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Thursday, July 13, 2017


Finished in Fairfield


We asked if we were still needed in Fairfield and told "yes."  So on Wednesday morning, July 12, at 8:15 am, an 11-man Cutters for Christ team (Alan Weeks, Bob Nabors, Bob Thompson, Boyd Martin, David Moser, Henry Averyt, John Calhoun, John Fillebaum, Pink Folmar, Tim Smith and Wes Savage) and Asbury UMC's skid steer "Abel" convened at our Fairfield staging site (the Flintridge Shopping Center parking lot) ready to deploy to the addresses that the city had pre-qualified and for which they had received signed Right of Entry authorization forms from the property owners occupying the properties still in need.  Perhaps we should have known this deployment would be a bit different when there was no one at the Wright Center (where the job assignments are distributed) when this writer arrived just before 8 am to pick up our assignments, nor did the person who was going to give us our assignments arrive until 8:45 am.  (Admittedly and respectfully, she had had her own set of problems this morning that kept her from arriving until that time.)

I was given a list of 55 jobs and was told all had ROEs on file, but no one was able to tell me which of the jobs might be clustered together so we could break up and work two teams closely enough together so Abel could run between the two teams moving cut-up debris.  John Calhoun and I took the list and began locating addresses that were at least listed as being on the same streets while the rest of the team moved on to the corner of Court G and 56th Street - where we had worked last week just east of Miles College - and prepared to deploy to the addresses which John and I would identify as needing our help.

An hour later we returned to the team - which now had been waiting around for assignments for almost 2 hours! - and told them that we had scoped out 16 addresses and determined that 15 of them had already been completed!  The one that remained was a small job on a corner that maybe would take two cutters less than 30 minutes to complete.

David, Henry and Tim volunteered to head to that address and complete the work.  With no other work that we could find for ourselves, the rest of the team headed home while Boyd, John and I went to the Wright Center to report our findings to the administrative folks there and to state that based upon all the addresses we scoped out having already been completed, we did not foresee our teams returning to Fairfield after completing the one job our team was undertaking at the corner of 66th Street and Myron Massey Boulevard.

Before departing ourselves we were told in a telephone conversation at the Wright Center by a city public works official that there was still a desperate need for tree cutting debris removal in the alleys behind Court F, so the three of us went back to Court F only to find that both of the alleys - the one to the east and the one to the west behind Court F - were clear and passable throughout their entire lengths!

We reported that to the staff at the Wright Center and with that Boyd headed home.  John and I thought we'd drive past the Myron Massey assignment just to see how the team had fared there and we were quite surprised to find them still working there one hour after they started!  As it turned out this property was actually 3 lots side-by-side, owned by the same property owner, and trees were down on all three of her lots, not just the one that could be seen from the street when we made our drive-by assessment!

So John and I stopped to help pull the debris that resulted from the trees they had cut and stayed with them until the job was finished.

The crew that handled the one job we actually completed today consisted of (l. to r.):
John Calhoun, Henry Averyt, Tim Smith and David Moser.
(Other than pulling a few limbs, my job at this site was simply taking this picture!)

As we usually try to share with our readers, here are a few before and after photos of the work on this property which, as previously reported, was more than we originally anticipated.

Before:

After:


Before:

After:


Before:

After:


While we were disappointed that we were only able to serve one property owner today, especially when we had anticipated working for so many others and a first-time participant (Pink) and second time participants (John F. and Wes) enthusiastically came out to work with us today, we know that at least that one property owner will smile when she returns from work tonight.  And although she may not know that a Cutters for Christ team stopped by to assist her, perhaps the Holy Spirit will fill her with peace and thanksgiving and she will praise the name of Jesus when she sees what was accomplished for her today.

Because we were so close to one of the most famous barbecue restaurants in Alabama four of us decided to stop for lunch - it was just noontime when we finished up our work - at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q before we returned to our homes.  Yum - as always!


Unfortunately everyone dispersed - both from Fairfield and from Bessemer - before we could partake of team member Nancy Miller's notoriously famous and delicious chocolate brownies which she had specifically baked and then sent with me for the team's lunchtime dessert.  We'll freeze them and then take them with us on our next deployment, wherever and whenever that will be.  We know there definitely will be a next time, sometime.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers and your continuing support of our mission activities.  And thanks for keeping up with us through these workday reports!

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http://cuttersforchrist.blogspot.com/.


In His Service,

Bob


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