We almost made it through the parade without rain, but got a good downpour at the end. In a way that is fitting though - it was water that brought the volunteers to the area and it's water bidding the Cafe and Market farewell. Since I helped carry the lead banner, it was difficult to get some good pictures. Here is the staging area.


The view behind on US 90...


and the view ahead....


Here is a "float".


We even had some surprise entertainment that brought down the house.


It was an awesome time had by all - certainly the most memorable and touching parade I've seen.

I took off for home after a quick snack and some good byes. It took me just under 12.5 hours to make the drive. I stopped by the Cracker Barrel in Slidell to get an audio book, Ted Dekker's 'Black', which helped keep me awake until I arrived at 4:30 am. I did make it to church this morning though not the early service we normally attend! :)

Anyway, I'm home for 2 weeks now so the blog will be slow. I'll be doing contract work in Lafayette most of this week, which is why I came home earlier than I had originally planned. I may have anyway though because my wife and I really missed each other!

We got a fair amount accomplished in just over 2 hours of gutting before we cleaned up for the day. We could have finished the house easily if we had a full day. However, we're getting some pretty good showers now, and it was already very muddy there. Here is an "after" shot.


Our parade will likely experience some rain today. Hopefully the showers moving this way will get here quick because there's clear skies for a couple hours after the next band according to the current radar.

Thankfully our last job was not as large as I had expected because the house had not been touched since the storm. There was 2 inches of thick bayou mud to shovel out of the semi-finished bottom floor and the furnishings on the second floor were strewn about as the water made it to the second story rafters. This was the worst house I've had to gut in all my time down here. In 6 hours we managed to get all the belongings "cleaned out" so we're ready to do some gutting for a few hours Sat morning before the team leaves for Virginia and I get ready for the parade.


I stopped by Walmart this evening, but they are nowhere near fully-stocked yet. The setup is still more like a warehouse (sort of like Sam's Club but much smaller), but they have many areas boarded off. I couldn't find batteries; surely, I just missed them. They did have Christmas decorations available though. Tonight we ate out at the Italian buffet establishment that just reopened (with a discount for relief workers) sans carpet and regular dishes and silverware.

I understand Habitat for Humanity has adopted Waveland according to their mayor on Tuesday and will even build homes to what the original blueprint was.

There were a couple funny yet sad comments in the paper Thursday....
"I just wanted to say thank you, Hurricane Katrina, for making Christmas shopping easy this year, because it's hard to buy something for someone who has everything, but now that they have nothing it's going to be quite simple."

"You might be a hurricane refugee if one of the pastimes you really miss is flushing the toilet... if the thought of a hot shower sounds better than a hot date... if you're having trouble deciding where to go for Thanksgiving dinner - the Red Cross or the Salvation Army."

Sat morning: We have some light showers this morning with 50% chance of isolated showers and thunderstorms for the rest of the day. Not the best parade weather, but the show will go on I'm sure. I need to get going to the jobsite. Peace.

I've learned Pete and Fay Jones, the couple from Bastrop, TX, who have headed up the New Waveland Market, will be remaining in the area on a semi-permanent basis to take over the volunteer coordination of the Morrell iCare village. I think that will be a great fit for both parties. The Jones' already have plans to have it running the way it should be by Jan 1.

Our next assignment sounds like a major job - a large, 2-story right on a bayou that is to be completely gutted. It's difficult for volunteers to keep the proper mindset through this. Our main purpose is to just BE here with the people in their hurting, yet we tend to fixate on "getting the job done." I think it's especially true for those that are only here a week or less because they need to make their trip "worth it," but I still struggle with it since I'm a "Mr. Fixit" type (just ask my wife!).

This morning we're finishing up our current job ASAP so we can get to work on the heavy-duty one. I'm going to go recon that one as soon as I'm done here.

We got an early start on our work because there wasn't a huge crowd at church, despite some great fried turkey and fixings. Here is a shot of Main St UMC in BSL for Thanksgiving lunch. I'm not surprised because there were tons of Thanksgiving meals going on all over the area.


This new assignment had already had a lot done by the homeowner, a 72-year old retired oil field worker who had no insurance. His house didn't have a lot of damage from the hurricane other than flooding but was obviously in some state of disrepair beforehand. We had to tear out the bathroom and kitchen and clean up the yard debris. We got mostly finished but will go back in the morning. Sadly, he needs some work that volunteers likely cannot do.

