Stanwich Missions! - Galveston 2010

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Shelby & Eric





George


Our team ..


Allie Femi & Bruin

Ferry to dinner

Jason & Femi

Ferry trip to dinner

Happy with progress..





Whatever it takes!


Dining Hall


Team Work


Bruce


Bruin's turn

Sheetrock lifting contest !

Best lift !

Jason's victorious!

Jason & Eric

Attention to detail !

Our home for the week


Preparing another days work


Our first project

Four Stanwich members and a long time Stanwich attendee traveled down to Galveston Texas. Three of the five had been there previously.

Femi traveled there right after hurricane Ike with Bob Caie, while Bruce and I (Bruin) went down last year in conjunction with Grace Evangelical Free Church. Jason had recently returned from Guatemala with Bruce and me when Stanwich sent a team to work with Rafi Agrait and his Last Call Ministries in February.

Bob drove the boys down to JFK Sunday morning while Allie met us there. In Houston we rented a minivan and drove to Galveston Island while beginning the bonding experience one can only find on a missions trip. Other than Bruce, Jason and I, no one knew each other.

We arrived at Galveston Bible Church and met Sarah, Emily and Sylvia who are all part of Touch Global, EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America). We exchanged paperwork and greeted one-another. Then we went over expectations and then headed over to the bunkhouse. We claimed our sleeping quarters, boys on the lower floor, women upstairs, and we found to our surprise that we each had our own bathrooms with showers (a welcome change from last year) and we also had laundry facilities (a really nice change).

We drove along the Seawall and found an inexpensive restaurant to eat and we began to share stories and laughter. After dinner, Bruce and I gave a quick tour of our personal knowledge (which wasn’t too much) of the island. I had remembered most of the trees had died, and I noticed that along the tourist areas, there were no longer any dead trees. Most of the signs of devastation from the year past were gone and there were a lot of people out and about. I remember from last year how there really were only a few people and Femi said that when he and Bob first came down, there really wasn’t anyone, it seemed like a ghost town. So we found it inspirational to actually see that our efforts down there are, in fact, making a positive contribution to the rebuilding of the island.

We stocked up on food supplies and miscellaneous necessities at Wal-Mart and ended the tour with what would become a nightly visit to Sonic "Boom" for ice cream. We headed back to campus to bed down for the night.

Monday morning we met the whole gang. Sarah greeted us along with Emily and Sylvia who had breakfast prepared and all laid out for us. We met George, Sylvia’s husband, who oversees the jobs for the teams and makes sure supplies are on hand and the jobs are running smoothly. Then we met Shelby and Eric who actually lead the teams on the job sites.

We ate breakfast, listened to devotion and headed out to our first job site. The first site we went to, we taped and mudded sheetrock that a previous team put up. Allie painted doors outside. We finished a little bit early and then went over to another house and unloaded a truck full of 120 pieces of various sized sheetrock. We headed back to base, showered quickly, went over to church, ate dinner that Emily and Sylvia made for us and then Emily took us into the sanctuary where we watched a movie about helping the homeless. We had a discussion group about the movie, then we followed that up with another trip to Wal-Mart and Sonic.

The rest of the week, we spent at the latter house hanging all the sheetrock, then taping and mudding it. The house happened to be right next to the house we worked on last year and this year’s team was fortunate enough to meet Mr. and Mrs. Frank Nicholas. He once again opened up his house to the team and he even cooked us all a huge Southern lunch on Thursday, comprised of ribs, sausage, white rice, dirty rice, baked beans, dinner rolls, homemade lemonade and sausage patties. The Stanwich team invited the EFCA team to dinner that Thursday night and also extended an invitation to the Nicholas’s though they were unable to attend.

We boarded a ferry and rode over to Bolivar Peninsula to eat at a seafood restaurant over there Thursday evening. Bolivar had roughly 8,000 homes before hurricane Ike. Bolivar also has no seawall to protect it from storms such as Ike, so the waves came in and devoured everything in their path. Ike left about 200 homes standing when he was through. When we drove over there, we really didn’t see any evidence of Ike. There were homes all over, though I would estimate perhaps 1000 homes had been built, and more were being built. We all ate dinner at Stingaree, and I think all of us had seafood. Was a decent place right on the coastal waterway, so barges kept passing right outside the window.

On the ferry ride back, it was cool and windy, but cloudless, so I went up to the upper deck to watch the wind and the waves dance while a sliver of the moon kept watch over the stars. I met a little boy and his grandfather. The little boy was most helpful in pointing out great spots to visit. His grandfather asked where I was from and I explained we had come down from CT on a mission working with the Galveston Bible Church. He asked me if that was the church with all the green shirts, which it was. He then said that he didn’t think Galveston would be what it was today without all the help it has received from the church.

On Friday, our last day of work, I sat down with Frank in his front yard. He told me how he came to Galveston for the first time with $17.50 in his pocket with his wife in '54. He told me how he got a job at the Coca Cola factory for $20 a week. He told me how he remembered his school teacher scolding him for dreaming and telling him that he'd never be able to own his own house one day. He told me that he was always dreaming of owning 2 houses, just to be able to prove his teacher wrong. He told me how he owned the neighborhood. He told me how he cleaned up the neighborhood. He told me that his wife just wanted to 'go home' after the storm. Then he told me 'home' was really with The Father and not in Galveston. He said he prayed for God to give him strength and to help his wife. He knew he couldn't do it alone.

Then he said that it wasn't long after that, that God sent him two angels that not only gave him strength, but saved his wife too. The two angels he was referring to were two EFCA workers and they would come and pray with him and his wife. He said they brought a host of family he has never felt before and that he felt closer to the brothers and sisters they brought than any physical family he's ever had.

He carried on through the broken sobbing speech you get when you’re crying. It kind of took me off guard to see Frank like that but I hugged him as strong and gentle as I could through tears of my own. I can't help but cry in those kind of instances so we just cried together. (A friend of mine once told me that “it’s okay to cry, just make sure you look good doin’ it.”) We didn't look good, but we didn't care.

He said that there is nothing he can do to repay the angels God sent, so he takes care of the brothers and sisters the angels brought with them. We are his family. He said he was “more proud of his pile of Christmas Cards than a pig is his ribs”. When he sees those 'green shirts' coming, he says it’s like bright stars coming and he likes the light.

Its people like Frank that inspire me to keep going on missions. It’s seeing that the work you do is making a difference. It’s hearing stories from strangers you’ve never met before about how God has changed their lives. It’s about holding hands and praying in a circle. It’s about hugs. But really, it’s about God.

I am finding that when I go on a mission, I give it my all, but I get a lot more out of missions than I put into them. The people we help have nothing, and they give everything.

God Bless.

4/20/2010 1:27:12 PM - 003021757598
For videos on hurricane Ike, just go to youtube and type in Hurricane Ike. It will give you an idea of what took place on the island.