The moon was still out yesterday morning after we went outside from eating breakfast. I'm still not feeling well though. The Virginia team had a new assignment to start this morning. We drove to the Dyer's house, which was a large, beautiful 1 story with 2 courtyards on a nearby bayou. We got right to work doing what we do best - gutting drywall, carpet, panelling, etc. and going through personal items for possible salvage. It's interesting to see the transformation in the owners while we're there. They almost always start out apprehensive and not wanting to see much or watch us but they really get into going through things after a little while and seeing hope in situation. That's why we are here - to give these people hope. Mrs. Dyer had been very concerned about a neighboring elderly man who wouldn't ask for help so a couple of the group went over to see if he'd let them do an assessment. Once they explained everything to him he said, "Now I don't have to kill myself. You are my savior." You talk about hope and God's perfect timing!
After lunch I really didn't want to go out again because I was very wiped out and feeling worse.
However, it worked out best that I do assessments because I was going to give the team tours of the coast starting with those going door-to-door first. Most people were not home because some have not returned permanently and some are living elsewhere and some are back at jobs. We did come up with a couple houses that needed work in the neighborhood we were in and saw several that really needed some work where we just had to leave flyers. It was nice to see flowers blooming and birds flying around. Some even had some interesting landscaping as seen at right. This house also had potted bushes ready to be planted. I never thought I would think this but I was pleased seeing Halloween decorations on some houses around town because it's yet another sign of hope and people getting on with their lives as best they can.
I gave 3 sets of tours of the coast.
I finally got a picture of the Waffle House where the seats and tables were about all that remained of the restaurant. There have been a couple others like that I've seen during my time down here. We joked that the next hurricane you should strap yourself to one of those tables and duck to survive. They have made many cleanup improvements since I was last on the Gulfport coast a couple weeks ago, especially near downtown. The casino they imploded and cut up that had been laying on US 90 is totally gone now and almost all the shipping containers have been recovered. There are just a few remaining, which are shown in my sunset photo below. There were hundreds of these containers thrown into the coastal neighborhoods and many of them like those shown somehow made it around several large buildings to end up here from the port.
During team meeting many commented how great this team has come together. That's been the same for all 4 Virginia teams really despite what one may have thought when first seeing the people who made up each team. One even described it as a "well oiled machine", which is precisely what someone in the second group said. It's no surprise to me though; I suspect all the teams here are experiencing that. It is clearly God-ordained so how can it not go well as long as we continue to be His servants? It was cool to hear all the ways they've seen God while here. The team member who was charged with writing the blog comment for their church website wrote about the difficulty of describing this when we return to the "real world". He went on to write (in my own paraphrase) that despite our inability to accurately portray what we've experienced back home we ARE in the real world right here. We are doing God's work, and it's making a huge impact. While we've had countless blessings poured out on us, you can hear what we've done for the people here in checkout lines or while serving food to those that have lost everything but their spirit. I can't write it any better than that.
I'm felt even worse tonight so my plan was to sleep late and then go help the regional UMCOR rep with whatever I can. Tony Proctor told me his wireless network needed to be set up so I'll try my hand at that.
I did go back to sleep this morning and slept another 2.5 hours. I do feel better so hopefully this trend will continue.
After lunch I really didn't want to go out again because I was very wiped out and feeling worse.
However, it worked out best that I do assessments because I was going to give the team tours of the coast starting with those going door-to-door first. Most people were not home because some have not returned permanently and some are living elsewhere and some are back at jobs. We did come up with a couple houses that needed work in the neighborhood we were in and saw several that really needed some work where we just had to leave flyers. It was nice to see flowers blooming and birds flying around. Some even had some interesting landscaping as seen at right. This house also had potted bushes ready to be planted. I never thought I would think this but I was pleased seeing Halloween decorations on some houses around town because it's yet another sign of hope and people getting on with their lives as best they can.I gave 3 sets of tours of the coast.
I finally got a picture of the Waffle House where the seats and tables were about all that remained of the restaurant. There have been a couple others like that I've seen during my time down here. We joked that the next hurricane you should strap yourself to one of those tables and duck to survive. They have made many cleanup improvements since I was last on the Gulfport coast a couple weeks ago, especially near downtown. The casino they imploded and cut up that had been laying on US 90 is totally gone now and almost all the shipping containers have been recovered. There are just a few remaining, which are shown in my sunset photo below. There were hundreds of these containers thrown into the coastal neighborhoods and many of them like those shown somehow made it around several large buildings to end up here from the port.
During team meeting many commented how great this team has come together. That's been the same for all 4 Virginia teams really despite what one may have thought when first seeing the people who made up each team. One even described it as a "well oiled machine", which is precisely what someone in the second group said. It's no surprise to me though; I suspect all the teams here are experiencing that. It is clearly God-ordained so how can it not go well as long as we continue to be His servants? It was cool to hear all the ways they've seen God while here. The team member who was charged with writing the blog comment for their church website wrote about the difficulty of describing this when we return to the "real world". He went on to write (in my own paraphrase) that despite our inability to accurately portray what we've experienced back home we ARE in the real world right here. We are doing God's work, and it's making a huge impact. While we've had countless blessings poured out on us, you can hear what we've done for the people here in checkout lines or while serving food to those that have lost everything but their spirit. I can't write it any better than that.
I'm felt even worse tonight so my plan was to sleep late and then go help the regional UMCOR rep with whatever I can. Tony Proctor told me his wireless network needed to be set up so I'll try my hand at that.
I did go back to sleep this morning and slept another 2.5 hours. I do feel better so hopefully this trend will continue.
posted by Michael Ray at 9:56 AM
1 Comments:
Michael, Merrie is completely
exhausted with work, boys, home
responsibilities. We are helping
as best we can. She has had to
make visits at night, late appointments, leaving the boys on
their own. Gil is there now to
get Sydney off to school and give
Merrie some time to sleep. He will stay until Friday when he will bring Sydney back with him.
We are glad to do what we can to
help, but I believe you need to know things are not doing well at
home.
Linda
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