Below is an email from Don Owen as of yesterday. It seems they are doing well but we need to continue to remember them in our prayers.
Also, if your church is still thinking about building a Baptist Builders Team for the Nashville Flooding Project, please let me or Bill Sartain know who the Team Leader is and a phone number and/or email address.
Thanks,
Jack Henson
423-318-9120
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Today is Friday and we do apologize for not writing each evening as planned but our crew chief (Bryan Collins) has worked us so hard everyday all we have strength to do in the evenings is get a show and head to bed.
Beginning with Tuesday we began work on Mr. Gutu’s home in Masefau here on the island of American Samoa. Mr. Gutu’s home was heavily damaged by the three waves that came in due to the tsunami that struck back in September of 2009. Brian Collins laid the block while Don Rhoades and Wayne Hubbard mixed the mortar. Earl Creasey worked on stripping out all the electrical wiring and began the rewiring process. We got one wall laid up and was ready to lay the next wall the next day.
Wednesday the team laid up wall number two while I had to stay at the compound and recoup from getting dehydrated.
Thursday we learned that a Mennonite team needed help pouring a concrete floor on the other end of the island. We decided to take a day off from laying block and help them since here in AS there are no concrete trucks to call and have it delivered. We ended up mixing a total of 14 yards of concrete in a gas powered ¼ yard batch mixer. Talking about being tired, we were tired when the last batch hit the ground, we were whipped. Please see the attached picture, taken during one of the two rainstorms that came up during the pour. We never stopped the pour, in fact we were very happy for the rain (photo 4) since it helped to cool us off a bit. Needless to say our Canadian Mennonite friends were happy to get a little help from a bunch of hillbilly Southern Baptist boys from Tennessee. They kept saying we talked a little funny though.
Friday, Don Rhoades decided to let us in on a well-kept secret. He too is a pretty good block mason! With he and Bryan both laying block the production really picked up and we did in one day what we were expecting to take two days. (see photo 1) It sure kept Wayne Hubbard busy mixing mortar to the two masons. Earl got the dusty job of cutting a lot of block with a skill saw. (photo 2) Don Rhoades spent a little time making friends. (photo 3)
Tomorrow we will finish up laying the block at Mr. Gutu’s house and in the afternoon go look at another job to hopefully start on Monday morning.
We certainly appreciate your prayers for us and ask that you keep praying.
Don Owen
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