Weekly Report for New Orleans

This week was a busy one as we prepared to close the New Orleans site for the summer. Our volunteers were a group of seniors from Malvern Preparatory School who arrived last week. Everyone worked hard and did a great job both on the job sites throughout the week and at camp cleaning things up on Friday.

At the T house, volunteers continued working on interior trim, and the house looks great! The crew installed baseboard, grouted tile and sealed the grout lines, trimmed out the windows and painted window trim outside the house. They continued working on closets and shelving, completing the shelving in both bathrooms and in the kitchen. We expect the kitchen cabinets to arrive sometime next week. Ms. T visited on Thursday with a heart-felt thank you, a card, some Mardi Gras beads, and a much-appreciated southern lunch of beans, rice, and “mild” sausage.

Two crews worked at the C house this week. On Monday they finished insulating under the house, and Tuesday finished closing it in with plywood. They unloaded drywall, finished putting up the last of the siding, caulked, taped windows and doors, and primed and painted the first coat on the exterior of the house. On Wednesday, Mr. C joined us for supper and shared his story with us. Thank you, Mr. C!

The volunteers working at Ms. G’s house continued to work on mudding and sanding drywall, and made excellent progress. They also finished closing in the underside of the house with plywood. Tuesday they had a chance to meet Ms. G’s neighbor and on Thursday Ms. G came for a visit.

On Thursday, all the sites were cleaned up in preparation for the summer, and Friday morning the clean up at our home base was completed in record time! Mike arrived first thing in the morning to help – he will be taking care of the facilities here for the next few months after everyone heads home.

For anyone reading this, we’d like to ask for your prayers for those working and staying here over the summer and for the guys as they graduate next week and move on to other things; pray for God’s blessing on them and his guidance. We’d also like prayer for the clients here in New Orleans, as we have very few volunteers scheduled for the summer and it is very hard on the homeowners to wait longer for their homes. Please pray that their homes would be ready to move in sooner, or if not, that God would sustain them as they wait. Also one of our clients received notice from FEMA this week that they will remove the trailer that he is living in at the end June; please pray that FEMA will allow him to keep his trailer until his home is ready for him to move in.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to all our hard-working volunteers! We’ve enjoyed working together and getting to know you; you’re a terrific group of people. All the best as you head home and congratulations to all the grads!

Blessings from Willis and Nancy, Jean and Dave, Kerney, Henry, Tina, Ruth and Mike.