Port Charlotte, FL – March 16-22, 2025

This week we hosted a group of 12 students from Ephratha Mennonite School.  They brought with them 3 parents and 2 young siblings.  Being high school students, their skill levels were basic at the beginning of the week, but some grew steadily as they worked at various tasks.  In addition to the physical work of restoring homes, we grew in our understanding of the effects that hurricanes have on the people in this area from Pastor Devon’s visit on Wednesday evening. 

The Gould home had been gutted, and the family is living in a small portion of the house. The students learned the art of insulating and hanging drywall under Ginny’s tutelage. By the end of the week a good portion of the large home was drywalled.  

Work continued at the Thigpen home, now in the painting stage.  Flooring and skirting of the home was also begun. 

Daniel and his team were assigned a number of window installations and the trim work associated with replacing windows. Jason, on of the weekly group’s leader, also led a team installing windows at the homes of Payne, Adams, and Garcia.  

The flooring and trim were completed in the Tipton home bring this job to a close.  The homeowner was so proud of her new floor that she ran to her neighbours and invited them in to see the great floor job.  Well done, Roger and team! 

Thanks to Ray Heisey for joining our team on Friday.  He was able to hang the kitchen hood at Ms. Amy’s home and fixed the hot water connection to the shower.   

As we are nearing the end of our time in Port Charlotte, this week was busy with many moving parts.  Our fearless director, Verne, has done a fantastic job of keeping us focused on busy.  We have no less than 10 job cards to complete in the coming week. 

On behalf of the team:  

Verne, Joyce, Daniel, Pamela, Chuck, Ginny, Roger, Anne & Corey