Eastern KY – Feb. 5-11, 2023

Another week has come and gone, and another batch of volunteers are on their way home.  Fourteen men and women arrived Sunday from Ohio bringing love and laughter and gifts.  They drove in with a trailer full of food that they took to the Fire Hall in Jackson on Monday, and from there the food was distributed to 100 different families. That’s a lot of food!  We also welcomed a fellow from Wisconsin as well as new crew leaders from Ontario, and Michigan, and cooks from Virginia.

At Tamara’s house the work progressed well once again.  There was work done in the master bath to get the shower in, more trim work and painting done throughout, cabinets and the island, and vanities installed and lots of cleaning.  Tamara is anxious to move in and start enjoying her home again.  Her daughter had a lot of Legos that had been in the flood and now were coated in dirt and mud.  One of the ladies here couldn’t go out on the job so she spent hours cleaning up this Lego and when she brought it back to the little girl she was rewarded with a great big smile.  A real labor of love if you ask me!

At Bill and Karen’s, the work this week was putting up siding and the crew got quite a lot of it done, but there was rumors that they also spent time down by the river, sitting in the shade.

The mudding and sanding finally came to an end at Paul and Vivian’s house and the walls were transformed with color.  By the end of the week the trim had been brought in and painting of that got underway as well.  There was a new roof vent installed and that fixed the leak in the bathroom, but that also meant that the bathroom needed a new ceiling and insulation. The bathtub got delivered and placed and is ready to be plumbed.  A good week for this house.

Monday morning started with moving lumber over to the Spicer new build from the Herald new build site.  After that there was steady activity and by Friday there was a new house well underway on what had only been a stem wall on Friday.  The walls are up, trusses up, roof sheeted and papered, interior walls built, windows in and lots of bracing and other work done underneath.  The homeowners came and visited and were very excited to see their house taking shape.

At Nolan and Tosha’s it was much the same scene.  What last week was just a pile of lumber and trusses, now was well on the way to being their new home.  It had walls, windows, a sheeted roof, and interior walls framed up.  It also had the start of a nice sturdy porch and stairs.  There was also much work done with nailing bracing underneath.  The weather co-operated beautifully to be able to get the house to this point.  Nolan comes everyday to check on things, to visit and to clean up.

We had challenging and inspiring devotionals all week, and on Thursday night we shared supper with the Bible Study group that meets here and heard some of their flood stories and experiences. It was a good week once again!

From Eastern KY– Kerry, Jo, Hannah, Andrew, Layne, Em, Don, Erv, Esther, Steve, Gina, Sam, Ken, Jim, Josh, Cody, Wayne, Sanford, Dale, Jim, Beth, Ryan, Jim, Sue, Dale, Jerry, Denny