Flash Back in Time (only like 2 weeks ago)

So I had signed up to go on a mission trip to Bridge City, TX with my Church to help clean up after hurricane Ike had come through and demolished almost everything in its path. I wasn’t very sure what I was getting into, but I knew that God was telling me to go. So I obediently listened no sure what to expect. I am not very good when it comes to going on trips where I know no one and am going by myself. I get rather nervous, as I would think that anyone would. So the day had finally come October 10 th, 2008 and we were to meet at the church at 7:45am to start driving by 8:00am. Well needless to say I think I was there like 7:20 because I am so afraid of being late. Finally people start arriving. There are 7 of us going on this trip divided into 2 vans. Originally the count was suppose to be 17, but God had other plans. The people that he put me with were absolutely amazing. The knots in my stomach soon subsided as we started to drive away. I was no longer there for me, I was there to serve the Lord and to help his people in need. The drive was about 6 hours long. Cara and Brandon were in a van with myself as we drove. I think that Cara was fast asleep before we even got out of Quik-Trip’s parking lot. :) As we pass through Houston and get closer to the coast you can see where the water and the storm had come through the trees and the land. Even though the storm had come through almost a month prior it was as if it just came through. Workers were still frantically working to clear areas with damaged trees and garbage. We call Pastor Linda Palone as we get within about an hour of driving from Bridge City. She tells us to be ready to work once we arrive.

We arrive finally at the church and unload our stuff so we can quickly get back onto the road and off to a house to help someone. Linda leads us around Bridge City a little bit so we can see just what we are getting in to. Out of the 8,500 families that live in Bridge City only 14 homes are left livable at this time. Everyone was working together to try and fix the City that was once beautiful and clean. We arrive at the home where we are to help the family clear the front yard so that the FEMA trailer will be able to fit. After about 3 to 4 hours of cleaning the front yard is cleared where we have to be able to have the FEMA trailer. While we were cleaning Red Cross was even driving around delivering free hot meals to anyone that wanted them.

Day 2
Rise and shine at 6am to get ready for a long day. Today we split into teams so that we would be able to help more people in a short amount of time. This actually worked out very well. Brandon, Cara, Kim and I were on a team today. We arrived at the house and assessed the damages. The walls all needed to have to wood panels taken off and the insulation and sheet rock taken out up to 4 feet. The water in the house rose about 22inches. It was an older gentleman that was living in the house at the time of the storm. He lost most everything inside of the house. About a year ago he lost his other house due to a fire the burnt the entire house to the ground. We completed everything that needed to be done at this house and we were suppose to go to the son’s home but he had already had someone else come and help him. So we quickly called to see where we could assist. Dave had just about everyone working on a house that was right by the gulf that was totally submerged in water to the ceiling. Everything to the studs was taken out of the house. This project really did need everyone working on it as a team. The family that we were helping was actually trying to clean their father’s home. We were able to find some important things to the family the rest were damaged. Finally finish working about 8pm and shower and eat dinner and off to bed to get ready for the long day ahead of us tomorrow.

Final Day
Well I set my alarm for 6am once again, but only this time I used my work alarm instead not realizing that it only goes off Monday thru Friday. Luckily I heard other people get up around this time so I was able to wake Cara and Whitney so they could get ready to go out and start working. So everyone is awake except for Brandon who was supposed to be… So we wait, and wait… :)

Finally he wakes and decides that he is going to Wal-Mart with Michael. Does he not realize that we could have slept another 30 minutes? So back to good old waiting… YAY! We were only going to work on one house and when we arrived it was obvious why. The last house that we were working on was the home of a Orange County Sheriff. He had 3 boys and 1 girl. He was a single father working hard to support his kids. When the hurricane came through their neighborhood it came within about a foot from the ceiling. Everything in the entire house had to be taken out. While Brandon and I were cleaning in the garage I came across 4 brass boots through out the day with the children’s names on them. He was rather happy that they were found and not broken. We also came across a high school class ring that belonged to one of his sons. I wish we could have stayed and helped so much more, but we had to leave at 3 so we could start cleaning up and get ready for our drive back home.