Grand Adventure in Grand Bahama

What a whirlwind week! 

Jonathan, Sam, Carrie, Timmy and I were on I don't know how many airplanes, airports, vehicles, islands, and roofs on this Mission Helps trip!

Wednesday night found us overnighting in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

FEA Ministries provided our tickets and expenses from Florida on to the Bahamas, and this delightful hotel suite was a blessing.

Each room was a different flower, such as bouganvillae, but ours was Tulips!

Our family's room had two double beds and a single, with lovely quilts.

We had a good night's rest there, with comfortable mattresses and balmy weather. A breakfast of almost everything imaginable was an added bonus--watermelon, honeydew melon, juice and coffee, omelettes to order, sausages, cereals, milk--beside a pool of water. We filled up as full as we could, knowing lunch would almost certainly be very late since we didn't want to have to buy food at any airport where prices are outrageous!

Here are a couple scenes on the way back to the airport in the same taxi that brought us last night. 

FEA president Harold Martin had warned us that the taxi fare in Nassau could be as high as $150 one way, mind you, so we were very grateful that the first taxi driver who offered to take us, 

was willing to do it for just $52.

How does it feel to come out of your shell?

This was at the Nassau airport where there was a big mixup about at which gate our flight would be.

It was funny how we saw a couple and their dog on our flight into Nassau, and discovered that they were staying at the same hotel we were, and then we were flying together to Freeport as well!

He told us some about their experiences with hurricanes in the past, and how they come here from Ontario each year. He said that all the birds disappear before a hurricane and don't come back for sometimes two years. The same with butterflies, he said.

Bahamas Air is not a large airplane. We had good flights.

Upon arriving about one-thirty that afternoon at the church and apartment building we were to roof, we quickly unpacked so that we ladies could cook our first meal--taco salad. We had brought all the ingredients in our luggage. (We'd even brought cabbage--which got pulled aside in security!)

We decided to serve meals in our unit, comprised of one front room with a bedroom, bathroom, and narrow kitchen area.

Carrie was a big help in reorganizing furniture and stacks of water bottles so that we could have a semblance of order and have a place to serve our meals--on the top of the dresser you see below.

The bottom third of it was falling apart due to being in 10 inches of water a few months ago, and when we moved it, it nearly fell apart.

The refrigerator was a mess, so that was my job to clean it. 

And it hardly worked, either. It took about two days to get very cold.

 Then we found out that only the stove top worked; the oven did not.

We would have to borrow the use of a neighbor's oven any time we baked.
And while looking for pots and pans, I discovered flood water still filling the drawer under the oven!

We would have to use lots of ingenuity! 

Both Becky [Burcaw] Paulus and I brought along an electric skillet, both of which came in very, very handy.

*******

That first evening the men had already cleaned off a lot of the old roofing damaged by the hurricane.

The front of the church and apartments. 

 Samaritans Purse had provided lots of heavy-duty blue tarps to victims of the hurricane.

The next morning was cloudy, and we were so thankful. My sons and nephews started carrying bundles of roofing up.

They also helped tear down this gizmo off the roof of the connecting wall between the church and the apartment units.

Meals and devotions happened spread out between our front room and outside on the pocked limestone (?) veranda. 

 

Jonathan had a different team member lead devotions each morning after breakfast.

Sometimes the guys would have been working on the roof already before breakfast.

After breakfast, all hands were on deck--or roof!
Sam helps Nelson Wenger with the chalk line.

Tear-off.

The guys put together a makeshift ramp to haul roofing and air compressor up.

Toni Byer and Rex McDowell III haul that heavy compressor up.

Sam going somewhere fast.

Jonathan was the Fix-It man, supervising overall and figuring out what to do when things went wrong, such as when a part went missing from a roofing nailer. He found a piece of metal something in our apartment and superglued it in and made it work--until the lost piece was found a couple days later, and way too late, on the roof.

Sam and Jeff Paulus pulling nails with special nail-pulling tools FEA had sent over earlier.

Everyone found his niche.

My nephew David was a team with Stefan Paulus, putting up facia.

Becky Paulus and daughter Kaitlyn were in charge of Friday noon meal.

There were four of us working together on meals, and how is it that if there are four of you, there can be four different ideas on just about everything?

It was a lesson in patience and cooperation for all of us. 

Becky made a delightful Bahamian pasta and cheese dish along with BBQ pork sandwiches, and Carrie and I made the tossed salad.

I love silhouettes!

Jonathan directing...

and hauling roofing felt. He was thankful for all the younger guys who were happy to be on the roof, as it saved his ankles that are not so good anymore after falls in his younger years.

Carrie had thought to pack in a few games for the young people. Rex (still a boy at heart) and Kaitlyn played Dutch Blitz with the five cousins

Work continues.

These were some outstanding action shots on Saturday.

Timmy kept busy handing roofing pieces to Jeff Paulus, and Samuel handed to others, 

such as Tom Susan or Toni Byer.

That roofing went so fast!

The guys were highly motivated, thinking about getting that half of the church roof done in time to go to the ocean late that afternoon, and eat out that evening.

Cousins table one day.

More pictures coming.