Check out this video summarizing our time in Florida and the work God did while we were there.
A team of us from CCO had the privilege of spending a week in Port Charlotte, FL partnering with Samaritan’s Purse and serving homeowners who had their homes destroyed by the hurricanes.
Over the course of the week, we spent hours working on homes that been flooded by storm surge. There were yards full of debris that had to be cleared out. the first home had floors that were made out of particle board and had just disintegrated. This led to us removing all the furniture, appliances, and built-in cabinets. Then removing all the flooring, old particle board sheeting that was crumbling, and insulation. Lastly, we put down new plywood sheeting to create a temporary floor before contractors could come in and finish the work.
A second house we worked in required doing mud out work which was removing furniture, appliances, the lower 4 feet of sheetrock and getting the walls “contractor ready” so contractors could come in later and easily fix plumbing, electrical, and hang new sheetrock. The third house we worked at was similar and needed extensive work on the outside with debris cleanup and inside with mud out, sheet rock removal and pressure washing. The best news of the day is that the owner of the home, Jonna, after watching these Christian strangers work on her home all day and talking with the chaplains, made the decision to give her life to Christ!
While we were here, we were told that Sunday was technically a “day off” for us from Samaritan’s Purse but we came here to work so we found/created a side project. Suzie from Samaritan's Purse had a friend who lived on Little Gasparilla Island and they were receiving no help from FEMA or the county and they were too far away from the Samaritan’s Purse teams so we decided to go help anyway off the books. We gathered another group of guys from the Samaritan's Purse team, plus they gave us a bunch of tools to use and we headed out on a boat adventure to this island to help.
This island had experienced 9 foot swells of water that completely covered the island and changed the beach, moved sand, moved houses, and flipped and buried vehicles that came floated over from the mainland. It was incredible to see the power of the water and the storm here. This isolated community saw the love of Jesus displayed firsthand today in an amazing way. We also left them many of the tools (a gift from SP) so they could continue the work after we left.
We all had such a great time doing this work, meeting new wonderful people, and spending time together. It really has been an impactful experience as we could see that God is truly at work and using ordinary people to do an extraordinary work.
Over the course of the week, we spent hours working on homes that been flooded by storm surge. There were yards full of debris that had to be cleared out. the first home had floors that were made out of particle board and had just disintegrated. This led to us removing all the furniture, appliances, and built-in cabinets. Then removing all the flooring, old particle board sheeting that was crumbling, and insulation. Lastly, we put down new plywood sheeting to create a temporary floor before contractors could come in and finish the work.
A second house we worked in required doing mud out work which was removing furniture, appliances, the lower 4 feet of sheetrock and getting the walls “contractor ready” so contractors could come in later and easily fix plumbing, electrical, and hang new sheetrock. The third house we worked at was similar and needed extensive work on the outside with debris cleanup and inside with mud out, sheet rock removal and pressure washing. The best news of the day is that the owner of the home, Jonna, after watching these Christian strangers work on her home all day and talking with the chaplains, made the decision to give her life to Christ!
While we were here, we were told that Sunday was technically a “day off” for us from Samaritan’s Purse but we came here to work so we found/created a side project. Suzie from Samaritan's Purse had a friend who lived on Little Gasparilla Island and they were receiving no help from FEMA or the county and they were too far away from the Samaritan’s Purse teams so we decided to go help anyway off the books. We gathered another group of guys from the Samaritan's Purse team, plus they gave us a bunch of tools to use and we headed out on a boat adventure to this island to help.
This island had experienced 9 foot swells of water that completely covered the island and changed the beach, moved sand, moved houses, and flipped and buried vehicles that came floated over from the mainland. It was incredible to see the power of the water and the storm here. This isolated community saw the love of Jesus displayed firsthand today in an amazing way. We also left them many of the tools (a gift from SP) so they could continue the work after we left.
We all had such a great time doing this work, meeting new wonderful people, and spending time together. It really has been an impactful experience as we could see that God is truly at work and using ordinary people to do an extraordinary work.
Check out this unstaged video of the whole team working!
Pictures from our trip!