I stopped by the New Waveland Cafe to have dinner. Though I didn't have any since I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie, I learned all the pies were homemade from the same recipe by the townspeople of one of the Rainbows. As always the people were wild and friendly and the food was great, including some high-test garlic mashed potatoes. They just announced they're giving away the 20 extra turkeys they have cooked. Here I am, a satisfied customer. I got to shave yesterday after 10 days so I almost look respectable again.


I hope you all had a wonderful day thanking God for all you have. Peace.

Oh, BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!!! Be very thankful for what you have - you never know when you'll lose it. I'm also thankful I have the ability to be here and help. Peace.

I forgot to mention our morning devotion involved Snoopy and his "happy dance" that he "owed" to his feet. That was related to how David danced with all his might to the Lord for all He did for him. It was suggested we "dance" somehow today as we were working for the Lord and had pictures of Snoopy to remind us of that as you can see in the team pic I posted earlier. I did a happy dance on the doorstep. :)

We finished up Pat's house shortly after lunch. She was reduced to tears after we took our group picture with her and prayed over her. I can't help but think, 'Jesus wept.' It's humbling to get that type of reaction but it's become so commonplace. Here was someone who couldn't do anything for 2 weeks she was so depressed and now she was talking about all the things she wanted to do with her new home.

Afterward some of us had a drink looking out over the bay at the former US 90 bridge. I stayed out there longer and met with my friend Larry, who is also from Indiana and had been my POD coworker for 9 days. It's just so weird to be dangling your feet over the edge of the pavement to a 12 foot dropoff of where the road used to be against the backdrop of such a beautiful horizon and sky. He relayed to me they had more traffic today and so many of the customers were making a point of saying thank you for all the efforts.

I've heard a couple times now how the huge outpouring by the Church has restored some people's faith in humanity and that there really are still "good" people. Even those who profess to not be believers have mentioned how they've been overwhelmed by the efforts of the Church. Is this not exactly what we're supposed to be doing all the time? Get out of your pews and into the world! There are hurting and marginalized people right outside your door. What are you doing to be Jesus to them?

The Clay City group left this afternoon to go to Gulf Breeze, FL, to do Thanksgiving prep. Apparently, 5 of the youth had gone there last Thanksgiving break to do relief after Ivan so they wanted to return to see how things are now. They will be back here Thanksgiving night.

Thanksgiving morning: We met the sunrise for the first annual (as far as we know - and likely the last) BSL Turkey Trot. Several of the group jogged (or walked) around the town for half an hour. I can't remember the last time I jogged that long - I think I'm spent for the day! :) After breakfast we reorganized and cleaned up the fellowship hall area and set up the tables and chairs. It was full of various items from around the church as they remodel from Katrina damage. We're free for a while until we need to serve at noon. We just did a recon of our afternoon work site, and I stopped by the New Waveland Cafe on the way back to get this posted.

Tuesday: I awoke earlier than normal so I could get to Main St UMC by 7. I thought maybe I could catch the sunrise, but I didn't quite make it. After breakfast and a quick devotion, we headed out to complete the job the team had already started. This was actually very uncommon for this area at this time - putting up drywall. They had stressed to the coordinator they wanted to do at least one construction job while here so this was it. It only took 3 hours to finish so we came back for an early lunch and went out to the next assignment. This house only had maybe 18 inches of water in it and had no furniture since the owner had just bought it before Katrina to rent. However, she has decided to live here because she can't bear to go back to her home in BSL. She told us about how she and her husband had spent 4 years fixing it up mostly on their own and he had passed away the year they finished. It has obviously been difficult on her. She was amazed by how much we got done this afternoon. All the paneling is out now and we've made major progress on ripping out the flooring. Tomorrow we'll finish up the floors and rip out the drywall. It felt good to get dirty and more hands-on today. I left them a bit early to get a couple pics since it wasn't cloudy in the west and to take a shower and get my stuff from the "bunkhouse" where I'd been staying. One big advantage the church has is heat. It will still be pretty chilly a couple mornings this week. After dinner and devotions, I took a walk out to what I would call the boardwalk area of the old town. I've seen it many times during the day, but it was a gorgeous, clear evening for a walk. I played around with getting a nighttime picture of the bay. I got a pretty decent shot at 15 seconds, which is the slowest my camera will go. Here's the neat thing of the day. I came into the fellowship hall area to type this up Tuesday night since they don't have internet here, and there is a group of youth from Clay City here! How cool is that?! They were approved to take 2 days off school to come down. Maybe I can get them to play some euchre sometime. :) My battery is about dead, it's late and I need ot brush my teeth so that's all for today.

