Work Team Logo with St. Andrew gift!

…truly to see your face, is like seeing the face of God….Genesis 34:10

                The Word made flesh all around us and among us this week.  We have been truly blessed.  Kiskiminetas Presbytery your faith in Jesus Christ has been lived out in person through your work ambassadors in Iowa City.  May the love and grace we have been a witness too continue to grow and be lived out as these witnesses go forth with renewed passion in the communities we are each from. 

Aquarium Ed, John, and Ron

We have seen the face of God this week in not only the 42 workers from Kiski, but in our new friends in Iowa City: Heather, the St. Andrew’s staff, Mark & Carol Martin, Ed at the fish store, Tony at the apartments, the Chinese restaurant husband and wife owners, all the women at the Domestic Violence Intervention Shelter, Susan on the north side of the Iowa River, Brian Burke in Hinkeyville, the Midway Van Rental Company, the excellent staff at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, the pastor at the New Life Church in Coralville, Skip our excellent bus driver, and Robin the 2^nd team driver.

Susan & her dog with the Kiski Painting Team overlooking the Iowa River

Blessings,

Gary & Lisa Lyon

From all of us to all of you, thank you Lord.  You have been a blessing to each of us…..

1. It has been great, good work and wonderful fun with God’s people!!!      Sally & Fred
2. We had a great week and work completed.

 Evelyn& Clarence

1. Thanks Blairsville for the outstanding support.    It’s ME-    Irving G.
2. Mary & Ann
3. John Ortz

It’s been a great week, Thanks for your prayers and support. It’s pouring rain now so we’re anxious to get home to PA. Linda Coulson

Thanks to all the people from Dayton/Glade Run for your encouragement and support. This week has been an inspiration to me. Ron Shrock

Thank you all at the Marienville Presbyterian Church, for all the support, both financial and through prayer that you gave to us this past week.  You are a great group of people and we are very blessed to call you church family. We can’t wait to get home and tell you all about it.   Bruce and Sheila Conner

Thanks to the members  of the Elderton Presbyterian Church for all your donations, support and especially your prayers.  It was a great week and a faboulous experience for all of us.  Bill, Edie, Barb, and Pam

We are so grateful to our friends and family for the chance to be part of another mission trip. It has been a great week full of blessings.  Gary and Antoinette Cockroft

Thanks to all who have made this mission trip possible, Cross Roads Church, Kiski Presbytery, friends and families.  We had a great trip, lots of hard work, and many new friends.  Once again blessed by so many.  We missed you Tammy.    
Jim and Patty Potter

Thanks to Sugar Hill Church for making hoagies and raising money to make this trip a reality for me.  We feel we have accomplished a lot.  Connie McElhinny

Thanks to my mom, and mom in law for keeping our girls so Jason and I could have this experience. We had a great time and got a lot done. Thanks also to the all the folks who prayed for us , it was appreciated.  Jason and Janine Strohm

Thanks to the Pisgah congregation for their support and prayers while we were in Iowa City flood recovery , sponsored by the Kiski Presbetery. Blessings were many. Thank you Ron Alderton

I am very blessed to have this opportunity to serve god in this environment. I would like to thank you for all your prayers during this past week, as well the support you have giving to us through the year. Jamie Rimmel

Thank  you to Wallace Memorial Church for its contribution towards this trip.  Nancy Osmianski

Thank you to Cross Roads Community Church for giving me this opportunity to serve others. We all have been blessed on this mission trip.  I’d also like to thank my family for handling things at home so that I could take advantage of this opportunity.  Patty Brady

Jay   Thank you for understanding what these trips mean to me and surprising me with a plane ticket so that I would not have to miss this year’s mission experience.   I Love You    Carol

Thank you everyoneat ApolloUnited Presbyterian Church for the contributions that you gave for the Mission Trip in Iowa.

It was a very good trip and Iam very blessedto have been here and helped all who needed it.  Jerrilyn Mollick.

Thank you to the Presbytery. The trip has been a blessing. It has been an honor to serve the Lord. Thank you for the opportunity.- Clint Rhodes

Thanks to all in the Presbytery for the privilege to serve with a swell bunch if people who will be friends for life.   Dave Larimer

It was such a privilege to serve.  Thank you very much to the presbytery, and especially Gary and Lisa for organizing this wonderful trip.  Thank you to St. Andrews for your hospitality … you are a wonderful church. 

