2004
It was nice and warm in Puerto Rico the winter. Once it did get cold. I felt a little chiily with just a  Tee shirt.

This year I worked in a few diffeent places. In one church I ended up painting the sanctuary. It took about
five days (I was the only one comfortable on the staging). Other members of the church  worked  patching the roof and replacing doors. Later I went to a little church in the mountains and worked there. We painted, installed a door  and did some much needed plumbing work for the pastor. I was amazed at how comfortable it was to be there. The church is so small yet the spirit of God is so abounding there. I hope to go back in April for a week . I met the pastor last year while attending a missionary training school. She and another woman had just returned from a trip to India. After watching her presentation  I felt like an ant. They accomplished so much. It did give me resolve though.

In March I went to South Carolina out to John's Island. We worked for Rural Missions. In some ways it's sad to work there. Recently the island was added to the Charleston city limits. It rarised the tax base. Also because the of huricanes
and the recent building boom the building code is changing. To build houses for the people is much more expensive. It seems like the locals can't afford to live there anymore.  We just have to do what we can. This year we fixed a porch on one house and rebuilt the bathrooms in another ( the house had two, one without a floor, old   new)) and the other barely functioning (old  new).
At  that same house we did some major repairs to the kitchen sink.
When we are on the island the team worships at the John Wesley United Methodist Church in Hollywood . The service lasts two to three hours depending how the Spirit's moving. The next time I go there I'm going to wear gloves so my hands don't hurt so much from clapping. I love it.
 
In July we went to Maine on two trips. First back to Limsestone. There we worked on an addition on a house for a young couple with four young children.  It was a large team representing  five or six churches.
Second we went to Camp Mechuwanna a Methodist summer camp in  Winthrop Maine. there we worked on a house for a woman  with a young  handicapped child . We painted inside and out, hung windows and doors, all kinds of things.
The whole team had a great time. Some of the team worked on a handicapped ramp. My friends from Puerto Rico came up to be on the team with us.

In August I went to The Henderson Settlement in Frakes Kentucky. There we did vinyl siding, installed some windows and painted on a house for a couple. I use to think that if you wanted, you could find work. I was mistaken. In that community unemployment is 50%. The coal mine shut down and there is little else there to do.