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.

Welcome to Missouri!

Our team met at Grace Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect, IL for a wonderful lunch. We met old friends from previous trips, as well as new friends who haven't traveled with our team before. Our lead team made introductions, anointed our hands for the work we were about to do, and share our timeline for travel to the St. Louis area. Our final count is 40 missionaries from ten congregations: Glenview United Methodist Church, Grace Lutheran Church, Hope Lutheran Church, Kingswood United Methodist Church, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Messiah Lutheran Church, Shir Hadash Synagogue, St. Alphonsus Parish, St. Mary Parish, and Temple Chai. We will also be joined by a few friends from a church near Litchfield for a day or two of our work.

Happy, clean, and not yet sore, our crew is ready to hit the road!

We left promptly, and enjoyed an uneventful ride to Litchfield, Illinois where we ate at a fun little buffet. We were able to spend more time getting to know one another, and were on the road again for the last push to our hotel. The weather was pleasant, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the Gateway Arch as we crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri!

Our breathtaking sunset as we crossed the mighty Mississippi River.

Our hotel is beautiful, with comfortable and clean rooms (at least from what I heard, so far), and the staff was ready for us with keys and room assignments ready to go. We also met our work group planner from the Salvation Army, Erin. She gave our group some introductory information, then met with each of the work site leads to cover the details they will need for their teams.

Eric addresses the mission team, who filled
both the main lobby and balcony.

Erin fills in team leads Jim and Jeff.

Tomorrow is our first day of work. We meet for breakfast before 7:15, when we load the bus for our work sites. Our tasks are varied, as are our locations. We will be visiting the towns of West Alton, Hazelwood, Fenton and Eureka for multiple homes. Our team is excited to see what comes, and it sounds like the highlights will come from our (possibly over eager) demolition crews!

Nearly there, preparing and packing!

We are all in our homes and preparing to work. Our bags are packed (hopefully) and we're finalizing our homes to leave for nearly a week of work and inspiration. Our advance team (two guys who know what they're doing!) are already on site, and spent Friday looking at the projects we have ahead of us. We will be staying in Kirkwood, and working in several other towns west of St. Louis on homes in various states of recovery. Some of the tasks we are preparing for are:

• Demolition
• Drywalling
• Painting
• Carpentry
• Installing insulation
• Vinyl flooring
• Ceramic tile

Kaci D, 16, helped residents fill sandbags on
Starling Airport Road in Arnold on May 3.
(St Louis Public Radio)

The areas around Kirkwood, Alton, Fenton and Eureka were hard hit, both in 2015 and again just this past Spring! Some residents are considering leaving their homes while others have committed to rebuilding their communities. It is these re-builders who we will be working with. Most of the work we will be doing is in homes, and we will hear first hand the experiences of having one's homes and possessions swept away by flood waters. Many of us live in affected suburbs, where our own communities have been flooded by recent rain, and this should bring another layer of emotion to our time in Missouri!

Flood water from the Meramec River covers some
athletic fields at Eureka High School.
(David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

At this time, 42 of us are part of this team, and we've learned that the final count can only be finalized when we're on our way. We have found that our team members take this work seriously, and don't back out unless they truly have to. Tomorrow is departure day, so come back to see who is finally able to join us for this, our fourth Interfaith Service Trip!

The Gateway to Service in St. Louis, Missouri.

Welcome to our next chapter in serving one another in faith! Coming up July 30 through August 3, 2017!

Our Interfaith team has looked at a number of opportunities in around the Midwest, analyzing distances, needs and our team's vast skill set in selecting a location both most in need of our services, and best suited to share our mission of working together in faith and friendship.

December 26-28, 2015, storms raged in the Midwest, hitting the St. Louis, MO area the hardest. The storm's total rainfall averaged between 6 and 12 inches over this period, leading to historic river flooding along the Mississippi, Bourbeuse and Meramec Rivers.

Buildings are submerged from flooding in Union, Missouri, Dec. 29, 2015. KTVI

Our mission this summer is to address persistent recovery needs before federal funding runs out in November, 2017. This means that our work is both critical and urgent to help the St Louis area continue to recover from this devastating storm system. Our work will require a broad spectrum of skills, the details of which will be known as we approach our trip date. Anything is helpful, from carpentry to landscaping. From plumbing to painting. From photography to a simple helping hand where needed. Mostly, we need YOU, as an ambassador of goodwill and encouragement to those who are still struggling to recover.

The Gateway Arch, as seen from across the swollen Mississippi River. UPI

We are a team of goodhearted, hard working and welcoming friends from a number of Northwest Suburban faith communities. Our numbers include those from a number Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations, coming together to heed God's call to love and serve our neighbors in need.

Please learn more about our mission by following our blog. Please consider joining us or supporting us in this mission. More information is found at our links, below.

For more information, please follow our links:

INFO SHEET

REGISTRATION FORM

BACKGROUND CHECK RELEASE FORM

SUGGESTED PACKING LIST

Please consider promoting the trip to your own congregation if it is part of the Northwest Suburban Interfaith Council, or by joining one of our participating congregations.

FUNDING PAGE

COLOR POSTER

Great Hope in People!

Our last day working in Detroit, but just another day for the people of this once majestic city!

