|
This is Volunteer Voices and it will bring you stories of the Volunteers that have traveled from all parts of the United States (Arizona, Connecticut, Washington, Alaska, Texas, etc) to be here to help those in need recover from Hurricane Harvey.
|
Westlake continues to build Victoria after the hurricane!
As our first team members arrived at First United Methodist Church in Victoria Monday morning, October 8th, we were greeted by the smell of fresh pumpkin bread baking and the colorful sight of their pumpkin patch in full swing. The Rio Texas case managers were delighted to see us and had work lined up for us as soon as we dropped off our stuff. The first house in Victoria was a good warm up. We painted small patches of newly textured drywall and replaced a few door thresholds to match the height of the new flooring that had been put in a few weeks prior. We split up for the next two projects. One team headed off to install trim molding around a window and the other team went to a house where the electric outlets and light switches were deeply recessed within the newly installed drywall and needed to be brought out flush to the surface. After a trip to Home Depot, a break for lunch, and another trip to Home Depot, we finally secured all the outlets to our satisfaction and we called it a day.
For those of you that have been on ERT or VIM trips, you know we eat like royalty. This trip was no exception thanks to the amazing Dugie Graham who prepared dinners and breakfasts for us. Triple chocolate brownies and the cookies were only overshadowed by a wonderful Italian Sausage pasta. We sure get spoiled by our wonderful support team back home.
Tuesday dawned with the threat of thunderstorms all day. We were asked to install vinyl siding on the house of the 105-year old owner who lived there with her 75-year old daughter. The case manager had all the supplies ready for us when we arrived and we got going. This was an all day job, but after lunch we were able to finish the siding before thunderstorms rolled through. But we could not call it quits for the day until we repaired some areas of rotten fascia that needed to be closed up. As we started to roll away, the 75-year old daughter came out to express her thanks. It makes our day when a home owner sees what we’ve accomplished. They have been living with exposed walls, or walking on sub-flooring for more than a year so you can imagine their delight whenever we complete a task.
The rest of our week was spent further south in Port Lavaca and Seadrift. First project Wednesday was a sweet old man’s house in Port Lavaca that needed paint on the ceiling and walls of his living room and kitchen. He was very concerned we’d break his family pictures and treasures, so we taped and spread plastic with extreme care. After completing the painting, we enjoyed a picnic lunch at a waterfront park in Port Lavaca, and headed to Seadrift for our next project.
This was a house where the windows and doors had blown in and much of the vinyl siding had been stripped off during Harvey. The homeowner, was paying for the materials and the labor when she could, so our team was a welcome relief for her to get some needed work done. Our goal was to seal the exterior of the house from rain, since it was obvious that mold continued to grow due to wet drywall. One team repaired a leaking roof vent, while the rest of us started on covering exposed exterior walls with new vinyl siding.
Thursday we were back at it early. We made more good progress on the exterior siding and at noon, we enjoyed another idyllic picnic lunch on the waterfront in Seadrift. That afternoon, at the owner’s request, we framed in an exterior door she wanted gone and we had that closed up before calling it a day. Friday morning, we put the finishing touches on the vinyl siding and put the first coat of mud on the new drywall we had just put in. We finished up at noon and headed back to Victoria for a quick cleanup before our trip back to Austin.
This deployment was extremely productive. We completed finishing touches on 4 homes and repaired and sealed the exterior on two others. A great week by all. Special appreciation goes to our hard workers on this trip: Kim Mosley from Tarrytown Methodist, and Jim Burke, Tom Rioux, and David Graham from Westlake UMC who all put in 126 man-hours of labor over the 5 days.
Our next trip is planned for the week of November 12th. Please join us as the more people we have the faster the work goes.
Best as always,
Jim Balthazar
Westlake United Methodist Church.
For those of you that have been on ERT or VIM trips, you know we eat like royalty. This trip was no exception thanks to the amazing Dugie Graham who prepared dinners and breakfasts for us. Triple chocolate brownies and the cookies were only overshadowed by a wonderful Italian Sausage pasta. We sure get spoiled by our wonderful support team back home.
Tuesday dawned with the threat of thunderstorms all day. We were asked to install vinyl siding on the house of the 105-year old owner who lived there with her 75-year old daughter. The case manager had all the supplies ready for us when we arrived and we got going. This was an all day job, but after lunch we were able to finish the siding before thunderstorms rolled through. But we could not call it quits for the day until we repaired some areas of rotten fascia that needed to be closed up. As we started to roll away, the 75-year old daughter came out to express her thanks. It makes our day when a home owner sees what we’ve accomplished. They have been living with exposed walls, or walking on sub-flooring for more than a year so you can imagine their delight whenever we complete a task.
