WINTER GARDEN — Standing in the living room of a house hit by a tornado last February, Cheri Cowell looks up at the sky through a half-finished roof.

As director of Operation L.O.V.E. (Linking Our Volunteer Efforts) in Winter Garden, Cowell says there is money and materials to finish the job, but she is having trouble finding volunteers that can do the work on this house and many others. And that’s bringing the recovery effort in the Winter Garden area to a near standstill.

“If one of the pieces of the puzzle is not there, the whole process stops,” she says. “The worst part is trying to schedule volunteers to get the job done.”

Operation L.O.V.E. is a disaster relief group operating out of First United Methodist Church, Winter Garden, that’s assisting Winter Garden’s victims of tornadoes that swept through Central Florida last February, killing more than 40 people and causing millions of dollars in damage.

It’s funded primarily by the Florida Conference and the Orlando District. The Winter Garden church supplies the facilities and pays the operating expenses, Cowell said. Construction on the area’s damaged homes began last May.

When a family asks the group for help, a volunteer caseworker gathers information about the family’s situation, then contacts local relief and social service agencies to request assistance for the family.

When those options are exhausted, the caseworker turns to Operation L.O.V.E.’s unmet needs committee. Once the committee agrees to help, it looks for money to purchase materials and volunteers to do the work.

“We have 32 house projects. Only six are completed. Seven are total rebuilds,” she said. “Twenty-five people are still living in houses with leaking roofs, sagging ceilings and mildewed walls.”

Cowell said Operation L.O.V.E. has already received $95,000 of the estimated $450,000 needed to meet the requests for help — enough to completely fund seven of the projects. She said she doesn’t have enough work teams to complete those projects, however.

“We can’t stop,” Cowell said. “By next August we want to have all of the jobs completed. Every week that we don’t have volunteers or funding for a job puts us that much more behind.”

One project in progress is the repair of Ann Seffens’ home. The tornado damaged the roof and windows, and rain left “two inches of water sitting inside,” Seffens said. The water caused black mold to grow in the carpet and interior walls.

Although Seffens owns her house, it was not insured because she is paying for health insurance for her grandson, who needs a new kidney. Now, they can’t afford the necessary repairs.

A friend gave Seffens a flier from Operation L.O.V.E., and she immediately visited the group’s office. “When I walked out, I felt better than I had since the tornado,” she said. “She [Cowell] made me feel like everything was going to be all right.”

Since then, volunteers have gutted the house, stripped the old roof and added new tresses. Now, there aren’t any volunteers to finish the job, Cowell said, adding that she has air-conditioning and electrical contractors ready to begin work. They can’t start until the new roof is in place.

Despite the stress of the situation, Seffens said she feels the hand of God is with her family. Youth from Anona United Methodist Church in Largo witnessed to neighbors while working on the Seffens’ house. “These kids that come over here and work just bless me so much,” she said. “They sing and really lift me up.

“Y’all are living out what the Bible says. The church should take care of people — not the government and not the state.”