Tuesday.

The second day is always a big jump from the first. The team knows the routine. Breakfast at seven. Devotions, today by Charlie, at seven thirty, briefing for day and then we start. While some do chores, others gather tools and equipment for the day, while others make lunches and fill coolers with ice and water. Our work is twenty minutes away. And the goal is to be working well before nine.

Once at the work sites everyone knows the routing. Unpack the vans and start the work. Today we forgot to start with a prayer circle, but more about that later.

One group went back to do inside painting working to complete the walls. The second group went to the “Waxman House” to finish the outside painting and start work on the inside.

The Waxman House has the exterior finished and is framed on the inside. Unfortunately some of the doors needed to be reframed and we needed to add a good number of “dead wood” pieces to screw the sheet rock to. We also had to add the blockers which are behind cabinets and are screwed into to hold the cabinets in place and hold them up.

Charlie and Ruth went to the Pitman Vermont House to await the foundation inspection and delivery of a framing package. The inspection fell through and the package did not arrive.

When they brought the news to the team it began as a downer. We so look forward to working on the Vermont, and to be delayed another day felt as though we had been delayed a month. It was then we remembered we had not begun our work with our circle and a prayer. We had forgotten why we were they and who we were serving.

We gathered in a circle and I shared the news and talked about our plan for the rest of the day. We began to realize that there may have been a reason we were where we were. Linda, the home owner had been waiting almost a year for her house and progress was very slow. We had been waiting two days, she had been waiting ten months. She told me that her son would be returning from Iraq in December and she hoped it would be finished before then. It became apparent that we could make a major difference in the progress of her house. With our good size team working in small teams we could finish all of the many small details to enable us to begin hanging sheet rock.

We finished with a prayer. Charlie then suggested that we step closer in the circle and all turn in one direction. We then put our hands on the shoulders of the person ahead of us and massaged the shoulders. We then did an about face and repeated the massage. It felt great.

We then returned to work. We were blessed in that our crews had work from the previous day to complete. This meant that Hilton could start workers, mostly youth, working on a particular project and then once they were trained, he would work in a new worker as they finished the job they had been working on.

Sandy learned how to use the chop saw. What is there about women and chop saws? Once they learn how to do it they begin to think they are the only ones careful enough to make the cuts accurately. Hopefully her husband will buy her one of her own for Christmas.

The group doing the interior painting joined us at the Waxman house about 2:30. They had finished painting the ceiling and walls of a small home with the final coat of paint. The owner is in a wheel chair and so there is a wheel chair accessible shower. Special flooring will be installed by a contractor. Our work there is done.

They explored the house, went out and got their tool belts and joined in the effort as though they had been there all day.

When we closed the day, we had completed so much work that we scheduled the delivery of the ceiling sheet rock for the next day.

We left tired but satisfied with what we had accomplished.

Our expectation is that on Wednesday the inspection will take place and work on the Vermont House will begin with a few members of our team. The rest will return to work on the house that inspired us.