Joplin Trip

In mid-June, a group from our church loaded up and took off to Joplin, Missouri to help with the rebuilding efforts after the EF5 May 22nd, 2011 tornado. A little over a year after the tornado struck, a lot of rebuilding had already taken place, but there was still a long way to go. We got to work with a group called Mission Joplin which is a part of my cousin Erin's church in Joplin. It was an added bonus that I got to hang out with Erin and her family while we were there! It would have been even better if we could have somehow brought our kids to hang out with their second cousins after all of the working part was done. Golly and Granddad were kind of enough to take care of our boys while we went on the trip.

Our group consisted of 11 great people with a bunch of different talents, all were hard workers! Our project was to help restore a little house built in the early 1900's. The house was not damaged in the tornado, but it was a house that was about to be condemned and the city of Joplin basically turned it over to Mission Joplin to restore and use however would be most useful.

 Most of our group: Frank, Dan, Mike, Mary C., John Mark, Linda, Tim, Laura, Amy.

Tyler and Mary H. arrived later that evening

 The first night we ripped out the floor of the back laundry/mud room to prepare it for laying subfloor and tile. 

The second day had a little more demo to do to prepare the floor, and then some of the guys started laying the subfloor.

Mike did a lot of whatever needed to be done including repairing door jambs, replacing windows, etc.

My main job ended up being to help lay the tile floor in the kitchen and laundry room.

Here is the group with Tyler on the far top right and Mary on the far bottom right. Mary C. was taking the picture

Mary C. and Amy took on texturing and painting the newly applied drywall in the bathroom.

The biggest job was probably reflooring one of the bedrooms. Amazing Frank got under the house to lift up the floor where it was sagging and then they laid new wood slabs over the entire room to make it more level. John Mark worked on this most of the time as well.

Here is a picture of an area that still has a long way to go in Joplin. There are still large expanses that are completely flat and full of rubble where houses and businesses used to sit.

We had a great trip and most of us learned a lot. Mike and Frank were the ones that knew what was going on and would help the rest of us try to be helpful. They were both very patient with us.