We made it to Sarasota with very little fanfare, which is rare for us and we’re extremely thankful to The Lord and for your prayers! We’ve been here for a little over 2 weeks and have been keeping busy!
Steve, a repeat offender with us over the years, and one of his pastors from WCC in Wilkinson, IN, Matt, drove from Indiana to Georgia to help us pack and load things up. They arrived Tuesday evening and we got some stuff loaded from Nick’s and then we finished up on Wednesday morning. I got a call to come and look at an electrical issue at one of the homes we had helped in GA, so Matt and I took care of that. By about 1:30 we headed out. Matt drove the V10 and tool trailer, I drove the diesel and bunkhouse, Mary Jo drove her van, and Steve drove his truck to Sarasota.
We arrived late and Jim met us at church to get our stuff secured. The guys took off to stay at Hamilton and Melissa’s and we headed to stay with Jim and Kelly. It was a church dinner night, so they had dinner all boxed up for us. We ate and crashed!
We got busy Thursday morning starting to set up Camp Calvary. We figured out with Jim how we would house folks and Matt and Steve also built an outdoor shower! Hamilton, who’s been a great consistent help since we’ve been here, was helping me with various tasks. We got our bunkhouse all set up. We’ll be setting up a permanent RV site here which will involve moving a fence and a concrete pad, but that’s down the road! For now, we’re outside the fence with water and electricity and we’re using the bathrooms next door!
By Friday afternoon we were finished and went to Philippi Creek Oyster Bar which had recently reopened from Helene! The guys headed home Saturday morning and Matt is bringing a team to help us next week!! They were a huge blessing!
Saturday, we headed to Faith Community Christian Fellowship, a CC in Osprey. We’ve been friends with Pastor Chris and his wife Kristan ever since I can remember, and they’ve been great ministry partners over the years. They rent a space in an old strip shopping center. Part of the roof was torn off during Helene, but their space was OK. But then Milton finished it off and their church was pretty much destroyed. Almost everything inside had to be thrown out and we needed to remove all the drop ceiling, walls to the 4’ level, trim, some doors, all the flooring, etc. We had over 20 people show up to help. Some from CCSRQ, some friends of ours, several from FCCF and Todd Stoltzfus with Cross Carpet Cleaning who’s been instrumental for us over the years in learning and doing proper and professional mold/flood mitigation! We were able to get it about 90% complete. Since the roof is still leaking, drying and remediation spraying would be a waste of time.
Their lease requires them to mitigate all damages to their property and the church built out the entire inside when they leased it so that’s what we did. Unfortunately, the lease also states that the landlord has months to resolve any issues and while they don’t have to pay rent, they can’t get out of their lease.
A couple who attends FCCF live across the street from First Baptist of Nokomis. They approached the pastor to see if it would be possible to use their building to hold church at a different time than when he was and he agreed. Turns out he’s retiring at the end of the year and so far, no future pastor. Praying that this may be a place where God moves them. No matter what The Lord is doing, please pray that He will open and close doors that will be evident to them and provide a place for them to meet on a regular basis without restrictions. We were blessed to worship with them on their first Sunday there.
Sunday, we attended our home church in SRQ, and it was great to be there again. We got to have lunch with 2 couples, one of which we were able to help his mom after Ian. Her home flooded and we were able to send volunteers to mitigate it while she decided what to do next. She ended up selling it and moved into a home that a lady from our church , Lou Ann, owns. Lou Ann is a missionary in Turkey so rents her home to 2 ladies from our church to help cover her expenses. Their yard has some damage that we’ll be taking care of soon.
Dave and Gloria Miller, a couple in their 80’s, who’ve attended CCSRQ about as long as me, lost their mobile home roof. They just had it redone after Ian. Their insurance canceled them earlier this year and they couldn’t find anyone else who would insure them. We’re helping them get things cleaned up, caulked, and tarped while they wait on a new roof.
Meanwhile, we’ve been helping his brother-in-law and another neighbor who share the same electric service mast and weatherhead. The storm blew the pole loose and the who knows how old, wires inside were striped bare at the weatherhead. FPL cut the wires until they are repaired. One electric company quoted them $4500, and my guess is because almost all the existing boxes, breakers, etc., plus the service mast and weatherhead needed to be replaced. On top of that, they didn’t know when they could get to doing it, and from what I found out, everyone is out of inventory on a lot of the parts! It’s been quite a process between finding parts, finding more damaged things that need replaced, etc.
We finally finished the repairs on Wednesday and are excited to share that at 11 PM Thursday it was deemed ready to power up and they now have electricity in their homes. Final cost, just under $1,100!! Praise The Lord!
Thursday, we caught up on some assessments and helped an elderly man tarp, tape, and caulk off part of his mobile home so he could keep the inside from getting damaged until he figures out what he can do next.
Friday, we had some maintenance to do on a few things around camp and then headed to Nokomis to help a widow lady remove all of her storm shutters. Had a few other loose ends to tie up and finished out the day.
Last Friday I met Aaron while at Lowe’s looking for electrical supplies. He had about $1000 worth of different “mold” sprays. I asked him what he was doing, and he explained he had 8” of flood water in his home from Debby almost 3 months ago and he thought he was ready to spray. I offered to either help him spray or give him the correct chemicals to do it himself. He said he’d do it but would take the chemicals.
He was supposed to bring the extra back, and I found out yesterday that he was still working on it. I offered again to spray it for him, this time he accepted. I then found out that a “mold” expert has offered a “discounted” rate to all the homes in his neighborhood to inspect for mold in their homes. I explained to him what a professional mold/flood remediator does and that he didn’t need to hire anyone to “inspect” if his home was treated properly. I’m headed over to his home this morning to inspect it for proper cleaning and drying and will advise what he needs to do. Hopefully I can get him some help this week and then get it sprayed for him next Saturday. This was a neighborhood that was flooded pretty bad when Debby hit, so we may end up helping other folks there as well.
As I mentioned above, Matt from Indiana is bringing in a team of 5 to serve alongside us this week. They are currently on the road. We have 2 others coming in to help a couple of days as well as Bill is still here from NJ and of course Hamilton will continue to serve with us. Please pray for their travel, but most importantly, pray for Unity in The Spirit for all of us this week. If we’re all unified in Christ in our minds, then He will work out the rest!
Requests to help are slowly coming in, and we also have one home we’d like to help with on Anna Maria, but it’s a 2 hour round trip drive so pray about that and for other doors to open as we show folks that The Lord loves them and has sent us to help them right when they needed it! No coincidences, just Godincedences!
Pray as we drop pebbles in shoes that folks would continually think about God’s love for them and that they would come to a saving knowledge of Him if they don’t know Jesus, and if they do, that they would grow in their relationship with Him.
This is why we Christians exist!
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven.- Matthew 5:16 AMP
If you’re interested in growing in The LORD as you selflessly serve others alongside of Calvary Relief, please let us know! For more info on joining us, click here. Plenty of things to do!
If you feel led to help with any of the expenses with Calvary Relief, please click here.
If there’s ever anything you need prayer about or just need to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us and let us know!
Here to serve and disciple until He calls us home,
Curt & Mary Jo
