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.