Wed morning: I got up early and went to the beach to watch the sunsrise. So here is a rare sunrise picture from me.


It's lunchtime now and we have gotten nearly done with the house. Here is a picture of the Virginia team and the homeowner. She was telling me how her family had been in this area for 4 generations and many of her cousins have also been flooded out in the Slidell area. One of her cousins has lost his house 3 times for various reasons but will rebuild a fourth time at 72 years old.


Update on Katherine Larson: Kat's MRI showed a huge tumor
that was about the size of a tennis ball at the base of her brain and
also a stem that was about as big around as a penny and went from the
head of the tumor clear down to the c-6 vertibrae. Other than a slight
weight loss that the doctors had previously attributed to stress (her
mom being in Iraq) she did not have any sign of sickness until she went
into a seizure on November 6, 2005. My sister Trish who has been
watching her since her mom left for Iraq, took Kat to the Airforce base
Hospital where the doctor had her rushed to St. Louis Children's
Hospital because he correctly suspected that she had a tumor in her
brain. The Red Cross located my sister Kim in Iraq and she flew into
St. Louis on November 12, 2005, and doctors performed Kat's first
surgery on November 16th. God is faithful--they removed the head of
the tumor without any complications and Kat came through the surgery
well. Having the pressure of the tumor removed from her brain stem, Kat
is devouring everything in sight and she has kept her sunny disposition
and wonderful sense of humor throughout her ordeal. Dr. Leonard has
repeatedly remarked that this is a miracle and that she has done way
better that he could ever wish for. (God gets the glory for that!) I
know that Dr. Leonard is very concerned about the next stage of Kat's
surgery. After the pathology of the tumor came back, the doctor has
diagnosed her with a type one tumor that was not connected to any of
the surrounding tissue. Please continue to pray for Kat, she is
scheduled for her next surgery tentatively around the 8th or 9th of
December. We are praying that the rest of the tumor is unnatached as
well...the surgery will be performed in between the 1st and 6th
vertabrae, the nerves that control breathing, digestion, speech and
walking are located in this area. Kat is a beautiful 13 year old
christian girl who we love very much. All of your prayers are joyfully
appreciated.
Thank you,
Shannon Larson (Kat's Auntie)

Traffic was down today, which is normal for a weekday, but it's the lowest since I've been doing the POD. I hope that's a good sign but suspect it's still partially due to the weather which wasn't as nice today as forecasted. We got a large group of volunteers in from PA this morning who had spent the night at the Morrell iCare camp. The tents they were housed in apparently didn't deal with water too well. Since there is nowhere here to house them they managed to find motel rooms in Hattiesburg, 1.5 hours away.

Now that we have so many people here and are expecting more the next 2 days, there isn't enough work for everyone to do. Thus, I got to read up on Oracle and Visual Basic - my old areas of expertise - in an effort to get ready for my contracting job when I get back. However, I'm here to work. I can read at home. So I went over to Main St UMC in BSL to see the group from VA there led by Tim Wells who I worked with at Trinity many weeks ago. I'll be going out with them the rest of the week. The devotional tonight was rather insightful. We need to allow Jesus to shovel out the muck in our lives like we're doing in these houses.

When I got back, I made some more connections with International Aid. She was telling me about several things going on in the area. I was pleased to learn about Lakeshore Baptist, the church I came across on my second trip down that was totally wiped clean. They are doing some remarkable work there so I could end up there on future trips. I'm not surprised by this. I've been by 3 times now and could tell it was a special church.

I need to get up earlier than normal and I'm up later than normal so I'm off to bed now. Peace.

