Last day...sad to leave.

It is Friday and we will depart Goldsboro, NC around 11 AM and head back to Washington DC. We did a lot of important work this week and were very happy to see Phyllis this morning. She is the lady who runs Shiloh Farms the daycare and camp for children with disabilities. She has fallen on a lot of hard times and she just wanted to let us know how much she appreciated our work on her place. There are several new lights around the property so that she can feel safe. (Thanks Ken for hanging the lights and figuring out other electrical problems!) Phyllis also commented on how great the game barn looked after we painted it. (Thanks Caroline and Jim!) And of course the horse shelters! Now the animals have a place to cover themselves when bad weather comes. (Thanks Krista!)

This morning before we go, the Foundry VIM team is assembling school kits. This week Foundry contributed lots of supplies to the school kits, health kits and flood buckets. (186 tubes of toothpaste, 119 nail clippers, 80 erasers, 75 rulers, 30 bottles of household cleaner, 24 bottles of laundry detergent, and 23 pencil sharpeners.) These materials were paid for using the funds raised from the2010 VIM silent auction at Foundry UMC.

Several churches in the area have donated birthing kits for Haiti, but the MERCI center has no way of getting them there. So, I've piled about 75 birthing kits (flannel baby blanket, gloves, soap, string, and a razor blade) into my car and will take them back to Foundry UMC. We will then combine them with the ones that the Foundry congregation will put together for the Great Day of Service. All of them will then be sent to Haiti.

Cleaning out the gutters and North Carolina bbq

After the rain ended, we cleaned out the gutters at a house of a widow. Barbara's husband was a retired Methodist minister. She held Krista's ladder as Krista cleaned out the gutter. Caroline and Jim took turns climbing the other ladder. This picture shows the crew pointing to the clean gutters!

For dinner, we ate at Adams Roadside bar-b-q just down the road from the MERCI Center. It is only open Thursdays through Sundays. We had to order our food early because they run out fast. Our orders were ready for us when we arrived. We took our food outside and ate at the picnic tables in the parking lot. The food was sooo good.

After dinner we stopped at Shiloh Farms to admire our week's work. The vapor light that Ken put up on the barn we painted came on so Ken was happy it worked. We all stopped to watch the 5 week old puppies. They are very cute!

Rain, rain, go away!

Today it is raining so we had to go to plan B, assembling flood buckets, school kits and health kits. These items are distributed to the people in North Carolina affected by the recent floods. Some of the items are also sent to Haiti, Afghanistan and other locations by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). We ran short on nail clippers, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and laundry detergent so Jim went to the store again and bought a bunch of supplies using funds raised using the VIM Auction held at Foundry in the spring.

Another work day and the barn got painted with the second coat!

This morning the Foundry group was in charge of providing the morning devotion for the volunteers at MERCI Center. We decided to use our church statement of call as our basis then read the key scripture (Mark 12: 28-31). Of course we had to sing a couple of songs including "rise and shine and give God your glory, glory..." but we couldn't remember all the hand movements but did include the clap.
After the morning devotion we got right over to Shiloh Farms and began our work. The painting crew worked steady and by lunchtime we had the barn painted with the second coat! The only thing that is left is for Ken to install the floodlight at the top. He did that later in the afternoon.

The folks that were setting up the tent garages in the field also completed there work and started to hang wood underneath a metal awning so that the horses wouldn't hurt themselves on the sharp edges. There are several other projects to be done....and we will get to them tomorrow. We did have time to meet some of the kids that attend the Shiloh Farms after school program. (See the picture of Caroline and I with Phillip).

This evening, we decided to host a dinner and invited the Nomads group. At 6:30 PM we had the chicken ready together with veggies, rice, spaghetti and sauce. Did I mention that we also had freshly baked cookies! We had a great time of fellowship around a camp fire. (Thanks to Eric for cooking our food ahead of time and sending them with us frozen. Your meals were delicious!)

Second day of work

Caroline and I did a lot of painting!!!! Wow....the weather was hot and the sun was out but it didn't stop us from painting a small barn at Shiloh Farms. Together with the Nomads we put on the first coat of paint. Can you believe that we had enough paint? We only had one 5 gallon bucket but we used every drop.

First day of work

Monday was work day #1. We started by attending an orientation with Bob the team coordinator at the MERCI Center. In addition to the Foundry UMC group, the United Methodist Nomads are here too. http://www.nomadsumc.org/ These are retired United Methodists that travel the country in their RVs and work in ministries such as MERCI fixing up homes, repairing, churches, and are first responders after a disaster.

Getting back to the orientation this morning...Bob gave us a great over view of the organization and how much this ministry is needed in the area. Goldsboro, NC is the poorest county in the state and has been hit by numerous hurricanes....recently heavy rains came through the area just north of here and caused a lot of flooding. MERCI has a large warehouse of supplies such as flood buckets and health kits which have been given to those affected. However, they are 7,000 tubes of toothpaste short! So, using funds raised during the Foundry Volunteers in Mission (VIM) auction, I spent $500 on several hundred tubes of toothpaste, and I also bought nail clippers for the health kits, and laundry detergent and cleaner that goes into the flood buckets. Flood buckets contain the materials needed to help clean up your home once a flood comes though.

After lunch, all 13 of us (4 from Foundry UMC and 9 Nomads) went to Phyllis' house. She runs Shiloh Farms which is an after school program for kids including several with disabilities. Phyllis has run into hard times and has several projects that need to be completed ASAP. So, Ken from Foundry volunteered to work on wiring and hanging lights, Krista is setting up tent garages to that the horses have shelter during the winter, and Caroline and I are painting a small barn used as a game room. We have a lot of work to keep us busy for several days!

We arrived in Goldsboro NC!

On Sunday morning October 10, 2010 at the 9:30 AM service, the Foundry Volunteers in Mission (VIM) team was commissioned. There are 4 of us on the team Jim, Krista, Caroline, and Ken. After the service, we loaded our gear in the cars and drove to Goldsboro, North Carolina. We will be working until Friday at MERCI Center. www.merciumc.org It is a United Methodist organization that was started after the hurricane that hit Eastern North Carolina in 1999. We will be doing what we can to fix up homes in the area and also work to improve a camp for disabled children.