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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Mission Trip to Port Arthur, Texas

Eleven of us representing Desert Pines Baptist Association left St. Johns, Arizona on Sunday Jan.18th 2009 at 3:00 PM. to assist in hurricane damage to three different locations in Port Arthur for the Exodus Baptist Church. We arrived in Port Arthur, Texas about 24 hours later on the 19th and settled in at the facility we would be staying at "The Shepard's Inn". We were each divided into rooms on what was called the "B" wing. We freshened up and met in the cafeteria to discuss the next day's activities. Jan.20th Myself, Gerrard, Vern and Paul were transported to a private residence to review the damage to the roof from the storm, to determine the materials required to repair and or replace the roof. We determined that we could repair the front half of the roof that was only damaged in trying to cover up the rear of the roof that was actually damaged. The rear portion of the roof would have to be totally replaced down to the sheeting. I gave the materials list to complete this repair to Matt Gaston and Doug Ball. Then we proceeded to remove all the damaged materials from the house to be ready to start the repair process as soon as the new materials arrived to the site for us to complete our mission on the 20th and the 21st of January 2009. These first photo's are the before: The two men on the roof are Vern Left and Gerrard.

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The next photo's we are removing the damaged part of the roof and preparing the roof for the new materials. Paul is on the roof in this picture. We are removing roof jacks and old sealant tar so we can reuse the jacks back on the new roof.

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The next two pictures we see a house across the street from the one we are working on. This house did not weather the storm as well as the house we are at, as you can see there are two large limbs down on the house one in the front and one in the rear. Seeing up close as we did this house will probably be totally torn down and rebuilt at some time.

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Our materials arrived and we staged them for ease of use on the roof and began re-roofing the rear by laying down a row of felt at the lower edge. Then we started the roofing with 3-tab shingles moving up the roof. The next two pictures show the results of the end of day one at this house.

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We had a very nice evening meal prepared by a couple from Pennsylvania that was there with a group of people working on their own mission projects for the Port Arthur area. The next morning we returned to our house project to finish the roof and do some clean-up of the front yard and a little mending of the lath rail on the front porch. The next four pictures show starting from the rear the finished product. We see that all the roof jacks are back in place and sealed. We have replaced the damaged 3-tab shingles on the front portion of the roof. We have cut and placed the roof ridge cap that finishes off the roof. We finished this project at 11:45 am on the 21st of Jan.2009.

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We called Pastor Doug to be picked and transported to the next location that we were needed at. Bob arrived in the pickup and we loaded the few excess materials and our tools and went to the next location. Had lunch and started to work on the Exodus Baptist Church location. As we were really getting started of removing old damaged Sheetrock and emptying rooms of ruined items, it was discovered that a possibly dangerous black mold was resident on and in the walls and ceiling of the building. We determined that until the mold was investigated that we should not continue in this building. The next photo gives an idea of what the damage and the mold problem that existed.

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We left the Exodus Baptist Church location about 2:45 PM on the 21st Jan. and went over to another project location called "The Starting Point House". We arrived at that location where some of the other guy's were working on the house.mission trip Texasmission trip Texas
James was in the middle of painting the front of the house, I picked up the caulking gun and started caulking on the side of the house around windows and and patches that Matt had fixed up in the siding in preparation for James to continue painting on around to the side of the house. In the next two picture you will see where James has painted the lower front of the house and Matt is scraping the old paint on the porch which will be painted the last at the end of the project.

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Pastor Doug and I discussed the fact of replacing the damaged portion of the roof in order that the work we were doing would not be ruined in the weather expected in the next few day's. The next picture shows the damaged roof from the hurricane that went through this part of Texas.

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The next morning on the 22nd Jan. I gave the required materials list to Matt Gaston and Doug Ball for repairing and replacing this portion of the roof. Myself, Gerrard, and Vern started removing the old materials from the roof and repairing the old sheathing boards in preparation for the arrival of the new roofing materials. Some of the other guy's were starting up with the sheet rock.mission trip TexasPhotobucket
The old sheathing boards were bad enough that we re-sheathed the roof with CDX ply board and put on a new drip edge to make a good platform for our new roofing materials. The next picture shows the roof ready for the 3-tab shingles.

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We stopped for lunch and the next photo shows our progress on getting the new 3-tab shingles laid out on the roof at day's end on the 22nd Jan. With Matt's help on the ladder with the lower rows we got a good start on the shingling for that day.

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The next morning on the 23rd Jan. Myself, Matt, Gerrard, and Vern picked up the pace and rolled on more felt and kept on shingling and in the next photo you can see that we have the roof completed even with the cut to fit ridge cap.

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We moved down to the mid roof which was an eye sore as for as how the house was shaping up and looking so good. You can see from this next picture it was imperative we replace these shingles.

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We stripped off the old bad shingles and started replacing with new shingles and in the next picture you can see what a difference it made for the looks to the front of the house.

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The challenge we had next was to shingle up the sides of the house to have a finished face to the house. You can see from the next picture that the word challenge is used mildly. There was about three feet of space between the two houses on the left side and the right well a lot of space.

