Faith Journey Life Journey

Good morning, dear reader.

We gladly took the opportunity to sleep in just a bit today and didn’t go out to the worksites until 9:00am. LouAnn and Bob whipped up a great breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham and sausage. I asked LouAnn if she’s used to cooking for so many people and she told me she found some helpful websites aimed particularly at cooking for fifty people that gave her ideas on what to prepare and how to prepare it. As for today’s breakfast, it fueled us for the morning and we needed it; day three was chock full of projects, both to be continued from yesterday and brand-new ones, too. First, the continuing projects…

Lending Privacy

Yesterday, a crew put in the posts for a new privacy fence separating two neighbors’ yards. They returned to the worksite to find their posts were all standing tall and straight, ready for the fence to be added. The big jam for the crew, however, ended up being whether the sections of fence wall would all line up evenly at the top and bottom. The sections were all cut to the same height but some of the posts were too far in the ground to properly allow the screws to go through the walls, the wall struts, and then the posts. After trying to figure their way around this conundrum, the home owner, Tom, told them a staggered, sloped effect on the bottom of one side of the fence would be just fine. Ultimately, the top stayed level, the bottom sloped like the home owner wanted it, and the whole fence is up and waiting to be stained by the next volunteer group to come through town.

Building Foundation

Next door, Team Tuck’n'Point stayed busy. They painted the home’s foundation white all around the home’s perimeter and did a lot of great work no one will see. Underneath the front porch, you’ll recall the foundation was crumbling, sometimes outright missing. Pat took new bricks and broke them down into more helpful, cleavage shards and then handed them to Marlys who then handed them to Bob under the porch who mortared them in. I asked Bob what exactly was down there, mostly brick? He said there’s brick and mortar, “Lots and lots of mortar.” He wasn’t kidding, either; Team Tuck’n'Point made and went through 90lbs. of mortar this afternoon.

At one point, Marlys and Elizabeth were in front of the house talking about how much easier the job would be if they had more tools for tucking. Just then, Tom, the next-door neighbor getting his new privacy fence put in his backyard, came by with several tools to help. Literally, neighbors are helping neighbors with these projects. I was told that the homeowner told Team Tuck’n'Point the water kept smashing into the front of the house over and over and it was no wonder so much of the foundation was gone; Tom’s tools helped make sure his neighbor’s home would stand tall side by side with his in this recovery effort.

Waterproofing the Future

Meanwhile, across the street, Kent and a crew of youth were in the basement where yesterday we scrubbed the walls. They continued to add water-resistant paint sealant across all four walls. For the patches of exposed brick and rough concrete exposed, they gave it a light coating of fresh concrete to smooth it over for the next volunteer group to finish up the painting. Brett sprayed down areas of the wall with water to ease the job but when Kaitlyn got a little bored and asked him to come entertain her, Maddie protested: “Don’t distract the water boy!” I think there’s a lesson in that for everyone.

And Another Coat, and Another Coat…

The big red house continued to be painted as the big red house. Again, without a primer coat between the white and red, it’s been quite a task to apply as much red paint as possible to even out the color. A new group of youth, Julia, Katie, Olivia, and Jake joined Loretta and Dave M. today. They expect to continue painting tomorrow, too, and another crew will need to continue after us; the highest levels of the home are a little too scary for us. The shingles appear a little loose and the risk involved in climbing up on the roof for painting is just too high so it may have to be left to a professional crew after our time in Cedar Rapids. We’re reaching that point where we’re preparing to hand over our work to the next crews. Mentally, there are mixed feelings as one hopes to finish what one starts but also know the chance to see a mission project to completion is a rare treasure.

My Little Blog Adventure

Really quick, I’ll mention my adventures in blogging. I headed to downtown Cedar Rapids to blog at the same coffee shop I went to yesterday. Couldn’t find a meter anywhere. Finally found one a few blocks away, got my gear and walked to the coffee shop… and it’s closed on Saturdays. Got back into Mazie and started driving, my borrowed GPS guiding me to another coffee shop. The GPS battery dies and now I’m lost. After a while I finally find my way back downtown and am about to cut my losses and post later only to find another coffee shop I’d passed by over and over earlier that day. Wifi abounded, blog posts posted, and crisis averted. When it comes to overcoming obstacles, I’m like the mailman of blogging, apparently.

At the coffee shop I met two volunteers, one from Iowa City and one who lives here in Cedar Rapids, who have been volunteering through the correctional coordinator. Both have been serving for nearly a year, with the young man re-upping for another tour when his year is up. Both wore Americorps Vista shirts similar to those I’ve seen some Block By Block folks wear and were in high spirits even though they both admitted the work has been far too slow for their taste. I can’t imagine the actual homeowners would disagree.

“Mr. Malmberg, tear down this fence.”

There were some new projects today, too. Steve, Alex, and Alex went down to the Block By Block supply warehouse to paint trim for the back porch that a crew sanded and painted yesterday. While I was visiting them, Eric drove over from his new project looking for as many tools as possible. He led a large group to a new location about a block from St. James UMC where they were to take down a chain link fence. At first, we were sure there would be too many people on this job. When we arrived, however, we knew there would be plenty of work for all. Pieces of metal had to be clipped and pulled away from the posts so the fence could be bailed up. The posts had to be pried up and the concrete attached to the bottoms had to be sledged away so the posts could be used again.