Fairly typical day again with about the same amount of traffic as the past 3 days. I've worn one of my Emmaus shirts the past 2 days and have gotten many nice comments on it. I posted a pic of me on our Emmaus site for those who know about that. We had someone give us a card at the POD thanking us for being here. We get told that over and over along with 'We're going to miss you.' We often get to hear about what they lost and how they are making out now. We really have become part of the community here in the parking lot of Fred's Market. I'll be interested to see the response to the parade Sat. The Rainbows are organizing a Thanks-for-giving parade to say thank you to the community for all the support they have given to the Cafe and market. All relief organizations as well as residents can have "floats" and join in the fun.

I got to listen to the Colts go 10-0 on the radio this evening. I haven't been keeping up with them or anything else for that matter. Tonight they had a bunch of people dancing at dinner with a local band jamming out some classic covers. I miss my wife. We never get to dance. Well, my brain doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders now so I think I shall go to bed. Peace.

Today was much lighter traffic-wise than we expected. We had just a few more cars than yesterday through the POD. The good news is we think that is because Walmart opened up in their building today so hopefully they got a lot of traffic through there. It was a beautiful day to be outside; I got too much sun on my face.

There isn't a great deal to say for today. We got more water in. We had to repair the shower piping. We had to take a bus ride around the parking lot to increase the ridership so the driver can keep his job. They started doing free bus routes around the area last week.

The Rainbows have been having a blast - almost too much fun to make this last week less stressful on the residents I presume or perhaps to make leaving easier on themselves. Here's a couple from last night greeting us for dinner.


A few of them were dancing around the kitchen while making dinner tonight to what I think is 40s music. I'll just say it sounds like before my time at least. They have been absolutely wonderful cooks and servers though. They brought a whole different attitude to the area than any other relief center I've seen. Last night we had a local band playing during dinner and it just livened up the whole atmosphere. Speaking of dinner, the line has gone down now so it's time to go. I skipped lunch today because they're feeding us so well.

Today was pretty close to yesterday as far as volume is concerned. It turned out to be sunny in the mid 50s and I did take a shower, which was very nice. Apparently, FEMA was supposed to provide a shower trailer 8 weeks ago. I can't imagine it would be better than the setup they came up with piecemeal and the donated furnace from Hardy Furnace in northern MS works like a charm. I was going to just wear shorts and t-shirt afterward for a while but the noseeums were out in full force it seemed. I saw some FEMA trailers being delivered on a trip I took this afternoon.


There are quite a few people without trailers still but they do need to have utilities operational on their property before FEMA will deliver one. That seems to be why some of them are not getting them in a reasonable time. Yesterday they were testing gas lines going down Waveland Ave from US 90.

Several large groups of volunteers are leaving tonight so we may be short-handed this weekend. I know that was a concern last weekend when Merrie and I got here. At least volume hasn't been very heavy this week. I suspect the weather has been a contributing factor. It will warm up slightly after tonight. I also learned the cafe itself is staying open until Sat afternoon after Thanksgiving. We're having a parade down US 90 at 1pm with the last meal to follow. I may stay here for that and drive home at night.

I did manage to get a susnset picture again though not as good as I wanted. I was hoping for something like an icon where you see the rays emanating from the head, but it was too cloudy tonight. Plus the noseeums by the coast were very bad so I wasn't too keen on experimenting as much. Here is a broken angel from Waveland.


Peace

Traffic was slower today through the relief area, likely because of the weather. It was sunny but only in the mid 50s today. Here I am loading water into a car at the POD. We also have ice and small, easily-prepared package meals we hand out here now. This is for anyone and is provided via FEMA. The "market" area has a variety of other donated food, cleaning and hygiene supplies and various odds and ends county residents can pick up.


I stopped by the iCare Village being set up by the Morrell Foundation at Buccaneer State Park. It opened Oct 13 to house workers and they are currently working on getting utilities installed throughout the park. Individuals cannot stay there but groups doing relief work can for $10 per person per night. Groups will need to schedule their own work projects in the area. See their website for contact info under the 'How Can I Help' section.

While I was out I saw some other sections of Waveland south of the tracks that weren't quite as destroyed as Coleman Ave. Generally there were houses that just collapsed so all the debris was in one large pile on or near the slab like these 2 homes.


