Back in the 'Burg

We rolled into Jersey last Saturday playing Bruce Springsteen, and arrived back at the Newman House in Blacksburg yesterday evening blasting Enter Sandman. It's good to be back at Virginia Tech, but we will all miss New Jersey and the people we met during our spring break.

We wanted to officially thank the people who helped make this week possible - through their generosity, hospitality, and hard work, we were able to bring hope, comfort, and relief to a community that has been through so much in the past few months. First and foremost, thank you to the Lacey United Methodist Church community, who were so warm and welcoming this week. Thanks to Eric, Rob, Louise, and the rest of the kitchen crew who kept us nourished and energized throughout the week. To Bill Applegate, for his patience and encouragement, and for teaching us everything we know about drywall and flooring. To Mike, for sharing his music and stories with our group, and for tirelessly working alongside us every day. To Greg, for his encouragement and hospitality. To Peter, Dorothy, Bill, and Dominick, who shared their lives and homes with us and allowed us to be a part of their recovery process. To Steve from Portlight Strategies, whose guidance and support made the work at Peter's house possible. And to all of you who have supported the Newman Outreach Project through donations and prayers - THANK YOU.

On a personal note, I'd like to thank the fourteen other members of our group for their hard work, determination, and openness to new experiences and people. In our preparation process, we always stress the importance of not having expectations, but this group far exceeded anything I could have anticipated. Their commitment to each other and the community we served was inspiring, and I feel so blessed to have gotten to know them better this week.

This past week was full of new experiences for our group - everything from driving a twelve passenger van and not pumping our own gas to installing subflooring and drywall. I think it's safe to say that our group will not be the same as when we pulled out of Blacksburg last week! We may not have changed the world in seven days, but we hope we at least changed the lives of a few people - and are so grateful that we have also been changed.

Over the next few weeks, we will be debriefing and reflecting on how our experiences over spring break have affected where we are now. We, as well as the other NOP trips, will be compiling a video about our experiences, and we hope to post that here after our "screening" in a few weeks - so stay tuned for that and other photos and reflections!

In Him,
Kelsey Oesmann

It's Not the End, It's Just the Beginning!

As we prepared to disembark for our last day of work on this brisk morning, we all ran out to the front of the Lacey United Methodist Church to take a picture with their sign that they personalized for our group. It read “Welcome Virginia Tech Recovery Team, Lacey Thanks You“ and as we took the picture with some of the people we had been working with all week, we felt nothing but their warmth and hospitality. We all piled into our vehicles and left for our work sites; some of us to Bill’s home and others to Peter’s ready to start the day.

At Bill’s the group finished dry walling the initial room and began the front room. Bill’s diligence and hard work is inspiring to all of us; he is always working next to us and we feel so blessed to be able to work next to him. He is an incredible person and we feel honored to be able to help him out in this time of need.

The group at Peter’s home spent the morning installing drywall into the closets and enjoyed using the all-encompassing multitool. For lunch, the team from Bill’s house came over to Peter’s and ate on the floors we had just laid down yesterday. It was great to have everybody together again and laughter filled the air as we all shared stories. We finished up the drywall at Peter’s and prepared to leave. We went up to the house and told Peter we were headed out and he stated he wanted to see the work we had accomplished before we left. His reaction was priceless. He stated there were not enough words in the largest dictionary that could possibly describe the way that he felt. He looked around in awe and it was apparent that we had not only given him his house back, but that we had begun to give him back his home and sense of hope. He asked us to all write our names on the walls we had spent all day building so that he could pray for us after we left. It was an incredible feeling to be able to know that we were going to be a permanent fixture on this man’s wall and that we had made such a large impact on his life.



On the way back to the church, we stopped at a local store named A’s Hardware and bought “Restore the Shore” apparel. Part of the proceeds from the merchandise go towards rebuilding the shore and relief efforts for those who need it. We returned to the church and stole a few precious minutes of hardcore snuggling time. We went to the community room for dinner and laughter and a sense of community filled the air as we prepared to eat. After praying, we were all so excited that the cooks had made us pizza and that one of the pizza especially made by Eric had orange and red peppers in the shape of a VT. We are constantly blown away by LUMC’s hospitality and support; they never cease to reach out to us in every way possible. After finishing the dishes and playing a very impressive game of limbo in which our 6’ 2” future seminarian, Chris, blew everyone out of the water.

