Sunday July 12, 2009

Travel Day

Today we left from St. Patrick's in Urbana after attending the 7:30am mass. After an orderly loading of the bus (thank you all you helpers!!) we were on our way to Memphis. Thankfully, it was a very uneventful trip to the University of Memphis. We are all settled into our rooms and had a great dinner. Tonight during our Social Justice Study we experienced a Hunger Banquet. We also had both small and large group discussion about the causes of poverty and ways that we can take action against poverty. The CREW Praise Band helped round our evening and our prayer service that ended our study.

Monday July 13, 2009

Work Day #1

Today started off bright and early with breakfast in the cafeteria. We now know what powdered eggs taste like. :) We loaded up the bus and headed out to the National Civil Rights Museum. The Museum is absolutely amazing. They have preserved the hotel room (Rm 306 of the Lorraine Hotel) that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated outside of. They have all the evidence used in the case against King's assassin. They also have amazing displays and exhibits of the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. The entire museum was just...well...if you are ever in Memphis, you have to go! It began to thunderstorm while we were at the museum. Around 11:30am we headed over to MIFA headquarters. We had a very filling lunch from the University's catering department. Mary Claire Borys (the supervisor of the Handyman program) told us about all the programs that MIFA provides to the Memphis community and surrounding counties. Did you know that MIFA has volunteers that deliver 2300 Meals on Wheels every day? Frank Lockhart (the MIFA Handyman supervisor we are directly working with) then told us all about our work sites and we headed onto the bus to go to work. By the time we arrived at our respective sites, unloaded tools and got down to work, we only had about 2 or 3 hours to work before we had to pack up and head back to the University of Memphis to clean ourselves up and have dinner. Our evening Social Justice Study this evening focused on the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and his dream of "The Beloved Community". The evening consisted of a movie clip of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, making posters, comparing and contrasting one of Dr. King's sermons with the gospel teachings of Christ, some personal reflection time and then a great closing prayer service. Our CREW Praise band is the band that rocks our souls! They were in excellent voice and harmony tonight. Everyone had to wear off some more energy before heading to bed this evening. We are all looking forward to a hard days work tomorrow!!

Tuesday July 14, 2009

Work Day #2

The first 8 teenagers had their chance to deliver Meals on Wheels this morning. It sounds like it was an all around good experience. While those teens were busy delivering food, the rest of the Mission Trippers headed out to their work sites. Each work site encountered some "snafus" today. A pinpoint water leak was located under the kitchen floor we are fixing in Mrs. Clear's home. We had to have a plumber out to fix it so we can continue our work tomorrow. The crew on Mrs. Clear's home also finished scrapping the house and glazed the windows today. At Ms. Burks home, more roof shingles were torn off as more damage was discovered under them. 7 dedicated people stayed late in order to get some more of the roof sheathing down before quitting for the day. A handful of teens enjoyed the University's swimming pool this afternoon. After dinner tonight our Social Justice Study included an opening prayer service, watching the movie "The Visitor", doing graphic representations of world population and energy consumption using large cookie pies, a Global Quiz and a closing prayer service, with of course great music added in too. The teens and chaperons are anxious to get started on their projects tomorrow and make a great deal of headway towards completing their work. **Everyone went to bed pretty early tonight, so I think we have finally started to wear them out!**

Wednesday July 15, 2009

Work Day #3

Boy, it was hot today. All you had to do was step outside and you would start to sweat. Add to that a pair of jeans and man, oh, man, it was hot. We are guessing it was up near 100 degrees today with the heat index. Meals on Wheels went well this morning. Between the excellent directions from MIFA and handy GPS units, we get around Memphis pretty well. Much progress was made on both sites today. For the Clears: today we finished painting the vast majority of the house; the kitchen now has a working floor; the shed has new doors; the windows are all reglazed and some window panes were replaced. For the Burks': the ceilings in the family room and kitchen were drywalled and patched; about 1/2 of the roof has new roof sheeting and tar paper. For tomorrow at the Clears: repair some drywall in the kitchen ; lay peel-n-stick floor tile; replace kitchen sink/countertop; touch up work on the exterior of the house. For tomorrow for the Burks: build a "bridge" to correct the roof drainage problems; finish tar papering; finish touch up work on ceilings inside of house; hopefully begin laying shingles. Our social justice study tonight was interrupted by a fire alarm...and you guessed it...coming from the lobby of our floor. Have no fear, though, there was no actual fire. The air conditioning into the hallway was blowing very warm, wet air into the hall (it had condensed all over the hallway floor) and we are guessing that it set off the fire alarm. They have the air conditioning fixed and that is a wonderful thing!! So because we spent some time outside this evening...we moved through our study a little more quickly than we normally would have. We are still debating about whether we will have to/want to give up our Friday Fun Day in order to finish our work projects. Keep praying with us!!

Thursday July 16, 2009

Work Day #4

Well, today didn't start out with good news. A pretty bad thunderstorm rolled into Memphis at about 5am and kept going pretty strong until 8am. After that there was intermittant drizzle till noon. The Meals on Wheels crews set out as planned and ran their routes without any complications. At the Clear's home we kept painting as best we could despite the rain. We were able to finish the painting, window glazing and the doors for their shed. In the kitchen, the floor was relaid with peel-n-stick tiles, the wall behind the kitchen sink repaired and the new cabinet installed with the kitchen counter and sink. It all looks really quite lovely. Even the mustard seed paint in the teens' hair almost looks like highlights. That is the good news. The bad news was that at the Burks' home, the rain penetrated our tarps and ruined the brand new ceiling that we installed in the kitchen, and then some. We took a gamble doing the ceilings before the roof was repaired, and we gambled incorrectly. Our male carpenter types went out early to the Burks to assess damage and start tenting the roof so that they could begin the construction of the new roof. By mid-morning when the rain slacked off they were able to really get working full speed. They also stayed a few hours late in order to get tar paper down on the roof. So the entire roof is now complete and somewhat weather proof. MIFA told us that they would have a contractor out tomorrow to finish shingling the roof and to also tear off the rest of the shingles and replace those as well. At our evening Social Justice Study we watched "Remember the Titans" and ordered ourselves some celebratory and well-earned pizzas. We also opened and concluded our study tonight with some wonderful prayer services. Everyone is looking forward to our fun day tomorrow!!

Friday July 17, 2009

Travel Day