Another day in the Mississippi Sun

The Team had another productive day here in Mississippi. Before I report on our daily activities and accomplishments I would like to identify an oversight in yesterdays posting. In identifying all the work crews I failed to mention Adam who was not attached to a crew. Adam has been doing an awesome job coordinating our activities, moving people and materials around, and working with Skip in developing new work for our crews to do. We want to maximize our impact here so Adam's organizational abilities have been very fruitful. We have had very little in the way of downtime. Thanks Adam!

Today Pete, Johan, Arlen and I did some work for Laurence, a 62 year old single man with health problems who is building a new home to replace the one he lost. We trimmed a couple of door and installed baseboards In the main living area.

Ian, Ed and Ethan spent another day at Mikes house and, in spite of some inconsistent and runny concrete were able to finish a driveway. They will move onto another project tomorrow. In spite of a lack of tools and unfamiliarity with the concrete supplier and their product the guys did an excellent job. Ethan apparently found and took pictures of a Gecko today, something not found in BC.

Kelly, Henry, Janet, John and Evelyn continued the work at Skip's house. The tile in three areas have been grouted and the floor was prepared for the installation of laminate tomorrow.

Sid, Kees, Ken, Ryan, Jessica and Chantelle painted a first coat on a ground level bungalow for homeowner Jim. Jim, who was expecting us to provide professional painters, will have someone spray on the second coat.

While everyone has been very busy working at their assigned tasks there have been opportunities to engage the various homeowner in conversation. Discussions include our reasons for being here, and sometimes faith.

Sitting here at Skip's house discussing plans for tomorrow we are appreciating his waterfront view of The Bay of St. Louis.

To those of you who took the time to e-mail us- Thank You! We truly appreciate your prayers and words of encouragement. As always, you can e-mail the team who are read your messages each evening after devotions. Our e-mail address is team@lhcrcmissions.com

A hot day in Mississippi

Today we finished painting a house for Glenn, a local resident who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. Over the past few days John and Carl, and at various times Ken, Ryan, Arlen and Ethan painted the entire exterior of the home. The aforementioned young men, being agile and nimble were very well suited to climbing and working on he scaffolding of the house. Ken and Ryan were especially daring as they painted the highest point of the house from the scaffold about 28 feet from the ground. The homeowner was impressed by their efforts as were John and I.

Kees and Sid helped another local resident install windows and fascia board. He had been waiting for help since October.

Pete, Johan, Jessica and Chantelle finished their project for a Janey, a local widow whose garage is being converted to a living unit for her. The exterior was refurbished and painted and some minor framing was done inside.

Kelly, Henry, Janet and Evelyn were still busy at Skip's house laying tile, doing some interior trim and some drywall mudding for a change that was made to a closet door.

Ian and Ed, our concrete experts, poured a slab under a house with the assistance of homeowner Mike and others of our crew when the concrete was delivered. Ian and Ed then spent the rest of the day finishing the slab.

The weather here is beautiful at the moment with temperatures reaching 86 degrees today. We were thankful for the breeze that was present most of the day.

We're back at Project Hope and Compassion, our base here, and are just about to get supper which smells great. I don't know what we are having but suppers so far have been terrific and I'm sure this one will be no different.

This evening we will find out what we will be doing tomorrow and will be deciding who goes to what jobs. I'm personally hoping my new task does not include a paint brush... :)

It is great to see how well the team has come together as we do God's work here. A real family atmosphere has set in.

More to follow tomorrow. Again thanks to those who have encouraged us via e-mail. We can be reached at team@lhcrcmissions.com

The work begins

After getting up early and having breakfast we raided the tool bins here and set out for our work sites, four in all.

Everyone had a very busy day and accomplished lots. Some of the things we did included interior finishing, tile laying, exterior caulking and painting, cement laying preparation, scraping paint, and fixing damaged wood siding. We are blessed with a great variety of tradespeople with assortment of skills.

Sid arrived today in his motor home and will add his skills to the team tomorrow: no wait, Sid stepped up and was the chief dishwasher after supper, so he has already been put to work.

