John and his mission trip to New Jersey.

Well we had one last major trip planned for the summer.  We were planning to go to New Jersey and help out after Hurricane Sandy.  Karen said she had to stay back and prep for the courses this fall so I went with 5 other people from my church to help out in the rebuilding.One thing we did notice soon after we arrived was the massive amount of destruction as well as what is still left to clean up.  Here is one picture I took out of the car on the way to the job site.

 

We arrived at the command center.  It was located in a church/school.  The group organizing it was the Baptist Men of North Carolina.  They had a vast amount of resources right on site - everything from trailers full of tools to bunk houses to one trailer that was full of washers and dryers so people could get their laundry done.

Our group was assigned a lot of little jobs at one families home.  Here is me taking some measurements.  Our moto was measure once and cut twice, or I think that's what it was.

We got a lot of work but it was not all work. We did have some time to relax.  One day we went down to the beach.

That's me in the water!

We also had time in the evenings to relax.  It was good to relax after a day of work.

It was great to help out and meet a lot of people - those helping out and those who need help.  It was a great experience!  There is still a lot of destruction that needs to be cleaned up but a lot has been done.  The last day I took a picture of this banner that I think summed up the thinking of the people of the area.