Today was a day for worship, and for getting started on our various jobs.

The sanctuary of the Long Beach Presbyterian Church likely seats 125-150 people.  The service was led by a tall man with gray hair who is a local lawyer.  The church's pastor had traveled to Texas to see his new grandchild.  The lawyer was a humble man who touched our group deeply by his gratitude for the volunteers who "came to help us" as he said.

Shortly after worship, Chris, the Presbyterian Disaster Relief rep, gave our two-church team three jobs.  Bob, from the Elfinwild Church led a team that is installing a drop ceiling for an elderly couple who rode out the hurricane.  They had survived Camille and now can claim that they survived Katrina.  The team members enjoyed talking with this couple who shared stories of their family.

The second team was led by Cliff Schoff whose group taped and sanded drywall.  At the end of the day they were covered in powder dust.  One of the youth working on that team said, "I just kept thinking of their reaction when the family returns to their home and sees all that has been done."

The third group was led by John Rock and worked on the electrical service to a gutted one-story house.  The brick home had a front door, but no windows and no side door.  The remaining 2x4 studs had mold covering the lower portion at the front of the house.  The flooring had been removed and we walked on the concrete slab.  As team members removed old outlet boxes and installed new ones, Sherry Geis drew a schematic of the rooms and the locations of the new boxes so that a calculation of needed wire could be made.  As John oversaw our work he called the homeowner to clarify the homeowner's wiring plan and to offer some additional options.  He also called Doug Myers in Oakmont for some professional advice on the job.

I worked with the electrical team, but, because the teams discovered the full scope of their project only when they arrived at their houses, the early part of my day was spent driving supplies to our two teams.  (Our van will soon turn 40,000 miles and has operated flawlessly).  Given the amount of debris that is strewn all around this area, our first job in the morning will be to check the van tires.  We hope that we'll not have any flat tires, but it can be expected.

Our team leader, Jan Hepler, took the first cooking/cleaning shift.  She and one person each from the East Liberty Church team and the Elfinwild Church team cleaned the common areas including the dining rooms and restrooms.  They organized lunch, purchased food for the Monday and Tuesday evening meals and then prepared our supper.  Although we only worked half of the day, we were quite tired as we returned and were pleased to take showers and rest before supper was served.

Later in the evening, we met for devotions.  For the first time, our two-church group sat together as one team.  We read the beatitudes of Matthew 5 from the perspective of Long Beach residents and gave thanks and prayed for the people of this community.

Most of our team members were heading to their bunks by 9:30 and by 10 p.m. many were asleep.  We arrived one day earlier, feeling the stress that comes with a new situation and its unknowns.  We settled into our bunks tonight having grown accustomed to our surroundings and to the work we had begun.

In the new day a new cooking/cleaning team will begin their "tour of duty" and our teams will continue what they began today.  We look forward to Bobbie Lio's arrival and then our team will be complete.

Please pray for the safety of our team as we work in the homes and travel for supplies and for God's blessing on the owners of the homes where we are working and on the others working to recover from the hurricane.

Steve