The Mission trip to Mississippi March 21-27 went very well.  It is still hard to see the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused and how many lives that it effected.  When we arrived at our building site, the house was on stilts 10 feet in the air and was basically roughed in.  We did many things, built 2 - 50 foot beams, 2 - 20 foot beams, painted countless pieces of decking, wrapped the house in Tyvek, straightened out an 1 1/2 inch error on the support stilts (not an easy task) got the support system ready to install the decking, we built and moved scaffolding regularly.  It was physically demanding and our team rose to the occasion.

The team consisting of our leader, Bill Barrett, Carolyn and Paul Hesterberg, Larry and Sue Atneosen, Tammy and Jim Mohn, Bella Hanson, Mark Pearson, Char House, Arianna Hesterberg, Pastor William Siong, Koua Fong Lee, and Kyle Hagen worked very well together.   Each person contributed in many ways and we are so grateful that they were willing to give of their time and energy for this project.   We also wish to thank the Congregation of Grace, the Endowment Committee and several individuals who contributed to help to offset the costs of this trip to the participants.  In addition to gifts in various amounts to the team members, we purchased shared supplies such as gloves, general first aid supplies, as well as snacks and energy bars for our breaks on the worksite.  Any of the supplies that could be used by Habitat were donated to them following our build.

It is good to be back home in Minnesota despite the 40 degree temperature difference.