Weekly Report for Lyles, TN

Even though the weather has been rather cool and gloomy, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the volunteers that came this week. We had an intergenerational group of 12 from East Petersburg Mennonite Church, Jim and Mary, and Kevin, all from Pennsylvania. They brought with them many talents and skills and with that, much was accomplished. We thank God for these volunteers that gave up their time (many of them vacation time) to help the folks in this region. We also continue to thank God for the safety He has granted as we work on these projects and the many travel miles that it takes to get to these sites.

The homes that we worked on:

Ms. Goldie – we finished putting down her floor and a new kitchen cupboard. Ms. Goldie was so thrilled and baked cookies for the volunteers!

Ms. Matilda – Started putting down a metal roof. They say the dark blue color that was installed looks very lovely.

Mr. Williams – Put on a new metal green roof.

Mr. Benjamin – Put down sheathing for the floor in order to install flooring.

Mr. Dwight – This will be a new build, but more like a cabin. Mr. Dwight’s home was washed away and it took an abrupt stop when it hit a tree. Because of limited funds for this build, wood has been donated for this project to they started to sort the lumber to see what MDS has to work with.

Mr. Andy/Ms. Ann – After one-and-a-half weeks of demolition of the old roof, they started to frame the walls on top of the existing building which will act as the “basement” of the home.

On Tuesday Evening Mr. Andy and Ms. Ann came to the MDS camp to join us for supper. They had the opportunity to tell us about the flood. The following is their story, written by Martha June:

Andy, Ann, Leandra and their Aunt joined us for supper on Tuesday. All the volunteers had a first-hand report of the damage done in the floods of May 1 and 2, 2010, here in Tennessee. Mr. Andy and Ms. Ann’s house lies quite close to the Piney River west of our camp. When the waters started to rise, they were not very alarmed, but as the day went along, there was more and more rain. Suddenly the waters rose and came up in the yard. During the ten minutes they prepared some clothes and personal items to take along, the water had risen so much that when they opened the front door to leave, a wave of water came flooding into the house, rising quickly to knee level. The highest house in the neighborhood offered some protection to them and the two neighboring families during that night and the next day of rain. All roads were under water in places and unsafe for travel. They thank God for the protection from the elements and for the food that another neighbor brought. In the eight months since the flood, they have had to deal with insurance companies and FEMA trying to get enough money to rebuild. Now, through generous donations for materials they are able to have enough money to rebuild, but only if someone can provide the labor. That is where we as MDS volunteers come in.

Ken and Martha June Graber, Dottie and Keith Reed, Natal’ya Kovalenko, Merlyn Martin, Don Plett, Larissa Plett, Willis Troyer, Alta and Lem Metzler, Peter and Lydia Schroeder