On the Road Again

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA

What a day! We're all on the road, caravan-ing back just north of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Before I forget, here's a quick run-through of the day...

We got to our first house a little later than normal, around 9:00. Jackie, the First Baptist Church organist, and her daughter Julie were there to greet us. We moved so quickly today that I didn't get a chance to hear her story. Her house was in a totally different part of town, but the water had reached the same level as the other houses had. Jackie and Julie had arranged for some contractors to tear out the drywall, so all we had to do was get the furniture and carpets out.

The living room was a swimming pool of rancid water. That section of the floor was concrete and lower than the surrounding floors. After we got the carpets out of there, we got to break out the shop vac for the first time.

Julie said that that morning she had been at the end of her rope; she was beginning to lose hope of ever making a dent in all of the mess, much less getting the house cleaned out. Jackie was overwhelmed by our help; she said we were an answer to her prayers. After we prayed for both of them, Julie quipped, "I love Lutherans!"

Our next stop was Debbie's house, the next-door neighbor of the youth minister. She did not attend church, and the minister had been trying to outreach to her. She burst into tears as we pulled up. She disappeared moments later, but showed up again after about 10 minutes fully composed.

This house wasn't quite as large and didn't have quite as much stuff in it. The water level went up to about three feet off the floor (the same level as the other houses), but it was raised off the ground several feet. We set ourselves to emptying the rooms, stripping the carpet, and tearing out the bottom half of drywall.

I set myself to wheelbarrow duty with Pastor Marlin. Since the house was elevated, we couldn't get wheelbarrows in and out. Instead, we placed them outside the windows and tossed stuff into them from there. It was definitely the most humid day we had so far. I drank lots of water, but staying outside almost the whole time was a mistake. I ended up with a mild case of heat exhaustion and a pretty admirable sunburn. But with the exception of a minor finger/drywall incident, everyone else escaped relatively unscathed.

We were quite the professionals by this our third day. At this point we'd had two days of practice and all figured out what we were good at. With all of us working together, it was seriously like an anthill of activity. We finished two houses in four hours. Rick said it was like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in reverse: you've got a bunch of stuff in your house, by the time we're done it's been gutted.

Debbie was very grateful for all we had done. She was also quite eager to have us pray for her.

At this point it was decided we would go back to Burleigh and Lillian's. They hadn't wanted us to take down the drywall or carpets in all of the rooms, probably since they were still in shock from the whole situation. I think it would be fair to say that we insisted on helping more. The house was pretty gross and we didn't want to leave it in that condition. The family room, living room, bathroom, bedroom closets, and kitchen all got cleaned. Unfortunately, I was suffering from the aforementioned sun-related malady, and Pastor Marlin was kind enough to transport me back to the church.

We ate, showered, and prayed, and then hit the road at about 5:15. I'm looking forward to an uneventful trip home.