The rest of our week was spent further south in Port Lavaca and Seadrift. First project Wednesday was a sweet old man’s house in Port Lavaca that needed paint on the ceiling and walls of his living room and kitchen. He was very concerned we’d break his family pictures and treasures, so we taped and spread plastic with extreme care. After completing the painting, we enjoyed a picnic lunch at a waterfront park in Port Lavaca, and headed to Seadrift for our next project.
This was a house where the windows and doors had blown in and much of the vinyl siding had been stripped off during Harvey. The homeowner, was paying for the materials and the labor when she could, so our team was a welcome relief for her to get some needed work done. Our goal was to seal the exterior of the house from rain, since it was obvious that mold continued to grow due to wet drywall. One team repaired a leaking roof vent, while the rest of us started on covering exposed exterior walls with new vinyl siding.
Thursday we were back at it early. We made more good progress on the exterior siding and at noon, we enjoyed another idyllic picnic lunch on the waterfront in Seadrift. That afternoon, at the owner’s request, we framed in an exterior door she wanted gone and we had that closed up before calling it a day. Friday morning, we put the finishing touches on the vinyl siding and put the first coat of mud on the new drywall we had just put in. We finished up at noon and headed back to Victoria for a quick cleanup before our trip back to Austin.
This deployment was extremely productive. We completed finishing touches on 4 homes and repaired and sealed the exterior on two others. A great week by all. Special appreciation goes to our hard workers on this trip: Kim Mosley from Tarrytown Methodist, and Jim Burke, Tom Rioux, and David Graham from Westlake UMC who all put in 126 man-hours of labor over the 5 days.
Our next trip is planned for the week of November 12th. Please join us as the more people we have the faster the work goes.
Best as always,
Jim Balthazar
Westlake United Methodist Church.
The United Methodist teams from the Austin area.We in the Austin area watched first with relief as Harvey stalled 120 miles south of us, but then in horror as it sat and swirled for days over your homes in Victoria. As soon as Rio Texas conference initiated Early Response Team (ERT) efforts, we in Austin responded. Victoria is graced with beautiful historic homes, but we also knew that those residents along the tracks or in the river bottom would be the victims of Harvey’s rage and in dire need. What we didn’t expect was the amazing grace and graciousness of the Victoria First United Methodist congregation. You all are amazing.
After 7 months, and 15 deployments by our team, we continue to be in awe of your patience and grace as dirty, tired workers traipse through your beautiful clean hallways and rooms. You shared your kitchen with us, even when you had events and others to feed. You shared your amazing pumpkin bread in the fall. You shared your meeting rooms as sleeping areas. And you kept upgrading the accommodations from sleeping on the floor to air mattresses and now bunkbeds. You’ve shuffled your room needs to accommodate us and others from around the country. Many of your staff have stepped up to take on the conference coordination needs and work hard scheduling and accommodating us. We thank you all so much. Your patience and your commitment to this recovery effort is a testament to your dedication to your faith and community around you. You lift our burden of the hard recovery work we do with what you do. As the summer approaches, we are shifting from ERT efforts to rebuilding. The roof tarps will be replaced with new shingles, bare studs will be lined with new insulation and covered in new drywall, as we work to restore these desperate houses back into the homes they once were. The work will take years. But we won’t give up, knowing the congregation of First Church Victoria is supporting us. Thank you all for what you do. With Love, The United Methodist teams from the Austin area. |
All the way from Washington & AlaskaA message from the VIM (volunteers in mission) team from Wasington and Alaska.Sometimes after a camping experience or a mission trip the participants are asked to the FRONT of the church to share OUT LOUD. Eek. If I go do I have to do that? Usually we do, some of us are getting better at talking in front of the church. HOWEVER; this time the church has had a very busy schedule and low and behold you have not heard unless you’ve asked, “How’d it go?”
Well. We could tell you about the food we ate, the signs we saw (We’re not called to be comfortable) and where we found coffee on the way to the work site. But there is more to the trip than that and sometimes it takes seeing through the eyes of someone on their first VIM trip to remind us of just that. I’ll share what Ty Mansfield wrote. Our mission trip was amazing! To give someone their house back, there are few words to describe the feeling. It was so much fun getting to meet new people and to listen to how the hurricane had affected them. But they didn’t let the hurricane stop them from enjoying their life. The Kings were very welcoming and helpful in the process of rebuilding. We were greeted in the drive way by Mr. King who was very ready and so were we. The trip was a blast and a once in a life time experience. I think it is our duty as Christians to give both hands when only one is needed and to be there for our community no matter the circumstance. I’m thankful for the opportunity and blessed with the experience. TY (and Jenna) Mansfield |