Today, Andy's family group was in charge of preparing the lunches. They prepared some lunch bags for us with personalized sayings and little illustrations as well as setting out the food for us to pack our own lunches.
After breakfast, we had a guest speaker, Pam Easterly spoke to the group. Pam came to Mississippi from Virginia where she was a member of Messiah UMC in Springfield, VA. She told us that she had a calling to quit her job in Virginia. Within months she discerned a call to come to the Gulf Coast through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and for the past two years has counselled hurricane Katrina victims and provided spiritual care for those involved in relief missions to this area. She currently lives in a small trailer on the grounds of the Seashore Assembly Center, a United Methodist camp in nearby Biloxi. Everyone could tell that her message was genuine and that her ministry was her top priority.
After what turned out to be an extremely motivational speech, the work site coordinator for Heritage UMC named Sheila came and greeted us. She told us how much she appreciated having us come and work in the area. She mentioned that the street we are working on has been given so much hope by the teams that have been there recently. After one person on the street asked for help and the first team came to work on their house, all of a sudden the other people around realized that they could also receive help and that God could still provide blessings to them even after such a terrible disaster. Another member of Heritage UMC also came along with Sheila and had to tell the group about how excited she was that Voices was here to help with the local mission work. She said that when she hears others criticizing youth, she tells them about groups like Voices of Youth that restore her faith in the younger generation.
Shortly after 9 a.m., we headed out and finally made it to the work site. When we arrived, we found that the homes were still in great need. One of the homeowners was there and welcomed us as well as thanked us for the help we are providing her.
After getting organized, we had people trimming bushes, putting primer on some exterior walls, sweeping, measuring, and other various jobs. It was quite a challenge to paint, especially since it was a rainy day. We managed to place a primer on the exterior walls and scrape away remnants of previous flooring on the the floors inside the houses to prepare for the new laminate floors. Some of our youth attempted to put the flooring down but even with the assistance of our adult staff and some of the District Superintendents, we found it to be a lot harder than expected. As the day progressed, we learned that the safety precaution lessons we received at orientation were very important because we were able to use almost all of them.
We shared lunch with the District Superintendents and some of their family members who accompanied them on the trip and enjoyed the opportunity to converse and work together with them. Many of the youth commented on how cool the District Superintendents. Some of them also had the opportunity to hear what exactly a District Superintendent does. District Superintendents present are Steve Hundley (Roanoke) and his wife, Becky; Tammy Estep (Eastern Shore); Mark Ogren (Ashland) and his son, Matt - a recent Duke graduate; Steve Jones (Richmond); Kathleen Overby-Webster (Staunton); Brenda Biler (Charlottesville); David Forrest (Winchester), and Bruce Tuttle (Danville) and his wife, Becca.
Throughout the day, groups of people took time to go across the street and talk with one of the homeowners and her friends. We were all able to learn a lot just in one day through our interactions with each other and the people we were serving. Around 4 p.m. we cleaned up and got ready to go. We were all tired, sweaty and dirty but excited at the work we had done and the work we still had to do.
When we returned to Heritage UMC, we took quick showers and then got ready to go to dinner. We shared supper again with the District Superintendents and other work groups staying at the Seashore Assembly Center.
After dinner, we came back to Heritage and had a rehearsal. We are working really hard to memorize all of our music piece by piece and perfect our songs for the concerts that begin next week. Once rehearsal was finished, we broke off into family groups, followed by a devotion prepared by Katie Lape's family group, and then cobbler and ice cream prepared by Sandra Burks and Ashley Fisher
We ended the day with some free time where we socialized, played cards and some other fun games. At our evening debriefing, Tom said that he and Sandra had gone to Lowes and learned an easy way to apply the laminate flooring with the proper tools. The interesting thing is that when they first asked for help, the Lowes assistant had just as much difficulty as our work team earlier in the day which provided a bit of comic relief. Luckily it didn't take long to realize that the job would be made easier if the proper tools were used. The whole group was excited to hear this and we are all looking forward to working on the homes and relationships again tomorrow!
Until then,
-David and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters
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