Newcastle mission trip serves flood victims
Newcastle First United Methodist Church recently took a group to Taylor on a mission trip and they have left a big impression on the church reps and the community that they traveled to serve.
The mission trip for FUMC-Newcastle was July 17-22. The trip accounted for two days of travel and four days of back-busting service. The trip was organized through UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and UMCOR’s reps were blown away with the hard work and drive that the Newcastle participants exhibited.
“During your future canvassing for volunteer teams, see if you’re able to find more Methodist Churches in farming communities. These farming families aren’t afraid of hard work. Also they just get “warmed up” at 100 degrees,” said John Brooks with UMCOR in an email about the Newcastle missionaries. “The ladies all work shoulder to shoulder with the guys. None of that sissy support stuff here. Since they get to sleep-in until 7 a.m., the day’s work is not complete until 8 p.m. (seriously, last Wednesday) I’m not tough enough to be a farmer. These two client families have been truly blessed to have had Newcastle’s Angels with hammers, take them under their wings. The world would be a much better place with more Newcastle love and Christian spirit. My very favorite team yet. May God bless each and every one of their members.”
Newcastle tries to go on a mission trip every year or so. UMCOR works to connect local churches with service opportunities wherever they may be. UMCOR has been working to provide relief in the Taylor/Round Rock area since Memorial Day 2015 to provide relief to the local citizens affected by last year’s flooding. UMCOR has stepped in to help those that were unable to get help for whatever reason, if they didn’t have insurance, claims were denied or just in general for people who had problems getting the necessary repairs done to their home.
UMCOR sent Newcastle to the Taylor area to help.
“Going into it we were told that we could probably get one roof done and we might be able to start a second, depending on how things go,” said Michael Cyr, Pastor of Newcastle First United Methodist.
The team was able to get two roofs done while in Taylor.
“We actually got done with two roofs. The first house we did was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. It didn’t have a huge pitch to the roof, but there was a lot of carpentry work that had to be done to make that roof able to stand,” Cyr said. “We ended up our first day down there, our team went through we had to remove a lot of decking, we had to brace up parts of the house to make sure the roof stayed standing. We were scheduled to be down there four days. The first day we were at one house and we got it finished a lot faster than they were expecting us to.”
The second house was smaller for the team, but the pitch of the roof was a lot steeper.
“The floor plan wasn’t quite as large on the second house, but it was a lot steeper. We took the other half of the roof off and re-decked that,” Cyr said. “We started shingling it, they swore up and down we wouldn’t be able to finish it, but we were able to knock it out.”
Determination and a strong work ethic propelled the team from Newcastle to exceed expectations.
“One of the reasons we were able to knock it out, we started every day with a devotional at 6:30 and then we would be on the job site by 7:30 a.m and we started working,” Cyr said. “Our first day at the second house we stayed working until 8 p.m that night. We put in a pretty long day and that’s with minimal breaks. We would break for lunch for an hour a day, but that being the only real break, a lunch break, our crew worked until 8 o’clock that night.”
13 people went on the mission trip with First United Methodist Newcastle. There were four girls that accompanied the guys on the trip. The trips are geared towards High Schoolers and young adults.
“The girls and the guys worked side by side on those roofs. It was amazing. Some of the girls were running nail guns and all kinds of stuff. Any time there is a mission trip “if you want to go this is when we are going” and people just kind of make plans to go,” Cyr said.
Cyr said that the group didn’t get to interact much with the homeowners that they were assisting, but they have been in contact with UMCOR and the trip was a large success. Cyr is astonished at the team’s effort and humbled by the experience.
“I just came to this church July 1. I am new to the area, but I am not new to the Methodist Church. I have to say that it was an honor to see these guys work,” he said. “I have never seen a more dedicated and hardworking group of people. They totally knocked it out of the park. I have to say I feel honored and a bit humbled to be here.”