Thank you to Beechwoods and Sugar Hill folks for all your love, support, and prayers.  I am looking forward to seeing you this weekend.  Peace, Dave

This trip was awesome.  Mary and I had a wonderful week.  Doing things we ‘ve never done and learning.  To serve others is such a great privelige.  Our Lord blesses us in so many ways.  Thank you to St Andrew Church for your hospitality and all you did for us.  Blessings to all and answer the callif it comes to you .  You will not regret it.  Cindi Boyer and Mary Winters

Thanks to all my family, friends, co-workers and members of Cross Roads for giving me the opportunity to do God’s work in Iowa. It was a great trip. Blessings to all – Donna Cline

Patty, Jamie, Antoinette, & Donna contemplating the inches

Janine, Jerrilyn, & John getting it done

Antoinette & Gary getting it just right!

Evelyn, Edie, & Mary part of our Kitchen Crew

Ron helping John to hang a door

Clarence & Patty, or is it Nancy?

This crew has been working in an area of town known as Coralville very near the Iowa River.  This section of town is composed of small businesses and a small apartment complex that previously housed the mariginally poor.  The small business are mainly family owned and several are still not opened.  The apartment building loss  has resulted in fewer places for this segment of the Iowa City community to live.  We were given the task of  retrofitting the apartments that have been gutted of all interior walls.  Many of the studs which were underwater were not straight and shims were used to create a level surface to attach drywall too.  7 of the 10 efficiency apartments now have drywall and some form of drywall mud on them as of Thursday.  We are hoping to complete putting drywall on the final three tomorrow.  This crew has been phenomenol tackling some of the hardest alignment issues Lisa & I have ever witnessed.  What a blessing they have been to the Coralville area.

Coralville Apartment Team

The first day, 19 of us were dropped off at the community center and the apartment building across the street. The community Center Crew spent 2 days there hanging doors and mounting trim.

The rest of the group swarmed the apartment building ready to start the remodeling. The flood markings were on the bathroom mirrors about 5 feet high. There are 6 small apartments to be worked on. We picked a room, gathered a team and set to work. Some teams created names like Smiley and the Smilettes, the Stud Man’s Crew and Clint’s Mudders.

We have had less contact with the flood victims compared to previous trips. Those we have are thankful we are here. We also have had a chance to meet some folks from the presbytery and some from the congregation that is our host.

If you stand quietly at the worksite you can hear the team shouting, “Who took the hammer?” “It’s 16 ¼, no 16 ¼ and a smidge.” “We need nails. Where’s Jim?” “I need Gary.” “Move that over a scooch.” You will also hear lots of laughter.

It’s good to be back working on another mission trip!

Antoinette Cockroft

Janine, John, & Jerrilyn carefully measuring.

Jamie the Insulalator

Carol & Cindy practicing an Iowa tornado drill!

The team has been working on a project that was to be done before the flood last summer.  It had been placed on hold because of all the flood recovery work taking place in Johnson County.  The owner/manager of DVIP is so very grateful for the work of this team from Pennsylvania.Here is their report!

Our fence team, also known as the Ivy League, is working at a domestic violence shelter replacing a 160-foot long fence that surrounds the back playing yard. The shelter is full with 45 residents including many children. The fence protects the children while playing in the yard. It was a fence of wooden slats that we dismantled Monday. Unfortunately, the outside of the fence had a lot of poison ivy around and through it. The team knew it, but went ahead and took down the fence. We piled the boards for habitat to pick up. We pulled out 4 x 4 posts that were embedded 30 inches deep. Actually, we did not, but Dave Larimer did. He gave them a big hug and pulled. WOW! Out they came! Others were sawed off at the base. Gary Lyon decided we needed to return to the church early to shower off the poison ivy and wash our clothes. We did – but only after we knocked over a corner fence area and sawed w2 huge tree limbs off a tree overhanging the yard and piled all the branches. By the time we returned to the church, all the teams knew about us. We offered hugs, but most ran the other way. At this time, we have no cases of itching arms and faces and by the grace of God we will stay that way.

 Tuesday, the fence was delivered and we got to work digging post holes. The fence is beautiful but I (Betty Grunstra) soon found it is not easy to dig holes with a spud bar and post hole digger. But I got to mix lots of cement.

Betty Grunstra & Sheila Conner

We still need to wait for utility clearance to dig more post holes. In the meantime we are digging post holes by hand. The poison ivy area has been sprayed but we will need to put new fencing there.

