Working on a porch, day 2

      The team of Page and Jimmy Fulgham, Bob Jernigan, and Marc Beaver accepted two new members today. Jeff Badke and I joined them to work on the roof over a porch that a Smoke Rise crew had worked on back in October. We got the braces placed as well as the support pieces for the metal roof that we will put on tomorrow. We had a bit of a snafu as the metal shop was not able to cut any metal this morning. This afternoon the metal was delivered to the site. It will be ready for us to complete in the morning.

     In the meantime we were able to come back to the lodge and work on the door to the shed. I use "we" loosely. We made efforts to repair the door and then Sean showed up. My favorite comment of the day was when Sean told Page "Get out of the way, just this one time." So we watched as he made quick work of the door.

    The other teams were making progress on their projects as well. The bathroom project hit a few snags along the way as is typical of bathrooms. They had to do more floor repair than they had expected. They should be able to seat the toilet and attach the tub tomorrow to finish that project.

     The window team went to their second house today to remove and replace several windows and a double sliding door. Sean was able to show up at all of the sites throughout the day and offer his assistance to each. He headed back to Frankfurt this afternoon.

     Tonight the team was treated to supper from Nancy Gibson. She is lady that lives down the holler from the Lodge.  Smoke Rise worked on her kitchen on one of their first trips up to McDowell. Since then she has cooked for the team each time they come up.  This has been a great week of work and fellowship.

     Continue to pray for the team's safety as we work on the various projects. Pray for the homeowners that they would recognize our work as a gift from the Lord.

Furniture sale, day 1

   The whole team started out this morning at the distribution center to unload the vehicles of the furniture. Four of us stayed around to be personal shoppers and loaders while the rest of the team went out to begin work on the various construction projects. Again, thanks to La-Z-Boy and the members of Smoke Rise for the furniture donations.

     Linh was a great packer and knot tier. We thought we were going to lose him on this ride as we almost hemmed him in.

     This was the most creative packing job of the day.

      We have one team that is working to rehab a bathroom. Jim Huston is the crew chief for that group. His crew is made up of Johnny Lavender and Jeremy Colliver. They also received a good bit of help or at least moral support from Cheryl, homeowner and handy-woman.  Allen Hardin led PJ Testino, Neal Barton, and Wayne Hardy in a project replacing windows.  They finished one project and began a second window project this afternoon. The third construction project was to build a roof over a porch that Smoke Rise had built on their last trip in October. Page Fulgham is leading that team consisting of his brother Jimmy, Bob Jernigan, and Marc Beaver.

     Pray for continued safety for the teams and continued blessings for the home owners as we serve tomorrow. Bill Blanton, Linh Luong, Malcolm, and I will join these other work teams tomorrow.  I hope to include pictures from the other work sites as the week goes on.

Have you ever wondered what 26 linear feet of furniture looks like?

     

     Yesterday Johnny Lavender and I drove through Richburg, SC to the La-Z-Boy furniture warehouse to pick up some donated furniture that will go to the GAP for their fund raiser in the morning. The team has gotten supper and settled in for the evening. Tonight John Morris, director of the GAP, shared with the team the vision of GAP, the focus for the year, and a little about each family whom we will be serving this week.  I appreciate the leadership and the focus that they are putting on the relationships that can be built with the families and the impact the teams can have beyond the scope of the work projects.

     Tomorrow we will start our day unloading the Penske truck pictured above, a Uhaul from Smoke Rise, and a trailer from Smoke Rise filled with furniture for the sale. After we unload the teams will break out and go to the various work sites.  We covet your prayers this week for our safety on the work sites. We also pray for the families we will be working with. Pray for opportunities to share our faith with our words and show our faith with our hands.

Appalachia Construction--McDowell and Beattyville (August 18-24, 2014)

This next series of blogs is a trip log from Kentucky. Trip participants are Jeff Badke, Stuart Evans, Hance Williamson, and Andy Jones from FBC Augusta and Bill Blanton, Page Fulgham, Jimmy Fulgham, and Jim Myrick from Smoke Rise.

     Yesterday, Jeff Badke and I left Augusta for Richburg, SC to the La-Z-Boy distribution center at 8AM. We arrived with the 26' Penske truck just before noon. We had been told that the supply was slim sure to the tractor trailer load of furniture (that I helped coordinate) having just been delivered to Oklahoma City in response to the tornados there this summer. A list of what was available had been emailed to me this past Monday. I must say that what looked like a small load on paper is enough to fill the Penske! We got 5 couches, 2 sectional sofas, 2 love seats, 6 side tables, an ottoman, and 8 chairs/recliners. We will gladly deliver them to G.A.P (God's Appalachian Partnership) in McDowell, KY and to Paula Settle with Mountain Hope (part of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship commitment to the 20 poorest counties in the US*). After loading up the truck we drove on to Mars Hill, NC to spend the night. Although the drove up was rainy, it was thankfully uneventful.
     Today we finished the drive up to McDowell. Brenda and Terry Carswell met us at the distribution center to drive us back to the lodge. The road to the lodge is not big enough to handle the Penske. Shortly after our arrival Stuart Evans and Hance Williamson met us at the lodge after having driven from Augusta this morning. The crew from Smoke Rise also came in this evening. They brought some furniture that has been donated by church members for the purpose of the GAP sale. They will be starting with us tonight and tomorrow, then heading back to Stone Mountain on Tuesday.
     Brenda and Terry came back this evening after supper for our group orientation and to let us know what we would be doing tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will unload furniture and then drive to Elkhorn City, KY to begin our construction project.

*based on 2000 US Census