Housing Development Alliance

Around 40 tons of them. Remember the previous post about the CHALLENGE?

This was actually the second step to controlling the slip at the Combs site. Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock completed the first steps when they stapled curlex into the mountainside and made the french drain. Now the Combs site has a rock basket retaining wall that will keep the mountain from falling into Arnold's backyard.

We were fortunate enough to host St. Bart's last year, too. They have a way of making the best out of whatever they are dealt. Tell them they're raking rocks out of a yard at the airport, or loading rocks into baskets at the Combs site-- Suzanne just chuckles and says "Oh yeah, we're one with the rocks." They're just glad to be put to work, and willing to do whatever we need of them. And that rocks.

When we say we assign volunteer projects based on open projects at the time of your stay, we mean just that. And this past week it just so happened to include lots of moving rocks, and thankfully St. Bart's was up for the challenge.

Of course there were other things St. Bart's was "one" with... like bad weather. But despite that they still accomplished quite a bit during their short week with us. Some other notable worksites included the flood cleanup in Bulan and the framing site for the future Patrick home.

I talked to Dan from Faith Christian Reformed Church (Tinley Park, IL) yesterday-- they will be joining us next week-- and I guess the flash flooding in Bulan made the news up there. St. Bartholomew contributed 81 volunteer hours to cleaning up one person's home affected by the flood. They filled many wheelbarrows with flood sludge from the basement, and cleaned up the mud that had piled up outside the home. On top of that, they even went through everything that had been in the basement, cleaning items and throwing away those things that just couldn't be cleaned.

81 hours. What a huge burden lifted off the homeowner's back.

At the framing site, they framed up the floors and walls. This week's group from North Shore Presbyterian Church (Wisconsin) put half of the roof decking on the home yesterday. David started the day with classic David humor, "Always remember, no matter how high on a roof you are, you're only two feet off the ground."

This will be a great week.

--Kelly