A Tornado warning

Hi everyone,

What a crazy week of weather. It started out very cold last week when we arrived, then it became very nice, it has been in the mid 70's. Overnight we were waken up by a very local hot thunderstorm. There were numerous local lightning strikes and heavy rain. We heard a tornado warning for our area posted just after the storm passed us. Yes, our boys stayed in their tents during the excitement.

We are aware of the crazy weather you have all had up north as well. I cannot remember Wisconsin ever having a winter tornado.

Our bathroom project has been going great. We wound up being hired to do the entire bathroom from top to bottom. We have the drywall nearly finished and the shower is built and partially tiled. It will be nearly complete by the weekend.

Brian has enjoyed his customers. They are thrilled at the progress and the overalll situation.
Olga has recently received a bid to replace the tub only for $17,000. The contractor wanted $7,000 downpayment. Fortunately she was smarter than to hire him. I doubt she would have ever seen him again. We are doing the whole room and using all quality products including porcelain tile and her total cost for materials plus labor will be 1/4 what his bid was.

This is yet another example of the situation here. The storm recovery affects the normal economy as there is a serious lack of competent and honest people available.

Brian was hired by a company from Phoenix AZ to replace a small countertop in the Gulfport Airport. They are an electrical contractor and are replacing radar equipment in the air traffic control tower. On Monday Brian was escorted by FAA security to measure the project. It was very neat to see. A couple of planes were landed while he was there. The installation will have to be done in the middle of the night while the airport is shut down.

So far Charlotte and the kids have pressed on hard with school and enjoying the playground at the church.

The church here is probably going to connect us to a lady who has been wronged by someone. We will offer her assistance. We do not know the details at this time.

Our camp is good. We are actually on river front property and have a lot of space.

Please keep in touch. We love hearing from each of you.

The Haines family

Getting Started

Hi everyone,

We worked yesterday setting up the camp. The Apostolic World Relief team needs all of the dorm space at this time so the kids are using tents. Unfortunately we brought winter with us this time. Last night there was near record cold in the area. Temps dipped to 24. There was a brisk north wind to go with it. Only Joshua and Samuel tented last night. Our new R.V. can accomodate all of us in a pinch. Temps will moderate ten degrees each night for the next 2 nights and will be very nice by the weekend. Highs will be near 70 by Sunday.

Brian had a interview for a bathroom remodel yesterday and was hired to start today. He gutted the bathroom completely and is ready to start rebuilding tomorrow. He is working for a lady in her 70's who has been caring for her mother a number of years. Her mom is now 98 and a wonder at how vibrant she is. Her total medication is one Bayer aspirin a day and on pill she has been on for about 20 years. I do not know what that pill is but is cost 5 dollars per month. It must not be anything too serious. Besides updating the bathroom, the main motive is to replace the tub with a large custom walk in shower. It will be 3x5 feet and will be all tile.

Brian has a interview with a large company on Monday to discuss replacing counters in the Airport control tower. Radar equipment is being upgraded and will need new counters.
They could not see me until Monday as FAA security has to escort us up there.

We will update more soon and will get you some pictures.

The Haines family

A safe arrival

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. We have arrived in Biloxi safe and 15 minutes ahead of our planned arrival. We had good road conditions other than a moderate wind. (And a few nasty rough spots)

We headed out early and kept steadily pushing forward. Traffic was light as it was New Years day. It is unusually cool here with the north wind. It is supposed to dip to 33 tonight.

We set up the basics and we will all sleep in the camper tonight. Brian has a couple of leads for work already. Thank you for your prayers.

The Haines family

Last day of winter (for us)

Hi everyone,

We had a great day of travel. We had some challenges. We had an unusual phonomena of freezing fog this morning. It left beautiful frost on the trees, but unfortunately we experienced some very slippery roads. In fact, near Wausau, Wi. this morning we saw 3 vehicles in the ditch in 2 miles. We also experienced a snowstorm in Illinois. We experienced strong wind gusts near St. Louis.


After driving through the St. Louis area, we drove completely out of the snow and below freezing weather.

We spent the night in Perriville MO. This was our planned rest stop. Most of us enjoyed the pool. We are on schedule and made the goal of 625 miles today. We plan to arrive at our destination by 6:00 P.M. tomorrow evening.

God bless each of you who takes the time to check on our blog.

In Christ

The Haines family

A nasty snowstorm

LET IT SNOW...

LET IT SNOW....

AND LET IT SNOW !!!

Hi everyone

As we write this blog this Sunday afternoon, we have received another 12 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. It has been accompanied by 30-40 mph winds. Our temps are low as well. Wind chill temps are below zero. It takes a lot to stop life in Central WI, but this storm has us paralyzed. The worst aspect of the situation is the blowing snow which caused total white out conditions. It is very dangerous to travel when it is this messy.

We did decide to cancel our Colby service today. I think it was a good idea.

We had an exciting week at work. Brian subcontracted to a large construction company to help frame up a 60 unit assisted living center 1.5 miles from our home. It is a panelized wood frame building. It is amazing what can be accomplished with a crew of approximately 10 guys, a couple of Pettibone lifts, a crane and a bunch of nail guns.

Brian took one of the boys each day, they hired us as a 2 man team. They assigned us to build interior rooms. We were able to build 20 interior units. Brian and Nicholas crawled trusses on Tuesday and tied the trusses together with 2x4 perlines. This work was about 30 feet in the air and we had frost and ice to deal with. On Friday, Brian and Nicholas were assigned to frame 2
interior rooms. After this was completed, they installed 36 large windows in 6 hours.

