It's hot in Texas and we've been very busy since we deployed here after Hurricane Harvey. We landed in Baytown and got our camp all set up. We had major electrical issues in our fifth wheel that ended up taking a lot of time and money to resolve. We've got one piece of equipment that is currently in the repair shop and is going to cost the most to repair. But God is faithful and we were able to keep up and running.
We were able to totally remediate 6 homes in 5 weeks with volunteers from New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, Colorado, California, Arizona, North Dakota, New Mexico and even Mexico! I was also able to meet with several home owners to help them figure things out, including walking the damaged homes with insurance adjusters and keeping them honest!!
While in Baytown, we were blessed to meet some wonderful people and minister in ways that only The LORD can orchestrate. The first of these was at Lee & Gina's. They had no flood insurance on their home of 16 years. They were literally just wandering around in circles putting stuff in one place, then moving it to the next and back and forth, not really knowing what was salvageable and what wasn't, what needed to be done and what didn't. They were believers and we were able to spend some quality time getting to know them as we encouraged them with our work and in The LORD!
While serving at their home, we noticed people working on a home two doors down. Turns out that Mark, the pastor of a local church, his wife Bonnie and their 2 teenage kids also had a lot of damage and didn't know what to do. They had insurance, but it would only cover so much. We quickly got busy helping them remediate as well. I was present when their insurance adjuster walked their home. I was able to "remind" him many times of things that he "missed" during his inspection. One of the things he said wasn't going to be covered was the shower. I told him it had to go and that insurance needed to pay for it. Every reason he gave me, I was able to refute. Finally he said yes, it did need to come out! After I walked away, he asked Mark who I was and then told Mark that he was lucky that I was there to help him get what he deserved! We enjoyed getting to know them and attended their church one Sunday.
We were also able to help Tommy & Charlotte, a family from Mark's church. They didn't have insurance and had always done things for others and taken care of their belongings themselves. We were able to also remediate their home alongside of some others from their church.
Mike and Julie also contacted us about helping them. When I walked their home with them, they didn't want to do what needed to be done. I told them that if we couldn't do it the way we knew it needed to be done then we couldn't be involved. About a week later Mike called me to say that he was giving in. I told him no, he was doing the right thing. Alongside of Julie, who was home every day, we carefully and slowly took care of their home. Mike and Julie are also believers and it was a pleasure to encourage them and be encouraged by them in The LORD. One day, Mike's work sent some people out to help us. Right after they showed up, Mike ran out to us at the trailer and said, let's all pray quick as the people helping weren't believers! Another day, Mike told Mary Jo that he could see that we were showing them the love of Christ by the way we "loved" their home as we were taking it apart! We were also blessed to attend church with them and really enjoyed it!
Another home we served at was Glenn and Alice's. Glenn had just been given 5 months to live as he's been struggling with cancer for a long time. He is a veteran and the VA wanted to try one more round of treatments. Before the hurricane, the couple had put their home up for sale so they could move closer to family for Glenn's last days, and then Alice would live there going forward. They had accepted an offer and were working through the process when Harvey showed up! The offer quickly changed to next to nothing and they didn't know what to do. They needed to get to Houston for Glenn's appointments. They do have insurance, but we wanted to do the remediation for free to at least get the ball rolling. I ran into Glenn's daughter one night at Lowe's and she told me she was a believer and had been praying that someone would come along and show them Jesus and then we showed up! Please continue to pray for the family as they go through this time.
On our way to Baytown, we were contacted by our long time friends Paul and Gina Hirsch from Sarasota, who currently are living in Aransas Pass, Texas near where the eye of Harvey came through. They were asking about helping with the relief/recovery efforts in AP. Major damage had been done in their town and the surrounding communities. Their church, Calvary Chapel Crosswinds, was extensively damaged as well. A couple of weeks ago we made an assessment visit, worked on Don's house, a co-worker Paul had been trying to help, and then attended services in the church that was filled with mold! We spent some time talking with Pastor David and his wife and began praying about what The LORD would have us do.
