A Retrospective
of Sunday, June 25, 2006



Fr. John Tampa leads a commissioning of the 2006 Habitat team, sent to Buffalo, NY by St. Peter's Church

At the conclusion of the 10:00 a.m. service on Sunday, June 25, 2006, 15 parishioners from St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley were commissioned for ministry for what would be our Sixth Annual Habitat Mission Trip, a week-long endeavor to serve God by serving others.

Commissioned at Sunday's service were Carol Baily, Tom Brehm, Brooke Exley, Alexandra Ferrara, Victor Ferrara, Ken Fleischer, Adriana Guastella, Frank Guastella, Devon Geyer, Jay Geyer, Bryan Joyce, Rev. Nancy Webb Stroud, Roger Thorne, Sarah Webb, and Carrie Vaisman. (Grant Dovey joined the team on Monday the 26th.)

The 397 mile journey from Paoli to our living quarters at the Delavan Townhouses at Canisius College in Buffalo took us almost 7 hours. When we arrived, Bob and Norma Henderson from the Habitat-Buffalo affiliate, and a kind lady named Shirley from a local Episcopal church, were there to welcome us with a wonderful "salad supper." After an evening briefing, we were ready to start work the next morning.

This is my first Habitat for Humanity trip and so far I am enjoying myself. I have a feeling that this is going to be an experience that I will never forget! I am here with four of my other family members who are making this experience even better. We left St. Peters church at around 11:30 a.m. and arrived in Buffalo NY at 5:30 p.m. We made great timing because my father and uncle were driving and they don't waste any time! When we first arrived at the Canisius College campus, we got settled into our rooms and ate a home-cooked meal provided by two women of the Buffalo Habitat committee. After dinner a couple of us drove to the site to see where we will be working. The family that will live in the house where we will be working has a total of 8 members and they are from Somalia, Africa. I am looking forward to meeting the family and working on the house tomorrow. However, I am not looking forward to breakfast at 7:30 a.m.!! I don't even think my taste buds are awake at that time!
Goodnight!
  Adriana Guastella

My trip actually started on Saturday night, driving from New Jersey to Pennsylvania with my father. My cousin and her father also drove in from New Jersey. We all slept at my Aunt and Uncle's home so that we could get an early start in the morning. As much as we thought that this was a good idea, we still managed to have to rush out of the house to make it to church on time!!! This is also my first experience on Habitat for Humanity (in addition to being the first Habitat for my cousin, uncle and dad). I enjoyed the trip up here. We took two separate vans, and both of my uncles were drivers. The road trip was both adventurous and quick. We coordinated stopping at the rest stops at the same time so that we could spend a little time together before we arrived in Buffalo. When we finally got here, we all worked together to get all of our things up to our rooms. After everyone got organized, we met at 7:10 p.m. to have a brief meeting about the week's work and enjoy some homemade food. After we were done eating, people scattered-some played pool, some went to see the site where we will be working and some went food shopping! I am extremely excited to work together with my family members and the new people I have met. Also, I am looking forward to meeting the family for whom we are building this house. We have bright and early mornings to look forward to for the next couple of days! I do not think that I am going to wake up any earlier than I have to. So, I think I will just have to take breakfast in the car on the way to work. See you in the morning!!  
  Alexandra Ferrara