Wrappin’ up the week

Stats:

4 vehicles and

8000 miles driven

25 team members with the youngest age 24 and the oldest age 77.

3 members age 70 – 77
5 members age 60 – 69
10 members age 50 – 59
4 members age 40 – 49
1 member age 30 – 39
2 members age 24 – 29

13 men
12 women

1500 man hours

40 hours of skid loader time

3 hours of excavator time

15+  40-yard dumpsters full of debris

one dead rattlesnake

30+ tons of steel handled

1-1/2 large tanks of oxygen for the torch

hundreds of bottles of water

gallons of Gatorade

1000 lbs. copper salvaged

thousands of dollars worth of re-usable construction supplies salvaged

Lasting relationships formed

Many divine encounters

The look of hope and tears in the congregations eyes = priceless!

 

 

Pastor Clint’s shirt says it best…

I AM CONVINCED…

 

For I am convinced the neither death not life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height not depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39 

Not even EF5 tornadoes!

A huge thank you to all who covered this team and our time in Alabama in prayer.  Without that covering we couldn’t have served like we were able to.  We praise God for all of you and for sending us in His name to do the work He has set forth for us to accomplish!

Sunday service

While some of the team was already on the highway heading home, 13 of us decided we wanted to stay for Sunday morning service and we were blessed beyond measure for doing so.

How nice it was to worship under the tent with the congregation we just served.

And Pastor Clint’s message was outstanding on “what do you want to be remembered for?”

Our friends from New Orleans

brought this beautiful stained glass cross with them.   We had the pleasure of presenting it to Pastor Clint for use in the new church. 

This young lady was so excited to have her journal back which our team found in the debris while working on the church.

Those of us who stayed for service were so glad we did and really wish the rest of our team could have done the same.

Last work day

Our last work day in Alabama dawned sunny & steamy.  We hit the ground running trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible before we headed back north.  How does a week go by so fast?

Love this picture of “the brothers” discussing how to tackle that last high beam.

Then this showed up.  The company that was buying the salvage steel from the church was due to start pick up on Tuesday, but the excavator operator decided to move his things in on Saturday so he would be ready to go Tuesday morning.  A “God thing” maybe?  Absolutely! 

He came just in time to support the high beam while Mr. Steel Monkey aka Ron was scaling the beam torching off the purlins.

 

The building looked a bit different by Saturday from what we saw as we drove up to it for the first time on Tuesday morning.

Sandy doing some final clean-up inside the church.

 

Becky and Dumpster Diva Lynnette clowning around.

 

Other taking a well deserved break.  These folks worked tirelessly all week long in hot and humid conditions we definitely weren’t accustomed to this season yet.

This machine & Nathan the operator worked just as tirelessly.  It was started each morning at 8 am and was very rarely shut off before 6 pm that evening.  We would have truly been helpless without it.

At the end of the day on Saturday, we decided it was time to enjoy some good ol’ southern BBQ. 

 

We all gathered at Bama-Que in Hamilton, Alabama before some headed home yet that night, others first thing the next morning while the rest of us stayed for Sunday morning services.

A special evening

We attended the Hackleburg High School graduation ceremony tonight.  Pastor Clint’s son Winn was salutatorian of his class.  We’ve had the pleasure of working with this young man throughout the week and were thrilled to be able to celebrate his graduation with him.

 

Since the tornado destroyed their schools as you can see in the background of the photo, they have been meeting in the Baptist Church in town.  They were offered the use of another area high school’s gymnasium but the class opted to hold the ceremony on their own football field.

The top of the football bowl was also a great place to see the progress on the church.  The backside of it used to be two stories tall.

A peek at the progress

 

Stripping wire so the church can paid more for the copper it contains.

 

 

The man in the maroon shirt is the pastor of the church, Clint Knowles.  He’s been here with us everyday.

Lots of copper = lots of $$$ for the church!

A drive behind the Wrangler plant…

It’s amazing anyone made it out of this plant alive.  We were told last night, that Wrangler has continued to pay it’s employees.  They are opening two warehouses next week to start getting people back to work as well.

Below, a sign of hope…new construction!

Tuesday & Wednesday, May 24 & 25, 2011

Once work got started, it’s been a blur.  It’s amazing the progress that’s been made on the church in the first two days.  All in all with our Crossroads team, congregation members, our His Hands 2 Go ministry friends from New Orleans and Lifehouse Ministry participants from the church we’re staying at, we’ve had over 30 people working at the any given time.  The heat has been oppressive but these folks haven’t let up one bit.  It’s been a wonderful blessing to see how God’s people can work together for a common goal while serving our Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many more pictures to come.