Tuesday: The Work Continues

I want to talk about some of my own feeling about the person we met yesterday. Her name is Miss Julienne and she is the owner of the house we are working on. She is a really nice person, she is willing to help others even though her own house needs a lot of work. As she was telling us her story about her house she was emotional with tears. I truly understand why God gave us this opportunity to help people in need. As she spends her money and time on others it encourages us to do the same. We are here to support her. We come for Wisconsin and we don’t really have any needs. Therefore we are capable to provide things that other people need. Which makes me feel really good.

Today is a hard day. Our group had a lot of problems. We were dry-walling the ceiling. However, we were not able to cut the drywall into the shape that we wanted, also they break so easy. Therefore we struggled really hard. For awhile it felt like we weren’t getting anywhere. I feel really bad for miss measuring the drywall for the ceiling today. Especially that I am going to study industry design. However after we break a few pieces of drywall, we are able to finish that part. However, after today we learn a lot, also we need to learn the mistakes that we make and never make them again. Hopefully we can provide more help to Ms. Julienne. Also bring the good news to Rockport as we stay here and help.

~ Jason Liang


Day 2 of the mission trip was another great day full of good times and fun people. We started the day off with breakfast and then hopped into our scheduled work session. The work session included installing dry wall and insulation. Caleb, Joe, Matt, Shawn, Jason, Emily (TeamEffort) and I were working on installing dry wall in the ceiling and it turns out that we aren’t the greatest at measurements as we found out 4 boards later when we finally got it right... after work we took a trip down to the ocean to swim for a little while until dinner. It was fish, not good fish, but fish. Needless to say Mc Donald’s was the first place we went after our fish dinner. After that we went to Sonics for some shakes and Mr. Hendrikse had the bright idea of feeding the Seagulls. Soon after there was a swarm of them and when people tried returning to the van, Mr Hendrikse threw French fries at our feet and then the birds attacked... luckily they went for the fries and not us. But over all it’s something that I probably won’t forget. We got back for our message which was about thirst. We all thirst for different things and me and a lot of others thirst for the approval and appreciation and love of others. It’s crazy how much I will see my self changing to impress my friends compared to family compared to others. Like C’drick (a leader on the trip) said, it’s like wearing masks and changing identities. Instead of always trying to impress others we need to focus on glorifying God and doing what he would want us to do instead of what others want us to do. I look forward to a memorable rest of the week!

~ Luke Van Ess


So day three of the mission trip! Funny things have happened so far and wonderful things too, not just in Rockport though. So, first, congratulations to Jenny Wieskamp, my cousin and friend, in getting engaged!!! Wooo!!!! Sad I can’t say it to your face though. And also, very happy I had my first airplane ride and airport experience on Sunday, which was very cool. Anyway, today we were working on drywall and insulation again and the boys had a couple snags with the ceiling drywall, thankfully they could salvage the pieces. We also figured out that we are working too fast and hard, there are two more team effort groups who are supposed to be working on the same house and we need to be able to let them get something done as well. So we stopped at 2:15, after we got back to the church, some of us went to the ocean, and we went pretty far out because it took a bit to get to chest level water. We also had a contest on who could go the farthest out and I think Jason won, during which contest I inhaled some water and was still coughing it out when we finally got to ankle level water. We left just as some others from our group came to sit on the beach. We also went to McDonalds because some of us didn’t especially care for the food because it was fish and stuff. It was an interesting trip because a part of our group went and got shakes at a nearby restaurant thing and someone thought it was a good idea to feed some of the birds their French fries and when the people who got shakes got back to the car, the birds were trying to attack them or something so everyone was running to the car and trying to shoo the birds out of their way. It was hilarious. Anyway, we had a fun and frustrating day today, we are all so happy to be able to help out the people in Rockport. Have a good week everyone.

~ Rebecca Wieskamp

These guys are everywhere!

Refreshing after a long, hot and humid day of work:)

Slightly warmer than Lake Michigan

Added these last two pics on Wednesday morning when I posted this (Tuesday's ) entry.  It rained and rained this morning.