It will be 28-34 tonight depending on location. It was cold in the trailer and several tents last night because a circuit breaker tripped after we were asleep. Hopefully that won't happen tonight. I think I'll turn off one of the 3 space heaters to ease the communal load on the circuit.

I'm off to eat now.

The wind and rain started about 10:45 last night and didn't let up until 5:45. Thankfully they reopened some shelters last night in anticipation of the threatening weather last night and cold weather to follow. It was pretty chilly when we woke up and the wind was biting. I put on both my insulated shirt and my windbreaker since the POD is out in the middle of the parking lot with no tent. I went on an errand and saw several people walking around with nothing but a normal shirt. It sickens me to know so much clothing has gotten down here but very few places can distribute it. You may think this is a huge distribution center below.


You'd be wrong though - it's the local Walmart, one of the few businesses that is open here. This one also has some major appliances for sale.


84 Lumber is also going with limited stock and there's a tiny hardware store just north of the tracks that had 4 feet of water in it (surprisingly little for here, especially that close to the coast) which looked like nothing had ever happened. I had to go there to find some padlocks.

This afternoon I went over to Gulfport on more errands. Mostly so I could go to a fully-stocked Walmart. The one in Slidell has also been "normal" for over a month. At least the lines at that Walmart weren't really long anymore. I also stopped in the UMCOR office while I was over there and things haven't changed much. There are still many groups coming down in the next 2 months.

Not much left to say. It's supposedly high 40s now though it sure feels colder, which is saying something coming from me if you ask my wife. The kitchen/internet cafe is in a canopy tent. My fingers are getting cold. It's supposed to get near freezing the next 2 nights. I'm going to pass on the outdoor showers regardless of how hot the water is. I sure hope people make it to a shelter or have blankets to stay warm in their cars/tents. We learned this morning of a single mother being evicted from her rental after getting a full time nursing job because the landlord wants to sell the house. We were supposed to send some people over to help her out. I hope all went well.

I'm not feeling the love; it's been a long time since anyone has left me a comment. :(

I worked up a sweat this afternoon. Our POD food arrived just before we ran out so we had to unload 12 pallets from the trailer and then load them into our storage trailer. Once we were nearly done, we learned we could have the rest of the pallets, too, so we could have just traded trailers! Oh, well. Now we probably have enough food and water to last the remaining 10 days we're here.

There have been just a couple sprinkles today. The bad stuff should hit sometime late tonight or early morning if it does from what the rader looks like now. Here is the full moonrise this evening.

Here's a shot of the Rainbow kitchen with the internet cafe in the foreground. I sometimes use those PCs, which are Wyse thin clients running embedded Win XP. If I'm posting pictures, I use my laptop and plug it into the switch below the right monitor. I thought you geeks out there might enjoy that. The network gear was donated by RadioResponse.org.


In other news, I saw an update from the county emergency op center that claims they've picked up 24% of the debris so far. I'd love to know how they estimated how much they had to start. It sure doesn't seem like that much is gone yet but it may be possible.

I'm hoping to get a shower tonight before it gets cooler. It was pretty nice taking a shower with a good view of the almost full moon last night. So time to eat and shower but not at the same time. :)

I spent last night chatting with the nurses from Goshen, IN. Their hospital has been sending teams down for a while to various locations. I think it's pretty cool they get paid to come here.

Just as we were getting close to running out of ice at the POD, the semi pulled up with 7 more pallets so that will get us through 2 more days. I'm glad my worries were unfounded in this case. Unfortunately, there were no MREs in this load so we will run out of those today.

We're forcasted to get some potentially severe thunderstorms with the potential of gusts to 70 mph and hail. This could be devastating to this area since many are still without housing or living in tents, not to mention the relief center here. We're trying to "baton down the hatches" as best as possible. Please pray these severe storms miss the areas hardest hit.

Our POD supplies didn't come yet so tomorrow is going to be pretty thin if they don't show up. As I mentioned earlier, things still don't seem to be as coordinated as they should be. Why else do so many people not have trailers yet? It's not like there weren't enough trailers in the US to meet the need or enough people FEMA could get to drive them down here. It's not all doom and gloom, but there are going to be more disasters in the future. It doesn't sound like Wilma has been handled very smoothly either. How long before it's done right? I can't say it's all the fed's job to save us, but insurance isn't going to be much help in a lot of cases so where do you turn? It's just real frustrating to see how poorly in general things are going for the folks down here.

