VIM VA Beach: A Productive Week

"You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven."  Matthew 5:14-16  CEB

We've come to the end of a very productive week, happy with all we have managed to accomplish.  But weariness has definitely set in and I write this as we are on the road, heading for home.  It has been a rewarding experience for everyone, VIM veterans and first timers both.  With the week coming to a close, we took time off on Thursday evening for a well earned break and took a drive to the actual beach of Virginia Beach and spent 45 minutes walking the boardwalk at sunset. Afterward we then returned to St. Luke's for a dinner of leftovers then turned in early after devotions, clean-up and discussing logistics for Friday.

Pastor David, Robin, Anita and Jim finished their painting at the 2nd home. There is still work to be done there but the homeowner is very pleased.  He wished they could stay longer and begin work on the other portions of his home that have yet to be done.  He planned on recommending them to everyone until he was gently reminded that they are not professionals!

Since they finished on Thursday and we only planned on working a half day on Friday, Michelle then asked them if they would take on a small project at a 3rd home.  So today David, Jim, Robin and Dennis repaired, patched and painted a cracked ceiling and began painting the kitchen.  This is the home of a retired pastor and his wife, both facing health challenges and recently moved back into their home after 10 months.  UMCOR and the Virginia Annual Conference had made arrangements for folks displaced by the flooding to be housed in hotel rooms and unused time shares.  Unfortunately this meant that they were forced to relocate every 5-7 days, carrying limited clothing and personal items.  They were very grateful to be back in their home and for the brief work our team was able to do for them on our last day.

Anita and Carol stayed behind at St. Luke's to paint a few doors and to get a jump on packing, cleaning up after ourselves and preparing the place for the next team coming in behind us a few weeks.


Doug took Steve, Martin, Bonnie, Norm and me back to the house we have been working on all week.  Yesterday Steve and Dennis dug more roots and stumps out of the yard while Doug and Martin cut and placed baseboard in 4 rooms.  Norm and I followed behind caulking while Bonnie trailed the two of us and began painting trim around closets.  By quitting time today, all baseboards and trim were caulked and painted.  The powder room has a base coat of primer and Doug and Martin began sanding the main bathroom that up until today had been left untouched.  We then swept, vacuumed, tidied up the work site and sorted and packed tools to bring back to the supply and tool closets at St. Luke's.  Then finally packed up, we took group pictures and bid a fond farewell to Michelle and Janet, who we met on Thursday.  Janet is training with Michelle in order to be backup liaison and custodian at St. Luke's.

We stopped for a final dinner together as a team at Pierce's Pitt BBQ in Williamsburg.  This is a local favorite in the area.  When Norm and I lived in Hampton, the restaurant was little more than a trailer on the side of the road and people drove from miles around on Friday nights to pick up takeout for dinner.  The place is a little bigger now, with a few fixed fast food style tables but it is still doing a booming business.  A steady stream of customers came in the entire time we were there.  We parted with Jim here since he drove separately and has farther to go to get home to Towson but we are grateful for his presence and hard work all this week.

As we slowly make our way home, negotiating the inevitable stop and go traffic on I-95, we are all thankful for the wonderful week we've had.  The weather was perfect, the rain only coming in the evenings or overnight.  We were blessed with cooler temperatures later in the week and comfortable and pleasant ocean breezes.


To God be the glory!  With Him all things are possible.

VIM VA Beach: The Gift of Labor and Laughter

"Peter said (to the crippled beggar),'I don't have any money, but I will give you what I do have.  In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, rise up and walk!'"   Acts 3: 6. CEB

At our evening devotions tonight, Pastor David used the passage above to remind us that money is not the only way to help those in need.  This week the individuals on our team are giving of their time and labor as well as paying their own way to be here.  And even though this is only Wednesday and we have only one full day tomorrow and a half day on Friday, we have made great progress.

At our primary work site, Steve, Jim and Bonnie have finished as much as possible in the front, side and backyards.  Although the worst portion of the overgrowth and fallen limbs were removed before we got here, they have raked the remaining debris, pulled weeds and vines, cut roots and mowed the sparce grass.  Yesterday Michelle's supervisor, Bob came and hauled away over 30 bags of yard waste and the remains of a rusted children's play set.  By the end of the day they had filled another 5-6 bags.  With that taken care of and the threat of rain in the forecast, today Bonnie and Steve have joined the rest of us inside while Jim went with David, Robin and Anita to work on the second home.  

