Paradise, CA – April 30 – May 6, 2023

Our long-term team, Clara Coblentz, Jonas Schmidt, Don and Rachel Horst welcomed weekly volunteers Susan and Robert Arnold from Shafter, CA early Sunday afternoon. On Monday we said goodbye to Arlene Bontrager  which brought our volunteer count for this week to six, plus two drivers that helped with packing.

The team tackled the task of closing in the open sides of Loomis and Reyes porch steps; hung Reyes beautiful personal mirror above the bathroom vanity; did more touch up painting and cleaning; drove to Stockton to pick up Kellogg’s kitchen cabinets; loaded all the scaffolding in the dump trailer as well as loaded the concrete form boards onto the flatbed trailer; made necessary preparations for and held home dedications of our last three homes.

Highlights this week included finding a driver to move our household semi-trailer up to the camp so we can begin loading items; getting the Certificate of Occupancy for Randy Loomis and dedicating the last three homes MDS built in Paradise.

Next week we will be installing the kitchen cabinets at Kellogg and doing the final packing up of the camp.

It’s hard to imagine all the feelings the homeowners go through while watching and patiently waiting for their new home to be built.  We do know that a witness of God’s love is shared, hope restored as volunteers come and go.   We are grateful for the opportunity to serve with so many hard-working volunteers, helping to keep things moving forward, one day at a time.  What a joy it is to celebrate when the time does finally come to hand over the keys to the homeowners.  We truly do shed tears of joy with them.

Rachel Horst on behalf of the Paradise team.