ASP TRIP TO BOONE COUNTY, WV

At 5:30 am on Sunday, June 20th, St Matthews UMC teams will caravan from Bowie MD to Whitesville, Boone County, WV for a week of service working on houses for those Appalachians in need of love and prayers.

Friday, Final Day for Construction of Maryland House

Not much time to keep up the Blog, so here is an attempt to wrap it up for this week. We toiled all day with final touch-up painting and caulking; interior trim and baseboards; installing all doors with hardware, kitchen cabinets and countertops, and closet shelves; and finally ended up with window washing, sweeping, and cleaning interior and exterior. We picked up all the debris and loaded all equipment and supplies to take back to the Center, and left the site at 6:30 pm.

Tonight, 25 of us had a gastronomical excursion to The Shed, a very rustic BBQ place about 15 minutes drive from the Camp Love Center. What a feast with our many new friends from Mt Zion UMC.

Tomorrow, we spend time in the morning cleaning up our mess here at the Center, and then heading to the Gulport Airport for our trip home. We'll see you all at BWI around 6:00 pm, hopefully. Happy Halloweening!

The Blessing of Maryland House - Day Three

The weather was very nice today. We accomplished a lot; nearly finished all the laminated wood flooring. Several crews of three or four were trained, and then began laying the flooring in the three bedrooms and living/dining areas. Team members were outside using a chop saw, table saw, and skil saw to cut the laminate boards for the inside crews. It all went very smoothly.

At 4:00 pm we stopped work to gather with the Trosclair Family, Camp Love Staff, and representatives of Habitat for Humanity to have "A Service for the Blessing of the Home," followed by a tour of the home, and then a Communion Service. It was very emotional for each of us and for the Family to see what the love and guidance of God can accomplish in five weeks.

Day Two at Maryland House, Pass Christian, MS

What another outstanding workday of progress, in spite of the morning rain.We finished all attic insulation and exterior trim, porch soffits (ceilings), painting, and we sanded and painted all interior ceilings and walls, and almost everyone got painted (see photo examples).

Tomorrow, our major project will be laying down laminated wood flooring and installing interior trim and doors.

Another meaningful event will be held tomorrow; we will pause at 4:00 pm to have a Blessing of the House with the family.

Maryland House, Gulfport MS - Monday-Day One

What a great team we have, and what a privilege to be able to work together with the Mt Zion UMC team from Highland, Howard County, MD. Most of their group had been volunteering for three or four weeks here on the Maryland House Construction. We really had a lot of progress today, caulking and painting around the exterior fiber-cement siding and trim at the street-side porch gable and main entrance porch gable. Baffles were put in the attic eaves, and then cellulose insulation ( a "green Product") was sprayed in over 80% of the attic crawl space.

At 9:50 am, our time (10:50 am, your time), everyone on site stopped work to pray, and to sing the Navy Anthem in honor of Chuck Mock, as you were celebrating his life, at St Matthews. We all were very moved, and felt you were with us in spirit.

We'll finish the attic insulation and all exterior painting, and paint all interior walls and ceilings tomorrow. It was a wonderfully, pleasant, and cool day today. However, it's supposed to rain tonight; so we hope it doesn't slow us down. More on that tomorrow.

Maryland House, Gulfport MS - October 25-31

An enthusiastic team of eleven volunteers is headed to Gulfport to work on finishing construction of a new home, called "Maryland House." There are 15 churches involved in this two month project, most of them are from Maryland.
The team is flying to Gulfport on Sunday, October 25th; work all week; and returning to BWI on Saturday, October 31st. Team Captain, Pete Saderholm, is joined by Mary Brock, Bob Fuller, Raquel Hakes, Thelma Harvey, Tom Hathaway, Deb Marshall, Chuck McClurg, Melissa Neace, David Rudd, and Jody Rudd.
Please keep us in your prayers that week.

SUCCESSFUL VIM TRIP TO EL PASO

I forgot to mention in our last Blog that we ended the day with a tasty dinner at the El Paso Peter Piper Perfect Pizza Parlor, and then went to the Parsonage for Vespers, relaxation, and conversation. Oh, BTW, our team was staying at the Parsonage of St Lukes UMC, Pastor Skip Hodges' home.

Tuesday, Day Two, was a very productive one. We were able to finish the drywall ceiling patch in the back bedroom, install three new doors, reinforce a front window frame, seal several exterior and interior stucco and concrete cracks, paint most walls and ceilings, install crown molding in the kitchen, and purchase and deliver kitchen cabinets, countertop and appliances.

After work, we had a delicious dinner at a wonderful Mexican Restaurant, and then returned to the Parsonage for Vespers. Later, we watched a local TV News clip of a former El Paso Dance Instructor, Moya (?), who was a finalist on Dancing With The Stars. Pastor Skip, was at the Dance Studio where Moya taught, and was in the TV clip for half a second.

Wednesday, Day Three, Bob and Irene, left the Team and returned to BWI. The Team was left to install kitchen plumbing and appliances, paint concrete floors, finish painting, and finish installing a bathroom door. The Final Four Team of Mary, Suzanne, Gordon, and Pete completed the job, and came back to Maryland on Thursday, leaving the home ready for Jose Luis and Family to move in next week. We hope they love their new Home.

Chalk up another successful St Matthews UMC Volunteers in Mission (VIM) Trip.