During our reflection we began by starting off describing the trip day by day. As soon as Mike, one of the community members who helped us the entire week, started talking, plans were altered. He shared his incredible testimony about his experience during hurricane Sandy and how it impacted him directly. He has such determination and perseverance that we were all amazed by his story. We are constantly inspired by those who were affected by the storm, but continue to work hard to help those who are also struggling. We discussed why we feel called to be here and how our experiences this week have transformed our hearts and spirits. We have all grown immensely in our spiritual journey and our personal relationships with each other and the community here. Afterwards, we all wrote individual affirmations to each other in which we encouraged each other for their strengths and for simply being present. It was incredible to think about the people in our group and how our individual strengths have given us such a complementary group dynamic. We are in awe of how God has worked through each one of us throughout this week!

With the vehicles filled to the brim with gas and ready to embark on our journey back to Blacksburg, we know that we will be leaving a piece of our hearts in Lacey, New Jersey, but also taking with us the blessings and prayers of a new family. We may not be ready to go back to class on Monday, but we are ready to use our renewed faith in action in our community back at Virginia Tech. In the words of Sandy Serio, “I don’t want to go to bed because I know that when we wake up we will have to leave”. We may not have painted the whole state of New Jersey Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange, but we have left our mark on Lacey and Lacey has left its permanent mark on all of us. 


Peace and love from Ashley Adkins, Kelsey Oesmann, Craig Gorsuch, and the rest of the NJ Team

Practice and Progress

Today we again split into two groups. One group went back to Peter’s once more, while the other returned to Bill’s. The group at Peter’s mainly focused on the construction of the rooms in the basement. We received numerous amounts of drywall and began the work of replacing the broken walls of the basement. This work consisted of measuring out the size of the walls, plotting and cutting the drywall, and drilling it into the studs. Under the guidance of Bill Applegate and Steve, the group was able to replace most of the walls in the rooms. While this work was going on, Mike finished the flooring of the room. Peter was in awe of the work that was done today!

The group at Bill’s was focused on the installation of drywall throughout his house, as well as tearing out damaged drywall that had still not been taken out. Drywall installation was finished in the furnace room and was started in other rooms of the house. The installation went smoothly overall, even with the occasional incorrect measurement or cut. Bill worked hard alongside the group, sweeping up whatever mess was created. Our team really appreciated his contribution!

The work was at times frustrating and tedious for both groups, but each member of the group worked hard to fulfill their objectives. After a long work day, the groups met up at St. Pius X in Lacey for adoration. Once there, each member of the group reflected and prayed in their own way in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and then left at his or her own time. We regrouped at dinner, and enjoyed a delicious meal of beef stew. Since it was Pi Day (3/14), pies and ice cream were brought and eaten. After dinner, the group reflected on the previous days’ events and prayed a rosary, making a peaceful end to a productive day. It is hard to believe that it is already Thursday, with only one day of service left in the trip, but everyone is still excited and determined to fully take advantage of our last service opportunity.

With love,

John Dever, Philip Palting and the rest of the ASB group!

We Have a Pope!

Today started out like any other day during this wonderful trip - the gift of seven days together has made the fourth morning rather predictable. Regardless, it was a delicious breakfast at a strikingly late time of 8:30 am - AN EXTRA THIRTY MINUTES OF SLEEP TIME. A surprisingly filling breakfast of french toast and sausages made for an energetic start to the day.

Ten of us were assigned to Deacon Peter’s house to continue restoration in his basement - day three of work in his property had us installing more insulation and plywood flooring to the main rooms that were flooded.  Additionally, roughly two closets needed to be completely demolished of its flooring and underlying insulation since both were saturated with four-month old water and mold. Needless to say, our group was ready and willing - we worked into the afternoon with the fuel of a delicious breakfast keeping our spirits high and our work-ethic even higher. Hammers, saws, nails, and brooms were our tools of choice - we wielded them with God’s grace and produced a room of respectable quality. All in all, Peter’s basement is finally coming together. Bill and Mike’s guidance was certainly a great gift to us because without it we would’ve been lost.

