We settled into the bunkhouse late that afternoon and were joined later by a contingent from a church in St. Petersburg, Florida. There were also several volunteers from other parts of the country. The women from these groups were housed in the church. After breakfast and regular daily devotions in the morning, we had an orientation and were then divided into work groups and assigned to a project supervisor.
.........Our team was supplemented with a man from New York state (Bill) and our supervisor (Dan) led us to the work site--a house under construction toward the east end of the city, in a neighborhood that had been totally destroyed by the storm. The house was being built for the Queen family, Franklin and Angela and their two children Franklin, Jr. and Jackson. They had ridden out the storm in the crawl space under their demolished home. Franklin visited us several times while we were there and "Nana" (Angela's grandmother), shown below with some of our crew, came every day to chat with us and bring us goodies.
.........Our projects for the week included completing the soffit under the eaves, beginning the installation of the siding and preparing the saferoom for pouring its concrete ceiling. A "saferoom" is a fairly recent regular inclusion in houses constructed in high-tornado regions. All of the homes built by Samaritan's Purse in Joplin include a saferoom, which is a concrete block room located near the center of the home.
.........A photo of the saferoom under construction in this home is shown on the right. The structure is fastened to the floor with re-bar and all the spaces in the blocks are filled with concrete. The room will provide space for a full bath, in addition to a washer, dryer and water heater. When finished, it will be fitted with a 200-lb. steel door. Our work on the saferoom included completing the framing--inside and outside--and preparing the ceiling to accommodate two yards (almost four tons) of concrete.
.........While the saferoom was being worked on inside, the soffit was completed and siding was added to the south wall. The photo below shows Mark and Dave laying out the siding pattern. And on the right can be seen the whole team celebrating the completion of that job.
.........The highlight of the week was on Friday when the other crew came over to help us pour the concrete ceiling on the saferoom. The only way to get the material up on top of the room was by hand, in buckets, passed from person to person. The redi-mix truck extended the concrete chute as far as possible into the back door and the bucket brigade took over. The three photos below show the process--from chute to ceiling. The couple doing the heavy lift at the end were the pastor from St. Petersburg and his wife.

.........The work week was supposed to end at 4 pm Saturday. However, Friday had taken the enthusiasm out of most of us--and those of us looking forward to a long drive (2-12 hour days for the people from St. Petersburg) opted to start home after devotions and cleaning the bunkhouse Saturday morning.
.........Short as it was, it was a good week and we continue to recommend Samaritan's Purse projects for anyone looking for an opportunity to participate in worthwhile missions in the U.S.