Northern California has been overwhelmed by the loss from multiple devastating fires over the past three years. Our California-Pacific volunteers have been responding to a call for teams from the California-Nevada Conference. 

Last November, representatives from Camarillo, Glendale, Anaheim and Nampa (Idaho) UMC’s took a trip to Middletown, CA, to work with Hope City, a ministry committed to help rebuilding homes.

The following Disaster Response Task Force trip report was written by Marian Brock, UMVIM at Hope City Team Leader:

“Hope City is a wonderful group to partner with. They have everything prepared for teams coming to work. They are very accommodating and helpful. For our small team, it was well worth paying to have Hope City cook for us. It took away the stress of dealing with that as a team leader. We were able to concentrate on being at the work site as much as possible.

While we were there, there was an AmeriCorp team there as well. We had some of them with us at the work site. Our team incorporated them into the work and taught them some skills they did not have. It was nice to hear directly from the AmeriCorp team that they appreciate being included and was really able to help and learn. If you get a chance to teach the next generation skills like this, do it. They want a chance to learn just as much as you want a chance to teach.

One of the homes we worked on, the homeowner was there working with us. He was very particular about how things needed to be done and it took us a little while to gain his trust. But with a lot of listening and a lot of explaining how we were going to do the work (while getting his input), he slowly grew to trust us. After a couple of days, he left us to do the work and he went off to do other projects. The biggest project and one I am proud we were able to complete on this job was the siding and windows. We spent a full day undoing and re-doing some siding that was done incorrectly. But once we got going, we were able to complete the siding on the house so it was sealed for the winter and they could work inside. It just shows you that if you take the time to listen to the homeowner and not just do what you think is right; the best possible job is completed.”

There are plans to send more teams in 2020.

To learn more about the Task Force, visit calpacumc.org/disasterresponse/.