I'm staying in the "bunkhouse", a converted semi trailer with 12 bunks. It was actually pretty comfortable without the AC or heater.


There are quite a few sleeping in tents as well as some trailers/busses/RVs. They now have hot water for the showers here as of last week I guess from an outdoor wood-burning water heater. It works pretty well though you have to be sure to open the bottom door first to prevent a backdraft. I saw that happen today - very nasty fireball shoot out the door. Yikes!


The Rainbows continue to cook up a storm. I was incorrect before - they actually have been averaging 1000 meals for the day now, not just for dinner. I've eaten many things I've never had before and I have no idea what some of them were. But they are organic/health nuts in general so I figure it must be OK. Some of it is pretty good, too. Ironically, most of them smoke. Sort of like the Germans in that respect. However, it is "organic" tobacco in most cases. Here is dinner tonight complete with entertainment. Last night was a local guy - I'm not sure if tonight's was or not.


Feel free to leave comments. Peace.

Today has gone well so far working the POD except we're running out of food and ice. Hopefully our shipment arrives today. I'm not all that optimistic though given the poor response of the government throughout most of this disaster. I got to run the forklift again today and was even complimented on how I got a pallet out of a pretty tight, winding path. This is too much fun. Maybe I should work in a warehouse. :)

I just finished having lunch with a couple residents, both who lived in Waveland south of the tracks and no longer have any home left. They both had good insurance but have been given the runaround about how the damage was caused by something that wasn't covered. One has not gotten a trailer and one did, but it was the wrong kind because she's handicapped and she hasn't gotten a replacement after 5 days now. Thus, she and her granddaughter are living in her van. The trailers are not really designed for people with poor mobility. That seems to be an issue here as several elderly have fallen getting out of their trailers.

There's also a concern about whether the house of cards that is the rebuilding of the coast will come crashing down. There just is not enough resources available to do this. The one resident, a college professor, was telling me about the huge flooding in 1927 and how banks were forced to give out loans to farmers and how that contributed to the Great Depression. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, but I have been wondering just how this can possibly be financed. So many organizations have lost so much money and the government certainly doesn't have the funds. It's hard not to be concerned.

Better get back to work.

My trip to Wiggins was wasted because the UMCOR warehouse was essentially empty except for a few cases of soap and toothbrushes. The manager was out delivering things to a relief area in Pass Christian so I took the clothes I picked up at Trinity down there and then headed to Waveland. When I got to the New Waveland Cafe and market area, I got a work shirt and was assigned to work the FEMA "pod" (point of distribution) section so I passed out MREs, water and ice all afternoon. I also learned how to operate a forklift. It was fun except the up/down lever is opposite of what logic would dictate. You can find out a little more about this relief center.

The Rainbow people served up 1005 servings for dinner tonight. They are having their meeting next to the PCs as I type this. They may or may not be Christian, but they are down here doing a very needed service for this community. All volunteers here are starting to think of ways to transition the community to the closing in less than 2 weeks. Apparently there will be a food pantry opening somewhere.

I'm thinking I may just stay here most of my trip since they are closing down after Thanksgiving meal. I know of many areas having Thanksgiving meals so I'm rather torn where I should spend it. I plan to drive home that Saturday so I have more chance to relax, reflect and get things in order before going to Lafayette to work for a few days.

The satellite internet system is down at Trinity UMC in Gulfport so I haven't been able to update my blog. As it turned out, we ended up driving all the way to Gulfport Friday, getting in just before 1 am our time for a total of 12 hours drive. We listened to a really good book on the way down, and I wasn't tired when we got to Jackson so we decided to continue. I knew we wouldn't have to worry about setting up our tent if we made it there.

Once we got up and ate breakfast we drove over to Waveland for our first stop, the real New Waveland Cafe as it turns out. All this time I had thought the big tent at US 90 and Rt 603 was the new Waveland Cafe since it had a sign that said "Waveland Cafe" and it was obviously "new" since the storm. Just 3/4 mile west on US 90 though is another relief area I had passed several times before, which contained a large, geodesic dome tent, which is the actual New Waveland Cafe. It's affectionately known to the locals as the "hippie tent" since those that operate it are largely of that stereotype. There is also a "market", clinic, and FEMA "pod" (food, water, & ice pickup location run by a volunteer organization) at the same location.