Inside the house is also really starting to look good.  All day long this place echoes with the sounds of industrious work and occasional laughter. Team members call to each other for help or to offer advice.  The sounds of hammers and saws ring thru a home which is slowly being made whole once again.  People shift from room to room, trading tools and paint, working on tasks each feels most comfortable at doing, a complicated ballet playing out in cramped spaces but somehow executed with amazing grace and efficiency.

By the end of today, the 3 upstairs bedrooms and closets have been completely primed and painted and ready for baseboards and trim.  Doug and Martin began framing one of the closets which Carol then primed.  Carol and Dennis have completed painting in the living room and it also is ready for the trim work.  Bonnie, Carol and Doug have also finished painting the 4th bedroom on the lower level, Martin has finished repairing the baseboard in the utility/HVAC room and has mudded the seams, and Doug and Steve then began measuring and cutting baseboard for the small family room.  Tomorrow we hope to get baseboards cut and installed, finish framing the rest of the closets and to start painting and caulking the baseboards.

At the second home, David, Robin, Anita and Jim have been busy painting the living room, a bedroom and hallway.  The homeowner has been so pleased that although no work was planned for tomorrow because he needed to be away for a funeral, he has asked them to come back and continue working and they hope to be finished by the end of the day.

Although everyone is pretty tired by the time we return to St. Luke's each evening, our spirits remain high.  We've grown closer as a team which makes a big difference.  And after dinner we relaxed and sang old songs from a songbook collection Jim has put together then played a hilarious few rounds of good old fashioned Charades.  We are giving of our time and labor to brothers and sisters in need of help to repair the damage to their home.  And we have given each other the gift of laughter and fellowship, to lighten our spirits and our weariness at the end of a long but rewarding day.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  

Philippians 4:13.  NKJV

VIM VA Beach: Everyone Has a Story

"Carry each other's burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.  Let's not get tired of doing good, because in time we will have a harvest if you don't give up."   Galatians 6: 2, 9  CEB

Everyone has a story.  At our devotions and reflections this evening at the end of our second day of work, we shared why each of us felt called to join this team and give up a week to come here and be in service to others.  Some of us are veterans of other mission trips, while for others this is their first mission experience.  For many of us, although this week is far from over, we are already feeling called to look ahead to Houston and Louisiana, still reeling from Hurricane Harvey's catastrophic flooding.  Each of us came here for different reasons but all are united in spirit and purpose - to do all the good we can while we are here.

Likewise the people we are serving each have their own story.  The elderly lady whose house we have been working on, locked her home last October and fled to safety ahead of the storm.  Unfortunately after the flood waters receded, the water damage led to a bad case of black mold, which in turn resulted in the house being entirely gutted before any reconstruction work could begin.  We learned today that the lady has been widowed for 20 years and has been struggling to care for her home since that time.  She's currently living with her daughter in Richmond and we will not get an opportunity to meet her.

While this woman and her daughter work with UMCOR to repair her home so she can return, her neighbors for the most part have completely recovered.  Her home still needs a lot of work and stands out in the neighborhood of similar homes that are already complete and once again whole.  The neighbors in the house directly behind her's managed to keep the flood at bay by staying awake for over 19 hours, using a shop vacuum to suck up the water as it was running into their home and then dumping it back outside - an almost unfathomable achievement.  

And yet, just 2 houses down and across the street, lies an empty cement slab sitting at the end of a concrete driveway, on a lovely well cared for corner lot.  The lawn is being meticulously mowed and tended, the trees trimmed and mulched.  But the home that once stood here was condemned and demolished.  While the rest of the neighborhood looks completely normal and representative of suburbia anywhere in the U.S., this empty lot is a sad reminder of what happened here.  For Norm and me, it brings back heartbreaking memories of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans after the levees broke after Hurricane Katrina.  There, entire neighborhoods were razed after the disaster.  We drove thru empty streets, seeing lots similar to this one, empty intersections surrounded by fields of grass, cement pilings and steps leading to nowhere where row after row of houses once stood, a sad testimony to the breadth and scope of the tragedy.  While the physical extent of the damage here in Virginia Beach pales in comparison to New Orleans and Houston, the toll on the lives affected cannot be compared or measured.

And finally, 3 of our team worked for the first time at the 2nd site we have been assigned this week.  The gentleman here is caring for his aging mother who is recovering from a stroke.  They are living in their home, moving furniture from room to room to accommodate the volunteers coming in to repair and paint.  In a brief conversation Pastor David had with the homeowner, it is apparent that the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew is hardly the worst thing this man has had to deal with over the last decade, it is only the most recent.

