The final day of work was our best day yet!

We spent time cleaning up CCDRA’s warehouse and trailers.

Worked hard to get the floor up in the bathroom.

Finally got there!

Finished painting the ceiling.

Rearranged the now completed bedroom.

And got it back to living condition!

Ate some incredible food.

Devoted, cleaned up the church, and rested after an incredible week!

And its time for everyone’s favorite: before and after pics from our week!

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We had a blast serving in New Bern and made it through the week safely! Thank you for all your love, prayers, and support. Join us this Sunday to hear about our week in worship and Adult Education. We hope you will join us on a future Mission Trip!!!

Thursday began like any other day, other than the fact that Chris was the last to breakfast because his phone was dead. JohnPaul was nice enough to wake him up. It was a real turn of events, full circle kind of thing.

You know the drill by now. Most of the team headed back to keep on keeping on at the remaining home.

On the list for the day was finishing flooring.

Installing the front door

And painting/installing some base trim

Meanwhile Amy and Chris stayed back to finish up their demo. First, they had to remove the drains

and then it was hammer time.

After many hours of swinging, the stone and cement finally came up.

Once that was done, they were able to do a few cleanup jobs around the church.

We had a lovely meatloaf dinner and devotion, a glorious trivia game night hosted by JohnPaul, and got some sleep for our final work day.

Wednesday began like any other day, other than the fact that Chris was the last one to make it to breakast.

Projects picked up right where they left off. Team Guys headed back to their house and kept grinding away, slowly but surely turning effort into progress.

They had renewed energy with JohnPaul joining the fold.

At one point, they even made a run to the local dump, which, according to local legend, is a rite of passage for any true New Bern work team.

Somewhere along the way, they attempted to drive over a piece of rebar. The rebar won.

Meanwhile, Team Gals pressed forward on the bathroom demo.

Getting pretty much all the way done!

They even had time to deliver cookies and new house numbers to the finished home!

We wrapped up work early today around 1:00pm to give ourselves some rest. With the extra time, we explored Downtown New Bern!

After eating Linner together, the group split off to do various activities for the rest of the day.

After our evening devotional, we all hit the hay to prep for our penultimate work day!

The crew got an early start to the day and went back to the same houses as the day before!

There were a few last things to patch up at the furniture house, so we quickly knocked it out.

Since there was some organizing to do, we stole Jan from the other team.

This time we did finish up early in the day, so we headed over to help out the other group.

They had come a long way and had finished almost all of the subfloor by the time we arrived.

That meant it was time to start getting the room together with paint for the ceiling:

And even some flooring:

There were a few too many people at the site with our full team, so Jan, Amy, and Chris headed back to the church to help Jeremy with another project.

The showers had major damage over the break from a pipe bursting and need to be redone.

Meaning, it was demo time.

We got most of the way through and hope to finish it up tomorrow!

From there we cleaned up, ate dinner, and had another great devotional discussion!

A few of us are staying up to welcome our final member of the team who gets in at 11:08pm. Good thing the airport is 5 mins away! Did anyone guess correctly?

We began the day by meeting with Jeremy and Kristy to get the rundown for the week.

They shared this really awesome video of the work that they do and two of the folks that we will be helping this week.

The crew split in two to tackle two homes for the day. Amy, Chris, and Sam went to finish up a home and it turned out to be the same one that Sam worked on in the summer!

Summer Day 1:

Summer Day 5:

Today:

(The ceiling and walls held, woo!)

The day consisted of finishing up a bathroom and reinstalling closets. It was Amy’s first time Caulking and it didn’t take long for her skills to surpass Chris and Sam.

We finished up the project in no time. By 1:00pm we were all done and ready to clean up.

We thought we’d have time to go and help the other group, until we realized that cleanup meant moving a trailer full of furniture back inside.

So we got started.

And kept going.

And kept going.

And hurt our backs.

And kept going.

Until it finally happened.

Since it was the end of our work day now, we headed back!

Group 2 consisted of Marshal, Tom, John, Bobby, and Jan (picture taker!)

They headed to a home and did not know what was in store.

They had to see how far the water damage had spread, so they got to work. They first had to clear the room and take up all the carpet.

Having accessed what was needed they got to work replacing the subfloor.

It was a good thing that Bobby was there becuase it needed reframing too!

They worked hard and made great progress!

They also found some really cool cars.

The work continues on their site, so they headed back for the day to be greeted by a lovely Chili dinner.

The evening ended with a great devotional about Less Busy, More Church! We found this video to be particularly thought prevoking:

Our team turned in early to rest up for day 2!

Our Mission team gathered early at the church to load up the cars! After being commissioned in worship, we set out on our trek down to New Bern, NC.

The crew needed only one stop, with one car choosing Cook Out and the other Cracker Barrel. We aren’t sponsored by either, but our DMs are open if anyone wants to cover lunch on the way back.

We arrived safely in New Bern! Chris’ car made it quite a bit earlier than Bobby’s, but he promises he wasn’t speeding.

(The previous message might give you a hint as to why)

After an incredible dinner made by Bethann, we settled in for the night and rested up for our first day of work!

We are still one member down, but they should be joining us soon.

Thank you for your prayers and support! Check out our blog tomorrow night to see how our first day of work goes.