By Stan Wilhelmson

The flooding last August from Hurricanes Irene and Lee significantly damaged over 1,000 homes in the Bloomsburg, PA area.  This is prompted 10 members from Advent to spend the week as volunteers for Lutheran Disaster Response with Agape Love From Above in Bloomsburg. The mission: to help two families whose homes were water-soaked — floodwater up to their doorknobs — and in need of repairs from the ground up!

The first family, the Olsens, a family of six, was living in a leased apartment and spending their evenings and nights repairing their house. The home had been completely gutted and the family was in the process of installing insulation, hanging dry wall, tiling floors and installing new appliances. However, the lease was up on Sunday, January 15 — one week to the day from when Advent arrived on the scene. The pressure was on!

The second family, the Stiens, are currently living with their son and daughter-in-law and have progressed nicely with many of the renovation initiatives, but weren’t able to get doors replaced and some tricky drywall installation completed.

By the end of the week, the Olsen house had all the insulation and drywall installed, four doors hung, the bathroom floor tiled (so a toilet can be installed), and subflooring laid in the two bedrooms. Although the renovations were not fully complete when Advent was leaving, they were in good hands. Family and friends were arriving to install the rest of the subflooring, flooring, cabinets, sinks, and move in the Olsen family by Sunday.

Advent was able to help the Stiens with drywall, hung three doors and replaced the door and flooring going into the garage. The family was busy painting while we were working, and are getting closer to moving back in.

We all wished that we could have done more to help these families, but the families were very appreciative of the Advent-10 crew.  But we received more than we gave by being God's hands for the week.

Advent would like to offer a special thanks to the Community of Christ Church in Bloomsburg, which housed the Advent-10 for the entire week.