Bill's BonaResponds Reflection Letter

What a great and heartfelt letter. In this letter you see why all of the volunteers liked him so much!

Bill's BonaResponds Reflection Letter:

"....Could I help, how can I help, will I fit in with these 20 year old students, will they accept a 65 year old as part of the team? As you read on the answers to those questions were a resounding YES!! So off I went by myself wondering what this experience had in store for me. I packed everything I thought I would need to survive five days in a disaster area, clothes, sleeping bag, air mattress, eating utensils, water filter and some tools. We were to be working with the Church of Christ – Disaster Relief Team out of Florida who had been on site with six permanent members since the day after hurricane Ike hit in September 2008. They had a totally self sufficient compound set up in the Bridge City Community Center with sleeping bags, air mattresses, showers, hot meals, all the tools and people from the Church Of Christ to cook and make sure all of our needs were met. As it turned out all we needed were our toiletries and our clothes, everything else was provided.

Since I arrived two days into the project in the middle of the afternoon, I signed in and was directed to one of the Bona Responds job sites. I was given a warm welcome by everyone on the team which I would later find out was the “Loosers” team but we were proud of it. You see the other half of the group decided to call themselves the “Cool” team even though there was always some doubt about the validity of their name. Everyone was very glad to have me there and put me right to work ripping up the hard wood floors of our house. Let me tell you these kids were hard workers, there were no slackers in this group. There were actually more girls than guys and they gave the guys a run for being the toughest workers.

When you are working and living with a group 24/7 you really get to know them and let me tell you these kids were unbelievable. I was nowhere near as mature at their age and it gave me a new respect for the youth of today and the leaders of tomorrow. They worked hard and played hard and were great fun to be with and there was never a dull moment. The energy level was intense and even though I couldn’t always keep up, that didn’t matter, they were just happy to have a new team member.

By the time I had to leave after 5 days the Bona Responds Team had gutted 9 houses and still had four more days to go so I think the total probably went close to 15 houses ready for the next step of rebuilding...."

Read the whole thing on our Reflection and Essay page.

And if you were on the trip (or any previous trip) we'd love to have your reflection piece to include.