We dropped off the tents and sleeping bags and most of the blankets we had. The tents were in particular need. They had just gotten 56 within the past day and they were already gone. In fact, there was a woman there picking up her tent when we arrived. So the 12 new ones and 2 used ones we brought were very welcome. I wish we could have afforded to buy more. They require the people to come pick them up (unless they are handicapped/elderly) within 48 hours of being notified so they have to put forth some effort to protect against the "welfare mentality".

As it turned out they were pretty short-handed on volunteers this weekend so Merrie and I stayed for a few hours to help stock and pass out goods to county residents at the market. Here she is handing out items. We were told more stories of how prayer and God's perfect timing have been working here - like praying for hotdogs and having a truck come up and ask if anyone needed the 2600 hotdogs he had or running out of water the next day and 15 minutes after prayer have someone pull up with 16 pallets. Coincidence? I think not.

Sadly, this relief area will be shutting down after Thanksgiving to spur the locals to become more independent and help the economy. That will leave just the other "new" Waveland Cafe. The only places to "eat out" in this area right now are the Sonic and these relief centers. That's a stark contrast to the Gulfport area where most restaurants that weren't heavily damaged have been open for quite some time. These 2 "cafes" are serving about 3000-3500 meals a day between them so the volume has dropped quite a bit as the people do start cooking more on their own in their tents/trailers/homes. The Waveland Cafe plans to stay for the long term though and has plans to move into a permanent location (eg, a real building like an old supermarket) in the next few weeks. It's run by the Christian Life Church from Orange Beach, AL, in partnership with Willow Creek near Chicago and Heartland Community in Rockford, IL.

After lunch I took Merrie on a tour of the remains of the area, including Lakeshore Baptist Church where I had first seen the real spirit of the people over 2 months ago. They had now taken down their temporary tarp church and were in one of the tan quonset hut tents so they continue to progress. Then we passed Methodist Gulfside Assembly shown in the picture below on the way to Clermont Harbor.


There were a few trailers in Clermont Harbor now and a couple more tents nestled among the debris but to most people it would look like Katrina had hit last week. Waveland looked only slightly better as it was a little more obvious that some debris had been removed. We continued along the coast to Bay Saint Louis and then stopped at Main St UMC to deliver the remaining blankets and all the respirators we brought for the work teams. They are way behind Gulfport in the cleanup process - Trinity is nearing the end of the gutting but it's still going full force in BSL. Unfortunately, they can't support as many work teams there.

Merrie and I took the rest of the afternoon off, listening to more of the book while looking out over Saint Louis Bay. Then we drove back to the beach at Waveland to watch the sunset and we walked in the Gulf, a first for both of us. Those self-portraits are not easy to take! We finished the book on the way back to Trinity. We had to get to the end before she went home - I wouldn't have been able to take the suspense of not knowing how this Christian thriller ended!

Merrie left earlier this morning and I came up to Gateway UMC so I could get on the internet and hopefully run into the Mitchell's here at the UMCOR office. I brought some clothes from Trinity to take to Waveland but they can't handle any clothes right now, which is pretty much the same as anywhere around here. Very few places are excepting clothing because it takes so much manpower to deal with and they don't have the space to display it. A month ago you could still see mall parking lots just full of bags and boxes of clothes left for people to sift through but those seem to have been all cleaned up now. I'm going to drop them off at the warehouse in Wiggins and see if they have some flood buckets and cleaning supplies that Waveland does have need for this morning. Thus, I need to get going.

Hopefully, we can get the net going at Trinity quickly, but it could be a bit before I update again. I may stay at Waveland a day or two as well.

Peace

I emailed this out to many of our friends but I wanted to add it here also since Shannon was instrumental in my first trip to Mississippi. I had a great time talking with her on the rides down and back.

