though there was little to be
done, we soon discovered that we had 3½ days of hard work ahead of us
to complete our tasks.
We knew things were looking up when we realized that we actually
had bathroom facilities at both work-sites! What a Blessing…no more
5- gallon-bucket toilets for us!
The men and Dolly began outside
because there weren’t proper supplies to begin the additional
painting and trim work that needed to be done inside.
Our trusty
carpenters began the completion of the soffit around the outside that
would lead to much painting ahead on the exterior. While holding the
ladder for one of the men, Dolly felt something on her legs and
looked down and her shoes were full of fire ants. She began stomping
the ground to get them off and went to the shed to strip down and try
to make sure they were all off.
Miraculously, God saved her from
serious injury. After a very frustrating morning because of lack of
organization, inexperience, and supplies, we were finally able to
begin the interior painting. Gratefully, we had used our “down time”
to clean inside and prepare the woodworks and bathrooms for their
finished paint job.
After a very hard days-work, we decided to go
back to Jefferson, get cleaned up and go to the local Shoney’s for
our dinner (the 2-day driving trip and 2-days on the job had made us
all pretty weary). We were not too weary to celebrate Zack's 16 th
birthday with the aid of Shoney's staff and a gooey dessert. While
there, some of the team struck up a conversation with an elderly
couple who were members of the John Calvin Presbyterian Church. When
we finished the meal and went to pay the bill, the elderly couple
had already paid for all our dinners before they left the restaurant
for their home. God has truly been with us on all our trips and all
the kindnesses shown to us this trip have made us all very aware of
His presence.
Wednesday sent us back to Inga and Ricky’s for another hot and humid
workday.
Gene and Bill working very hard doing our beautiful
carpenter work, Jack hard at work installing their dishwasher, Daniel
and Donald pushing hard at all their chores, but still finding time
to play jokes on each other, Kent’s neck is probably still red and
should be stiff from all the outside painting he did while Steve
willingly dove into any task assigned, the girl-team (Sue, Dolly,
Diane, and Linda) all in their respective rooms were up to their
elbows in paint…ceilings, walls, woodwork, doors, shelves, and even
closet door knobs, Zack and Elizabeth busied themselves with molding,
mowing, and socket covers just for a starters, and Walter ran from
one person’s command to another’s serving as general “go-fer”.
This day we were on a time schedule because Jefferson Presbyterian
Church was treating us to a covered-dish dinner at 6:00. Because of
this, we packed up a little earlier than usual to allow enough time
for 14 really dirty workers to clean up in time for their fellowship
dinner.
We all had a wonderful evening.
For some of us it was a
reunion of old friends, and for others it was an opportunity to meet
wonderful people we’ve since grown to love and admire. Paul treated
Zack and Elizabeth to a tour of New Orleans after our dinner. They
loved every minute! We experienced another exhausting day, but very
rewarding…thanks to God.
The team was split today.
Walt, Sue, Bill, Jack, Zack, and Gene
remained at Jefferson to work at the Perkins House while the rest of
the team went back to Inga and Ricky’s to try to complete their house
for their electrical inspection the following day.
Elizabeth was
feeling sick that day, so she stayed behind for a day of
recuperation. There were still many jobs at both sites that needed
completion making everyone work extremely hard knowing that the next
day would be the last possible chance to see this project finished
for the Johnsons and for Jefferson Presbyterian Church to get their
house ready for renovation.
The Perkins team tried to prepare the
house, floors and “the rat pit” as much as possible before the church
begins the task of getting permits and blueprints for their upcoming
project. The men on the other team finished the exterior of Inga and
Ricky’s house – carpenter work, shingle repair, painting, and much,
much more. The “girls” finally finished that painting task indoors
and we all headed back to the church to rush to get cleaned up for
dinner.
We were all very excited because Paul had furnished the
“fixin’s” for John to prepare us a taco dinner. We were thrilled to
have Paul, Sally, Andrew, Scott, and Kevin join us for dinner and
fellowship.
John was kind enough to prepare our meal, but had a
prior engagement and wouldn’t be staying to eat? Wait a minute, John
isn’t staying to eat the food HE prepared? Just kidding, John! It
was a delicious meal and we’re very thankful to John and to God for
providing us with another meal. We were happy that Sue and Walt were
able to meet with Sue’s sister for dinner...sad that they were
missing the taco dinner that John had prepared.
Just when our
bellies were full, Paul sent Sally for cake and ice cream to top off
the evening with dessert and coffee before bedtime!
How can it be Friday? Our last day with not much time, but so much
left to do. Last night it was decided we would start for home after
lunch because it was too late to start another project on a Friday
afternoon and we knew that there wasn’t enough work left at either
site to warrant an entire day on the job. Thus, the race began to
pack our beds and bags, make breakfast, have devotions, split our
teams again in order to finish the work at both sites by noon with
the hope that would give us enough time to shower, load our vehicles
and still be ready to have a farewell lunch with Paul and Sally at
their favorite Italian Restaurant about a block away from the church.
Both teams worked as hard as possible to get their tasks
accomplished.
The Johnson's house passed electrical inspection and
the team stayed to scrub floors, clean off paint splashes, finish
yard work, vacuum,and help the AmeriCorps team load all their tools.
We were honored to be present when the family came enabling us to be
part of the blessing and dedication of their new home. When we left
the Johnsons were waiting for the electric company to install their
meter and turn on the electricity. However, Ricky indicated that he
couldn’t wait for that and would be spending the night in his new
home sleeping on the floor where he finally would have room to
stretch out his legs after living in that tiny FEMA trailer all those
months. God is good.
We seemed to be showered, packed and loaded in record-breaking time.
Everyone enjoyed the gift of another generous lunch and fellowshiptime with Paul and Sally.
We pray that God will continue to watch
over them and bless their lives. The vehicles were on the road by
3:00 PM and Paul kindly transported Daniel and Kent to the airport to
meet their plane.
We drove long and hard with several pit stops
finally ending our day in Gadsden, AL for the night.
Another long
day that was very fulfilling in every aspect possible.
We started Saturday bright and early knowing there were still many
miles to travel to get to our destination for the night – HOME to our
own beds!
Yahoo!
With God on our side, we were able to travel
safely home on this 16-hour driving day and made it to the church
close to 10:00 PM.
We all immediately began the task of unloading
and reloading vehicles.
Before departing to our homes, we had one
last circle of prayer giving thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for his
traveling mercies and the opportunity we all had by being a part of
this team.
And as Dolly Myers testifies:
what we do.
We hope all can see the hand of God in
We invite volunteers of all faiths to join us for our next New
Orleans disaster aid mission trip on January 12, 2008.