God is Awesome

Just a quick update on my parent's house. First of all, it flooded during Katrina. Water was 7.5 feet deep in their house so pretty much everything was destroyed. They did salvage some items and they are in storage at my grandparents in Kershaw, SC.

A group from Carson-Newman College & Appalachian Outreach (where I (Steph) used to work)came down and gutted their house for them in a week (quite impressive!)

Then a random (not random- God appointed) Mennonite couple talked with them and my mom did her "Judy's Hurricane Tour" and assisted in finding a location for a group of 60 Amish and Mennonite people to camp. In exchange for my parents kindness and hospitality, the group reroofed my parents house! They now have a gray roof instead of dark brown.

A group of people from my grandparent's church in Kershaw are down this week and they have replaced EVERY window in my parents home and the casings for the windows.

A man from some program in Mississippi came by earlier this week to ask them some questions. There is money available to church members of Mississippi churches to assist in repair of homes. They were told that depending on the amount of money available to them (my parents) they would meet someone at Lowes and receive insulation or sheetrock.

Now they are trying to remove the mold from the studs. Once they finish that, my old youth/music minister from Florence, SC told them to contact him and his church would purchase and ship the sheetrock necessary down for them to re-wall the house so they could use the Mississippi church-goer money for insulation! Allen (youth/music minister) brought a team down to Ocean Springs this past week and they visited my parents yesterday and told them about the sheetrock and such. He will be returning in June with another group and they are going to do whatever my parents need them to do on their house and then help another family in my parent's church.

The Mennonite couple contacted my parents again to offer to sheetrock their house because they are bringing another group down and want to further help my parents, however, my mom had to tell them that there is another group who will be doing that. I don't know if the Mennonites will do anything else but I will let everyone know.

My parents have two "adopted sons"- they are actually grown men in the church who are good friends with my dad and they joke with him and call him dad. One is a plumber and one is an electrician. They are helping my parents with those 2 aspects of the rebuilding process so my parent's don't have to hire anyone.

When Travis and I were at First Baptist Dandridge (where Travis used to work) a couple of weekends ago, we were told by one of the members of the Disaster Relief team at the church that they were interested in sheetrocking my parents house if it will be to that stage at the end of February. Mr. Earl contacted my mom and she helped them secure housing at their church and thus the group will be sheetrocking my parents house with the sheetrock that Allen's church is giving them! How awesome is that?!

There have been lots of other helpful things done and my parents and Travis and I are very thankful. I am sure that I have left some "stuff" out but I know I got the "big things."

Anyway, I have submitted a few pictures to add to this post so people can see some of what I talked about in this email. These pictures were taken right ofter the hurricane (see the mold inside the house) and some are from the Carson-Newman group, others are from around the Waveland/Bay St. Louis area. I do not have pictures yet of the roof, the new windows, the mold-free studs, or anything else. As soon as I get some, I will post them. Mom and Dad, when you read this, you should email me some pictures. Hint Hint...