I’m tired today, but not nearly as tired as the fourteen people Karl and I took to the airport this morning at six AM to catch a flight home. That dozen-plus-two worked hard this week, and they leave behind some real progress in the hurricane recovery and restoration for Frederiksted Baptist Church and the home and hearts of two Coulsons. Let me explain: In many ways, Karl and I call two places home – St Croix and Wyoming, and because of this we consider ourselves members of two congregations. Our Wyoming church home is Golden Prairie Baptist Church near Burns, Wyoming, and of course, our church home here on island is FBC. Well, the coolest thing happened this week – the two church families have joined – at least partially for a little while. Usually for spring break a group from GP go on a mission trip. In recent years they’ve gone to help at an orphanage in Guatemala. This year, they decided instead to come here, with the intent of helping restore the Sunday School building since Maria ripped the roof off that building.
And, help they did. This group is the third and last group of people who traveled here to help us. The first group came from Florida and they got the roof put back on. The second group was from New England, and they restored the building’s inside, detailing the roof and putting a coat of paint on the inside. The GP group then came in to do the finishing. In four days, the group comprised of hearty, beautiful souls painted the entire exterior of the church and Sunday School building, they painted two bathrooms and the pastor’s office, and they did a little decorating inside. They also did some carpentry work, pressure washing, and painting at a facility our church operates as a men’s home. AND, two of the guys still had time to come to our house and install our new front door – a job Karl was dreading to do after he finishes installing our new roof. Add to that the fact that they brought all their supplies with them along with a plethora of Sunday School supplies to get us re-started with, and you can get a glimpse of why they are tired.
Painting the outside of the Sunday School building
After services on Sunday, the ladies at FBC put on an amazing lunch for everyone, just to celebrate!
All fourteen GP peeps plus their FBC hosts took time to relax and check out Point Udall.
Remember, February began with two dear men, Cade and Greg, coming to help Karl start on our roof, when Cade left a week later, the roof was well on its way. Then, Liz, Greg’s wife and one of the most amazing women I’ve ever known came to relax with us and remind us how much we are loved and why we live here. After that, my bonus daughter and her new hubby arrived to bring us joy and blessings. Four days after they left, our GP friends arrived. That’s a total of nineteen people. Nineteen people in the last two months who weren’t satisfied with phone calls or prayers or good wishes or cards or anything short of themselves to share our journey through recovering from Maria.
So. Today I’m cleaning and doing laundry. Karl and Morgan (another blessing of a huge sort who happens to live nearby and works really hard!) are working their way across the second side of the roof adding a new steel skin. Despite the loud music and the sound of power tools, the house is quiet. Gone are the faces and hugs of those who were here. Make no mistake, though, their love remains. It will be a long time before that runs out.
