Selma, AL – Feb. 9-15, 2025

Our group this week was four couples from Martinsburg and New Enterprise, Pennsylvania, all newlyweds. A fifth couple was scheduled to come but got sick. Two of them had been with us in Jennings as singles last winter! So it was fun to meet them with their brides. The cooks were even able to put on a special Valentine’s Day supper for them on Friday the 14^th.

On Monday and Tuesday the young husbands were able to place steel in the footer trenches at the new house. Unfortunately on Wednesday it poured rain all day, so they not only couldn’t pour concrete, but the trenches collapsed a little on the edges and now need to firm up and be cleaned up before they can pour. And there is more rain in the forecast. This sets our schedule back by a few days. So the guys spent Wednesday under the church porch roof and some tents, building forms for the piers that will need to be poured.

Parker’s yard was even too wet to enter on Wednesday, so the wives stayed back at camp and did some painting for the Methodist Church who is hosting us, while Kathryn Burkholder cleaned some areas in the Parsonage where the Long-Term Leadership stays.

By Thursday Parker’s yard had dried up enough to let the whole group in with scaffolding crosspieces laid across the low spots in the yard. So they all ganged up on that home and gave it a good push forward.

At Bobby Simmons’ house, the crew replaced exterior doors, scraped and painted the exterior wood, and replaced the glass and glazing in six of the windows.

Brown’s job card got signed off finally, leaving her happy and thankful for all that got completed at her home.

On Friday the four guys worked with Ryan at the tri-county women’s shelter, which is trying desperately to get up and running since the tornado two years ago. They are losing state funding rapidly, because they are not cleared to house residents. Their bathroom is not up to code, so our guys tore out some walls, wiring and plumbing, ready for contractors to come in next week.

After our candlelight dinner, some sharing and a farewell song, the four couples from Pennsylvania left with happy hearts, to start their journey homeward.