Summary

Elly Cleaver -
This was my first mission trip and as I viewed the ravages of the flood, I was in awe of the courage, faith and hope of each homeowner. Ruined by the flood, the homes had already had the drywall removed. Having little to no experience drywalling, I quickly learned from an onsite expert and my capable teammates. The more we worked together and got to know the homeowners, the more committed we became. By the end of the week, one of the homes we worked on had all the walls up – an amazing feat in itself. It was a great experience and one I will not forget – especially the bond created with the homeowners and my team.

Mary Wasik -
An amazing week in Nashville! As Mary Beth summed up in her sermon on Nov. 28, Nashville lived up to its title, "The Music City:" the service at the church with beautifully performed traditional Christian music, the Grand Old Opry, a gospel sing-a-long, and the Nashville symphony with full orchestra. The food prepared by the Michigan and Ohio gals in our group was music to our stomachs and surely the work we did was music to God and to the homeowners we served. What a blessing to us to have the time and the strength to go!

The Video

Work Day #1, Monday, Nov. 8, 2010

The usual suspects gather for breakfast and making bag lunches to start the first day 

 Bob Wasik's cousin Ella Bastine, from Michigan, helped get us started with smiling face

George started off with a muffin nearly as big as he is!

Charlotte hauling supplies at the Plantation Ct work site

George showing what needs to be done with the ceiling fixtures at Plantation.
George, I hope you made sure the power's turned off!!!

Homeowner Diane, of Plantation, points to the
still-visible high water mark from last May's flood.

Homeowner LeAnn and her daughter Megan, who suffers from cerebral palsy, stopped by to check progress and express appreciation to the team at Plantation Ct.

Mary Beth works on stuffing insulation between the framing at the Griffintown Rd site which was waaaayyyyy out in the boonies, a good hour or more west of Nashville.

Jerry, Frantz, and Fletcher hang drywall at the Griffintown road site. The plaster dust is eveyrwhere as the camera lens will attest!

Outside view of the Griffintown house...hi Mary Beth!

Dave Bastine (Bob Wasik's cousin-in-law) talks to Rhine Drive homeowner Merrilee. Her walkout basement apartment had the wall collapse due to the soil saturation by the heavy rains.

Mel and a contractor scope out the work needed at the Rhine Drive site.

Rear view of the walkout basement at the Rhine Drive site.

Carol is "mudding" the drywall at the Todd Preis worksite.

Jan prepares to move another sheet of drywall into place at the Todd Preis site.

Mary works on drywall in a tight space
at the Todd Preis worksite.

Jan rips off plastic covering from some 
drywall at the Todd Preis site.

Dinner and Devotions

Chef Carol, from Michigan, hard at work preparing dinner.

Chef Ella, also from Michigan, in the kitchen pantry.

Chefs Nora, from Ohio, joins Chefs Ella and Carol

The dinner line...plenty to eat for a hungry crew!

Looks wonderful (and tasted that way too)!

John, Jan, Charlotte, and Carol at the dinner table

A very attentive group during devotions

Jerry makes a point during devotions

After wearing work boots all day, Carol's feet are saying "thank you"!

Work Day #2, Tuesday November 9, 2010

Village Ct.

These photos show how one house can be severely impacted while another right next door had minimal damage, and the house two doors down had no damage.

Lynn and Jerry install some drywall at a house on Village Ct, near LP Field
(where the Titans NFL football team plays).

Maxine and Bernadette try to keep things somewhat "decent and in order"

The house two doors away has this very elaborate garden and suffered no damage from the flood!

Exterior view of the Village Ct house.
The Cumberland River is just a block or so beyond the house.

Bernadette bringing out a load of yucky stuff.

Maxine heads back in for more yucky stuff.

Yucky stuff.

Todd Preis Rd.

Carol Anderson spent a good part of the afternoon knocking down this garden wall at a condo on Todd Preis Rd.

Berwick Trail

This location really tells the story about the extent of the flooding for homes right on the Cumberland River (the main river which winds through Nashville and Davidson County). As the pictures show, this house is raised such that the first floor is 8 feet above the surrounding yard. The house is also about the length of a football field away from the river, and the property slopes down considerably to reach the current river edge.

 

Furthermore, this house once stood only 4 feet above the surrounding yard, but after a major flood in 1976, during which the first flood had some water reach it, the house was raised another 4 feet to the current 8 foot elevation. Despite those precautions, when the river crested this past May, the water reached to the DOORKNOB level of the elevated first floor!

Elly and Maxine learning on the job...great job ladies!

 Placing drywall on the ceiling takes a great deal of care.

This bedroom ceiling could be saved but the old paint had to be scraped away.

Front of the house...flood waters reached to the door knob of the front door!

Rear of the house....the waters reached to the door knob on the upper level.

A view of the river, still quite a bit above the current river surface (note the neighbor's house boat).

A view back to the house from the same location as the previous picture.

Tuesday Breakfast and Devotion

A hearty breakfast to start the day!

A grateful local resident stopped by to deliver several dozen donuts!

Mel is making his lunch to take to the work site.

Frantz and Fletcher anticipating the day ahead over breakfast.

Tuesday would be a night on the town, so devotions were after breakfast.

The cooks kept busy during the day, shopping and cleaning the kitchen.