Mission Trip 2010--Orange, Texas

On Saturday, June 19th at 6 a.m. the following LCR members began the 723-mile journey to Orange, Texas for the annual Mission Trip: Ed P., Tracy R., Robin H., Dee G., Cassie G., Katie C., Ryan L., Maddie H. and Diane R. We began the journey by apologizing to Robin for telling her to arrive at 5:30 a.m. because we were told she has a tendency for being late. (She was the first one there.) Robin, we sincerely apologize again, for setting you up to be on time.

The trip down was without incident, and 14 hours later we pulled into Houston, Texas where we slept like babies at the Motel-6. On Sunday morning, Robin forgave us for our deception yesterday, then led us in Devotions under the shade of a tree.

We took a quick tour of the Johnson Space Center, then continued on to Orange, Texas after lunch. We arrived at our destination, the Orange Church of the Nazarene,where we were greeted by volunteers from Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders. We were shown to our accommodations, a very cozy store room adjacent to the church gymnasium with approximately 30 sets of bunk beds. After Dee got over her complete astonishment at the co-ed sleeping arrangements we unpacked,settled in, and went out to buy ear-plugs.

After that we played volley ball in the gym until someone told us we were being too loud, go to bed, it’s 11 p.m. The adventure began at 6 a.m. on Monday morning with the promise of 95 degree temperatures,100% humidity, and no airconditioning. We ate breakfast, packed our sack lunches, and got our assignment for the day. We learned that only 14 of the 3500 homes in Orange were untouched by flood waters after Hurricane Ike, and many people were still out of their homes, living in trailers. They needed us!

We were very pleased to be supervised by Mark Delbere and Eddie Sherman, both of whom we have worked with on previous mission trips in Biloxi, Mississippi. Ed, Tracy and Ryan were given the task of replacing a tile floor in the kitchen. After removing the floor, it became apparent that the subfloor needed to be removed as well. It turned into a complicated and backbreaking job to get it done without damaging the existing kitchen cabinets, but the guys prevailed. Robin and Diane spent the day filling in nail holes with wood filler, then caulking every single window trim, door trim and baseboard in the house. Meanwhile, Dee, Cassie, Katie, and Maddie spent the day outside setting up scaffolding,then scraping old paint from the exterior of the house.

There was only one argument that day regarding whether it was hotter inside the house or outside.

Day 1 Injury: Dee fell through a hole in he kitchen floor up to her thigh. She hopped righg out and only sustained scrapes and bruises. That’s when we found out she is 80 years old. Who knew? Day 1: 10 hours of work for everyone.