We were finishing up all of our commitments in Baytown and The LORD wasn't leading us to do any rebuilds in the area. After we all prayed, we decided that Aransas Pass was where The LORD wanted us next, so we packed up camp and headed southwest!
We arrived late last Wednesday and began setting up camp early Thursday. One of the local mobile home/RV parks, where Paul and Gina live, offered to let us stay for only the costs of utilities for at least the first 2 months! Since we have our trailer and another one from Bless You Inc, we needed two lots, plus secure storage at night for our tool trailer and truck, and they were more than happy to oblige! We also had to purchase and set up a storage shed to store all of our extra tools and belongings since most of the buildings and the church were heavily damaged.
Saturday we got back to work at Don's. We got one side of the yard cleared of tree damage and began working on restoring the electric to his home. Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Don's days off, we'll be back and we'll be working on getting part of their home "livable" so that they can get electric and water and move back in. Currently they are sleeping on the floor at a friends, though they spent the first few weeks living in their mold-infested and mostly open house. James, Don's son, has been pretty sick since all of this happened and is going for tests at the doctor's this week. They have some insurance, but the home is old and the insurance company isn't covering enough of what needs to be done. I'll be going over the "proof of loss" this week with Don to see what insurance should be paying for and then decide where all we can help. Please keep all of this in your prayers.
Today, we started tearing out the paneling and sheetrock at the Crosswinds CC. It is worse than what they thought but about what I expected. Mold is growing up the inside of the walls in at least half of the building, and the little bit of flooring that we pulled up is also full of mold. Not sure of the scope of what needs to be done to get things back up and running, but it doesn't appear safe to have church in the building at this point. With little in the area available at this time and lots of work to be done, we need The LORD's guidance with how to proceed.
At this point we only have one team from Colorado and one team from Indiana scheduled, plus a couple of Saturday commitments to help. We also have Joey from CC Cleveland who is going to help until we leave December 10th (for our daughter Melissa's wedding!!), and then we'll take the rest of the month off for Christmas and time with family. Paul is also helping us on his day off.
If you have any interest in helping, let us know, soon. If we still have work, and it looks like there's plenty of it, and we can get some committed volunteers, we'll come back in January to continue helping.
Life is tough in the field serving The LORD no matter where you are. We've been through a lot of spiritual attacks from satan recently that include things being stolen, verbal and physical attacks, people not doing what they say they're going to do, etc. We covet your prayers as we continue to press on in what The LORD has called us to do.
If you are interested in helping with Calvary Relief's expenses, please click the link at the bottom of the email.
LORD Bless and thanks for all of your prayers and support,
Curt and Mary Jo
Top picture is the mold we discovered when we started tearing out Calvary Chapel Crosswinds. A picture of our current camp set up, our drying equipment set up, workers from New Jersey and Lyons, CO, and Miss Sandra, one of the homeowners we were able to help and also get a travel trailer set up for her to live in while she's working on her home! Thank You LORD!!
Here's Curt all suited up and spraying a home. We tore out everything that was contaminated, hauled it to the street and then completely cleaned out all dirt and dust. We then dried the home with our commercial air movers and dehumidifiers. Then Curt sprayed every nook and cranny in the home to thoroughly get rid of all the mold and bacteria so that when the home is rebuilt there will be no mold growing behind the walls! The work we did saved the homeowner over $20k! We were able to remediate 6 homes in Baytown, saving homeowners over $150,000!! One other home where we used this same process hired a contractor to rebuild. He commented that out of all the homes he's worked in, ALL of the rest smelled bad and moldy. The one we did smelled clean! Another contractor was thrilled with how clean we had gotten the house and told the homeowner we had made his job easy! Praise The LORD for the abilities He's given us to help those in their time of need as we share His love with those affected by disasters!
Some pics of what we've been doing. A yard where we cleared several trees from a house, roof, and fence; a couple we were able to get a travel trailer to live in while their home is rebuilt, and our friends from ND working hard at tearing out sheetrock!
