Team Blues Clues

Leyden, Barton & gang arrived to find much of the drywall installed, but with some cleanup to be done yet. Drywalling in the kitchen, bed room and interior insulation began in earnest.

Bob, the home owner has a 3-generation family in his home. He is raising his 15 year old daughter, as well as caring for his elderly parents. The water was over 9 feet deep in the street. Luckily, the home was 2 feet above street level, so Bob took JUST 7 feet of water in the house.

The ceilings were mostly OK, but all the walls had to be gutted. Our job is try gutting the rest of the house, start hanging drywall & begin taping as much as we can.

This team has so much energy, it truly is amazing. 3 new persons, and 3 returning veterans to YSP. We are so blessed.

Team Puchi and the Aquatic Dream Team MONSTARS Go Team, Oh Great!

Otte, Otte and company - When we arrived on site, we came to a cute yellow house. The owner and his friend were outside on the porch smiling and waving. It was hard to believe this happy place was once flooded and destroyed by water. We later were told that there had been 4 feet of water filling in every room of the house. With all the destruction, it was amazing to see how optimistic and hopeful the owners were. They were so friendly and were open to us and told us their stories.

Later we worked on replacing the porch, installing a storm door, and putting in a handrail to the basement. The work is challenging, but it is all worth it when we get to pass God's blessing from us to the family.

Amazing work!

Team DOUBLE TROUBLE

Ruschman, Babcock & gang are working for an older couple named Henry and Cheryl. They had only lived in their home for 2 years when the flood filled their basement and went nearly to the top of the first floor. They have been relying on the generosity of volunteers to slowly gut, then refinish their home and make it livable once again. Even though Henry had flood insurance, the insurance company says it was a sewer back up that caused the damage to his home.

When we entered the home, the gutting was done and the drywalling was nearly complete. We spent our first day sanding and repairing patches and holes. High points in our day include getting together at lunch with a crew from the Presbyterian Relief Team from SD. We hope they'll be able to join us for swimming, dinner and devotions on the Family night.

A nice surprise is when the Salvation Army services stopped and distributed snacks, cold drinks and refreshments to work crews in the area.

Meeting new folks

A good portion of the challenge or fun of YSP is meeting new folks, the family members, as well as crews from other churches.

Team CROWS is having lunch right now with the drummer from The Lovin' Spoonful (rock & roll is not dead).

Team DOUBLE TROUBLE shares lunch and will bring 25 members from the Presbyterian Relief Team from Canistota, SD.

The team previously working at Team CORN left their facebook address on a piece of sheetrock at the house. They are from Naperville, IL - we'll be able to meet them when we get back to the Yellow Box (Community Christian Church) on Friday night.

We all work doing His work.

Team SCORCHERS

Shawn Harris, Bob Lee & company have been working on replacing first floor windows in a 100 year old home. We've been taking out all the old windows and putting in new ones. This is very time consuming, as we are really taking time & care to CAREFULLY remove & salvage the interior casing and beautiful mill work. By doing this, we are giving this family a new view on the world. We feel honored to be rebuilding this family's windows and giving them a fresh start. Even though Jean, the owner, had to deal with 8 inches of water (her first floor is almost 6 feet above the street level), she still keeps a sense of humor which is inspiring.

Our group has all come together to help this family, and in the process we are learning new skills with tools. But we aren't just learning new techniques, also we are learning new things about ourselves, such as we can take out a HUGE window and replace it with a brand new one. We look forward to the rest of our workdays and we are excited to see the finished project.

Team WAVES - Workers Accomplishing Values Every Day S

Turner, Petro & crew - Our job was to help our host family repair the downstairs of his house. They had received at least 11 feet of water during the floods. The entire electrical, water supply, sanitary sewer and heating/furnace systems have been ruined.

Several previous teams from other groups have been here putting in their hardwork trying to restore the house and now it's our turn. We came in to finish the drywalling and get it ready to paint or texture.

Hoon Work Group: Day 1

Greetings from Cedar Rapids! Larry, Rhonda, Aidan, Jamie, Holly, Kyle and Ted are hard at work at the Philips residence. The girls have finished laying down the backer board in the kitchen and have now started tiling. The boys are done playing around with the troublesome shower in the bathroom for now and have moved on to preparing for some tile work. The homeowners are great folks who are very grateful to have such energetic and willing workers help them try to return back to normal life! We are all looking forward to the rest of the week, as it looks like we should be able to finish up these projects!

Thanks for all the support,

Ted