Our last morning

This morning we woke to pack, to eat, and to Pray for Pastor Billy. This morning Tony got up early and drove our Speaker Scott & Worship Leader Ty to the Airport. We where immensely blessed by their word and song.

We as a team decided to bless Pastor Billy and the People of Galveston with a monetary gift of Love, from support that came in that was above and beyond our budget. We asked Annie to present two gifts, one, to be distributed to the people of Galveston by pastor Billy as he saw fit. The second gift, was to help pastor Billy and his Family to rebuild their lives, as they too lost everything with in the walls of their house.

We have cleaned... and soon we will jump into our rental cars and head to the airport to fly back home to Santa Cruz. 

With love we will see you soon!

    Texas 2009 Team

impacted

Among the piles the cross still stood as a marker of what Christ has done through us.

This is our team. God moved in some HUGE ways!!! I cannot express what an impact this trip had on the people we met, the people in the bunk next to us, the people we served, and more than anything the impact God had on Our teams lives. We stand in awe.

Ty our worship leader led us in this song a few times and I believe it holds a lot of our heart. Below are the lyrics.

God of this City - Chris Tomlin

You're the God of this city

You're the King of these people

You're the Lord of this nation

You Are.

You're the light in this darkness

You're the hope to the hopeless

You're the peace to the restless

You Are.

For there is now one like Our God

For there is no one like You God

For greater things have yet to come and Greater things are still to be done

In this City

Greater things are still to be done here

You're the Lord of Creation

The Creator of all things

You're the King above all kings

You Are.

You're the strength in our weakness

You're the love to the broken

You're the Joy in the sadness

YOU ARE!

Greater things have yet to come 

Greater things are still to be done

in this city

Greater things are still to be done here (in Galveston Texas)

on last full day

This morning we woke up one hour later than normal to help detour us from us hitting the wall two days in a row. Why would we sleep in on our last day of work you ask? It seemed only fair that our hearts desire was to finish strong, and finish strong we did.

In the morning we chose to divide and conquered:

• One Silver Van & One Maroon Truck went to the Ferry and on to work at our sight in Port Bolivar ...
• One Blue Van was dropped off at the ferry and walked onto the ferry... then since our daily ferry line was so long they walked to our work sight as well. Scott (our speakers phone died) he made a trip into town as he needed to contact the family.
• One Orange Van went to a demolished a deck in Galveston...then to the ferry to join us
• One Tony & One Johnathon went to rebuilt the deck in Galveston that the students tore down
• The ironic thing: We all ended up honestly getting to the sights at the same time, we don't know how that happened.

Isaac & Cole and many others worked really hard and making this deck usable before we left today, as well as a whole crew and many hands helped this process.

Nick & Michelle... still, on day seven, faithfully with others hung more and more drywall.

These ladies put the final touches on Mrs Shirley's home. Lenny, Marcie, Margaret, & Barbara really blessed Mrs Shirley by reorganizing, and cleaning so that the family could focus on rebuilding rather than clutter. Ginny (not pictured) spent days with Mr Shirley, & downsized as she made a clean sweep of her closets, as well as walked through removing her late husbands items that she could not get rid of. Truly a beautiful labor of love.

Analisa and I felt that today of all days we may have mastered mudding walls and are confident we could be hired as professionals. 

I promise work was done! Yet what can one say when college friends reunite in a ministry setting... things happen and all are entertained.

Part of the reality is that things everywhere need to be cleaned. Bianca & Cassidy spent most of the day with the horses, providing some much needed TLC to these wonderful animals that survived Ike. Even the horses house needed to be cleaned of debris, so the Rollo's joined the girls for the cleaning. 

It is finished...after the puzzle and the rearranging of the deck boards, this crew stayed a while after the rest of us finished and cleaned. Some times finishing strong means we hang out just a little bit longer at the sight.

Whataburger! After the whole week of yelling what a burger we decided to honor Jerry and finish the trip right. Tonight we took the whole team to Whataburger! We where told it was the In&Out of Texas to 

Hitting the wall

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a peninsula! Or is it... (Google Map: Galveston to Port Bolivar )

The worlds of people in Port Bolivar got turned upside down last September - along with this uprooted and flipped house. 

Its bleach and its clean.... well as good as we can get it : )

Who needs a ladder when you can touch the sky?

Tony and Isaac continue to construct a level deck and set of stairs for Johnette

Nick lays flat in the flatbed of a pickup truch as even one of our hardest workers hits the wall.

We all felt that our hard work should be rewarded with some giggles. Cole, Cassidy, and Bianca took a stroll around the work

site to gain some much needed energy. After a long days work we were able to sit upon the steps of a new back porch.

