A lot was accomplished on November 2007 trip
A team of eight members traveled to New Orleans to work at People's United Methodist Church from November 2-11. This team included NORM (New Orleans Recovery Ministry) veterans Dave Pietenpol, Timm Bacher, Les VanVonderen, and Chris Hemstreet. New to the team were Jim Veitch a member of FUMC and Keith Deprey a home builder. Dave Pietenpol's daughter Stacey Pietenpol (a student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary working towards a Master of Arts in Christian Education) came as well as Mandy Wubben. Mandy is a friend of Stacey and a college student at Luther College in Iowa. Stacey and Mandy both got permission to miss a week of classes to be a part of the team.
When our team arrived, there was a group already there from Tempe, Arizona. They had painted the restrooms in fellowship hall and started putting stucco on the southwest wall of the fellowship hall. After arriving on Saturday afternoon, the Tempe team gave our team a "crash course" on how to stucco.
Sunday morning we attended worship at the People's United Methodist Church. It was a very moving worship service and there were probably about 25-30 people attending who were church members or visitors in addition to the Green Bay and Tempe Mission Teams. After the service the Green Bay team served a "Wisconsin tail-gate" picnic lunch of brats, wieners, baked beans, potato salad, cookies and brownies. It was a beautiful, bright Sunday afternoon and many of the worshipers stayed to share our meal. This gave us a great opportunity to fellowship with some of the church members for the first time.
The main projects planned for this trip were to complete the re-siding of the southwest side of the fellowship hall and working on refinishing the kitchen. Work in the kitchen included finishing the walls and putting up paneling, assembling new cabinets, installing a ceramic tile floor and replacing the ceiling tiles and lights. New appliances (a gas stove, refrigerator, upright freezer and an icemaker) were placed in the kitchen. It was determined that once the kitchen was completed and the appliances were in place, the cabinets would fit better in the fellowship hall, outside of the pass-through window. They still need to install the sink and hook up the appliances. With the completion of the great kitchen and fellowship hall, the church is getting a step closer to starting a meal ministry. Meals are an essential part of the New Orleans culture.
Stacey and Mandy planned an after-school program for the local neighborhood children. Wednesday and Thursday the children came from 5-6 PM to participate in singing, Bible lessons, games and followed by more singing. They found the children to be full of energy, enthusiasm and a need for attention. It was easy to see that there is a great need to provide programs like this on a regular basis. These children represent the future of the church and it was a delight to see them having fun in the church.
Pastor Eunice Chigumira came daily and provided a lunch for the team so that they could focus on the work projects. It gave us a wonderful opportunity to visit with her and she could keep up on the progress of the work. She was so grateful and expressed her appreciation for all that her church has received in help over the past year. It is our hope to continue to support Eunice with our prayers and projects so that she can be successful in providing a ministry of outreach to the neighborhood of the church.
All of this was made possible by the work and talents of the entire team. Dave and Les were great team leaders. Keith was a valuable addition to the team as a builder and was kind and patient in teaching skills to those who didn't have them. Les was our "mud master" as he spent many hours mixing mud for the stucco and the floor tiles. Mandy, Stacey, Jim, Timm and Chris helped wherever and whenever they were needed. There was a great feeling of accomplishment at the end of the week.
