Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Texas Youth Invade

Several Youth Groups from Houston and Austin started work today on homes in Galveston. A group of 40 high schoolers and their leaders will be working through Friday, July 3rd.

Trinity-Houston, Christ Church-Houston, St. Mark's-Houston, St. Matthew's-Austin, and St. David's-Austin all have youth representing them out on worksites. Hopefully by the end of this week we will be very close to having 2 or even 3 homes finished to the point where the homeowners can move back in!

Thanks to everyone who continues to help with our efforts!

Also, check out our flickr page to see if photos of you are posted. www.flickr.com/photos/ikerelief

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Up and At 'Em

Hello Everyone,

Just updating on our status for this week. We currently have around 30 folks from St. Michael's-Austin, Tx, Calvary-Richmond, Tx, and St. Mark's-Beaumont. And 25 of those are youth! We're excited to see a heart of service in the young people who continue to come to Galveston.

We have groups on site right now that are mudding, flooring, painting and even doing some yardwork.

We also just received our T-Shirts! Email Luke Blount at volunteer@epicenter.org if you would like one. They are just $15 to have them shipped to you if you can't make it to Galveston. Only $10 if you pick it up for yourself!



Friday, June 19, 2009

You Will Be Missed...

Two groups left today as another arrived. Trinity-Longview and Christ Church-Nashville have both left, but not before we cooked all 37 of them a hamburger dinner last night. Following dinner and a "candy bar award" presentation from Reagan Sapp, her father, Doug or "Happy" brought out some clown noses for everyone. Happy is a clown and we were fortunate to have him here to put smiles on our faces.


Below you will find a group shot of most of us. Thanks Longview and Nashville! We hope to see you again!




Father Kyle, Josie, and Luke in their noses (Thanks for the shirts too, Longview!):


Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Omar Too!



Another new intern, Omar Munoz has arrived to help with our relief efforts in Galveston and beyond. Omar is a recent Grinnell College graduate, making the total of Grinnellians on our staff stand at 3 now. Maggie is a 2007 grad and Josie is a soon-to-be senior.




Omar is a native of Los Angeles, CA, and will be spending much of the summer here in Galveston. He's already putting in some long days leading crews, and we're excited to have him here.



Right now we are working with two groups totally 35 people. One group of 25 is from Trinity Episcopal in Longview, Tx, and they are taking their first mission trip in 25 years. This group may have been a little inexperienced to start, but they know how to work and do it well. (And they feed us pretty well, too). We hope they come back.


The other group is a youth group from Christ Church in Nashville, Tn. They have also put in several long work days, and we hope to see them again in the future.

Work is going well and we're starting to pick up the pace for summer. Please let us know if you are planning any Fall trips, we're trying get some groups on the books!

Peace,

Luke

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Josie and SJD Arrive!

This is our first entry for our blog at Texas Episcopal Disater Relief and Development, and we're excited to get it underway!

Last night our new intern Josie Gerrietts arrived to join our contstruction supervisors Tom Moon and Dave Curtiss on our sites. Josie is a soon-to-be senior at Grinnell College in Iowa. She will be a valuable asset to our project as we take on more volunteers this summer.

Also, today our first summer youth group arrived when St. John the Divine - Houston arrived to start working. The group of 19 is currently starting the gutting process of St. Augustine's Episcopal on Galveston Island.

We're moving steadily along, and seeing the fruits of our labor.

-Luke Blount

Texas Episcopal Disaster Relief and Development's Fan Box