›› Livable Housing

  A few years ago, Mrs. Stabell and her husband moved to be near their daughter and their grandchildren.  They purchased a modest home on Morgan St. for $25,000 with intent to refurbish the house.  The house was in such disrepair that they could not obtain a mortgage on it, so they paid for it with a credit card with intentions to make the repairs and then obtain a loan.

›› A Grandmother With No Livable House Becomes a House-Mom
In 2005, Ms. Stabel  informed the Tutoring Group that she  had to give up the tutoring since  her daughter, who had become a single mom, was also a naval reservist and had been called back into service to duty in Iraq.  This meant that Ms. Stabell was left with the responsibility for the five grandchildren and we became more familiar with her true situation.  
›› The Rest of The Story

 Soon after Mr. and Ms. Stabell bought the house expecting to repair it gradually untill it was a comfortable place in which to spend there retiring years, near there daughter and grandchildren, Mr. Stabell died suddenly leaving Mrs. Stabell and her daughter to complete the repairs.
    THEN Mrs. Stabell’s daughter was called to active duty in Iraq leaving Mrs. Stabell to care for the five grandchildren and to make the repairs to the house.
    THEN the house caught fire leaving it uninhabitable.

    Mrs. Stabell’s daughter has now returned from active duty and was attempting to complete the repairs, however the cost and the volume of work was neither manageable nor possible without assistance.  Mrs. Stabell is now living with her daughter
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›› Work Gets Underway

    After removing the trash that had accumulated over the time when there was not activity, the team began to assess and plan the needed work.

    The first job was to remove the damaged walls and flooring to find that almost all of the timbers had furnished meals for termites.  The floors and sills had to be removed and the inside of the house gutted up to the roof and down to the dirt.  

›› Getting Prepared To Lay a Floor
This job was one in which there was no chauvanistic reluctance to use women for real work.  This shows Ruth, Georgia's daughter replacing sills so tha a new floor could be laid.
›› School Having Need For Improvement

 Unfortunately at the end of the school year, most of the schools in the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County District were judged by end of the year test as having need for improvement sufficient to demand major program changes.  This included a modification of their School Improvement Team.  The school asked FUMC to provide a member of the church to be on that team and also two representatives from the Parent-Teacher Organization.   This improvement Team meets once per month and seeks ways to improve students performance.  This also allowed parents to move their children to other schools meeting space and  other qualifications.

    Look for more pictures in the Photo albums 

 
›› Tutor and Grandmother

The second or third year of our tutoring program I met a lady who was picking up her three grandchildren and when she found that I was a member of a tutoring group, she asked if she could become a tutor and  I qickly  welcomed her to join us.
    Several years later she said she had to discontinue since she had become responsible for her 5 grandchildren since her daughter, their mother had been called back to active duty by the navy.In talking to her at this time I learned several things which I had prviously not known and this begins another story.