2nd day of work

Another day of hard work and sweat (lots of sweat):

Team Janice and Watson had the job of replacing temporary windows to permanent ones in Beaumont. The task was long and tedious. There were many trips back and forth to the hardware store to get the materials needed to complete the job.

Team Lynn and John had the job of power washing and painting the outside of a house in direct sunlight in Bridge City.  In temperatures above 90 degrees, the team had to stay extra hydrated. 

Team Carlos finished up the job they started yesterday: replacing base boards and touch 

up painting. After that was completed they drove to Beaumont to do demolition on a kitchen

 ceiling and hallway ceiling. The job was dirty and definitely not great for their allergies.

Team James worked in Port Arthur and had the job of painting and hanging doors. After many trials and tribulations, the job was almost completed. 

Team Caressa worked at the Union Board of Mission's resale shop called "The Attic".  They sorted and rearranged displays and emptied out truck loads of more donations.

Team James and Caressa switched workers midway through the day.

With Love,

Group 3: Colleen, Rudy, Melissa, Brandon, and Watson

First Day of Work!

Hey, Webster Presby!

Today was our first day of mission work in the Port Arthur and Beaumont area. This morning we traveled to the SETIO (South East Texas Interfaith Organization) warehouse and met with our coordinator, Scott, and met the guys on his team (Mario, Blake, Barney, and Carl) who had lots of advice and instructions for us. We were briefed on safety and the work we were going to do, and everyone was then split up into five groups and headed out to their different work sites. Between all of us, we replaced doors, put in baseboards, painted, textured walls, worked in a resale shop (much like ICM food pantry and store near us), and met with the homeowners. We all had lots of water, stayed safe, and soldiered through the heat with the help of our Cool-Rags made by Mrs. Jill Massie! Work wrapped up around 4 o'clock, with each of the groups arriving after they completed their day's task. Everyone in our group has expressed how gracious the homeowners at their work site were, and we all just had a really great time. We got back to Central Baptist, rested up, showered, relaxed, and had a wonderful dinner of spaghetti and meatballs made for us by one of our small groups. We topped it off with Blue-Bell fudge pops, and now we're settling in for another night of games, fellowship, and devotional worship. 

We love and miss you all,

-Group 2: Sarah Faxel, Bethany Cowan, Melanie Moore, Trevor Grunden, David Snowden, & James Kinzler

Expedition Bridge City

Well, we headed out from Webster with a great send off from family and friends. This year 22 youth and 7 adults have decided to take a week out of there summer to help with Hurricane Ike recovery. We left Webster Presbyterian Church around 3:30 and got in some really good bonding time with each other in jam packed vans. We arrived in Bridge City around 5:00 and started to settle in right away at our home for the week, the Central Baptist Church in Port Arthur.  The church has provided us with cots and mattresses, along with a whole floor in their sunday school area. There are showers in the church, with hot water! (Unlike last year's little fiasco with the ice cold water.) We are thankful to be staying at such an accommodating church. For dinner we headed out to the local Casa Olé for a tasty meal. At the dinner we sat with our small groups and got to know one another better. These small groups are groups of about 4 or 5 youth with 1 adult. Each group is in charge of a different task each day such as, breakfast crew, lunch crew, dinner crew, or devotional crew. In just a little bit the group plans to play some fun games together, followed by our nightly devotional. Tonight Caressa has planned a special opening night devotional to show us why we felt called to serve God in this place. After all that is planned for this evening, we plan to get a good nights rest for our first day of work tomorrow. 

Thank you for your prayers, support, and love. Stay tuned for more updates on our adventures.

-Sarah Faxel and Michelle Dupont

Introduction to 2009 Sr. High Mission Trip

Hello all!

After being commissioned at the 11:00 service on Sunday June 28, the Sr. High Group and Sponsors will leave on the Sr. High Mission Trip at 3:00 pm to head to Bridge City, TX. Bridge City is at the border between Texas and Louisiana, close to the Gulf. (In the middle of the map, north of the Sabine Lake.) It is by Port Arthur and Beaumont. The drive will take a little more than 2 hours. Even though this mission trip is closer than the past two mission trips, we felt we needed to go where the need was greatest-Ike recovery. Many of us experienced the effects of Ike first hand and really wanted to help the people who still needed lots of help to rebuild their homes. 80% of the people in Bridge City had their homes flooded.

We will return to WPC on Saturday July 4 at about 11:00 am.Thank you very much for your prayers and support.

Thanks for reading!

-Sarah Faxel