Busy, busy, busy, busy since our last update. Rob, Steve, and Nicole arrived safely from St Louis Sunday the 30th. We got them setup at an older church parsonage, Church of The Nazarene in Knightstown, that is used for missionaries and let us use the home this past week. It was already hot and the two upstairs bedrooms didn’t have AC vents but had window units that weren’t installed and of course being an older home, there were no outlets nearby! We didn’t realize this was a issue until we showed up that evening. It was late so I told them to run some fans we had, and we’d figure it out in the morning.
Rob decided to run to Walmart and pick up some good extension cords, and they got the units installed that night. Of course, it was hot up there so that night was warm, but by morning all was good!
We did devos, coffee, and breakfast at Steve and Deb’s all week. We were in 1 Peter 1 and only made it through verse 3! Lots of great questions and discussions that turned into digging deep into God’s Word for ALL the answers, true Biblical Discipleship as Jesus commanded those who are Christians in Matthew 28:19-20, disciple others with what Jesus commanded us to do ourselves!
We always do a debrief at the end of the week over dinner. It’s always encouraging to me and Mary Jo to hear what The Lord was speaking to the team during their time with us. The couple who made dinner, Cheryl, and Sam and his family joined us. It was very encouraging to hear their testimonies and we pray that the things we’ve all heard from The Lord this week will continue to impact our lives to live for Jesus as we daily deny what our flesh wants to do and instead a take up our cross and follow Jesus by obeying all He’s commanded us in His Word! (Luke 9:23-25, John 14:15)
Monday, we got busy tearing out Larry and Barb’s. We were joined by several servants from WCoC all week, Sam, Cheryl, Garen and Brian. It was hot and only got hotter as the week continued. We mostly had feels like temps in the lower 100’s. This kept us from serving as long as I know everyone wanted to but being good stewards of our bodies which The Lord has given us, we didn’t let that get us down! We’d get done, what we got done and leave the results up to The Lord!
Mid-week it looked like we wouldn’t get finished. But by days end on Thursday, 90% of the home had been deconstructed! Friday we were joined by Steve and Matt and Praise The Lord, we finished all the deconstruction except getting all of the screws and nails pulled! The team also got visqueen installed in the crawl space. It would be ready to bring in our equipment as soon as Ron’s was dry enough to spray!
Ron’s wasn’t going as quickly as I had hoped. There was a lot of wood that was soaked when we set up our equipment. I spent time last week inside the house with all the drying equipment running, ensuring nothing was hindering the process and moving equipment around. One day I was there for 4 hours, something I wouldn’t recommend! It was still too wet in several areas on Friday. So, we kept it sealed up over the weekend.
Monday was Labor Day and we didn’t know if we’d have any servants, but God is good! We had a great day serving alongside at least 10 folks from WCoC! We finished pulling all the nails and screws at Larry and Barb's and setup plywood for our drying equipment.
While that was going on the rest of the crew headed to Ron's to remove all the equipment as it was dry enough to spray. We then took it to Larry's and set it all up. Garen removed the extra temp power outlets we used at Ron’s and installed them at Larry’s to ensure that we had all the electrical circuits we needed to run everything.
Brad stayed to finish burning all the wood we pulled out of the two houses. Tucker and I headed back to Ron’s, and we spent the next several hours spraying to kill all the bacteria that if left unchecked, would continue to grow mold in their home. I suited up and Tucker kept mixing the solution to keep me going. We used 35 gallons of spray! I always forget how much time and solution it takes for homes with crawl spaces!
We then went back to check to make sure everything was working properly at Larry's and found one tripped outlet and a sewer pipe that had come disconnected so that 3 of the dehus were just going back onto the plastic in the crawl space. We got both of those issues fixed, we pray, and headed for the barn! It was a very loooooong day!
Now I'll check the drying process at Larry's once a day until it’s dry enough to spray. This week I’ll also be meeting with a contractor with Ron at his home and a FEMA note taker/data enterer with Larry and Barb at their home.
At this point it appears that this is all The Lord has for us to do this trip, but if something else gets revealed we’ll do what we can to fulfill our call!
This is just the beginning of a looooong process for all these families. Continue to pray for Ron and Katrina and their boys, especially with Katrina’s cancer issues. Pray for favor with the RIGHT contractor as there are a lot of things that must be fixed in their home that we uncovered during this process that must be fixed. These are things that are a result of how old the home is and not because of the flood. These issues aren’t covered by insurance. While most of the serving we did is paid for by insurance and all we do is for free, and it was a lot, it won’t be enough money to fix all that needs done. I know WCoC will do all they can as they can and most importantly, they are leaning on the everlasting arms of Jesus.
Pray first and foremost for Larry and Barb’s salvation. Many of us have prayed with them and not only shared Jesus with them by our actions but also had some seed planting conversations with them. They didn’t have flood insurance and are hoping that they get some money from the government to help them, but those monies are never enough to do anything but help, not rebuild a home. Pray for wisdom with how and if Wilkinson Church of Christ and Calvary Relief may be able to get involved in the rebuild so that in their mid-80’s they don’t have to go into debt to be able to live in their home.
PS-it was nice to sleep in to 6 this morning and not have to rush to get something done! Pray that Mary Jo and I will get some rest before we head back home to FL!
Keep the prayers coming, we so appreciate them and know that knowing you’re praying for us is encouraging to us! Feel free to reach out to us to remind us that you’re praying!!
If you’re interested in growing in The LORD as you selflessly serve others alongside of Calvary Relief, please let us know! For more info on joining us, click here. Plenty of things to do!
If you feel led to help with any of the expenses with Calvary Relief, please click here.
If there’s ever anything you need prayer about or just need to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us and let us know!
Here to serve and disciple until He calls us home,
Curt & Mary Jo
