Weekly Report for Diamond

Sunday’s crew leader arrivals were Hope Weaver and Jordan Pierce from Colorado and Rudy Graber from Oregon  Also, arriving on Sunday was our first group of the summer youth program, a wonderful group of youth and their advisors from Millport Mennonite Church from the Lancaster, Pa. area. After leading us in inspirational devotions each morning it was off to work. If was a very HOT, in the upper 90’s, no rain week, but we still accomplished a lot.

Dwight and Theresa’s house got the floor installed, protective paper on floors put down, some plumbing work and the door’s painted and hung. The kitchen cabinets were also installed.

At Rosina’s house, the doors were hung and trim work finished. After the holes were puttied the trim was painted. The electrical work was finished and also some plumbing work was done. The pulls were put on the kitchen cabinets.

With 15 or more people working at Mr. Ron’s house we got many things accomplished. The roofers had a very hot job and two of the mornings they started at 5:30am. They were glad when they were finished roofing and they started the soffit. Underneath them the plumbers were busy doing the rough-in plumbing. The front porch and ramp and railing were also finished. It was a very emotional time for Mr. Ron and all of us on Thursday afternoon, when he was able to go up the new ramp and see the inside of his house for the first time. He supplied the workers with popsicles and cold coke to help keep the workers going and his way of showing appreciation to them. Mr. Ron again gave us a pot of Louisiana red beans for our Wednesday evening meal and then came and shared with us.

The group went out to the Bayou for lunch on Thursday so everyone could see it and have a boat ride at least once while they were here.

Martha had ordered some shrimp, but was surprised when Maureen brought a cooler chest of unpicked and not cleaned shrimp and a lot of other creatures. When we opened it there were different kinds and sizes of fish and many sizes of crabs. They had been on ice overnight, but when we put the crabs in the kitchen sink in water, they started crawling out. It made for some squeals and much laughter as we were cleaning them. We had shrimp cocktail for lunch before the group cleaned up the trucks and the camp, before departing on the long bus ride home to Pennsylvania.

Scott Yoder of Harrisonburg, VA arrived Wed. evening, and departs on Sunday.

We thank the group for a great job and God Almighty for his protecting arms around us, as we worked in the extreme heat this week.

Maureen, Martha M., Tina, Aaron, Andy, Hope, Jordan, Rudy and Ray and Martha