The remaining five of us went to Bill’s (not the Pastor’s husband) house. Bill is a member of Lacey. His house sits on the residential canal that leads into Barnegat Bay. During Sandy, over two feet of water flooded into his house. The inside of his house was a wreck after the storm. The bottom three feet of drywall and insulation in every room had to be removed. Most of that work had already been done before our group arrived. One room still had to have drywall removed. We also worked on hanging new drywall in his furnace room so a new furnace can be installed and heat can be turned on. Because the room has so many pipes and fixtures to work around, cutting and placing the drywall was slow work. We only hung five sheets up, but that completed all the intricate work. Tomorrow we should be able to complete the furnace room so he can have heat again.

For dinner, we were joined by the elementary youth of the Lacey UMC Community and closed the evening with a Taize prayer service in the sanctuary. Hard to believe Wednesday is already over and there are just two days left in New Jersey!

With love,
Joe Cuadrado, Darien Clark, and NJASB team!

Still Learning

This morning, we split back into our two groups to work at the homes of Peter and Dorothy again. The group that went back to Peter’s got to really see our work come to fruition today as we laid down the supports, insulation, and plywood for the new floor in the basement room! It was hard work and sometimes frustrating, but teamwork pulled through and we managed to get the larger of two rooms furnished with a floor. Peter didn’t get to hang out with us while we worked as much today, but most of us got the chance to meet his granddaughters as we came in. It was, overall, a very satisfying day!

The group that went back to Dorothy’s continued to put up drywall today. We were able to use our newly acquired (as of yesterday) skills to accomplish this on our own, since the pastor’s husband Bill was sharing his talents with the other group today. It was great to be able to work together to apply what we had learned to finish putting up the drywall in the kitchen and another room of the house. We were also able to chat with Dorothy and her parents for a bit, getting to know more about them and about what they did when the storm hit. They were very appreciative for the work that we had done and wished us all well as we left.

Later in the evening, we were given the opportunity to dine with members of the Lacey United Methodist Church community (stir fry – yum). We chatted with them and were able to learn a lot from them – their stories are truly inspiring and we continue to be amazed at the spirit that they have in the face of such tragedy. To round off the evening, we were graced with a guitar/singing performance by the one and only Mike!

Three days into the trip and we are ALIVE AWAKE ALERT ENTHUSIASTIC! ;)

Love, 

Sandy Serio, Emily Holmes, and the team of ASB NJ 2013 <3 

Giving and Receiving Blessings

Today we had the honor of splitting into two groups to work on different projects.  The first group went to Deacon Peter's home. The storm left four feet of water damage in his basement, which was partly used as a bedroom for his grandchildren. After the storm, the family did not have hot water or electricity for a month and a half. It took a while for aid to finally come, and the family went for four months before they got help.  Many memories were destroyed, like photo albums, books, pictures.  We gutted out his basement, fixed his fence, cleaned up and organized his property, and prepared sheet rock to hang tomorrow.  It was nice how Deacon Peter stayed with us throughout the whole project, talking with us and helping when he could, despite his physical limitations.  After six hours of work he gave us his blessing as we were leaving and clearly expressed how grateful he was: "God is doing amazing things through all of you."

The second group helped Dorothy Jones and her parents cut and put dry wall up through out her entire house.  After the storm, Dorothy's house had four inches of water in it, and most of the walls and floors were ruined.  Although Dorothy's parents were of old age they still made an effort to assist us.  Bill, the pastor's husband, came with us and helped a lot.  He taught us how to measure the sheet rock, cut it out, cut holes out for electrical sockets, and use the drill to screw it into the wall.  He was so patient and willing to teach us.  It was amazing how he trusted us to do the work on our own and was understanding when we couldn't perfect it.

After a long day we had the pleasure of sharing dinner with students from Kean University and
Montclair University.  We played Cranium Bible edition and then had small group discussions with them.  We really loved meeting new people and had some very meaningful conversations about our faith, our week of service, and our journey of faith as college students. It was a pleasure to have some of the people living and volunteering at Lacey United Methodist Church join us for our small group discussions.

As always, we concluded the evening with a recap of our day.  We talked about how we saw Christ in the people we have served.  We reflected on the trip and how it has impacted us so far.  This was our first full day of service and we are energized and looking forward to continuing being Christ to those we serve. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Peace,
Leah Keefe, Chris Masla, and the rest of the team

Planting an Investment in the Future

We started the day off right this morning with a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, oatmeal, and other great stuff (dessert too!). We went to mass at St. Pius X, across the street from where we’re staying, which involved a dash across the street, and we were impressed by how nice the inside of the church was. The priest talked in his homily about almost the exact things we had discussed in our reflection the night before about the gospel reading. Kind of freaky awesome, that we were in sync with him like that.

