Point Au Chien, LA – Feb. 1-7, 2026

Jason, MDS driver of volunteers extraordinaire, with his assistant driver, Titus, transported 10 other young Groffdale conference men from Lancaster County to work with us in Pointe-Aux-Chenes, LA for the week of February 1 – 9, 2026.  Ingrid of Nova Scotia came with her husband, Ralph, Crew Leader for the month, to work for two weeks. She worked primarily painting. She is careful and productive. The volunteers worked on three different sites all week, and have instilled hope and enthusiasm in this community yet again.  They worked on project #4 (Grace) installing subfloor and exterior walls as far as they could before more pylons needed to be placed (these were completed on Friday). This team then moved on to project #3 (Jade) because the pylons were completed.  They installed the pylon beams, floor joists, subfloor, interior walls, and framed up a porch. They got a good start on the X-bracing also.  

The team working on project #2 (Roger) almost finished the exterior!  This house is shingled, sided and painted with a nice turquois, windows are trimmed, a concrete base to the front stairs is in and the side porch stairs ¾ finished. Soffit, facia, windows and doors are installed, calked and trimmed. They removed the scaffolding and decking in preparation of moving it to another project. We are excited to experience the looks on the owners’ faces when they get home from work and see the progress.  This group worked later than planned on Friday just so that they could get a bit more done before heading home. It was a wonderful week.  

Next week Jason comes back again with another group, and we hope to have project #2 inspected.  Electricians and plumbers are on standby ready to come.  Project #3 should be dried in, sided and roofed by the end of the week.  Project #1 should have subfloor and some interior walls if possible. Project #4 is ready for more work also.  A special memory that the boys say they will keep is staying up until quiet time with the project director and deepening their friendships.  This group is filled with future MDS leaders.  We miss them and pray for their futures!