Before we leave, we hope to have new fencing all around the yard to give the children from the shelter a safe and secure place to play.

Anne Himes making it straight!

Our fence team members are Dave Larimer, Bruce and Sheila Connor, Ken Barron, Ann Himes and Betty Grunstra.

Update: The crew continued to dig post holes on Wednesday and the ‘underground locator’ people have still not arrived. 

Landscaping Site

This team has the prettiest setting of any of our projects sites.  It sits at river level.  Unfortunately, the owners will not be in the house for more than five years.  Iowa City is buying all the flooded properties in the next 5 years and tearing down the homes located in this area of the city, including this home.

This week Fred Carrier led the landscaping team of Anne Craft, Mary Huston, Mary Winters, Ron Shrock, Dave Koehler, Autumn Wright and Sally Carrier.  Our work site was a lovely home very near the Iowa River. 

Autumn & Dave at battle!

 The owners, Morris Daily and spouse,grow bonsai trees in pots and in a small greenhouse.

The flood came up 30’ high into their yard and 15’ into their house. It carried mud, killed a row of arborvitae and yew trees and left a mess.

But the team of “Dave the Destroyer” and “Autumn the Annihilator” dug and muscled out 45 stumps.

 We leveled ground, patio slates, raked and cleaned out gardens and had fun together. Our “Gentle Giant Ron” seeded the yard abundantly. We hope we have lifted the spirits of the owner. God is good.

Sally

Homemade Icecream Dessert!

PDA Trailer Shower Cleaning Crew!

Laundry Night!

It was so great to hear from you! Thanks for praying for all of us. We’ve been working hard fixing a community center/church/food pantry, cleaning and remodeling low-income apartments, putting up fences and cleaning up flood damage. We have met many great people and everyone at St. Andrew (the church where we’re staying) is super. I am getting to sleep on the top of some bunk beds! I think of you every day and will see you again soon.

Love, Gram (a/k/a Linda Coulson)

Hello Western Pennsylvania,

My name is Autumn, I’m 17 years old, and yes I’m the youngest person on the Iowa mission trip. The last few days went very well. I’m on the landscaping crew, and I just love it. On my first day at the work site, Dave and I pulled stumps out of the ground. Today was a little bit of an easier day. We (as in the landscaping crew) reset a stone patio, tilled up the yard to plant more grass, and raked up old leaves. So far we all feel like we really accomplished something. It feels really good to know we are helping these people out. Thank you for all the prayers. God bless.

Go Iowa team!

Autumn

PS           Hi Mom, Dad and Curtis. I love you and tell the family I love them all too.  Thanks, Debbie, for the blog.

We are honored to serve the Lord this week by serving the survivors of the 2008 flood in Iowa. It is easy to see why many are joining together to help and support the people of these communities. The first project our team has been asked to help with began with a 45 minute drive through farm towns and river communities to a small simple home owned by a man named Brian.

Brian is a survivor.

Brian Burke's Home (Bill & Edie Milligan!)

Before surviving the flood, he survived three cancer surgeries. Brian has lost his right eye, his voice box, several lymph nodes, and his saliva glands.  He speaks via a microphone held to his neck and spends most of his time working in his remaining workshop.  Brian lives by himself with two friendly dogs.  He has a good sense of humor, and lives a very simple life.  When we asked why he wants to restore his home rather than move, he said he couldn’t afford to live elsewhere. “The house is paid for, and the taxes are cheap.”

Our team arrived on Monday morning and found the remains of several dozen homes that had been badly damaged by the flood. Much of the destruction that remained is evidence of a long year of cleaning, clearing, and sorting through tires, beams, blocks, bricks, scrap metals, pipes, trees, and various other types of materials left behind after the waters receded.

We began our week by listening. We listened while he discussed the property. We took notes when Brian discussed what he still needed to do. We asked questions about his experiences during and after the flooding, and we watched and learned as much as we could as Brian discussed what still needed done with his home.

Brian has been discouraged and has spent what little money he has on the parts of the home he can afford to replace and fix. A contractor is expected to complete the new foundation that will raise the home up off the ground a foot higher than the flood line, but the majority of his needs are not going to be met by anyone in the near future without some outside assistance.                                