After mass, we changed and got right to work. All of the guys got moved out to a trailer outside to make room for a few families who are now enjoying the wonderful hospitality of our hosts while they have need.

Our task for the day was to go to Ortley Beach, where we spent the day doing something most people would find quite boring and monotonous, but not us!  We planted American beachgrass along a stretch of dunes which protected a number of houses and bungalows from the storm, and which we were now working to restore. We worked in teams to plant it, with some people using long pipes to make holes in the sand, and others planting the grass in the holes. We frequently traded places with each other as needed or wanted, and we had a great amount of fun doing it. Something about playing in the sand… There were other volunteers working with us, and we learned a great deal about dune ecology from Dominick, who has worked on the dune project for a number of years. We learned that what we were doing was an investment in the future, to help protect the homes along that beach from storms. If you want to learn more about the project, you can go to the Friends of Midway Beach Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MidwayBeach

After great amounts of fun on the beach, sadly we had to leave. We then moved on to take a tour of the Jersey shore boardwalk, the one shown on all the news channels after the storm, and we were able to see up close and personal the damage that had been caused, and some of the work being done to rebuild. We saw not just the roller coaster that was on the news, but the devastation around it. It is a symbol of what happened, but it is only a small part of it. It was almost surreal, walking along the boardwalk and seeing the empty shops and amusements. It felt almost wrong taking pictures, but we took some to remember what we saw, and to give you an idea of what it’s really like there.  The last picture in this post is the rebuilding of the boardwalk, showing that while much has been destroyed, much is being done to restore things to what they should be. One of the common things we have heard from those we are staying with and working with is that it seems that people elsewhere think that the problems here are mostly on the way to being fixed at this point, but in reality this is not always true.  Donations of time, effort, and resources are still needed to assist those who have lost their homes, or whose homes are unlivable, and to help those who are already here helping. And the work to restore this area is not even close to being complete.

After touring the boardwalk, we drove around the island and saw the damage caused by the storm, including houses completely destroyed or half toppled into holes, and others surrounded by mounds of sand, with water lines visible on most of them, showing just how high the water level got during the storm.

During dinner later tonight, a few of us had the opportunity to talk with the new families living here in the shelter, and were able to hear their stories, getting a personal insight into what the storm has wrought. On a positive note, after all this somberness, some of us have started playing Space Invaders and Qix on an arcade machine in the cafeteria of the Methodist church. We’re kind of trying going to beat Penn State’s high score from last week.

Our reflection tonight was on Mt. 6:25-34, about dependence on God. We talked about how it teaches us not to worry about the small things, like what to wear, and not to worry about the future, since we have enough to worry about for one day at a time.

We don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow, but we can’t wait to do it.

Peace from Sandra, Brandon, and the rest of the team.

WE HAVE ARRIVED SAFELY IN NEW JERSEY!!!

We woke up bright and early to arrive at the Newman House by 7:00! After having a full stomach of yummy donuts, we hit the road, ready for our adventure to begin! Taking a 12-passenger van and a Chevy Impala, it was a bit cozy, but we had a lot of good talks and grew very close both physically and emotionally.

We hit some traffic and had Papa Johns and Subway for lunch. After  9 and a half hours, we arrived to our destination. We were met with nothing but extreme kindness and hospitality from the permanent volunteers here at Lacey United Methodist Church. We got a full tour of the facility, got set in our rooms (sleeping on cots which are actually VERY comfy), and had a delicious dinner of baked ziti, peas, quesadillas, salad, bread, stew and pound cake!

We talked to the volunteers here who were serving the community since Hurricane Sandy.  It has been incredible hearing their stories about the devastation and destruction caused from the storm, but also we heard stories about all of the help and support they’ve received from people all over the country and through the community.  It really helped to start the trip hearing these stories and has really put our trip into a better perspective.

After dinner, we had some free time but ended our night with an amazing reflection on Luke 15:1-3, 14-32, The Prodigal Son Parable. After a long day, we are anxiously awaiting sleep and preparing for a day of service tomorrow that will start bright and early with a 7am wake up call!

We will post a blog tomorrow! Keep us in your prayers!

Love, Emily  Babski, Eric Guenther, and team