Tuesday we expect to finish some projects and move onto new ones after that. It's nice to be able to help some folks get that much closer to having their homes finished. All of the homeowner had lost almost everything. One fellow, who was just retired, lost everything and now has to get a job to pay for the rebuilding of his house.

The young people are out playing football, amazing us with their energy.

In a little while we will be gathering for some devotions before heading to bed for some well deserved rest. To those of you who have sent the team a message and words of encouragement- Thank You.

Again, for those of you reading the blog ans following our trip here, you can drop us a line at team@lhcrcmissions.com

Your messages will be read to the rest of the team at the end of the day when we gather for devotions. (Carl)

What we will be doing

After a quick trip around the area to survey the damage it became clear just how much damage there is here especially in areas close to the water.

Many of the people here lost their homes and received only limited cooperation from their insurance companies because they were insured against wind but not water damage. The problem is that hurricanes can force huge amounts of water inland during the storm, in some cases 6-15 feet high.

Skip showed us three houses in varying stages of construction that were in need of work. In one case we will be assisting the owner with some finishing and tiling. Another house owner needs help with framing and pouring of a concrete pad which is Ian's specialty. The last project will assist a recent widow in the conversion of a garage to a living unit as her house, which was nearby, was totally destroyed in the hurricane.

Well, tomorrow we will finally be getting our hands dirty. Everyone is looking forward to helping people move closer to being able to occupy their homes. This evening we will discuss the work ahead and assign everyone to a crew. (Carl)

Sunday Morning

After a reasonably restful night considering the adjustment to sleeping on air mattresses in the church hall we had a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs and hash browns. Thankfully Adam found a Baptist church down the road that has an eleven o'clock service.

Later today we meet "Skip" who's is a project coordinator here. Skip will be showing us what our projects for the week will be. I'll let you know what we will be doing once we find out.

Today it is cloudy and raining with very high humidity.

Later today we will be driving out closer to the coast to get a look at the damage that is, according to John and Evelyn, quite evident on the coast. The rest of us couldn't see much because it was dark when we arrived.

If you would like to contact the team with words of encouragement, etc. Just e-mail team@lhcrcmissions.com

More to follow later...

The Eagle has landed

Our connecting flight with American Eagle Airlines was on a regional commuter jet. It was an uneventful trip.

John and Evelyn met us at the Gulfport-Biloxi Airport. We packed our substantial luggage - it's amazing what you need to pack especially if you need to bring your own mattress, sleeping bag and pillow. We are about to head off to St.Ann's Church where we will be staying.

P.S. Please ignore the privacy message that shows up at the bottom of these posts. My Blackberry puts them there (that's how I'm posting to he blog) and I haven't figured out how to shut it off. In any event, that's it for now. More tomorrow if we have service. If you want to drop the team a message of encouragement or greetings, just send an e-mail to team@lhcrcmissions.com

Carl

We're in the U.S.

The most difficult part of the trip is over. Yes - Sixteen of us managed to cross the border: Probably the most nerve-racking part of our adventure. We were all processed and issued one week permission cards so that US authorities could confirm we eventually left the country. They started to fingerprint us but then realized that wasn't necessary. All in all though, given the events of recent years, the precautions are understandable.

We're now traveling through the picturesque Whatcom county back roads as Pete has assured us that we will bypass all of the construction on the I-5 near Bellingham.

Ian and I have been discussing the possibility of locating and partaking in a Mississippi catfish fry.

We just now popped onto the I-5 at Mount Vernon and are speeding towards SeaTac. More to follow...

April 13th Missions Trip Update

Carl made a short presentation during the morning service updating everyone on the upcoming trip which is only two weeks away. After providing some background and an update on our plans, members of the Katrina Team were invited to the stage so that the congregation would know who to pray for. The team has a wonderful cross section of members which includes men, women, young people, married couples and one entire family.

Those of you who missed the presentation can catch it here. Following are links to the PowerPoint presentation and an MP3 audio file of Carl's presentation. Click to play, or Right click and select "Save Target As..." to download to your computer.

Powerpoint (8 MB) / MP3 audio (10 MB)

The members of the LHCRC Katrina Missions Team thanks you for your supports and asks that you pray for safe travel and workplace safety, that arrangements go as planned, strength, endurance and skill, and for opportunities to witness.