Hope’s trip to Houston is one we will never forget. On January 22nd, nine people from Hope (Pastor Larry, Mike Yeager, Dave Stoessel, Tammy Davidson, Kevin Kimble, Greg Roman, Roger Dahl, Aaron Bundschuh, Brian Bundschuh) embarked on a trip to Houston to aid in the disaster recovery effort left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Our group was assigned to an area in Katy, Texas (a suburb of Houston) that was not even in a flood zone, but was submerged when the decision was made to purposely overflow a nearby reservoir and “flood a thousand to save ten thousand”.
660 houses were flooded in the area we served, none of which had flood insurance, and to date, only 50 houses have been completed. Our homeowner, Sara, lost her husband to a long illness in December and is currently living offsite with her mother and daughter. FEMA is helping in some small ways, but for the most part, she is on her own to deal with this disaster. After 5 months, it has become a quiet suffering for homeowners as houses look intact from the outside, but remain uninhabitable shells on the inside. When we walked into Sara’s house for the first time, we quickly realized that everything below about 3 feet was destroyed. In the previous 5 months, the house had been “mucked out” and remediated for mold, and the rebuilding process had started, with much of the sheetrock reinstalled, but it didn’t appear that much had been done recently. Our mission was foremost to share God’s love with her through what we said and did. We worked on installing drywall, taping, mudding, and probably most memorable for Sara, building a small area under the stairs for her dog Bella to sleep. As a group, we grew closer to each other, to Sara, and to the Lord as we followed His direction. It was a special blessing for me to not only serve with the team but alongside my son, Aaron. We all laughed and cried together along the way, but in the end, if we left a ray of Hope for Sara, our trip was a success. I know none of us will forget it.
In His service,
Brian Bundschuh
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