Day 5

Work continues. It’s amazing how long that it takes to do the inside demo work. We thought for sure that we would be finished by midday Wednesday, but we weren’t even close. Yesterday we finished getting the last of the drywall and plaster off the last ceiling, we continued to attack the millions of nails that are in the studs that must be removed, and we cleaned out most of the debris—plaster, insulation, bits of wood, and anything else that found its way to the floor. After lunch we began to pull up the hardwood flooring that all must be removed.

Today we are expecting to finish the house by noon. We need to finish pulling up the hardwood floors, finish removing the lasts of the nails, do a final sweep of the entire house, do a little cleaning up of the yard, and do a little work at the house down the street that the other crew was unable to finish. We are expecting to meet with Fred and Fran (whom we haven’t seen since Wednesday lunch) and say our good-byes to them.

Relationships are the most important aspect of our mission trip: our relationship with God, with one another, with the other team, with the homeowners, and with people with whom we come in contact. When Ron told the truck driver from the excavation team that tore down the next door neighbor’s house what we were doing, he began to weep openly he was so grateful. He was not the only “stranger” who thanked us for coming down to help. For many people down here, groups like ours are “merchants of hope.”

Please keep the people of New Orleans in our prayers, as well as Fred and Fran. The need is so great, it is difficult to wrap your mind around it.