Twenty-seven members of New Life Evangelical Lutheran Church, New Tripoli, recently traveled to Keansburg, N.J. to help with clean-up efforts following Hurricane Sandy.

The group, working with volunteers from St. John's United Methodist Church, Hazlet, N.J., left at 5 a.m. Nov. 24 for the hour-and 49-minute trip to the shore.

Following their arrival and registration, the team was assigned to three homes in the flood-ravaged area six blocks from the beach.

Two homes needed water-damaged insulation removed from the crawl spaces under the houses, to aid in the drying process before the new insulation was installed.

The third house needed to be completely gutted, due to heavy water damage.

Hammers and prybars were flying as everyone pitched in to help. Drywall was removed from the lower four feet of the walls.

Flooring was removed and thankfully so, as there were a few broken floor joists discovered that needed replacement.

At the end of the cold day of hard work, there was a rather large pile of debris by the curb of this home, as well as many other homes in the area.

New Life volunteers New Life volunteers were part of a large group of 400 who worked on 60 houses that day.

The owners of the house, Ray and Lisa, were all too happy to help with the gutting. They could not thank the team enough for taking their Saturday and spending it helping someone they had never met before.

Dave Backenstoes led everyone in a parting prayer of thankfulness for the opportunity to serve neighbors in need, as well as prayers for better days ahead for the owners of the home.