Joshua and Samuel helped frame rooms. Needless to say we were exhausted each evening.

Brian had the opportunity to meet the owner and general contractor. He also met the owner of the framing company. They have all been very nice and took a bit of time to visit in the midst of all the action. This center is a duplicate of one they opened in Wisconsin Rapids recently. He showed pictures and pointed out the advantages of his unit. The Center will be upscale and impresive. There are huge commons areas with high vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, even a baby grand piano will be included. We are excited that this facility will provide some jobs and a reason for some people to travel to our community.

We did have fair weather last week, but we will return to a serious mess tomorrow with the snow.

We have decided on the logistics of our return to Mississippi. We will travel New Years Eve day and arrive in Biloxi on New Years Day. We will stay at the camp that CCLA has set up. They have dedicated a portion of the facility to accomodate relief volunteers. They have a R.V. park set up right behind the church. It will work out real well for several reasons. We will partner with them and the things they are doing. The kids will be able to participate in many of the activities that go on there. The little ones will be able to play on a playground. They are also located near an on ramp to the freeway. The older kids will probably sleep in the dorms rather than tents.

One of the reasons we decided to go with this plan is that the large kitchen our family parnered with last year is shut down. This will give our family tons of opportunity to serve as Brian works.

Our Chrismas plans are simple. We will have our Christmas eve service on the 24th, we described the details in the last entry. We will get together with direct family and that is pretty much it.

In Christ

The Haines family

Sledding, Shoveling and Waterslides

Hi everyone,

Well, Brrrr pretty much sums up life in WI lately. We received a solid blanket of snow and it looks like it will be sticking around a bit. We have approximely 12 inches of snow. The kids have enjoyed playing in real snow. In fact, as we write this blog, Brian, Andrew, Ethan and Rosa just returned from our city sledding hill. It was fun. The kids also discovered that their backyard slide works well for a sled launch.

We did manage to finish the roof in Riplinger. We had to tarp the roof and shovel the snow 2 times. As we mentioned last time, Brian has had his fill of winter with the cold and the snow.

We pulled out the roof jacks and moved off this job on Monday.

The next couple of weeks will be spent helping frame up a 60 unit assisted living center in Colby only 1.5miles from our home. The framing contractor needed some more carpentry subcontractors. In addition to the weather being hard, their company had a couple of their guys hurt in a head on car crash. I suspect they may be a bit behind schedule.

Brian did another ceramic tile tub wall this week. Work included replacing the plumbing, replacing the drywall with cement board and the tile. It turned out very nice.

We set up our Christmas tree last weekend. We do not get over serious about decorating the house much other than the tree.

This past Friday evening our family decided to do a mini vacation and take our first visit to a nearby indoor water park. We spent the night and let the kids stay up very late and then we played hard all Saturday. We actually wore them all out and they were happy to return home.

Once again we had an exciting week at the Church. We had our highest attendance so far this morning with 96 in attendance. We did a music set of Christmas music and had a mini children's performance which was a teaser for our Christmas eve service. On Christmas Eve, we will meet at the Methodist Church for our service. It is at 2 P.M. and you are all invited. The Silva family, which is our new Hispanic pastor family are awesome. Their son Ricardo joined our worship band. He is a very skilled guitarist, bass player and keyboard player. He is a specific answer to prayer as he will be capable of facilitating the worship band in our absence. We had the Silva family join us today for a noon meal.

We have tentative plans to return to MS on New Years Eve day. We will take two days and make it to our destination on New Years day. We will probably do detail finishing for Joan, the last project we did in June. When I spoke to Joan, she was using her A/C as it was still warm.

We do not know what we will be doing but God does and we are trusting for all things to work out.

For those of you in MS, we look forward to seeing you.

In Christ

The Haines Family

Wanna shovel some snow?

Hi everyone,

 We had a productive week working on the Riplinger house. As of Friday we had all of the roofing removed, loaded in the dumpster and all plywood, felt paper and edging installed. We have roof jacks and 2x6 lumber installed.  All of the roofing is on the roof  jacks and about 30% of the roofing is installed. It was a 
brutally cold week with cold temps and 20-30 mph winds most days. The boys worked hard and
we are grateful to them.

We had a forecast for a winter storm on Sat. so we covered the roof with large tarps.  Thankfully we did this.

On Saturday we received our first significant winter storm with approx. 8 inches of snow followed up with some sleet and icing.

We spent some time digging out from the snow as did everyone else. We suspect the snow will stay as temps have been cold and the ground is frozen.

We had an awesome Sunday at church. We had two first time visitors at church including a young lady and her children. We have been praying and trusting God to reach her for over 1.5 years. We have been reaching into her life and helping her on a regular basis. Join us in praying for her, her children and her husband. They need our prayer and our help.

It is official that our church has now launched a hispanic ministry. We have added Pastor John Silva and his family on staff. They have moved to Colby this week. We are thrilled to see this happen as literally thousands of Mexicans have located here in recent years and the great majority of them are unchurched. They will be open to a hispanic pastor as they can relate to him.  We are also excited that their son is a capable worship leader and will be a great help in our absence this winter.

We just wanted to touch base, keep in touch.

The Haines family