Today we met Aunt Rose, who’s home we are building, and it was very touching for me and the students. Pastor Ted took a few minutes to explain her story and it was very hard for me to hear. The Saturday before the storm while Ted (her nephew) was evacuating and stopped by to make sure that Aunt Rose was all set, then left 30 minutes before her. While Rose was preparing to evacuate she suffered a heart attack and was transported to the hospital. Once at the hospital she was then evacuated out of the hospital and spent the duration of the storm under the highway bridge, where people were dying, giving birth, and passing out. So with a mere 30 minute difference, Rose’s experience was vastly different than Pastor Ted’s. They both made it through the storm but lost everything. And despite losing everything they have family, friends, and faith. Rose had the chance to tour the house as we walked through the rooms. She was so excited to have a walk in closet among everything else. She talked about how all of her family have lived in this area their whole lives. On this road, new homes were being built for her family members that lost everything. From the sister-in-law, to the cousin, aunt, brother, uncle and many more all living within 1 mile of each other and Rose in the center. Meeting her and the rest of the family make the whole build real to me, It took the experience from a “box with a roof” to a home with Rose at the center.

Once again the students preformed great. The day started out with cold, hard rain and continued with steady rain for most of the morning. Despite the rain the students really stepped up and worked hard to get the roof trusses set. By lunch time the roof trusses were set and we were ready to begin sheathing. As the day pressed on the sun warmed the air and we all dried out a bit. By the end of the day one whole side of the roof was sheathed and the other will be done quickly. We had some of the Alpha team visiting us today and so we put them to work Jen was up on the staging and roof giving us a hand. Jeremiah’s great motivational skills were demonstrated when he brought each one of us popsicles

Misty cutting the ridge