Journal: May 12, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
Tonight marks the end of another chapter in The Great Adventure. We are preparing to leave in the morning. That means we are heading home and no more work until we get home and then there will be plenty. I have mixed feelings about leaving Mississippi and the disaster relief work. I wish I could do more to help, but I’m tired of life in the NDR compound. I’m also tired of the wind and the thunderstorms. Lightning here is extreme. It’s actually a little scary.
I spent today getting the truck cleaned out and washed. I actually relocated all the tools so we have a back seat. We don’t really need it, but I thought it would be nice to get rid of the tools since I won’t need them. I also washed the Montana and did all the prep for leaving that I could do. It was a nice, sunny, 80 degree day and I enjoyed the radio and the puttering on my own stuff. Tonight, we went out for supper with the home team and had lot of laughs. I feel ready to leave.
Last night, Agnes Cherry came over to the café here for supper. Anitarae had invited her and introduced her to the workers. She told them Agnes was a "satisfied customer" and represented the people they had come to help. Agnes made some nice comments and later thanked me for the work I did on her house. This was quite satisfying because I had been feeling that she was ungrateful never having said thank you yet. I came to the conclusion that she is timid, not ungrateful.
The motto here is "Restoring Hope" and on my last working day I had the opportunity to help a family where I really felt I was bringing hope to them. I located a single mother with three kids (and lots of pets) who was really desperate for help. She had used up all of her money hiring out work that was done wrong, poorly, and not at all. One guy actually took her money and never did the work. I went to her house to assess the situation and found a mess. She had hired some young guys to do laminate floors and they obviously did not know how. They had made several mistakes and left the floors unfinished and they couldn’t be finished because of what they had done. Naturally she was depressed and had no idea what she would do. She knew the floors were not right and knew they had to be taken up and assumed the material would be trashed. I told her I had one day left before I was going home, but I would do what I could. Fortunately, I was able to save the flooring I took up and used it to do another room and correct the rooms they had botched. I think I turned the situation around emotionally and gave her hope. The best part is that I wrote a report for her folder and now it’s likely that she will become a higher priority for future work by some church team. This is a family, like many others, which needs encouragement. They had a real scare during the storm. They had to escape to the attic when the flood surge began to fill the house. She described it as a real panic with lots of crying and screaming. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been wondering if they would drown in the attic. I doubt they could have broken through the roof. I felt good that on my last day I could make a difference for someone.
Tonight marks the end of another chapter in The Great Adventure. We are preparing to leave in the morning. That means we are heading home and no more work until we get home and then there will be plenty. I have mixed feelings about leaving Mississippi and the disaster relief work. I wish I could do more to help, but I’m tired of life in the NDR compound. I’m also tired of the wind and the thunderstorms. Lightning here is extreme. It’s actually a little scary.
I spent today getting the truck cleaned out and washed. I actually relocated all the tools so we have a back seat. We don’t really need it, but I thought it would be nice to get rid of the tools since I won’t need them. I also washed the Montana and did all the prep for leaving that I could do. It was a nice, sunny, 80 degree day and I enjoyed the radio and the puttering on my own stuff. Tonight, we went out for supper with the home team and had lot of laughs. I feel ready to leave.
Last night, Agnes Cherry came over to the café here for supper. Anitarae had invited her and introduced her to the workers. She told them Agnes was a "satisfied customer" and represented the people they had come to help. Agnes made some nice comments and later thanked me for the work I did on her house. This was quite satisfying because I had been feeling that she was ungrateful never having said thank you yet. I came to the conclusion that she is timid, not ungrateful.
The motto here is "Restoring Hope" and on my last working day I had the opportunity to help a family where I really felt I was bringing hope to them. I located a single mother with three kids (and lots of pets) who was really desperate for help. She had used up all of her money hiring out work that was done wrong, poorly, and not at all. One guy actually took her money and never did the work. I went to her house to assess the situation and found a mess. She had hired some young guys to do laminate floors and they obviously did not know how. They had made several mistakes and left the floors unfinished and they couldn’t be finished because of what they had done. Naturally she was depressed and had no idea what she would do. She knew the floors were not right and knew they had to be taken up and assumed the material would be trashed. I told her I had one day left before I was going home, but I would do what I could. Fortunately, I was able to save the flooring I took up and used it to do another room and correct the rooms they had botched. I think I turned the situation around emotionally and gave her hope. The best part is that I wrote a report for her folder and now it’s likely that she will become a higher priority for future work by some church team. This is a family, like many others, which needs encouragement. They had a real scare during the storm. They had to escape to the attic when the flood surge began to fill the house. She described it as a real panic with lots of crying and screaming. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been wondering if they would drown in the attic. I doubt they could have broken through the roof. I felt good that on my last day I could make a difference for someone.
Comments
dad,
i received The Message and Searching For God Knows What... twice. Are you looking for these books?
alan
I like that book, Searching for God Knows What.