Unleashing a Beast!

Five women, Alicia, Debbie, Kathy and Mary from St. John Lutheran, Montgomery, and myself worked in St. Mark Lutheran in Rushford yesterday, Sept. 19.

We were sent to a house in the eastern part of the city, where damage is more substantial than anywhere else in town. Deja Vu! It was like a ghost town. No one was around, except a crew moving debris from what was remaining of the house next door. Several homes had been gutted inside and out. The house we were sent to had all walls removed to the four foot level both inside and outside. There were personal belongings scattered all over the yard mixed with shovels, bleach, photos placed in the sun (one look confirmed they are not salvageable, but hope dies slowly). The smell in the air was just as I remembered on my first visit to Ocean Springs in early October 2005 -- an incomparable, unforgettable mix of mold and rot and bleach. No one was home and it appeared the work we had been sent to do (power wash the basement) had already been done. So we headed over to the church, where we were warmly greeted by Pastor Merlin. He had a job for us.

So, we hauled what was left of the old furnace from the basement to the curb. We then scraped linoleum backing from the kitchen floor until I thought Kathy's leg would fall off (she was using an ice chipper). And we pulled up the linoleum flooring in the bathroom.

When I pulled at a corner just to see how easy or hard it would come up, everyone stepped back. I had unleashed a beast of an odor. The men installing the new furnace came around the corner asking, "Just WHAT is that smell?" We also discovered there is a crawl space full of paint cans under the stairway leading up to the sanctuary that has not yet been cleaned out. Imagine a small area all sealed up, and one month for a stew of mud, fertilizer and sewage to "simmer together." Throw in a few 90 degree days...

A lot of bleach and water and Alicia's persistence, and it was at least bearable, as long you didn't get too close to that crawl space, which we couldn't get in to.

A group of five from St. Stephanus-St. Paul had their choice of several jobs today and have chosen to remove part of the stairway to get to the crawl space and clean it out. I'm not sure they knew what they were getting into. I hope to hear from them tonight that they survived. I also hope they forgive me for not trying harder to talk them out of it. Once that's done, bathroom fixtures are removed, and the kitchen floor scraping is completed, the lower level is ready for rebuilding. We are SO grateful for the many hands, knees and backs that have made the load lighter. Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians... We're all one in this work!

I also met with Lutheran Disaster Response, which will be taking over most of the work coordination in Rushford as the Red Cross responsibilities come to an end. As many of us have learned in New Orleans or Mississippi, the work of the church is essential in recovery. We are called to serve, and unlike "the world," which seems to have the attention span of a bunch of Kindergarteners, I hope we don't forget the needs of our brothers and sisters, who need our compassion and our gifts of time and mercy to get through the long and frustrating days ahead.