Some thoughts from the rails

As I finished up work last Friday. I pulled the extension cords into the warehouse, nailed the back door shut, and Duddy locked up the front. Climbing into the box truck that WDMO now owns I needed to let the diesel engine warm up, so I sat there a while as Duds started back towards the house.

As I was sinking into the driver seat of the truck I found myself staring across the road, across the tracks at this piece on a standing boxcar. I quickly remembered TJ and our excursion into the Bunge. 'He would love this,' I thought jumping down from the front of the truck and making my way across the now deserted road.

There were a few pieces up and I meandered down the rail lines snapping a few photos as I went. After taking this last one I turned to return to the now warm truck and was astonished at what I'd mindlessly missed. There behind me, tucked up under the overpass I had wandered beneath was someone's home.

Building in Gadgetland

So, this week I've been working at the warehouse that WDMO, nonprofit that funds some of our work, is moving into...as soon as it gets done. Most of this week has been by myself because the flu has taken out a Brian and John, and Thomas is at the functional WDMO helping sell windows, doors and more.

The biggest project this last week was the subflooring. We ripped up the carpet that had been covering much of the front of the warehouse and plan to put new vinyl down but the subfloor under the carpet didn't come up clean; leaving chunks of old vinyl tiling stuck to sections which made it really uneven. So we're putting in new subfloor over the old and this required a lot of cutting and custom fitting 4x8' sheets of plywood. As you can see I didn't do the best job on this piece.

I wasn't sure of the amount of error I could tolerate. Would this be alright as the mistake is in a corner and would not see a lot of traffic? Or is this still an issue and needs resolving? Well, the guys who know Brian or David, manager of WDMO, are both sick (there's a lot of us who've come down with the flu, so your prayers would much appreciated). So, I took a picture with my phone and sent it to the blog here. David was able to get on his computer back at home and make the call from there.

Problem solved. It turns out this is still a problem, but that all I needed to do was cut some scrap to fit the gaps.

The Work Begins

We set out on the road with a few bags to our names, no money but that which had been given to us, and the Lord as our guide. Brian drove most of the way and we switched drivers a few times. Duddy sat shotgun and Gapp and I were in the bak seat. We drove through Indianapolis, Evansville, a portion of Tennesse and Kentucky and finally into Louisiana, headed for Shreveport.

It's the four of us now, we had discerned at the beginning of this last Fall semester that God is calling us to live the life of missionaries on the road, going from town to town "bringing Good News to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the time of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4.18-19).

This looks like locating and securing 200 new places to move into and live with folks. Begin communities that don't just talk about giving to the poor and feeding the hungry but DO it. But this is bigger than the four of us this involves thousands of folks all over the country, many of whom were at the missionary conference I mentioned earlier. Allendale, a neighborhood in Shreveport, is only our first.

This is 1426, where I'm living in Allendale with Brian, Tom, and John. It looks nice but the houses behind us are literally tipping over. Over 1/3 of the property in Allendale is abandoned. Packs of dogs make off with our stuff at night and folks suffer from terrible poverty, but in spite of this the people and scenery are beautiful. It's really hilly and has poor drainage, which is why all the poor folks live here. The light just does something incredible down here and its usually sunny out. Everyone has front porches and the missionaries down here have been here for nearly 5 years. Everyone is Baptist or Methodist, but few receive much help from the churches (either due to their own poverty or the churches plans to gentrify the neighborhood).

We own 9 lots currently and are about to acquire and 14. Most of the houses are in this 'shotgun' motif; meaning you could fire a shotgun through the house from back to the front with both doors open...why you need to do this is as of yet beyond me. But last summer Action Division, highschool group in the People of Praise, built our 6th house, which is being termed the living room of the neighborhood. We have structured our houses to share facilities, so as to share more life. One house has the main kitchen and dinning room, another the main living room and so on. This one is being built for the whole neighborhood.

Right now I am working for Windows, Doors and More Outlet (WDMO), a non-profit firsts and seconds milling products company that funds our building projects and community projects. A friend David Zimmel but we will be adding another location by the end of January (if we can get the place ready by then). That's been my job along with John and Duddy (Tom). We've been dry-walling, and taping and we still need to finish wiring the place (which is being headed by an electrcian in the Shreveport branch of the POP). Then we'll paint it and start moving windows, doors and more in.