Mission in NY

Here's to my Momma for holding down the 'blog-fort.' I'm impressed.

Here's to a safe journey up to NY and back from NY.

My team from my church worked at 4 sites throughout the week cleaning up and rebuilding from the major flood they had last August.

We were able to dive deep into the community since it wasn't large and we stuck out like sore thumbs. People honked and waved at us, the Catholic church fed us lunch everyday, and we hung out at the Stewart's gas station at night for ice cream floats.

We broke into crews and spent the day working hard and doing whatever was needed. One crew with my pastor on it had to muck out debris from under a cabinetmaker's shop. They were covered in yuck.

Here are some snapshots.

View from my worksite. This 'crick' rose so that I'd be underwater when I
was taking this photo.

A chair from someone upstream.

This house was next to our worksite. It has yet to be really 'mucked'
out. On the door, you can see the water line. In another room,
I could tell it was a child's room. The fan had Barbie stickers on it.

Yes, that's black mold. 

A teammate and I in Downtown Middleburgh. The banner behind us
is recognizing the 300th anniversary of the village. This street
was flooded. We are standing about 0.30 mile from the 'crick' and
our worksite.

The biggest connection to the disaster I had was the touch of
kids living that was left behind. This teddy bear is on a tire swing
at another worksite. Still hanging on from a year ago. These 2
girls (going into 4th) would hang out at the shower trailer for me.
They got to learn the 9s trick for multiplication. They were darling.

One of the biggest lessons I was reminded of was that the human spirit
can work together for a greater good when all are in. We had a team of 13 people with
all different talents, all different levels of experience, and all different possibilities.
We were able to harness that, surrender ourselves for the greater good, and rebuild for
others. 

I'm not sure who took this picture. But, I enjoy how the homeowner
didn't use the pronoun 'I' instead he/she used 'We.' Hundreds of
volunteers have flowed into the village over that past year to help.

During a break, we were sitting on a stoop of a now non-existent home.
The concrete platform is where a garage once stood. The weeping
willow tree did get swung on by me.

All buildings in the village follow an 'open doors' policy. The high school
next to us wasn't locked at night. Actually the doors were wide open. Our church
was the same during the day.  Someone brought flowers. One day we found
dollar bills under our pillows.

The team taking a tour of the devastation.

I began to slowly rub off on team members. But, these wise souls
rubbed a ton off on me. Almost 4 people on the trip, tripled my age.
I enjoyed hearing their stories. 

Some of the results of our teamwork.

A market across from a worksite.

Someone's office view & the flood damage.

Our crew on the final afternoon. We accomplished some mucking, dry walling
the whole thing, mudding, and electrical work. For some reason, the Team Leader
decided to stay with us. Laugh. He was so patient and put up with our jam parties.
Power tools make great microphones.

The final view as we pulled out off the village to head home.

Moral of the Story: God called. We went and helped. But, let me be frank. I don't have to travel 10 hours as part of a DRT to do mission work. My life should be a mission. And, a classroom, field, relationships, and my backyard of Cpep is where mission work is just as needed. God calls daily. Will I continue to surrender for the love of others?