Jennings, LA – March 19-25, 2023

This week two crews both cancelled out, so we were left with 8 long term volunteers and one weekly. But small groups bring their own sense of fun and fellowship, which we definitely experienced this week. It was also nice to have Phil and Loretta Helmuth back for our final two weeks here.

In spite of small numbers, we have kept two crews going. One crew is Bryant and his cousin Tobias, who finished fixing a metal roof for Kiki Hardy, our liveliest church friend here. She keeps donkeys and alligators on her property (well, the alligators helped themselves, though not to donkeys. But definitely to her dogs.) In addition to fixing Kiki’s roof, Bryant and Tobias were able to finish installing some custom windows at a home we dedicated several weeks ago. (The windows took a long time to come.)

After the smaller repairs were done, Bryant and Tobias were able to continue work on Stephanie Celestine’s house in preparation for drywall next week. Some angles and beams needed tweaking to square things up, and nailers needed putting up. Hopefully next week’s crew can go forward with drywalling! 

Ed, Marlene, Herb, and Randal meanwhile continued finishing work on Terry Prudhomme’s home, which is nearing completion. They painted finish on trim, painted doors and primed the drywall. They moved a gas line and stained cabinets. The flooring is now completed, and final trim is going in. Terry is very happy with his new kitchen and utilitiy room!

On Thursday afternoon some of us attended a house dedication for Jacob Cardiff and his son Asher, organized by the Welsh RV crew. Jacob is an army vet and needed help getting his house put back together after the hurricane wreaked its havoc. Asher is about 8 and especially enjoyed trying out the keyboard one RV couple brought along to accompany us singing “Blessed be the tie that binds.” He asked Duane Anderson if he was Indiana Jones (because of his hat), and he asked Cyndi Ratzliff to bring milk next time to go with the cookies! Needless to say, we were delighted with the comic relief.

We are starting to plan for closing down this project at the end of next week. It is sad to say good bye to all our church friends here. They are putting on multiple dinners, luncheons, and restaurant meals out of gratefulness for having us here. It is quite humbling. We are happy for them, however, that another Church of Christ congregation will be joining forces with them soon. We are also praying that doors will open for an MDS return in the fall!

Submitted by Christa Barth on behalf of the Jennings team