Both teams headed out of camp at 6:30 a.m. this morning in an effort to minimize the traffic delay. And it worked - 45 minutes instead of 75. A whole half hour more to work.
At Miss Vivian’s house the ceiling came down in short order. The nails on the other hand took a lot longer, but they too had met their match. The pile in front of the house just kept growing and growing. Sheetrock, plywood paneling, an old shower stall, fiberglass insulation, leaves, and ancient golf club and 10 dead fish heads. (The best guess is that they arrived via a toss over the back fence since they didn’t look like they’d been there very long).
The team was ahead of schedule and so they packed into the van and went to visit the house where Team 1 was working. Their plaster ceiling was slowly, but surely disappearing.
It turns out that the three sisters of the man who lived in their house had visited them early in the morning. Their brother Bobby was living in the home where they had all grown up. He was fighting cancer and his mother had managed to pay off the house just two years prior so that he would have somewhere to live.
As Katrina drew near, his sister and younger brother desperately tried to get Bobby to evacuate with them, but he would not budge. He was staying home with his dog, Rover. In exasperation, his brother, knowing that Bobby didn’t know how to swim, told him that he was leaving a life preserver on his patio and he should come and get it.
Fortunately something convinced Bobby to do that. As the flooding reached the top step of his front porch, Bobby knew he had to do something. The next door neighbor had a flat roof on part of his house. Over the course of the next hours, Bobby managed to help get two elderly neighbors to safety on the roof and finally used a four foot wide piece of fencing as a raft to get Rover to safety as well.
They were soon rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter and taken to a shelter. Unfortunately, Bobby and the other had to be evacuated a second time and this time he had no choice but to leave Rover behind. He was heartbroken, but there was no option. Three days later, a pastor finally was able to get a phone call through to Bobby’s sister for him. They were obviously overjoyed and managed to retrieve him from the shelter.
Next they set out on the seemingly hopeless quest to find Rover. Through the intervention of some wonderful people and the Humane Society of America, Bobby and Rover were reunited in St. Louis. He and Bobby are presently living with one of his sisters and his cancer is in remission.
One sister has written a children’s book, “Finding Rover,” and is using the proceeds of the book’s sales to raise money to rebuild Bobby’s house. The sisters gave the group a copy of the book for the church library so you’ll have to check it out. They are also going to send us a CD of some of the news coverage of the reunion. What a delightful visit it was and what fun to know the story behind our work.
Tonight we went out for dinner. We invited Charles and Rosalind (he has been the Village Manager but is leaving for a couple of months break tomorrow), Lauren (who will be filling in as Manager), and Debbie who was the Work Site Coordinator when we were here in August to join us. The food was plentiful and delicious, topped only by the fun, laughter and fellowship. God is good!
Lauren even gave us a reprieve from evening devotions. It’s 9:30 p.m. as I finish this up and I can tell you that there aren’t many creatures stirring. Hard work, full stomachs and a 5:30 a.m. wake up bell will do that to you.
Tomorrow is “hump day” so please so some extra praying..
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