Tuesday

Barbara put down the oven mitts on Tuesday and picked up a power tool.

Morgan, Michelle, Nick, Ty, and Annie fit a piece of dry wall around a light bulb on the ceiling.

Sometimes it takes that extra leap of faith....

Todd and Lennie spent some time with the woman whose life we are helping to rebuild, Miss Shirley.

Tony, Annie, Isaac, and our Nehemiah's Vision friend Sean worked together in giving Johnette a fresh, new - and most importantly, non-slanted - deck.

What happened on Monday?

We measured, cut, and insulated 

our way through a Monday full of 

progress in the reconstruction 

of Johnette's decimated house.

Less than a year ago, some young child played with this little ducky. 

On Monday, it was dug out by Bianca from a pile of rubble. In Hurricane Ike, homes were lost, lives were permanently changed, and childhood joys were washed away.

Cole fixing an old ATV 

was just one example 

of our team putting the 

pieces back together 

in Miss Shirley's life.

Thankfully our lunches had settled deep in our stomachs before our noses were assaulted by the horrendous stench of six month old standing water and foot deep decomposed sewer sludge. Ginny, Melinda, and Annie scooped out assorted treasures with only a sharp stench in common from outdoor

 goldfish ponds, Bianca, Analisa, and Conor shoveled up muck in hopes of finding a leak from a clean water pipe - only that pipe happened to be a sewage pipe full of excrement.

On our Ferry ride home we learned the new trade of feeding the local seagulls thanks to Tony "Birdman" Armor. The interactions of man and wild were thwarted by the Ferry crew who did not think kindly of having dozens of seagulls defecating on their front deck and passengers. 

by Conor Armor and Bianca Grossi

Sunday...a day of Rest

We started out the morning with a day at our Base Camp Church. Where there were some really challenging questions.

After a fabulous lunch we had the day to enjoy the city before we started the work week. Did we mention we are having some really amazing food. Cuz we are...

Some people went to explore the island, some people took a nap, some people went to the beach, where some people caught a cannonball jelly fish, the high winds could not keeps away from the gulf of Mexico's water, reynauds had a short visit, and the mosquitos are ever present, then we took cold showers....just for fun (ok not for fun...we ran out of propane) we didn't have a choice. 

Conor and "the ladies" went to the beach

At the end of our day we ventured off to the Spot... Where many Bikers & locals Frequented. 

The food was good...

The hamburgers were good...

The sweet teeeea (insert Texas accent here) was good...

The hot wings were good...

& Conor enjoyed his oysters on half shells

and we felt right at home cause we all know that,

"We're a Little Different"

a word from Annie on behalf of the team

We Rebuild

We, for I is not sufficient;

For it is

We who rebuild

Texas; lives; people . . .

We rebuild with hope by 

giving hope to

fellow travelers . . .

To rebuild

we must be flexible; we must

breathe; we must

sit as we

listen, work, love, learn through

insulation and dry wall and the remnants of lives, and the

life amidst the muck . . .

--Oh look! A fiddler crab!

Yes, we are a bit

eccentric amidst motorcycles and mayhem; 

yet we are

dependent in our necessary fellowship as are

children, as we

rebuild with

laughter and silence

for we are

free . . . free to

rebuild . . . free to have

faith . . . or to be

Gideonish; that is to

lack faith . . . for

God always comes through as

We Rebuild

This is the work we are doing : )

Today we spent the day cleaning up drift wood, putting siding on a house, and doing insulation in the entire house, and started the drywall. : ) Good night.

I have no words.. Just Photos....

Travel and our morning

Yelling WHATABURGER! Has been a lovely pass time thus far as from the airport to University Baptist, Galveston Texas, we saw at least 50... ok maybe 10 : )

This Morning we jumped in the cars and waited in a line for the Ferry across... we laughed, chased birds (ok Cassidy did), and sat in the line waiting for our boat, all this time we where unaware of the devistation that waited for us across the way.

WE have arrived Safely

Hey Gang! 

Yesterday morning our team left Santa Cruz at 7 am and flew out of San Francisco and landed here in Huston around 6:30 ish Texas time. Our flights had a bit of turbulence, and quite a bit of laughter. The flight attendants on both flights announced and asked the flight to make notice of the "Team in Red Matching T-shirts from Santa Cruz" we didn't expect it, and thus it felt a little surreal, since at that point in time we still didn't know what we where doing other than cleaning up as needed. Below are pictures of the Airport Shenanigan's. 

We as the team have just completed the first day of work here in Galveston.