Day 2: (still hot and humid) Tracy, Ed and Ryan spent the morning installing the subfloor in the kitchen. In the afternoon, Tracy spread goo on the floor, and Diane and Katie set the floor tiles in place, while Ed manned the tile saw in the back yard. It’s a tricky job getting those tiles cut and into place before the goo dries, with Tracy shouting orders. Consequently.Ed did not take the time to drink enough water,and suffered from a bout of heat exhaustion. In all fairness, Tracy did allow him 5 minutes to recuperate. It’s tough using a power tool when you’re lightheaded, dizzy and nauseated, but Ed knew that someone had to do it before the tile goo dried, and he was the man for the job. Meanwhile,Robin and Dee completed the task of nail-hole filling and trim board caulking, and began painting the trim and doors. We went to Wal-Mart and bought window fans to move the 95-degree air around in the house. We imagined that we felt cooler. When Ryan and Katie weren’t working on the kitchen floor, they helped Cassie and Maddie scrape more paint from the outside of the house. Day 2 Injury: In addition to Ed’s heat exhaustion, Maddie sprained her ankle. (I think she fell off the scaffold, but I could be wrong.)Anyway, she put ice on it and immediately went back to work. Kudos to you, Maddie. We know it’s not easy to scrape paint, while standing on a scaffold on one foot for several hours. Also, Tracy pulled a muscle in his back, but he gritted his teeth, put on a back brace, took some Advil and went back to work. Day 2: 10 hours of work for everyone(except Ed, who only got in 9 hours and 55 minutes). Day 2 Addendum: There was an allout revolt over the sack lunches. And since it couldn’t be resolved peacefully, the only solution was to go out for lunch every day. Therefore,everyone cheerfully chipped in and paid for lunch out of their own pockets. Besides,Napoleon Bonaparte once said “An Army is only as good as its rations”. We thought thatwas good advice. While we were enjoying our lunch in air-conditioned comfort we learned that Ed, Ryan and Tracy (who was without a doubt the ring leader) took a detour yesterday through What-a-Burger for lunch on their way back from Home Depot. That explained why they wouldn’t eat the sack lunches we were trying to foist on them when they returned. We thought they were losing their appetite and getting heat exhaustion. Lunch was on them today for their deception. Day 3: (a little hotter today with more humidity 100+% (i.e., a hot rain) Tracy, Diane,Dee, Robin and Ed were called away to work at another house. And blessings of all blessings,it was air-conditioned! We were needed to get a million small technical finishing type thingsdone in order for the lady who owned the house to move back in. So, Diane and Robin set in(sigh) filling nail holes, and caulking every single window, door, and baseboard in the house. Ed proclaimed himself as the Worst Painter in the World (probably to get out of painting). So that job fell to Dee to touch up a messy paint job done by previous volunteers. Sadly we ended up stripping Ed of the Worst Painter title and giving it to Dee who cheerfully gave up the paint brush. Diane ended up doing the painting and Dee did a wonderful job filling nail holes 2010 with wood filler and sanding them. She also does a super job with a broom. Meanwhile,back at the first house, Ryan, Cassie, Katie and Maddie stepped up to the plate and did an amazing job grouting the kitchen floor. Then they finished scraping the outside of the house, and made a huge dent in priming it. Day 3: 10 hours of work for everyone.

Day 3 Injury: Ryan got stung by a wasp, but he put ice on it right away to keep the swelling down (mostly). After he finished what he was doing,Tracy raced to CVS Pharmacy and got Sting-eze and Benadryl for Ryan, who amazingly did not lose any time from working.Way to go, Ryan! We know it isn’t easy to paint with a hand that looks like a grapefruit. Day 3: Evening: We got a little restless, and longed to get a glimpse of the Gulf of Mexico and get our feet wet in it. We asked a local fellow the best way to get there. After driving almost 90 miles, Ed called us from the other van, and said “Hey, when you get to San Diego, turn left.” From that experience we learned that “just over the ridge” ain’t all that far to a Texan! By the time we got to the Gulf it was 9 p.m. Just long enough to get our feet wet before these awful biting insects appeared and we retreated back to the vehicles, to make the long drive back to the “bunk house.”

Day 4: (darned hot and darned humid)Our 10-hour days are catching up with us, or at least Tracy. The rest of us were getting ready to leave for the worksite, but we couldn’t find him. He was still in bed! Again, Tracy, Robin, Diane,Dee and Ed spent another day at the 2nd house,painting, hanging doors, caulking, cleaning, and engineering construction solutions. We had hoped to get completely done, but ended up leaving a few hours of final work. At the end of the day, we drove by the 1st house to see how the young people had fared, and was very pleased to see that they had primed the entire house, and painted the front side in it’s final color. They are obviously leaders and self-starters in the making! Day 4 Injuries: None. Also, zero trips to the ER this year! Day 4: Evening: Home was really calling to us, so we packed up the vans and headed out. We treated ourselves to a seafood dinner in Beaumont, then drove as far as Huntsville for the night. The next day we stopped in Dallas for a quick tour of The Sixth Floor Museum and one last taste of Texas Barbecue. We did end up getting separated on the way home as we used two different GPS systems. Consequently one van went to Tulsa and one to Oklahoma City. We caught up with each other again in Wichita but by that time nobody really cared if we ate together or not, so we didn’t. We would like to thank all of the LCR Members who graciously donated money to the Mission Trip Fund. Our total trip expenses were approximately $3723. If our 360 man hours of labor are valued at a minimum value of $10 per hour, we provided an additional $3600 of labor for the week of the mission trip. Of course, we all like to think that our time is worth a higher dollar value but we recognize that our purpose and walk with Christ through the week was priceless, and we were able to help two families get a little closer to moving back into their homes. We sure do hope y’all will consider joining us next year! Diane Rasmussen