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It was really a piece of cake and the house with all this roofing replaced along with the new paint and the doors and new screen doors installed by Larry really made the house transform to a pleasant looking home. The next two pictures shows the sides complete with new shingles.

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We finished the day 23rd Jan. accomplishing this roofing repair and cleaned up with everyone else. Pastor Doug after cleanup discussed with me the next phase of the repairs the group would like to do on this project. At the back of the house was an add-on to the house that incorporated a kitchen and living room that they would like to repair next. The flat roof above this area was in very bad shape and leaking, destroying the ceilings and the flooring in these areas. Pastor Doug ask me if the roofing could be fixed over these areas, I surveyed the damage and told him I would give them the material requirements to re-roof this area so they could fix the interior as their next project.
On the morning of the 24th Jan. we arrived at the "Starting Point House" and I gave Matt Gaston and Pastor Doug the materials list to repair the Flat roof over the Kitchen and Living room areas. Myself and Gerrard started removing old damaged rolled roofing and trimming back the underlay materials to the drip edge to have a nice uniform platform to start laying the new rolled roofing when it arrived. I forgot to take a before picture but you can see in this picture where there is a bad place in the old rolled roofing, there were two others besides this one that I have already sealed up.

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Gerrard and myself spent the rest of this day sealing up this flat roof and making it water tight. The next photo's give you the finished roof that is sealed for protecting the new sheet rock being installed in the interior.

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We finished this day 24th Jan. cleaning up with everyone else with a job well done by the whole team.
The morning of the 25th Jan. Pastor Doug mentioned to me that they were leaving me at "The Sheppard's Inn" today, that Mary the manager of the facility had a list of projects that she needed completed and he would like for me to select one other of the crew to work with me to fix these items for Mary. I asked Gerrard if he wanted to work with me, and I let Pastor Doug know that we would complete her projects for her. After looking the list over and surveying the projects first hand, I got all the materials and tools that would be required and got started. The first task we had was leak in the roof over the linen storage room. We determined that a lot of the water that was on the roof in this area was due to the air conditioner drain not draining to the gutter system and to the ground. We glued the pvc drain pipe together on this air conditioner and all of the additional air conditioners on the roof so that they drained off the roof properly. We then sealed the seams in the flat roof system above the linen storage area and other areas on the roof that looked as if they could be a potential leak. The next item we had on the list was a leak in the roof on the laundry building, Mary's concern was that the roof may need to be replaced. After reviewing the roof even though it was just a flat roof, it was covered with metal roofing. I told Mary I was able to seal it up for her and that she would not have to replace it. The next item on our list was a drain from the ice machine that was not connected at one joint where it exited out of the building under the door. I told her that we could fix that for her, when Dave came in with his truck I got a coupling from him and fixed it. This completed the items on our list from Mary and closed out the day the 25th Jan. 2009.
The morning of the 26th Jan. the whole team went to "The Starting Point House". All the new sheet rock was installed on the ceilings and James had most of it muddied and ready to primer and paint. James is painting the front of the neighbors house which was in desperate need. Willie next door had been open to us getting water from his house to clean on the house we were working on and even let us plug into the electric for James to run his sprayer until we got the generator on site. Myself and Gerrard started priming the new sheet rock where the mud was dry, Gerrard would cut the room in and I would roll it out. We started upstairs in the bedroom that was fixed up and then moved out into the hall way ceiling. Down stairs Gerrard had cut in the two bathrooms and cut in the kitchen and I rolled them out with primer. After lunch we started all over again with the paint color upstairs in the bedroom and hall way ceiling. We moved down stairs and Matt and Larry were cutting in the two bathrooms and Gerrard was cutting in the kitchen. I started rolling the bathrooms as soon as I could get into them and then went to the kitchen and started rolling the color coat on it. James was putting the finish touch of mud on the living room ceiling and Pastor Doug and Vern was drying the mud as James went along with heaters. As soon as the ceiling in the living room was dry enough to roll it was primed and then painted with the color coat. The front porch of the house was painted and the project was basically completed for what our mission crew had time to complete on this trip to Port Arthur, Texas. In the next picture you can see the finished front of the painted house and porch and the corner of Willies house painted.mission trip Texasmission trip Texas
We cleaned up the area and loaded up our tools for the day ending 26th Jan. 2009.
The morning of the 27th Jan. after breakfast we loaded the vehicles with our luggage and said our goodbyes to our new friends at "The Sheppard's Inn" and headed west for the town of Van Horn, Texas where we would stay the night before heading on home to Arizona. We arrived in Van Horn about 7:30 PM and settled in for the night. The next morning the 28th Jan. we enjoyed a little breakfast and got on our way home to Arizona. A long two day's ride but well worth the results of a job well done by the crew from Desert Pines Baptist Association, we arrived tired in St. Johns about 3:00 PM, said our goodbye's to each other until the next opportunity to serve is presented.

Thanks,

InHim