I got a call today (11/10) from Shannon Larson, the woman who donated the panel van to carry Katrina relief supplies Labor Day weekend. Her neice, Katherine Larson, is in very grave condition with a large tumor in her brain stem they just found. She just turned 13 on Oct 31. Her mom, Kimberly, has been stationed in Iraq and has been a single parent all 13 years. She's being flown back to the states, and the children's hospital in St. Louis isn't going to do anything until she arrives and has a chance to talk to her daughter. Their best case guess right now is she won't walk again if it is free-floating and they can take it out. Otherwise, she likely won't live very long. I know many members of this family have been through hell on earth so this would be a great time for a miracle.

Merrie and I are about to leave. We decided to take her little Saturn since it's far more economical and we didn't have that much stuff really. I bought 12 tents at Walmart (who gave me a $25 discount card to use) and a bunch of respirators, and then we filled the rest of it up with blankets so we're packed to the brim. We came in a bit over our original spending budget, but we've been blessed more than we expected so it all works out fine as it normally does as far as our human minds are concerned when you're doing God's will. The plan is to make it to Jackson or so tonight and camp in the parking lot of a church there and then continue to Waveland / BSL in the morning.

Well, I've spent the last couple days fiddling with our van to get it into decent enough running condition to drive to the coast. That included a call for advice to my old friend Larry who helped me rebuild the engine 7 years ago. Short of pulling the carb off to clean it out, it's as good as it's going to get.

I made a call to Bay Saint Louis and Waveland to see what the current needs are so tomorrow I hope to fill up on tents, sweatshirts, blankets, respirators and maybe tyvek coveralls if I can find them in bulk. Hopefully our local stores are cooperative in giving a good deal so we can get as much as possible.

The plan for now is driving down Friday and probably sleeping in the van and getting to Waveland early Sat. Then Merrie will end up driving my car back from Gulfport on Sun and Mon and I'll stay for a couple weeks again.

Well, I've been home almost a week so I thought I better update this for the few fans I have out there. Whatever cold I had the whole time in Miss on my last trip is still kicking and screaming to some degree. Sadly this is pretty common for me; I get over nasty stuff pretty quick but the annoying runny nose and slight cough seems to hang on forever. Many have asked me about my time in Miss and how things are like and it's not easy to describe. They all want to know if things are improving, too. That's not easy to say either. It depends on where you are and what you're looking at. In some cases, it looks like life is going normally, but it clearly isn't in others and won't be for a long time to come. Utilities and shopping are generally all back except where there was real destruction from wind and surge. The lines remain long though since there are just so many people the area wasn't designed to hold.

My plans may be changing both near- and long-term. Merrie had the idea of delivering urgent supplies with me this weekend so I'm working on getting our van tuned up so we can drive down Friday instead of me flying down Sat. Then she would drive my car back Sunday. That's quite a haul and I'm not sure what we'll take or where we'll be yet. I only made one call to Bay Saint Louis so far but my message wasn't returned. I figure we will end up there or the Waveland area most likely.

Long-term has changed because I will not be returning to school full-time spring semester as I had originally planned. A part-time job opportunity has arisen where I may be taking over the business of a former supervisor who's moving on into ministry. While it is unclear at this point just how much work this may entail and how long it will last, I see it as a sign that God wants me to keep working in the Gulf region. Now I will be able to be there weeks I'm not working up here (I can also telecommute) and be self-sufficient financially. If the work does last a while, I can return to school part-time so it seems like a win-win situation.

The much needed rain finally has come. It's a blessing to this area that really hasn't had any except when Rita came through over 5 weeks ago. It's a curse perhaps to the houses that haven't been tarped yet for some reason. We just saw one of those yesterday in fact. Of course, it also slowed the teams down somewhat this morning but some likely need a break. I came back to the UMCOR office this morning to make sure things were going OK with the new PC we got set up Sunday and they seem to be doing well here now.

I forgot to add something from Sunday. Pastor Stokes sermon was based upon the parable of the talents (Mt. 25:14-30). Essentially his message boiled down to the fact that God gives us all various talents and expects us to faithfully "risk" those talents for the growth of the Kingdom. I forgot who this quote he used came from: No reserve - no retreat - no regrets. That's what we're doing here. Giving it all for God.

Things will be slow with my blog for a while. I'm heading home this morning and won't be back until the 12th. I will try to update some thoughts during that time.