Cleaning Up Ike

A week and a half ago John went down to Lake Jackson, TX with a bunch of volunteers from our Church to help clean up after Ike. It was a long day with the most labor John has done since he worked construction about 8 years ago. They left early in the morning, around 4. (John of course opted to stay up way late playing video games instead of going to bed early, but if I starting talking about his gaming habits this post could go way off topic). The trip was organized by our Church and the Red Cross. They all got to wear matching "Helping Hands" shirts for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Basically they spent all day cutting up trees and carrying them away. The red cross searched out families who were too old or too poor to do the labor themselves and gave a list to our group who broke into teams and went out looking for those people. Anyone that wanted help had to give their permission and sign a waiver. It was a really long and hard day for John and his body took quite some time to recoup, but one house made it particularly worth the effort. This guy they were helping kept asking them for their names and seemed to be writing them down. Then he kept asking for the Church's phone number and no one was sure if he meant the local building or what and finally he said he wanted the number of the Church's headquarters so he make sure they all got commendations. John was joking maybe it would mean he would start getting paid for his calling for maybe a discount on tithing or something. But of course it was all worth it without any earthy reward. Service is hard for the body, but good for the soul.