We have had a few days of work, and put at least a small dent in the mind boggling needs of the city. Our work projects have only escalated in intensity and effort, with many projects coming to a close while others were brought to a transition point for the next team of volunteers to grace the Cass community.

Our front steps of the Cass World Building are now completed. The railings, which gave the most challenges, are now solid and safe for all who visit! Our file rooms are completed and sorted. The records so important to running such a large and complex organization are sorted and easily accessed as needed. All the steel outside and main area inside doors are freshly painted, and welcome those who come here for work or to receive services. Our teams at the Scott Building and Mom's Place Two both made significant headway to welcoming the clients of Cass to live under their care.

Some of our team enjoyed the privilege of working at the original Cass Community Church, installing a 'surprise' carillon, which only Rev. Fowler knew about before hand. Our crew needed to run the IT side of the installation, programming the carillon computer, install the hardware in very old, very strong stone, then wire the electronics so they were weatherproof for years of calling the community to worship. This church has the largest pipe organ in the state of Michigan, and original Tiffany stained glass windows. This is truly a historic church, which has seen much change in Detroit since it was built in 1883.

For our last evening in Detroit, most of our group opted for a cruise on the Detroit river, along the border of the US and Canada. This was a great chance to unwind and reflect on our time working with Cass. The weather was perfect for our Motown cruise, and the Detroit Princess crew did a great job of feeding and entertaining us.

We drove home on Sunday morning. Pastor Jim Andrews provided a reflection on our Sunday readings, and our conversation continued to help us process all we saw and did during our trip. One last stop for lunch, then on to our homes. We arrived safely, and are forever changed by our concern and experiences in Detroit.

Follow along and come to one of our follow up presentations!

In God's Service,
Your Interfaith Mission Team

The picture of Cass Community Social Services is coming into focus!

Spending time with Cass has helped us to see not only the tasks we are directly helping with, but also the depth and breadth of the services as well!

Several of our projects from yesterday have come to an end, and others have entered newer phases! There are also new projects coming into play, all of which are keeping us busy.

Our Cass House crew finished their work landscaping, so this team integrated with with our existing crew in Scott Building, to continue making the top floor ready for residents. Mom's Place two continued to make headway for residency as well. Both of these locations, in addition to others in the Cass network, are adapting to a change in the federal funding laws, which no longer favor transient housing. This may be a good thing in the long run, but for now, it is causing much turmoil and work for the already stretched non-profit ministries in Detroit.

Working in the corners. Much needed cleaning at Scott.

Painting the walls to bring new life to the apartments.

Some boards have outlived their usefulness.

Painting in all directions at Mom's Place Two.

Work continued at the World Building, which has only been part of Cass for a short time. Already, this has become a center for service and training! There are a number of products made here, which include the use of illegally dumped auto and truck tires, broken glass from the many shattered windows in the city, and lumber from razed homes destroyed by time or fire. These products, details to follow, help both clean up the neighborhoods and offer employment for those most in need. We continued to make this building usable for Cass' purposes by making progress on the entry stairs, painting the doors which probably haven't had attention in a decade, and moving all the record files onto the shelving begun yesterday. So far, only four floors of this eight story building are being used, but there are plans for the entire structure! We can't wait to see what the leadership of Cass comes up with.

Strong handrails for the new stairs.

A fresh coat of paint on the doors.

Files and more files!

Tomorrow, we will have more of a tour of the facilities of Cass Community Social Services, and see first hand the many ways this neighborhood is helping itself find roots and establish a community.

A Hot Day, with Rewarding Work!

Our alarms were going off by 6:00am so we could get ready, have breakfast and make the bus by 7:15am! Our crew was awake and ready to go, and the hotel did a wonderful job keeping the breakfast items stocked.

Upon arriving at Cass Community Social Services' "Scott House", we unloaded and split into our various work groups, We had 6 work teams in four buildings to start, all but one of which were in a couple square blocks. We had a crew working in the Mom's Place Two, three crews (one floating IT crew) in the Cass World Building, another crew in the Scott House, and one more working a distance away at the Cass House.

Cass Community Social Services - Mom's Place Two.

IT crew making the security systems work correctly.

Defining the landscaping project at Cass House.

Power Tools! Building some stairs to enter the World Building.

Our crew did work to clean up the basement of the World Building, as well as move shelves from the 4th floor to be set up in one of the newly cleaned out rooms. Another crew worked on the entry stairs to the World Building, which had a newly constructed ramp already in place. Several of our team worked to make the Mom's Place Two inhabitable for a reformatted housing program which is set to be in place by September 1. The IT crew enjoyed working in all manner of environments, including the air conditioned administrative office! It is possible they took their time in this part of their rounds. Our last team worked at Cass House, a home for HIV positive men. Their job was to clean up the grounds which were, except for some basic lawn mowing, completely overgrown.

This evening, we enjoyed dinner at O'Kelly's Banquets. The food and fellowship was fantastic, and Rev. Fowler shared the story of creating the social service programs we see, over the past 20 years. The story is amazing, and begs to be engaged further. We will continue to both learn about what Cass is all about, as well as do some more work to their and God's purposes, as our trip continues.

Please check out Cass Community Social Services at their web site:https://casscommunity.org/