Jocelyn's Lenten Mission

4/21/03

Hey everybody!

First of all, I want to say I�m sorry for this being so late. April is not a good month to take time for yourself around our house because it�s always so busy!

Second, I want to thank everybody who helped sponsor me on my Alabama Mission trip. I especially wanted to thank those who prayed for me. There were no major injuries and the weather was PERFECT!! It was always upper 70's and lower 80's.

I left on Saturday the 22nd. We left in the afternoon, thank goodness I didn�t have to wake up early. We flew into Atlanta, Georgia. (Because it was cheaper). The flight was two hours long. After the flight, was a two-hour car ride to the United Methodist Church in Anniston, Alabama. We got there pretty late, but we still had time to put four mattresses in the guys room, eleven in the girls room, and a prayer service.

Each day we woke up at seven. We worked form 8:00 to lunch and from lunch to 3:00. We went back to the church after that. At night we made our own dinners. We had MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) over one night for Chinese and Americorp over for spaghetti. The place that we stayed in was a large gym with rooms that surrounded it. We played volleyball and basketball each night. Two of the nights, a older volleyball group came over and kicked our butts. It was fun though. They also had a roller skating rink upstairs so almost every night we roller skated. It�s funny because the whole week we were down there, we considered this place home. It was no comparison to the real thing, but it was ours for the week.

On Sunday, we went to church at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in Anniston, AL. After church, we went to Birmingham to see the Civil Rights Museum in order to see why some of the things are the way they are in AL. It was fascinating, but two hours of anything can seem long.

On Monday, we got in our vans and Salone (a group coordinator) gave us a tour of Habitat Lane. It is an area where many habitat houses were built. We were all laughing because we were making U-turns in people�s front yards and on a basketball court. Salone was a little to used to driving on construction sites. After that we started work. Half of our group went to 80 acres that was donated to Habitat for Humanity where they worked on the sub-flooring.

(On a side note) The 80 acres was donated by a family. The Jimmy Carter Work Project (which is Jimmy Carter and about 2,000 people) will go down and finish about 35 houses in a week in June. It�s going to be a big thing that they need to get ready for. They are pre-making walls and ordering carpet and other things needed to finish the houses.

My group, on Monday afternoon, went to Jacksonville, which was about half hour away from the 80 acres. We started landscaping that day. You see, the house had already been built. It has been up for a year, but G.G., the owner of the house, can�t move in because there is no plumbing in her house yet. The plumber was coming that weekend that we left if it didn�t rain.

The backyard of that house was basically woods. There were trees and small plants everywhere. About six trees were taken down and burned along with the small plants, and along with the vegetation, the backyard had a blanket of rocks. My friend and I took the job of raking rocks one day. I have sworn off raking rocks.

Tuesday, the whole Totino-Grace group went to what they call the warehouse. That is the place that is considered headquarters. We built walls for the Jimmy Carter Work Project. The wood was all pre-cut for us by other groups the week before us. Then 2 x 4s that were the top and bottom were marked to tell us whether we needed another 2 x 4 or a door or window. I can now hammer pretty good and have more strength in my right arm than my left.

Wednesday, we went back to Jacksonville. It�s funny because when you first get there, there doesn�t seem to be enough work for all of us. There was plenty that day. Wednesday, we got ready to put in a driveway. We knocked out the curb and measured where the driveway would go.

Thursday we laid the driveway cement. It was so much fun. We all had a new appreciation for our driveways by the day�s end. The cement (cēment as they say in the south) trucks arrived at 11:00. They poured the cement and left. After we smoothed it out by pushing a 2 x 4 back and forth. Then I learned how to trowel. We ate about seven pizzas that day for lunch. After we left the site at 3:30 we were all tired and in need of a shower.

Friday we went back to the warehouse and moved piles of things around, and we built shelves for the tools and such for the Jimmy Carter Work Project. They were pretty neat. We were sad that we couldn�t be outside.

Saturday our group woke up and cleaned the rooms we used. We left early and drove two hours to Atlanta. We had time before we needed to be at the airport, so we went to the Atlanta Underground. It was really fun to just goof around and take pictures of anything.

Overall the trip was AMAZING! Thank you to all who made it possible through money or prayers.

Jocelyn