Lay of the land and beginning work projects.

As a result of several minor delays, we ended up getting to our hotel about 2 hours after we originally expected. This meant our crew only had time to unload the bus, find our rooms, and get some sleep to prepare for our work day, which would come very early the next morning!

This morning, we woke up at least somewhat rested, and enjoyed a hearty breakfast before loading the bus to head to the Cass work sites. Rev. Sue Pethoud, the Cass Church and Community Relations Liaison met our crew and shared some of the history of the area.

Some interesting things she pointed out included that the downturn in the community began nearly 100 years ago, in the 1920's! In response to social and economic changes in their community, Cass Community United Methodist Church has continued to respond by keeping their neighborhood and its people as their reason for being.

This led to the creation of Cass Community Social Services as a separate entity from Cass Community United Methodist Church in 1995. Since the early 2000's, when they had only 3 buildings, they have grown to include 11 buildings, and coordinate over 6,500 volunteers each year. Everything they do is designed around rebuilding the neighborhood and bringing a sense of community to the people they serve.

You can read more about their long and dynamic history here:

https://cassumc.com/history/

Our team broke for lunch, and shared the food line with Cass' clients in their cafeteria. Our menu consisted of BBQ chicken, baked beans, mac and cheese, tomatoes, coleslaw, corn on the cob, potato salad, and a green salad. What a feast!

This afternoon, we are returning to our work sites, to continue helping Cass help their neighbors.

In anticipation of our next posting, we will compile all the wonderfully graphic tales from all our work crews.

Come back for more mission insights!

Interfaith returns to Detroit!

For this year's interfaith service trip, we are heading back to Detroit, Michigan.

Our team enjoyed meeting up and eating a great lunch at Grace Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois. We had a chance to meet one another, meet the leaders, and of course pack the bus, vans, and trailer.

Our next stop is the Steaks Eatery in Jackson, Michigan. We will have a chance to share another meal together, and get to know each other a little more before getting to work tomorrow morning.

A WGN Chicago news article highlights Detroit's Tiny Homes by Cass Community Social Services, through whom the NSIC Service Trip coordinated in our 2016 mission trip.

Please enjoy this well done news piece on working with housing issues in our cities!
http://wgntv.com/2017/11/14/growing-homelessness-in-chicago-caused-by-lack-of-housing-resources/

Our Hearts Remain in Missouri!

Thursday, August 3, 2017.

Our crew was able to sleep in this morning, with our bus leaving for home around 8:45. Most of us were up earlier, and enjoyed the time to relax at breakfast, pack, and catch up with the work we did this week.

Once on the road, we enjoyed a smooth ride until our lunch break at Imperial Buffet in Normal, IL. The owners did a great job welcoming us, and giving us a room where we could continue our conversations. The food was good, and of course, the company was comfortable with one another.

We returned home after enduring the Chicago rush hour traffic and some tremendous rain storms, but arrived safely.

A safe drive, even with some torrential rains along the way.

We unpacked the van by around 4:30, loaded our cars, hugged our friends old and new, and bid farewell until next year. Many of those new to our trip, as well as those who have traveled before, were already looking forward to next year.

We also have our first "Road Show" presentation of this year's trip scheduled! Please come to Messiah Lutheran Church in Wauconda on October 15. More details to come!

Finishing Touches... Mostly.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017.

Another hot day, and visions of the end pull us through!

A new site in High Ridge had us working on manufactured homes for lower income residents. Here, we met up with another group from Michigan, working through National Relief Network (NRN). This crew consisted of mostly younger adults and high school students.


Jan Z preparing the joists
for the flooring.

Our team split up to work on a few homes. One crew cleaned up a concrete slab to prepare it for a new home to be built, picking up glass and preparing the ground after the home which originally stood here was destroyed. Another home had serious water damage, and needed new flooring and drywall. Our team was able to prepare the walls and get the floor insulation layers ready. Most of our team worked here, and made some great progress!

Another home needed some exterior painting, while yet another had years of moss which needed to be power washed off. This last home also had a family living in it which had some local enemies, so there were shot gun pellet holes all through the siding and windows which would eventually be repaired. This family no longer lives here, and another couple came by, interested in moving in when the work is done. They seemed very thankful of all the work we were doing, and we had the promise that each home we touched this day would host an appreciative family in the near future, no matter their condition today. We can all aspire to gratitude such as theirs!

Our Fenton project continued! Our crew finished working in the basement, and completed removal of the soffits. We filled two complete dumpsters with materials from the four units, and the buildings are ready for the next stages of reconstruction. The work crews which follow will have a good foundation on which to rebuild these homes for underprivileged families.

Andrea works on removing the last of the drywall. (Laura A)

Linda makes final preparations on the studs. (Laura A)

Resurrection Lily

We also filled in some more information about our Eureka home! This two story house was flooded to nearly the top of the first floor, which was cleaned and prepped by a previous work crew. This left us working on the electrical by standing on boards laid over the open floor joists, and two stories of siding.

In addition to the changes our group is facilitating by our labors, our crew here even found one small, lonely lily on the grounds around the house, not trampled or damaged. It wasn't blooming, and looked much like any other tall weed in the area - until our last day. The flower bloomed, almost as if to give our work crew, and the family who lives here, hope for the future!

