JANUARY 12-18, 2025
NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS: 22
TEAMS WHO CAME AND WHERE FROM:
Saddleback Church team from CALIFORNIA
Russ and Carol from GEORGIA
Krisie Reinig and family from SOUTH CAROLINA
PROJECT PROGRESS MADE:
STACY JOHNSON: Stacy’s home was officially marked off as FINISHED this week!! Yay! The saddleback team finished up the trim work and buttoned up any final tasks. On Wednesday morning the last bit of debris was hauled off by the Saddleback team. Stacy and her husband are so grateful and are now able to focus on welcoming their baby home soon.
NAYLOR HOME: Naylor home in Barnardsville, repairing wood flooring, finishing some drywall and repairing a concrete wall in their barn as well as filling in a concrete block wall in their cottage. Kitchen cabinet designs have been finalized by Fearless and will be sent down soon. Wood flooring is set to be provided by Fearless next week and they will furnish the cost to hire skilled labor to install the flooring. Once flooring is in, cabinets can be installed in the farmhouse and they can move in. They are getting close!
MR. CAUSEY: Jay from the Saddleback team is helping us get started building piers in the cellar at Mr. Causey’s and shore up the beams which is our next step in getting the home dried out and ready to begin rebuilding. We also are contacting the county this week to see if there are any elevation regulations in place before we can begin at Mr. Causey’s. We have made contact with a surveyor who is ready to come take elevation measurements if needed.
JOY OVERTURF: A portion of the Saddleback team worked on repairing and replacing the chain link fencing at Joy’s. They also worked on the interior of the home. Mostly buttoning up small projects that have already been started, put on outlet covers, paint, door handles etc.
DISTRIBUTION HELP: Saddleback teams helped with supply organization and distribution at Bee Log School and also at Big Ivy Community Center. They were able to take several heaters as well as full gas cans to Big Ivy in Barnardsville. The Saddleback team made a God ordained connection with a woman at Bee Log named Kisha Phillips, who has suffered greatly due to the hurricane.
KISHA PHILLIPS: Four people from the Saddleback team as well as Russ and Carol from Georgia went to evaluate the job at Kisha’s house. There is mold in a bedroom and bathroom due to roof damage. They also have a porch that is falling down and may need to be replaced. We would love to help them get in a safe, dry home.
GOD STORIES:
Kisha Philips: Meeting Kisha Philips at Bee Log school was certainly a divine appointment. The team was there working on supply organization and Kisha and her daughter came in. Kisha’s sister Michelle was washed away in the floods on September 27th. Kisha’s four year old daughter Noel Grace has retinal cancer and has already lost one eye due to the cancer. It was communicated that they have active mold in their home so we sent a team to assess the work and start on the job. It really is the most amazing people that God is leading us to and it is so heartbreaking every time you realize what they've walked through. At the same time, we’re watching God send the right people to help at exactly the right time to help us. Sometimes before we ever knew a need was there, God has already sent someone to help be the solution.
Russ and Carol Newman: A retired couple from Georgia coming to serve met our team by chance at Bee Log on Tuesday. Seeing that Bee log was closed the following day, they came to serve with our teams for Wednesday! We had planned to send them to a different distribution site, But in sharing with them about Keisha and her needs for a porch rebuild and mold help, we discovered they were the perfect ones to help! Russ is a carpenter, and they have also done many muck out jobs with Samaritan's purse, so they understood what needed to be done and joined the team! Such a God story of Him orchestrating details we couldn’t even know were there.
SADDLEBACK TEAM GETTING PUMPED FOR THE DAY!