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"We have teams again!"
"Can you believe we are going to have a team again next
week?!", "Woo hoo, the volunteers are coming this
week!" were all repeated phrases as our staff house was abuzz with
preparing for having volunteers again. After six months of no teams
due to Covid, we have been able to start hosting teams again! We
had been able to continue to work on homes as a staff through this year,
but not having the volunteers definitely was a challenge at times.
We love the relational part of this ministry. We love the long days
and meals together. We love being able to work alongside brothers
and sisters from all over the country, and see them bring home a renewed passion
for reaching their own community. It was such a blessing to have
Constance E-Free with us that first week as we celebrated having a team
again and continued to serve the Friendswood community. The team
was such an encouragement and put their all into serving at Sam and
Stephanie's for the week. We were also able to have our first
community dinner in over six months! We made sure to social
distance and hosted the dinner in the church parking lot. It was so
amazing to see the joy of our volunteers, homeowners, and staff at being
reunited for our beloved Thursday night dinners. Our volunteers
said that one of the things that was just so evident was that all of our
homeowners and staff are like one big family. Everyone was
overjoyed to see each other again. Homeowners from multiple towns,
churches, and backgrounds and staff from all over the country- united
through a common love for Christ and one another.
"What if we present plan A, B, and C and see what
everyone thinks?"
Less than 48 hours before our second team arrived in Friendswood,
Hurricane Delta hit the already battered Lake Charles. Hurricane
Laura had already done significant damage just 6 weeks prior. Our
Friendswood and Covington staff had been making day trips back and
forth to help in Lake Charles. Kat went over to Lake Charles Bible Church
where we had been working to assess the further damage. We were
crushed to find out that the areas of the buildings that were salvageable
before were now destroyed. The buildings needed to be gutted as
soon as possible to help prevent mold from spreading. We presented
the option of going over to Lake Charles for the day to our volunteer
team. Being warned of the long, hard day (almost 3 hours drive each
way and working on tearing out soaking wet insulation and drywall)- we
were so incredibly blessed by the team's immediate "yes!" to
serving in Lake Charles. It was a huge blessing to be able to get
so much of the church gutted so quickly. We often make a plan but
are prepared for things to come up and be flexible with the plan
changing. Being able to go with plan B or C and knowing that might
change too, has been something that God has really grown me in this
year. Blessed are the flexible, right?! After serving in Lake
Charles for the day, we were able to continue work out at Sebie's and
Tim's homes during the rest of the week. It was so exciting to see
Sebie's kitchen cabinets going in and the joy on Theresea's face to
finally have her purple walls in her bedroom.
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