Tuesday morning started out beautiful. Slight cloud cover, not to hot, but pretty darn humid. Our day started with breakfast at the hotel and a devotional. We had gathered in the lobby area of the hotel. Bright, mostly awake faces, fresh and eager to get started. We were going back to the same neighborhood we worked in last year and we were ready to see friends we had made last year. At the work site the Twins divided us up into two groups and then we decided if we really wanted to be in the that group. I have worked with Paul D. and we work well together. It keeps his wife Kelley from getting aggravated with him. Her dad is a retired contractor and sometimes, Paul doesn’t necessarily do things the way she might! Their boys wanted to work on the roof. Kelly is an art teacher and chose to paint. The house we were working on seem to be going up quickly. We would lift them 1/2 way and then stand them up and some one would secure them to the concrete. Once interior walls were up in the interior walls were assemble and secured. The wood they use is so different than ours. It isn’t finished or kiln dried, but it is such a beautiful color, somewhere between a cedar and redwood and hard! It was so wet that driving a nail caused water to come out of it.
Once the walls were up the electrical wire was ran and wall boxes installed. Windows were installed and then the sheetrock went up. As the sheetrock went up the roofing trusses were built and nailed securely in place. By the end of the Tuesday, the day of building, the plywood and felt were on the roof our the our house. This was fast. Franklin the dad of our family worked hard all day. He was so sweet and wanted everything to be right. He knew this was not something he could do on his own, but was quite knowledgeable and skilled. His Dad Billy sat under a tree everyday watching. He never came over and almost seemed that he didn’t care, that was not the case at all. He was amazed and very thankful.
The other house had a lot of struggles. They had no air flow, were walking up hill in a semi treacherous way. It was built very close to an existing structure so light was also a challenge. One wall didn’t stay put and had to be redone. The roof was a challenge as well. The YWAM team stayed after we left and finished the trusses, plywood and felt. As it had been raining off an all afternoon and sheetrock was on the walls.