day three was work day.. and work we did. our team split into two sections. one set was given the task of gutting a small house. it was a two bedroom one bath house that had a kitchen and main room. it hadn't been touched since the storm. by touched, it hadn't been cleaned at any level. there did seem to be some movement within the house as the house was searched and it was possible some of the valuables were scavenged. the second set was given the technical task of helping put together a large storage shed for the ywam folks. as it turns out, people had been coming in and stealing tools over the last two years. this was to help secure the tools and store sufficiently to help maintain the ministry without taking on a continued cost of replacing.
the second team jumped into action putting up soffit and siding. not sure what else was on the task as i wasn't on the site. the great part of the site was that the youth had a face to face experience with the tension of being haves and have nots. someone who lives on the borders of the ywam property said in some colorful language how he wondered why he was needing help and no one was coming to help him. it's a legitimate question and something we always need to ask of ourselves, how can we live or do the things we do while others go without or live in distress. who is it that we help? what do we do? can we legitimately do things for an infrastructure that would enable better ministry for years to come? or do we give it all to those in need, even if we can only give for a short period of time?
stories abound from scaling scaffolding, casey weighting down the scaffolding, picking weeds, everyone getting trained and using nail guns, to the story of meeting up with the neighbor of the property.
our other team had gutting house duty. the primary means for gutting a house these days is not so much remodeling, though that is a possibility and needs to be done if that is entertained. but gutting a house these days, and there are many houses in need of it, is to help save the house from being condemned and taken possession of by the government. the gov had gone around in august putting up citations that if a house wasn't cleaned out by then it was to be demolished as soon as possible. then the house and the property would become government property. if it could get gutted before demolishing by the government it would continue to rest in the hands of the land owner. then they would be able choose to sell the property or house to a builder or remodel it themselves. regardless, it is reassuring when one has lost everything to have something to choose.
gutting by the nature of the task is hard work, heart breaking, and a lot of fun in the same. hard work because it is a lot of manual labor. heart breaking because as you throw things onto the street you are seeing remnants of someones life. fun in that you can punch through a wall, or knock down cabinets with a sledge hammer (a big hit for our group) maybe the only time in your life.
the highlight had to come from opening the refrigerator (not smart of me to open the freezer) and the sludge that came with it. it wasn't the worst smell, that came from the port-o-john across the street when it got pumped and removed.. that smell took up the neighborhood.
we almost finished cleaning the house by our 5pm deadline.. we didn't get there, and were a bit bummed by that, but we kicked some serious butt.
more pictures on their way to our ongoing flickr set. not to mention our version of dirty jobs.
