Posted on June 15, 2010 - by Larry

Sunday, June 13, 2010 – Mingo County, WV

Sunday, June 13, 2010
Mingo County, WV

Today we woke to more rain, ate breakfast and were on the road. As we made our way to Gilbert we passed several roads covered in mud and a lot of the local people digging out from flooded homes and yards. We were coming to work on flood relief from the 2009 flood but it looks like we might actually be working on some 2010 flood relief. The drive to Gilbert was beautiful. I wasn’t aware of how lush the forest was and most of the kids agreed. The heat and humidity is a bit shocking to all of us.

The road meandered to the bottom of the valley and eventually we found the church where we will be staying. When we pulled into the parking lot the kids jumped out and when right to work. The river is right next to the church and last night it flooded into the church’s parking lot and took out some of the neighbor’s bridge. They started shoveling and moving the mud and debris from the parking lot. It was pretty cool to see them all just jump in without even being asked. I think the neighbors were pretty impressed (us adults too.) They worked for a couple of hours and we broke for lunch.

The church has two floors. The bottom level has a very nice kitchen and gathering place and four Sunday School rooms. The kids will all sleep in those rooms and the adults are sleeping in the sanctuary.

After settling in we heard from Pastor Cab about the work that we will begin tomorrow sounds interesting. We are dividing into 4 groups: group one will be be working on fixing/replacing the roof of someone’s home; group two will be removing mud from under a porch, then pouring cement and fixing a porch; group three will be removing siding from a home and installing new siding; group four will be getting the “mud out”…crawling under trailers that have been flooded and getting all of the mud and debris out from underneath (this is my group.)

Finally the hearts tournament kicked off and my first round included Carson, Scott and Kelsey. It was a great game and after something like 18 hands our scores were me: 94, Carson: 96, Kelsey: 99 and Scott: 60something. The final hand was intense and after Kelsey scored one point it was Carson and I fighting for second, I won…barely.

Off to bed.