Team 2, Day 2

We started day two by heading back to LaGrange St. We found out yesterday that pizza places won’t even deliver to this neighborhood because it is so rough. But God is bigger than all of that because all we feel is the love of Christ when we go in to those houses to do the work. It was an emotional day as the team would start out scrubbing hard to de-contaminate an already gutted house only to find out the house won’t be able to be saved. A homeowner of one of those houses was named, Bart. He was a retired vietnam veteran. We found certificates of service on his walls. His deepest desire was just “to get back into his house.” Our hearts broke when he told us he’s just trying to find a place to sleep that night.

Several ladies on our team suited up in Tyvek suits and crawled under houses to excavate sewage soaked duct work and piping. They were troopers as they would come out covered in mud only to take a break then climb back in to the next house.

As we were working on one house whose living room basement was completely immersed in water for several days, on of our guys crawled up in to a nook to do some work. After pulling up some boards, he found a set of miniature university of TN football player figurines still in position from a child’s play. After giving them to the homeowner, she called her 40 yr old son. Her son remembered those toys and said he hadn’t seen those since he was 10. This choked us all up as we are continually reminded that we are not just doing a job but loving people through a huge loss.

We have been able to give out some food to those hungry neighbors thanks to some homemade goodies donated to us by Connection Church in North Augusta. At the end of the day, all Samaritan’s Purse teams come together for dinner and share time. We all marvel in awe of how God orchestrates our days work. We are His hands and He is doing an awesome work! Thank you to our In Focus family for your prayers and support.

Becky Kridner