The grant recipients joined with six other members of the Northern Tier Mission Team to work with the West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps (WVMAW) June 17 through July 1, 2006. The group consisted of an equal number of men and women ranging in age from mid-40s to 83 years old. None of us had professional experience in the building trades, but work was found for all participants.
We stayed in the manse of the Presbyterian Church in Gilbert, WV, but the work site was in Lenore, WV, which was about an hours drive each way on the West Virginia roads. The drive tended to make a long workday seem even longer.
During those two weeks, we worked on a flood damaged home that belonged to a 77 year old woman. She had been living in a FEMA travel trailer beside her 100 year old family home that was damaged by flooding in September 2004. The home was built using batten board construction techniques. Consequently, the walls were basically one each thick boards. We spent a lot of time framing in the sagging walls and installing insulation. New siding was applied, along with new vinyl replacement windows and new exterior doors. The house should be much warmer in the wintertime.
Inside the house, a new electrical service entrance was wired in with new wiring throughout the house. Drywall was installed in the rest of the house. Because the resident fell and broke her hip in her FEMA trailer the second day we were there, a special effort was made to level the floors so that they would be easier for her to get around. We also had to redo the bathroom to move the fixtures around, redo the plumbing and install a wider door to make it more accessible. The mission team also donated an 11,000 BTU air conditioner to make the hot days more bearable.
The day we were finishing, the resident returned from her stay in a rehabilitation hospital. Amazingly, she was able to get around very well considering she had broken her hip less than two weeks before. Through the effort of the Mission Team and other work groups, she was able to finally move back into her home this fall. It was certainly moving to see the pictures of her enjoying her newly renovated home.
We are planning on returning to work with the WVMAW program in June 2007. It was certainly a rewarding experience last year, and we are thankful for the grants from Northumberland Presbytery as well as the Synod travel grants which helped make it possible for us to share this experience. |
