Wednesday was started with a brief Camp Gathering Time on the lawn of the school. The speaker for the week took the group through an exercise for people to think about how they treat others in their life. It forced the group to consider how they are living out the Kingdom of Heaven in their lives.
Following that, the groups were off to their work sites. One of the jobs assigned was to continue to put the siding on a two story home. This was a job that was started a few weeks ago, and then was able to be continued this week. The group also had some minor work to do around the sides of the home, so they could continue their assigned job.
On another site, a group continued to build a new home in Pulaski. The home is being built from the ground up. By Wednesday, they were tarring the side of the house, and placing stone for the floor of the home.
In a home right next to it, they worked on stabilizing some walls and laying out the frame of the inside walls for drywall work.
In addition to dry wall work in that home, drywall was also being done at another home. This was in a small room on the back of the home that was affected by the tornado.
In the afternoon, the groups went to Randolph Park, to enjoy some time in the pool. After that the groups did various things for supper and for the evening.
On Thursday, it was back to a regular work day. Some of the work being done was to finish up some dry wall work in a home. It mainly included doing the taping and spackling of the walls.
At another site, some guys were helping a person to do the masonry work on a new home. It was their first time for some young guys to do so, and so they learned how to do some masonry work.
There was a site that had two small, but necessary jobs to be done at them. The two jobs were to replace two small sections of a ceiling in two rooms. And then on the porch, replace the posts that were holding it up.
Three groups got the exciting job of demolishing two buildings. They got out their hammers, crow bars, and mallets and started attacking the homes. As you can imagine, this type of assignment was enjoyable. Yet, at the same time, it is sad to think of the hopes, dreams, and lives that used to reside in those homes. And in a matter of 30 seconds, their homes were destroyed. One of the homes was lifted and moved 2.5 feet off of its foundation.
One of the groups did two jobs at the housing facility. One was to paint a hallway. The other was to organize two rooms of donated clothing and other basic necessities that were donated to give to people affected by the tornado.
Although it is three months since the tornado happened, people are still in great need. In fact a person came to the Tornado Relief center the other day seeking help for the first time. It is obviously going to take a while for the community to recover.
