We'll he wasn't really Tom Hanks, his name was Jim but he looked like a younger Hanks. He was part of a group that stayed at Good New Camp for nearly a week who were working with PRC Compassion. We traveled like what seemed ages to a small housing estate to finish off a house they had started the day before.
This is the house we were working in. Gutting normally meant removing all the drywall from the walls and ceilings + the insulation. It was incredibly hot and we could only work short shifts before needing a drink break. I reckon I must have drunk 10 - 15 cans of water.
The photo's show the progress we made. The team worked hard and while it was not nice there was a degree of satisfaction in having done something toward getting this house ready for it's owners to return.
This house was typical in that we never met the owners. They were elsewhere, perhaps Houston, or other parts of the south.
One of the first shovels of debris I lifted had a roll of undeveloped 35mm film in it. A stark reminder that these people had lost so much that will be irreplaceable; the family heirlooms, the photograph albums etc.
Jim (aka Tom Hanks) and his team left the next day after the murders. We however now had our own transport we had more options as to what we did. Mike, Gordy and some of the girls headed to a ladies house to help move furniture and gut.
The next day one of our tasks was to lift the floor or one of the large tents that had been taken down, stack the OSB boards and pallets. 
To avoid anyone getting sick or over-heated I made them all take one of the breaks in a refridge unit.
Latter that day I borrowed a thing like a large car jack with pulled out the steel spiked in the ground to which the ropes of the tent had been fixed.
The day before we left Mike, Gordy, Michelle C, Lauren and myself went to gut another house. we got to meet the owner which was nice and had some good conversations with her. She was a Christian but was disillusioned by church so was not going anywhere. Yet she was finding that God kept bringing Christians into her life. She was totally blown away that a bunch of young Scottish Christians were in her house ripping the moldy drywall off and cleaning the place up. She called her friends, she called the newspaper, she even called the TV station. 
Before we left we prayed with her. There were tears all round.
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