‘Blessing’ for this house

Patricia Hypolite of New Iberia said she feels blessed.

“It’s nothing but a blessing,” Hypolite, 53, said Tuesday about the out-of-state volunteers who were repairing her New Iberia home.

About two dozen volunteers from as far away as western Kentucky and the Detroit area began repair work on Hypolite’s roof, damaged during Hurricane Gustav, at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Through United Methodist Church’s Project Christmas House, volunteers divided into teams with the hope of working on 32 similar structures in 12 to 16 hour shifts across Louisiana this holiday season.

Hypolite’s daughter Precious Slaughter worked Tuesday with the volunteers on her mother’s house. She said today that the volunteers had finished the roof repairs on Wednesday and that today a volunteer plumber from the program would come and do some work on the house.

“My mom called me and told me she was being blessed with some repairs on her house,” Slaughter said, adding that after the plumber finishes another group of volunteers is expected to come and finish the interior work on the house.

Hypolite, who is disabled and on a fixed income, said the United Methodist Church in Abbeville contacted her about applying to have the work done on her home. Although she hosted 22 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which resulted in some interior damage to her home, this is the first time she has ever received any kind of hurricane-related assistance.

“I’ve always been a giver, so I didn’t know how to receive,” Hypolite said.

Bill Carr of Reidland, Ky., is disaster coordinator for the Memphis Conference of the United Methodist Church.

“It’s rewarding,” Carr said about the work Project Christmas House volunteers do. “It’s what Christmas is all about.”

David Norwood, of Benton, Ky., was one of the out-of-state volunteers on the project.

“This is our fourth working day on other projects in the area,” Norwood said. “Christ has given us so much so we try to give something back.”

Hypolite, thanked the volunteers who worked on her house, and added a final thought about the project on her home when she said, “God is good.”