I drove over to the other worksite, sorted out this crew’s lunches, and brought them over. I arrived during their first (and much-needed) break, right when Alex and Trevor’s grandfather, who lives in Cedar Rapids, stopped by to say ‘hi’ catching Trevor by complete surprise. A few hours later, Alex N. would be picked up by his mom (a.k.a. Trevor’s Mom) to go to camp so we’re down to forty-four people in our group. Then again, RJ joined us to work today so that’s forty-five after all.

Regarding the project, the biggest trick was cutting and clearing all the brush, weeds, grasses, shrubs, and gigantic bushes which were actually growing into fence. Some sort of vegetation was intertwined between nearly every link and when Eric came back from the warehouse with more tools the work got easier but that doesn’t mean it was easy. Eric, Wright, Hattie, Molly N., Molly D., Trevor, Lizzy, Alexis, Brenda, Kelsey, and Erin will definitely tell you otherwise.

Metal Injuries = Hospital Trips

Especially the Mollys. I ended up taking both of them to the hospital with our first metal-related injuries of the trip. Sure, many of us have cuts and bruises (I have a nice gash on my right shin from the jagged ear of a cement pig lawn ornament) but when a nail went through Molly N’s shoes and juuust barely pierced her skin and when a screw juuust tore through Molly D’s thigh right about her knee, it became a case of Better Safe vs. Sorry and Better Safe won. The judgment? A trip to the hospital.

I took the Mollys to St. Luke’s and they both got antibiotics (different ones) and Molly D. got an updated tetanus shot. We waited around for a while to make sure the shot didn’t have any adverse side effects and eventually we were on our way to Walgreen’s to fill the prescriptions. Last year’s four nail-through-the-foot injuries were all much more extreme than the Mollys injuries, but the doctor told them both it was a good idea to get it checked just in case and so that’s our rule of thumb, too.

I’ve been told that during our adventure, everyone else headed back to the church, showered and changed, and ate a dinner of hot dogs and brats outside while the church conducted the very first night of their Saturday evening worship service. It was still hot out in the 5:00pm hour so they mostly crowded under one large tree to picnic in the shade. Leftover brats and hot dogs will join leftover ground beef and BBQ chicken for Sunday night’s smorgasbord dinner, which I have proclaimed a meatborg.

Meanwhile at Walgreen’s, I footed the bill for a 3-for-10 Iowa map t-shirt sale. The Mollys and I headed back to church to change, picked up Kent and Chris who were waiting for us, and we joined the rest of our group at the baseball stadium for a Cedar Rapids Kernals minor league baseball game, the Mollys and me wearing our Iowa map t-shirts, of course.

Go, Kernals!

The game was in the fourth inning by the time we arrived and it looked like people were having a great time watching the game, taking pictures of each other, snacking, chatting, and crowd watching. As for the game itself, the Cedar Rapids Kernals beat the Peoria Chiefs, 5-6. Our group was featured on the jumbotron several times but we were so excited we never got a photo! I was told Elizabeth and Derrick, two unrelated adults from Minnetonka who are on the trip, were featured on the Kiss Cam and it took Elizabeth a while to figure out it was actually her, proclaiming the woman she saw on the jumbotron as having “the same color shirt as me.” During the game, I tried to play like I was all smart by interjecting remembered details I read about the game the night before from reading the newspaper while waiting or the Mollys at the hospital (Oh, Karcich? He hit a homer last night and had three hits overall, etc.) but most folks saw right through my trick. We stayed after the game for a great fireworks display and ended up back at church in the early part of the 10:00pm hour.

Head to Bed

The night wrapped up with a reading of all of your blog comments (keep them coming, dear reader!), our plan for tomorrow morning (get up early so we can get the sanctuary back in order and get on our way before the 9:00am church service), and a popcorn-style prayer in random small groups. After a little Catchphrase, it was lights out, a dying trickle of whispered chatter, and finally bed time for all. Well, I stayed up a little too late on the blog, but that’s the way it goes.

Highlights and Wrap-Up

A few memorable highlights include Alex and Trevor’s grandpa stopping by to say ‘hi’ with watermelon, Molly D’s special “Allergies” sticker on her hospital ID bracelet, intense games of Catchphrase (a youth group favorite), the new red house painting crew getting as much paint on themselves as yesterday’s red house painting crew, the red house owner telling Dave M. he just might go ahead and put in a hayloft-style window in the front of the house and then going back inside to tell his wife the same thing, and a dancing Stormtrooper on the jumbotron at the Kernals game (It was not the world’s largest jumbotron so some people called it a mediumtron. I’m a Dr. Strangelove fan myself, so any and all oversized screens become “the big board” to me…).

Tomorrow marks our final full day working. With a high chance for rain we’re not sure how long we’ll get to work outside but whatever ends up happening we’ll be excited to keep contributing to God’s work in Cedar Rapids.

Regards,
-nm

Today’s photo gallery is below. Click the pic for a larger version: