Breathitt, KY – Feb 21-25, 2022

It has been another productive week here in Breathitt County, KY under the direction of Dave Hughes.  His wife, Patti continued as Office manager and Ivan and Anna Mary Martin prepared our meals.  This was the last week for crew leader Norm Yoder who will be returning to Alaska by way of Ohio where he has family.  We really appreciate Norm for his skills, but also for the way he encourages everyone and adds a dose of humor to the mix.  

Our weekly group has been six men and three women from Manor Church and other congregations in the vicinity of Lancaster, PA.  It is amazing to see how each week the group is so diverse in personalities and abilities, yet each one contributes in his or her own way.  We were cautioned to never underestimate the women, and these ladies did not disappoint us. If anyone reading this is hesitant to join an MDS project, please know that you will be welcome. As we were reminded in devotions one morning, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, and when we are weak, then we are strong         (I Corinthians, chapter 12). 

Some of our work this week was to put the finishing touches on jobs where we had worked for several weeks.  The home of Tosha Herald where we built a new back porch just needed a handrail and a floor transition.  At Rena Ritchie’s house, there was a porch that needed scraping and painting. The homeowner joined right in alongside our volunteers to get the first coat applied. Rain settled in later in the week, so the second coat will have to wait.

Our work was completed at the home of Janet Watkins.  We continued what had been started last week: tearing up deteriorated subfloor and replacing it with new plywood. We finished the dining room, living room, kitchen and hall so they can walk through their house without danger of falling between the joists. It is so much cleaner and safer and they are very thankful.

A few volunteers spent the week resizing doors and building door frames for Lucille Mullins’ mobile home.  Standard doors would not fit, so they cut them down to size and had to mortise the hinges and install doorknobs.  They did a beautiful job!

The last client we worked for was Charity Griffith.  Her house had been flooded and the family had replaced the drywall and hardwood floors, but had trouble with some of the electrical circuits. Fortunately, Norm is an experienced electrician, and was able to sort out the trouble and get her light switches and plugs to work again. It may seem like a minor thing, but it was important to her. She is saddened by the recent loss of her husband, and this seemed to brighten up her life.

The rainy weather was somewhat of a limiting factor this week.  With the need for indoor work, we continued working on some cabins at camp which needed new flooring installed.  This was harder than you might think because the bunk beds are permanently installed and the laminate flooring had to be cut to fit around the legs. Some of the cabins also had base trim installed.

This week was shortened because we have to vacate the camp for a retreat this weekend.  The usual cleanup of rooms and vehicles was done on Friday morning and our volunteers had a sendoff lunch of burgers on the grill.