Everyone has a story and hardships to bear.  But a joy shared is doubled and a grief shared is halved.  We are blessed to be a blessing.  How blessed and much better off are we all when we follow Christ's command to love one another and St. Paul's advice to carry each other's burdens.

VIM VA Beach: Labor Day Labors

"If I your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other's feet.  I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you must also do."   John 13:14-15 CEB

Our Volunteers in Mission team of 11 departed church Sunday afternoon and caravaned down to Virginia Beach, VA to begin 4 and 1/2 days of reconstruction work after Hurricane Matthew struck the area in October last fall.  Returning to this area is a bit of a homecoming for Norm and I.  We lived here in the Hampton, VA when we were first married nearly 32 years ago and haven't visited since 2012.  As we drove thru Hampton and Newport News, we both got a little nostalgic, recalling many happy memories and noting how things have changed over the years.  The region is rich in history, with Yorktown, Wiiliamsburg and Jamestown forming the historic colonial triangle.  The famous Battle of the Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack took place in Hampton Roads, not far from where we once lived and the Monitor is now being restored at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News after sinking off Cape Hatteras and being recovered from the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" about 15 years ago.  We got to see 3 aircraft carriers in port at Norfolk Naval Base as we crossed the Roads via the bridge-tunnel from the Peninsula cities of Hampton, Newport News and Poquoson to the Southtowns of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach.

We met our 12th team member, Jim from Towson, once we arrived at St. Luke's UMC, our home away from home for the next few days.  Jim is a friend of Pastor David and his wife, Robin and this is his 2nd trip to VA Beach on a VIM team. Michelle, our Virginia Annual Conference/UMCOR liaison and project coordinator was waiting for us and gave us a tour of the facilities and restaurant suggestions for dinner.  So after quickly unpacking, we headed off to Cracker Barrel.  Spirits were high as we shared laughter and hopes for the week ahead over a delicious dinner.

St. Luke's congregation was in the process of merging with another church nearby when Matthew struck.  Afterwards the sanctuary, classrooms and community hall were turned into a dormitory to house the many VIM teams that have come to help the area recover.  Matthew hit Forida as a hurricane but raked the Atlantic coastline as it came north and was only a tropical depression by the time it reached VA Beach.  However the area had already endured several severe thrunderstorms in the few weeks prior and by the time Matthew moved on, VA Beach had received 51 inches of rain.  Many neighborhoods were flooded and houses were inundated with anywhere from 6 inches to 3 feet of water.

In the aftermath, a number of faith based organizations came to help the area recover from the damages.  And while some demolition work began shortly after the storm, most of the work began in earnest early this year.  Approximately 17 homes have been finished with another 30 or more still in various stages of completion.  Michelle says that elderly, young single mothers with children and handicapped residents have been given priority in the reconstruction efforts.

Since Monday was Labor Day and technically a holiday, Michelle arrived early to give us some basic instructions and then took us to our work site.  Today the entire team worked on a single house that is currently empty, its elderly owner is still living with her daughter in Richmond until she can move back in.  But 3-4 of us will break off tomorrow and go to a 2nd site that is closer to being finished and is presently occupied by a gentleman and his mother.  Michelle says that the house today had to be completely gutted inside and teams have been working on it all summer.  It is a cozy split level home and sits in a modest neighborhood of similar homes that were built in the 1960s.

After we received our "marching orders" from Michelle we paired off and picked various tasks.  The front and back yards have been mostly neglected so Steve and Jim set to work raking, mowing the sparce lawn and pulling down vines and weeds, later joined by Bonnie.  The rest of us divided up inside to mud and sand drywall, prep and paint.  There is plenty of work to be done but by the end of the day one room downstairs has gotten a 2nd coat of paint on both walls and ceiling and will be ready to install baseboard and quarter round before the end of the week.  Two rooms upstairs will get painted with primer and will be ready to paint by mid-week.  Doug and Martin tackled a little demolition work in the utility room while the rest of us did some sanding, spackle and plaster mud repair work to touch up a few spots missed or needing to be touched up after previous teams.

Carol, Robin and I left the site a bit early to do some additional grocery shopping for the rest of the week and to prepare dinner for the team.  Then after a delicious meal of turkey BBQ, fresh garden green beans, watermelon and cantaloupe and both lemon zucchini cake and banana cake with caramel frosting, we shared in a few moments of reflection and devotions, led by Pastor David.  Praying on the passage above from John 13, we look forward to a night of rest, renewed energy and servant hearts reinvigorated for the work in the days ahead.