Inside of Burke Home

Without one eye, Brian has no depth perception and he cannot do much of what needs to be done without some outside assistance. I asked several questions to my team and Brian, and asked each member to take their time and do the various jobs to the best of their abilities. We took the various remaining items out of the house and began power washing the inside and outside of the home. This took three days because of the amount of mud that still remained. The electrical wiring and boxes except the main breaker box were under water during the flood and had to be removed. We also sorted and piled the various materials and debris on the property. Cut and split the downed tree and piling the firewood for Brian to use later.

We scrubbed and cleaned the walls, floors, and windows so the home can be re-insulated and re-dry walled. Then we raked the yard, and sorted out the burnable materials from the non-burnable items. Brian guided us to various recycling piles he is working through and we added to them as the days progressed. We stacked the concrete blocks that were scattered through his yard for future use as well, and we took wheel barrel after wheel barrel of trash to the front of his property next to the road to be taken to the local landfill.

I read somewhere that a good dog isn’t good because it barks well, so I hope we are providing for Brian in a Christian way that will let him know that there are many good people in the world that place others before themselves.

Thank you and God bless.

Jason Strohm, Irving Lindsey, Bill & Edie Milligan, Pam Flickinger

                6 work teams have been put together to get us into our projects.  You’ll begin to hear their stories on Tuesday night.  Team Leaders include: Ron Alderton, Jim Potter/Gary Cockroft, Fred Carrier, Dave Larimer, & Jason Strohm.  The most exciting news of our day is that one of our crews tangled with some poison ivy.  We’ll know in the next 24 hours how tangled they really got!

                St. Andrew Church has many small fellowship groups.  One group of young couples and their children served us an Iowa Picnic this evening.  They ate with us and we all got to know each other.

Congregation members & volunteers line up for dinner.

After dinner we took this group photo. (Ron Alderton is missing as he was meeting with his son who lives in Iowa.)

2009 Kiski Work Team

We celebrated the glory of God’s creation during worship in the outdoor chapel this evening. We’re surrounded here by flowering trees, shrubs and spring flowers. Working to restore not only homes and apartments but also landscapes and gardens brings healing to families, of course, but also brings healing to creation. As Isaiah says in chapter 55, the mountains and hills burst into song and the trees of the fields clap their hands in joy and peace.

Ken Barron reads our scripture.

Autumn Wright describes her team's experience.

Sally Carrier & Ron Shrock landscaping crew.

Patty Brady & Donna Cline Insulation/Drywall Crew

Cindy Bower door hanging crew.

The first day of work has come to an end and all is now quiet at 10:10 PM.

Live from Iowa,

Gary and Lisa

                22 Kiski Iowa Workers loaded the bus in Leechburg at 10:30 PM Saturday.  17 workers raced on board the bus in Clarion at midnight.  4 rest stop breaks & two food breaks later, we arrived in at St. Andrew Church in Iowa City at 2:30 PM EST.  The apostle Paul would have been proud of us, because for 14 hours there were no quarrels on the bus even with all the snoring, sore backs, and ‘are we there yets’ coming from the occupants of those seats!

                St. Andrew’s Church has opened their church to us. Heather Woodin (C.E. Director/volunteer coordinator & her husband Jim) welcomed us and gave us a tour of our accommodations.  We have segregated ourselves into 4 separate sleeping rooms which have bunks and cots in them.  Presbyterians don’t snore!              
 

                Mark & Carol Martin, Co-Disaster Response Coordinators for Johnson County United Way oriented us to the devastation in Iowa City in June of 2008.  The Iowa River runs through this community of approximately 80,000 people.  It is the home of University of Iowa . Damage estimates in Johnson County and the Coralville section of Iowa City for homes and business exceeds $100,000,000. 

                We learned that we would be working in a heavily damaged low income apartment building, a domestic violence safe home, the Coralville Community Center, power washing a home approximately 45 miles away, and landscaping a home along the Iowa River.  Work team leaders met with the Martins to discuss sites and potential issues for the week.

                Sitting down for an evening meal together gave us time to begin to dwell on the new Christian community we are becoming this week.  Worship focused us on the importance of all the tasks we might be called to do, and the blessedness of being God’s child in Iowa.

                Sleep didn’t come fast enough for most of us.  The lights and the laughter came to an end at 10:05 PM.

Live from Iowa……

Gary & Lisa Lyon, Co-Leaders Kiski Iowa Work Team

Remember to pray — and donate!

–Erin C-H