The Florissant team finished the basement, and moved all of Carol's things back downstairs so the storage unit in her driveway could be returned. The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) is now ready to begin work installing a sump system, making Carol's house safe for many years to come.

The team worked together to moved all the items from the
temporary storage unit in Carol's driveway back to the basement. (Ken J)



Some expert window cleaners
paused for a photo.

When our Fenton crew finished, they came over to High Ridge, and we realized that our team was now too big to fit in the work spaces when combined with the NRN team. Our project leaders, Denise and Chris, found a church which needed some cleaning help, and our team jumped at the chance to work in an air conditioned environment! Our combined crew headed to St Mark's church, where the custodian, Dan, put us to work with cleaning their windows and other spaces which needed attention.
As a celebration of a job well done, our last night was spent trying to solve a murder mystery at the Bissell Mansion! It was a great time of comedy and sleuthing, and our team of characters left our hosts in stitches. Pastor Eric was deemed the best "Les" they ever had! A fun way to wrap things up.

Finding Our Rhythm.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017.

A great second day of work, and many wiser workers getting into their groove.

Fenton, Rusty Drive
Our Fenton demolition and reconstruction preparation continued working on our duplexes.

We had to remove the drywall and plastic sheeting around the top of the kitchen, as well as remove drywall screws remaining after demolition. Since there is no electricity at this site, some of our crew had to remove as many screws as possible by hand. This was done for a while, but the next crew, hopefully after electricity is restored, will be able to make quick work of this with the right tools.

Removing drywall from near the ceiling. (Laura A)

Several from our crew went into the basement to clean up the remaining furniture and shelving left from before the flood, and remove the drywall which has been continually wet since April 30 - over three months! These walls were covered with toxic black mold, and needed to be removed by shovel since the material simply crumbled when we tried to remove it.


Toxic Black Mold being treated before removal. (Kathy W)

Florissant, El Dorado Drive
Demolition and reconstruction preparation. Our crack team of construction minded work crew continued to clean the basement of damaged drywall and paneling, and began to hang drywall, which is what they all seemed to live for! Carol, the owner, also shared some of her heart wrenching and continually frustrating story with our group at dinner!

Panel Cutting Expert, Ethel! (Ken J)

Carol, and her friend Kelly, sharing some stories
of their experiences and trials. (Eric E) 

Our West Alton crew, on Edmonton Drive, made some great headway on their closet installation! The walls and doors are short, but also narrow. When you look at the crew in front of their work, everything looks proportional, but our work crew each look 6" taller!

Gary and Debbie preparing the walls. (Chuck W)

Doors hung, and trim ready to go.
Everyone looks just a little taller! (Scott M)

We have some updates and news from our Eureka team! It seems they have had a challenge, working outside in the heat, and putting up siding. The crew had a slow start, waiting for materials, but jumped in and did a great job making the house weather resistant.

Putting up the scaffolding. (Janet F)

Replacing damaged siding. (Janet F)

Working in the Neighborhoods!

What an amazing, task filled first day!

We had teams working on several homes, in four different towns!

Our team did some rehab work in West Alton, putting in a closet - with odd sized doors. More to come on this one when things are farther along. This is a tight space, so we have three crack carpenters who love working with power tools enjoying their project! They also promise to have some fantastic shots showing their handiwork tomorrow, which given the characters on the team, should be very... informative!

Florissant hosted our only air conditioned worksite, which was our crew putting up the final pieces of wallboard in a home. They will finish installing the drywall, then putty it, ready for painting. This crew worked closely with the home owner, who had much of the initial recovery work already done. Yes, they didn't get much sympathy from the rest of the group who got to enjoy the Missouri heat first hand.

Eureka, well, these folks will fill us in some time soon. ;-)
 

Fenton was our largest site, with just over half our total crew broken into four work teams. Our worksite consisted of two duplex homes (four units), which saw flooding both in 2015 and again this past Spring in 2017. Previous work teams had started demolition on these homes, and our job was to pick up where they left off, tearing out wallboard on the main floor, and addressing the mold still present in the basement. We had to spray the now accessible studs with a remediation compound to keep mold from spreading further, or staying in the home after it is finished. We also had to take care to save any fixtures not affected by water or cabinets which were above the waterline.

Denise filled us in on the work we would be doing.

Demolition crew making way for the next phase.

Tearing down old drywall to get to the studs.

Keeping the fixtures will save the owner
a lot of money he doesn't have.

Filling our dumpster with our day's work.

One of the units had already had most of the drywall removed, but needed mold remediation. The other unit, however, still had the wet, moldy drywall up in the basement. Our crew needed to wear N95, mold resistant masks, and the basement team put on full Tyvek suits, which made them look like they were ready to do some government work!

Tyvek suits with N95 masks
make a distinct fashion statement!



Treating the studs with mold remediation solution.

We were able to close up the first duplex, ready for the next crew to start the construction phase or the home rebuild. The second duplex will see our shining faces again tomorrow, which we continue to clean out the moldy drywall, and prep the studs with mold remediation solution.


As with any mission projects, we're not sure what we will come across until we are on site. Each of our locations brings unique challenges, and there are more than a few surprises still on the horizon for the remainder of our trip. Stop back again tomorrow, and we can be surprised together.