Friday, July 3, 2009

Travel day Friday

All the teams finished up by noon-ish and got lunch at local restaurants - Yeah for the Flying Wienie! As well as some seriously good homemade pizza at the Sykora Bakery in Czech Village.


You know that the work that you've done is appreciated, the owner of the Sykora recognized the crews (we've stopped in quite a few times) and asked what we'd been doing, Ruschman & Babcock explained, when the owner knew where we'd been and how many houses that we worked on, he gave the crew 8 loaves of fresh bread and 4 boxes of pastries & cupcakes ! Wow

Some of the crews got to see a 40 foot dragon boat in one of the homeowner's yards in the Ellis Park area. You don't see that very much.

We've made it back in to Naperville, IL for one more wake-up at the Yellow Box (Community Christian Church).

Just a wake-up, pack-up and hit the road back to Mentor around 7:00 a.m.'ish. We should be getting back to Mentor UMC between 4:30 & 5:00.

Thank you to everyone that helped make this a successful YSP mission trip - 7 crews working on 9 homes for families, making friens with crews from Canistos, SD; Sioux Falls, MO and Lancaster, PA.

Thank You !!!!!

Hope to see you at either Sunday worship service to hear the youth's recap & stories.

Blessed be His Name!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thursday misc.


where everybody knows your name


Welcome to Iowa!


Thursday photos


concentrating on the trim work


oh yeah, we be working good

but Bob, you should do it this way

Thursday update

A FANTASTIC family dinner night last evening, family and guests from 5 of the 7 homesites came, along with guests from AmeriCorp - Vista and the 22 member mission group from Canistota Presbyterian Church, Canistota, SD. Great food thanks to Bev, Ellen and Doug as well as fun, games, songs and fellowship lead by Shawn Harris.

Thursday opened with great enthusiasm as the teams put on a push to complete as much of their projects as possible.

Turner, Petro & the gang (Evan-Nathan-Megan-Laura-Megan) started a new homesite with "a little laundry list" of things to do.

Ruschman-Babcock et al (Evan&Nathan&Megan&Laura&Megan) continued on with their new homes (yes - 2 homes side-by-side) - connecting up the trap door to the storm cellar, oak flooring, baseboards, staining of trim and work in the kitchen on cabinetry. Jim found out that the windows weren't secured to the frames by trying to open one as it fell out of the frame - add another item to the list.

There is some serious talent on the crews with Hoon/Hoon/Kyle/Ted/Aidan/Jamie/Holly doing Italian Ceramic Floor tile and Venitian Plaster work that is extraordinary.

Leyden, Barton with Trent-Allan-Katie-Katie-James drive on with sheet rock, mudding, insulation & painting the upstairs bedroom a vibrant purple (at least I think it's purple). At what was the homesite 2- houses down the street, there was a garden shed flipped on it's roof. Non one was sure exactly who's shed it was - since it wasn't there before the flood waters came.

Gallagher-Kanaga with Mike~Zach~Amber~Emily~Dana~Kate had - you guessed it- more mudding, mudding, mudding & mudding plus piecing together leftover sheetrock to try & cover a stairwell. Dan was finally able to come out of the closet today !!!!!!! Who eats lunch at the Flying Weinie? you got it!

Le & Harris with Ian+Scott+Sabrina+Melissa got in wondows number 4, 5 & 6. That leaves only 2 more to go. The youths are really surprising everyone with their ability to re-install the custome millwork and face frame to outside windows. Jean the homeowner love to be the sidewalk supervisor, and the girls really talking with her.

Otte & Otte with the non-otte's (Kari~Sarah~Megan~Jonathan~Josh~Puchi) are having a blast working on Leonard's house with installing outside doors, fascia, porch replacements, interior trim/staining and caulking going on. Questions - how many youths can you fit in a SMALL HALLWAY (closet sized)? Answer - yep, you guessed it! Does anyone know a good way to get caulk out of noses and hair ?????????????

Oh yeah, they"re getting to know me on a first name basis at Menard's hardware & lumberyard.

Doug, Bev & Ellen are spoiling us with pancakes, french toast and egg strada with ham and fresh aspargus for breakfast.

Friday should be a short work day - back to Camp Hitage to load up & clean up our cabins & lodge by 2:00. To-Go dinner packs will let us be on the road to Naperville, IL no later than 5:00 with arrival at the Yellow Box (Community Christian Church) around 9:00'ish.

This week has really flown by.

While there is enough work to be done here that could fill more YSP time that we could ever hope to fill, there's a verse in this morning's song that rings true -
When all the world's "all as it should be" blessed be Your name.
You give and take away
My heart will choose to stay
Lord, blessed be Your name.

Yep - it is a good week.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Misc photos




Wednesday Updates .. . .middle of Iowa and our newest friends from


Sorry about the lack of photos, being literally out in the middle of Iowa at Camp Hitage (that's where we're staying) there is little wireless, and at best, cell service is spotty.

The weather has been exceptionally cool - high in the mid-60's with a little bit of spitting drizzle and plenty of cloud cover. Not the usual YSP weather with 90-90 sweat for everyone.

Two crews have moved on to other houses, completeing the initial assigments.
Ruschman & Babcock have gone to the Grapes (Dick & Jane) to do interior finish work, oak flooring, linoleum, door trim, window trim, and of course - the usual mudding of drywall. The uniques challenge is building the trap door in the kitchen floor so that the Grapes can get to the storm cellar (tornadoes) - didn't do so good during the flood. They also helped to celebrate Cory's birthday (7 year old grandson living with them). They've been on the waiting list for repairs since last July. You can see how great the need is.

Turner, Petro and the gang are going over to Mrs. Cook's house tomorrow morning for "a long laundry list" of things - painting, fence repair, trim work, staining and more drywall (do you sense a theme?).

The girls on Hoon & Hoon are experts at Venetian plaster - IT LOOKS AWSOME!!!!! You can't tell it from italian marble (parents - who knew).

Family night is tonight, with guests from the homes we're working on plus friends we've made - about 25 family members, 24 youth & adults from the Presbyterian Relief Team from Canistota, SD - as well as our newest friends from the Church of the Nazarene from Lincoln, Nebraska (Joey and 22 youth members) will be joining us for music (Ted & AJ - aka The Trio of Two with the singers) and the Dance Team, worship lead by Shawn. ill Otte has come up with ice-breaker games for all the groups - Orange Toss Keepaway and an 8-legged race. Hmmmmmm.

The last two evenings the youth were treated to special programs from the Hitage staff - a low-ropes course for leadership development, and a Challenge- Thinking course to develop decision making. There are videos posted on YouTube that show some seriously hilarious efforts - do a search on YSP 2009 and Ted's posted 4 videos. I think James is still removing the wedgie from his butt today. BE WARNED - YOU WILL LAUGH UNTIL YOU LEAK!

UPDATE: It may take 24 hours for YouTube to post the videos - keep checking in!!