05/22/2014
At the May Presbytery meeting we were asked to report on our recent activities as the Storm Relief Mission Team. Here is the report I made to Presbytery.
Storm Relief Mission Team 2014 Report
This is the tale of a mission trip
To rebuild from Sandy’s mighty punch that did rip
Up the Eastern Seaboard in the fall of 2012
Flooding surfs, smashing winds created a scene into which PDA would delve.
15 souls did set out
To rise at 4:30 takes a spirit that is stout.
In cars and Lakeside’s van we drove all that day
To the church in NJ, the town of Matawan where we’d stay.
Warm and friendly were our hosts
Overjoyed that we were there.
Fed us dinner, gave us shirts
Then to sleep in beds that were... fair.
Bright and early did we rise
Ate our breakfast rubbed our eyes.
To the job site we did fly
Met the family, she almost cried.
For last fall when we were there
On the same house we’d worked with care.
What a surprise to us all
That our group would get the call
To finish the steps from the basement to the hall.
The house was almost done
They’d moved-in in time for Christmas fun.
So the things we’d do that week
Would make surely make their lives more sweet.
Right next door was another project
Set for demolition that place was a complete wreck.
So with hammers and pry bars and dust masks and gloves
The crew set-in with something less than love.
Through the week we did work
Not a job did we shirk
Furniture assembly and then moving
Crashing and trashing but always improving.
To the church each evening we’d all return
Showers, dinner, hymns and devotions
A little Euchre ‘til each one would adjourn
2000 homes met a tide that was growing
In the county of Monmouth 500 houses are no more
The work we did there might seem just like throwing
Starfish into the sea from where they’d washed up on the shore.
But the families that were helped, and the community that was built
and the friendships that were forged, and the and the muscles that were sored
Made the trip worth taking and we’ll do all it again
Because each dollar that is given
and every prayer that is sent
and each effort that is striven
and every penny spent,
Means another family is restored
another neighborhood revived.
And each missionary knows
We serve a God who is alive.
