Crisfield, MD – March 9-15, 2025

We were pleasantly surprised when a group showed up at our camp with a song on their hearts. The group of eight were from the Riverdale Old Order Mennonite Church from Bridgewater-Dayton Virginia area. Music was in their hearts as they sang and praised God each day at devotions and throughout the day.

 What a joy to hear their harmonious voices blend together to praise our Lord.

They not only could sing but were also very good workers.  The ramp on Maple Street was completed with steps in the rear. The Enon Baptist Church social room was completed with new flooring put down plus we added a new project to do the flooring in the sanctuary. That will need to be completed when time permits. At the new building on Tyler Street, we finished the outside stairways and concrete pads. We finished installing the kitchen and bathroom plus some finishing touch ups.

Our biggest project last week was on Myrtle Street where we had the concrete block layers come from Delaware and lay the block for the pillars and foundation. Several guys mixed the concrete and sand and some of the girls struck the blocks and painted them with sealer. We all gathered at the sight at noon on Tuesday, March 11, to see them lower the house back down on the blocks.  Prep-time was interesting as they aligned the steel beams to fit exactly into the open block spaces.  Setting in place only took a couple of minutes.  It was amazing to watch these experts do their job.  The house was set in place, and we were ready to get back to work.  The next couple of days we worked on the deck and front stairs with changes each day but finally got things agreed to by everyone involved.  After the Expert Houses Movers finished on Tuesday they moved to Cove Street to the Wise house. They started the beginning of raising that house on Wednesday and finished raising it on Thursday.  Now there is a waiting period for inspection and the ok to move forward with the pillars and foundation.

On Thursday we took our group picture in the morning with only two volunteers joining us.  In the evening, we had Wise, whose house we raised on Wednesday and Thursday, and Campbell, both from the Enon Baptist Church come to have dinner with us and talk with the group about Crisfield culture, the storms and life here.  It was very interesting, and the volunteers had several questions for them.

J Loren, David Kanagy, Maynard Hostetler, Sheldon Swartzentruber, Kim Hoskins, and Judy Bird met to discuss plans for the future of Crisfield work.  Projects still need done and Kim is working on getting those set up for future work.

It was a very productive week for our volunteers and staff.  And we sent out volunteers off feeling accomplishment for a work well done and still with a song in their hearts.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Bird

Office Manager