Gulfport Mission Trip - 5

Before construction can ever begin, the flooded/damaged home must be removed. Some of the residents we worked with lost their homes due to rain after the roof had been blown off by the wind. They may have had black mold growing, making it unsafe for habitation, or the home may have been blown off of concrete pillars and damaged beyond repair. Keep in mind, these residents own their property.

At this particular site, our volunteers, Scott and Jimmy worked with a youth group from a community center in Toledo, Ohio. The resident here had been living in a tent, as the second FEMA trailer provided to her was contaminated by formaldehyde and she was only able to stay inside for 5 minutes at a time without becoming ill.

The youth finally over powered the trailer, got it torn down and all the debris stacked into dumpsters. There being a shortage of dumpsters and an obviously high demand, sometimes they had to wait for the dumpster transfer to occur. While the photos are out of order....you can see....they got the job done! Now, construction crews can come in and get the foundation ready and work can begin and this homeowner should be in a new home with in the next 2 months!

Gulfport Mission Trip - 4

A grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation/MS Hurricane Relief Fund paid for frame and trusses for the twenty two homes. Triple D Truss, an Amish construction company in Pennsylvania worked with PMDR to provide pre-fabricated frames and trusses at cost for the new home construction projects.

Volunteers with the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Storm Aid Group installed foundations, and Amish, Mennonite and Brethren volunteers staying at the MDS Storm Aid Camp in Pass Christian and at local Presbyterian Churches assisted in the construction.

Here we are, unpacking and installing a closet door and frame. How many Pres-bees does it take to hang a door?

Gulfport Mission Trip - 3

Twenty-two homes were started in November 0f 2007 through a partnership between Presbytery of MS Disaster Recovery (PMDR) and International Relief and Development-US (IRD-US) formed through the Harrison County Long Term Recovery Coalition ( HCLTRC).

The IRD case managers work with homeoweners and present cases to the HCLTRC Unmet Needs Roundtable. PMDR manages new home construction projects from start to finish. PMDR works with volunteer labor and funding from HCLTRC funding partner agencies to payu for construction supplies and subcontractors for HVAC, plumbing and electrical work.


The funding partners for these twenty-two homes include The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army. Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response, and local Presbyterian Churches from around the country.

More than 3,000 Presbyterian Volunteers from seventeen US states spent a week at a time working on various stages of the homes, including adding landscaling and their own personal touch to some of the homes.

Our team added their own special touches to the Spaulding home, flower boxes and a door mat....we hope the flower boxes last a long time and look forward to the Spauldings adding their own "Welcome" mat when they move in!

Gulfport Mission Trip - 2

We measured the trim for the door, cut carefully ( we still have fingers) and LOOK, it fits! This was at the McGrew Family Home.

Gulfport, Mission Trip - 1

We arrived in Gulfport on Saturday evening, scoped out the accomodations, had dinner at Lookout 49, and hit the hay. We were up early Sunday morning and some of us took a quick trip to the beach before church. After church it was lunch and another quick trip to the beach to build sandcastles and chat on the phone with the folks at home. We soon met Lynn, our leader and "taskmaster" for the week, and got ready for our week of mission!



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Mission Trippers study the jelly fish, sting rays and horse shoe crabs.

Pastor Chris enjoys a quick phone call with Rita.

Will Brandt and Josh Smith model their customized do-rags made by Carolyn Moody, exclusively for our trip!

Photos may not be quite in order, and may not have all the sites we worked, we'll work hard to collect photos of our different adventures...since we had photographers at all the scenes on our journey. Check back for more exciting details!

Mission Trip to Gulfport Mississippi July 19 - 26 2008

Saturday July 19, 14 of the 16 OHPC Mission Trippers will meet at the Oak Hill parking lot, and head south to Gulfport to work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in rebuilding the Gulf Coast region, still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. ( Two of our group are heading out on Friday, on their motorcycles) Check back here for mini updates and photos. You can also check for twitter updates at http://bonniebluedenim.blogspot.com/. A special thanks to Iris and George Soscia who will be forwarding "twitter" updates to our blog from our on the scene reporter, Donna Cook. We hope this works. All of us know only enough( about the computer and our cell phones) to be dangerous. Keep all of us in your prayers and we'll be back July 26! Have a great week!

Edited July 28, 2008

We moved our twitter pics and twitter updates to our side bar....and will be posting new posts above about our trip! Please be patient while we catch up!

Habitat Blitz Build - 4

To God Be The Glory!

Habitat Blitz Build -3

We had about 15 people, and what is amazing is most of the folks took a day of vacation to work with OHPC's Mission Team at the Blitz Build. It was a little hot and humid...ok ....it was real hot...and humid, but we had lots of ice and water, and lunch provided by Orlando's.

Habitat Blitz Build - 2

It was a beautiful day in St. Louis, a few showers in the morning, but the sun was out by the time we started work. Our group put up the roof and insulation on the exterior of house #14.

Habitat Blitz Build

Oak Hill Presbyterian Church spent the day on Friday July 11 21008 at the Habitat For Humanity Blitz Build.

Habitat will build 27 homes during the 2008 build season. Their build will take place in a familiar stomping ground for many of the Habitat Volunteers, the JeffVanderLou (JVL) neighborhood. Habitat built 20 homes in 2004 and another 20 in 2006 in JVL. Those homes were built on Bacon, Coleman, Garrison, & St. Louis Ave. This year's build will be near the intersection of Grand Ave. and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr., roughly six blocks south of the 2004 and 2006 build locations.


Interesting Info on the 2008 Build
Home style will be a combination of one-story, two-story, and one-and-a-half story homes
The one-story homes will be slab on grade, which is new for HFHSL this year
Exteriors will be a Nova Brick front and Pre-Finished Cement Fiber Siding
Exterior wall dimensions are 2' x 6' on 24" OC (on center)
Exterior wall sheathing will be 5/8" OSB (oriented strand board)
Foundations are a Pre-Cast Insulated Foundation System
Utilities will be underground
Roofs will be Foiled-Backed Roof Sheathing
..and Habitat will provide dishwashers to the 2008 homebuyers!