Our team from CCO had the privilege of spending a week in St. Petersburg, FL partnering with Samaritan’s Purse and serving homeowners who had their homes destroyed by the hurricanes.
This week, we spent our time working on homes that had been flooded by storm surge, clearing out downed trees, and packing up the Samaritan's Purse trucks at the end of their deployment.
The first day we worked on a house that needed the sheetrock all tore out so that it could be replaced and the walls sprayed with a mold treatment and preventer. We had the opportunity to pray with the homeowner and give him a Bible that we all signed with favorite verses and words of encouragement. The second house we went to needed their flooring ripped out after it was flooded. Many of the neighboring houses had significant damage also including one had a boat inside of it!
Our second day was Sunday and a day off of work so we decided to go explore St. Petersburg and brought along a new friend, Menno! We explored the downtown and pier area. Found some cool trees and ate a wonderful lunch. At the end of the day, we met up with the Montgomery family and spent some time at John's Pass Madeira Beach. We also drove by the Chicken Church which you can see in the pictures below.
Monday and Tuesday, we had the privilege of doing some debris cleanup and then started a two day project at one house clearing and cutting up many trees that had fallen down when a tornado touched down on her property around the same time as the hurricanes and it took out 23 trees on the property. We broke out the chainsaws and pole saws and spent 2 days cutting trees and stacking the logs and branches. The main goal was to take as many of trees as possible that had fallen around her property and open all the paths. This lady was 86 years old and used her John Deere lawn mower to zip around her property. She couldn’t even get to her backyard, greenhouse, or waterfront with all the trees down. She had so much fun watching us and she loved it so much that she didn’t even consider this to be a disaster to her. It was just “fun.” She called us her termite team because we just spread out everywhere and consumed all the trees super fast. We were able to clear out 15 of the 23 trees in a day and half. The cheapest quotes she had received from local tree companies was $10,000 per tree. We potentially saved her $150,000 by doing this work and gave her freedom back to enjoy her yard.
When we arrived, we actually didn’t think it looked that bad. It appeared as just an overgrown forest, but in reality it was all the trees crisscrossing over multiple paths that we didn’t even realize existed. We all had so much fun and really enjoyed the conversations with the homeowner. She even showed us her model train collection that her late husband built.
Our last couple days working here was filled with fun, shenanigans, & cleaning! This was the end of Samaritan Purse's deployment in this area so they need to clean everything, pack up the trucks, and inventory all the tools. While a couple of other teams were able to go out and finish a couple projects, we spent the days cleaning the kitchen, cafe, showers, & putting lots of tools away. Wayne led the group with a powerful devotion our last morning at breakfast and we finished the day with a game of Uno that had us laughing loudly so we had to play in the hallway because others were sleeping.
We made several attempts to get good group photos during this trip, but these people are too much fun to just stand still for a moment. What you see is what you get. This whole week has been filled with lots of laughter and joy by all.
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.
This week, we spent our time working on homes that had been flooded by storm surge, clearing out downed trees, and packing up the Samaritan's Purse trucks at the end of their deployment.
The first day we worked on a house that needed the sheetrock all tore out so that it could be replaced and the walls sprayed with a mold treatment and preventer. We had the opportunity to pray with the homeowner and give him a Bible that we all signed with favorite verses and words of encouragement. The second house we went to needed their flooring ripped out after it was flooded. Many of the neighboring houses had significant damage also including one had a boat inside of it!
Our second day was Sunday and a day off of work so we decided to go explore St. Petersburg and brought along a new friend, Menno! We explored the downtown and pier area. Found some cool trees and ate a wonderful lunch. At the end of the day, we met up with the Montgomery family and spent some time at John's Pass Madeira Beach. We also drove by the Chicken Church which you can see in the pictures below.
Monday and Tuesday, we had the privilege of doing some debris cleanup and then started a two day project at one house clearing and cutting up many trees that had fallen down when a tornado touched down on her property around the same time as the hurricanes and it took out 23 trees on the property. We broke out the chainsaws and pole saws and spent 2 days cutting trees and stacking the logs and branches. The main goal was to take as many of trees as possible that had fallen around her property and open all the paths. This lady was 86 years old and used her John Deere lawn mower to zip around her property. She couldn’t even get to her backyard, greenhouse, or waterfront with all the trees down. She had so much fun watching us and she loved it so much that she didn’t even consider this to be a disaster to her. It was just “fun.” She called us her termite team because we just spread out everywhere and consumed all the trees super fast. We were able to clear out 15 of the 23 trees in a day and half. The cheapest quotes she had received from local tree companies was $10,000 per tree. We potentially saved her $150,000 by doing this work and gave her freedom back to enjoy her yard.
When we arrived, we actually didn’t think it looked that bad. It appeared as just an overgrown forest, but in reality it was all the trees crisscrossing over multiple paths that we didn’t even realize existed. We all had so much fun and really enjoyed the conversations with the homeowner. She even showed us her model train collection that her late husband built.
Our last couple days working here was filled with fun, shenanigans, & cleaning! This was the end of Samaritan Purse's deployment in this area so they need to clean everything, pack up the trucks, and inventory all the tools. While a couple of other teams were able to go out and finish a couple projects, we spent the days cleaning the kitchen, cafe, showers, & putting lots of tools away. Wayne led the group with a powerful devotion our last morning at breakfast and we finished the day with a game of Uno that had us laughing loudly so we had to play in the hallway because others were sleeping.
We made several attempts to get good group photos during this trip, but these people are too much fun to just stand still for a moment. What you see is what you get. This whole week has been filled with lots of laughter and joy by all.
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.
Videos from our trip!
Pictures from our trip!
