Day One in the Books

Today, we started our work in Joplin, and it turned out a million times better than our trip yesterday! There was no time to recuperate from our late night - we started bright and early at 6:30 a.m. After breakfast and orientation meeting, our group and the group from Springfield, IL made a short trip to the Rebuild Joplin headquarters where we got our job assignments for the day. Everyone from the two groups were sent to three different job sites....except for Rev. Laura. She had the most important job of the day! New tires for Powder Blue Holy Wagon! Yay!

Rebuild Joplin sent us to individuals' homes that had been damaged or somehow affected by last year's tornado. Tom Cody headed up a group with Scotty Griswold, Joseph Rabb and Kenny Barron. Their main objective for the day was "finish work." They vacuumed and installed light fixtures and smoke detectors like professionals!

Tom, Kenny and Joseph work on a smoke detector

Joseph vacuums while Scotty "supervises"

Tom, the finish man himself

The second group was made up of Beverly Weselak, Brandon Miguez and Amy Lester from FCCBRLA and seven others from FCC Springfield. They spent the day removing flooring. The flooring put up quite a fight! Everyone had to wear protective masks to keep from breathing in all the dust! The day ended with the future of the house up in the air. After removing the flooring, the team discovered that the stability of the house was in question. So now, we will have to wait for the bosses to decide whether we will continue work on the house or if they will have to demolish it.

Brandon and Beverly removing nails

Beverly, Amy and Brandon

The last group was Michael Maher, Darby Jarratt, Judy Lester and Pam Miller, plus 5 other volunteers from Springfield. They spent the day in the hot sun removing siding and dragging it to the dumpster. The homeowner, Rebecca, was at their site and was truly thankful for their presence.

Pam doing some heavy-lifting

"Saws-all solves all" also, "Rawr!"

Judy is a siding pro now!

We had a DELICIOUS dinner prepared by Lucy Cody and Carol Madere, topped it all off with a celebration for Lucy's birthday and a wonderful devotion with FCC Springfield!

All in all, our first day was an enormous success. We appreciate all of the kind words people have sent to us, and ask you to continue to keep us in your prayers! We will be updating the blog every night after work. Keep reading!

Amy L.