Friday Night

We have finally hit the true Mississippi summer weather these last two days. Once the sun goes down it's tolerable, but until then, we have to either shower when coming back into camp and sweat putting on clean clothes, or try to wait until things cool down a little. They did run the air just enough in the evenings to cool down the tents so that we can sleep. Miss Fanny's team made it back after their longest day ever. They were able to accomplish many things at her home. A few more pictures have been uploaded today, with some showing work at Fanny's home. Others show Joe & Clara and work being done at their house. There is even a picture of the wonderful Cajun shrimp boil made by Clara and Joe. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UaM2Lho4YvU We had a very nice visit with Joe and Clara at the end of the day. We allowed them to express their feelings about what they and others had been through. Their outlook is so incredible. They were so grateful when we left. She said we were able to put them months ahead in just one week. Since Joe is disabled, their progress had been almost nothing. Contractors and sub-contractors are so hard to get right now. Even if you do get a commitment, they start many jobs and just are not able to keep up with them. Two of the most important things we were told before arriving here and right when we got here were: 1) be flexible, and 2) keep an open mind and heart. There are many different things to process when you get out to a site and start to work. It has been so important to be compassionate and let people tell their stories--such a huge part of the healing for them. There are things that make it seem difficult to keep an open mind. Each situation is different. Are there those who have taken advantage of the help they have received? Yes there are. There are also many others who are struggling just to re-make a life for themselves and their families. There are people who work, people who don't work, people who had insurance and people who did not have insurance, and people who lived in what some would consider nice homes and others who lived in poverty. Hopefully, no one is here to judge. Our job was to show compassion and lend helping hands. If we leave the place better than we found it, we've done our jobs. If we listen and visit and bring some relief--and some smiles--that is all we or all the other volunteers can ask. Tonight, we served dinner and it was our turn to run devotions, which we gratefully turned over to Pastor Myers. We heard a very fitting message about how we have come together to form sort of our own community here. As in communion, we are called together as strangers and also friends, and have shared many things. We've broken bread together, shared tents, showers, sinks, little johnnies (outhouses), etc. We were reminded to think about what we have given to the people we have served while here, what we'll be leaving behind of ourselves. Also, we were encouraged to think about what we will be taking with us. What we were given from others here. There is so much work to be done tonight. We are beginning to pack up. There is a wonderful supply tent located here, in which everything is there for our use. We have found and used many things in there, and will now be leaving some things for others to use. This seems to be the ultimate symbol of the circle of giving and love we have experienced while here. We'll pack as much as possible tonight. Then in the morning, we have camp clean-up duty. We've divided all the chores, and will get them done as quickly as possible. We plan to be on the road as early as possible tomorrow.Our plan was to stay in Memphis; however, we may try to push on further to be closer to home on Sunday. Please pray for our safe trip home, as well as the volunteers who will be arriving shortly after we leave, for the camp managers, and all those still waiting for someone to come along and make their home a better place.T hanks so much for all your support, we could not have made this trip without it. God Bless!
Your Faith Team

Day 5

This morning, both teams went to Miss Fanny's house, so that the team who hadn't been there could meet her and see all the projects. Since she lives on the way to Joe & Clara's house, we all spent a few minutes touring her home and talking to her. There are a few new pictures; http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UaM2Lho4YuQ one is of her and her team in front of her house. The team got so much accomplished today, including jacking her house up and working on new steps on the outside. There are pictures of this, and it was quite needed. The other team then headed to Joe & Clara's. More work was done at their home finishing off the windows and putting in insulation in preparation for hanging drywall. (Just let me say, you haven't lived until you've installed fiberglass insulation while you're sweating in 95-degree MS weather!) All new Pella windows have now been installed in Joe & Clara's home. The windows are being trimmed on the outside and inside. Joe and Clara cooked a Cajun lunch, so the sack lunches remained in the cooler. We all sat down and shared a great meal together. In talking with Joe & Clara, we asked what they would want us to convey back to people back home. They both said their message was, a big THANK YOU, and to know how appreciative they are. They also wanted us to know that it has been the churches and students who have made a difference down here. We have learned so much while here about giving back to others and how extremely important that is. Part of our job here is to just listen and let the people tell their own story about what they went through (and are still going through). Another joy is meeting all the people here at camp from all over this country and Canada. JoEllen brought along two huge bags of stuffed animals. She plans to drop them off at a place they call Tent City. This is basically a homeless shelter (or at least where a homeless shelter used to sit), which serves breakfast and lunch to over 200 people each day. On a little lighter note, if you look at the photo album, one of the last photos is a picture of Rob, Bill and George's place. The other team arrived back to camp first and was on such a role fixing things up, that they made some time to fix up their place as well. They did not seem all that excited about it when they first arrived, but we thought maybe after a cool shower, they would seem happier about it??Tonight at devotions, the group from the Korean Presbyterian Church in Ontario, Canada, led us in singing Hymn No. 341 from the Presbyterian Hymnal. They sang vs. #1 to us in Korean, we all sang it together in Korean, then all sang vs. #1 in English. After the hymn, a gentleman from their church sang How Great Thou Art, as a solo. He sang it acapella, and it was beautiful. Tonight's dinner was served by Illinois, as we're called. Each team is usually referred to by their state. Miss Fanny and her daughter came to dinner tonight. We have had fun meeting and talking to all the others, and sharing about our lives back home. We've also learned many things the hard way. For example, ifyou don't get in to pack your lunch before "Iowa", they take all the good meat! (Important things like that.) Until tomorrow...
God Bless!
Your Faith Team

Day 4

Today, both teams went back to the same houses to work. More windows were installed and LOTS of fiberglass insulation for Joe and Clara. More construction on Fanny's entire home was also done by a team. We are now waiting for them to ring the bell telling us that dinner is ready. Tomorrow and Friday nights are both our responsibility to provide dinner for the entire camp. That means that after dinner and devotions tonight, we’ll need to take a trip to Sam's to purchase all we need for tomorrow's dinner. We are not sure yet exactly which team members, but 2 or 3 of us will come back to camp early tomorrow to begin grilling hamburgers and getting dinner ready. We wanted to let you know about Elizabeth, the Camp Manager, and what a special person she is. Elizabeth was called to come here a few months ago. After spending a week here, she was compelled to quit her job and now manages this camp 24 hours a day, 7 days week. She lives in a small camper here on site. This camp is expected to remain open for 2 more years. She is pretty much a one-woman operation. She did enlist a few volunteers to either stay on longer or come back. Dave helps her; he is from Seattle and is retired. He has some expertise in construction. Since many of the people needing assistance are thankfully now into the re-construction phase, the jobs are becoming more skilled. Elizabeth takes care of everything and adds a personal touch by getting to know the families she is helping as well as all her volunteers here. She spends her days ordering supplies, lining up volunteer teams and visiting those in need. She then has to schedule work, purchase materials for jobs, etc. Her feeling to spend more time here is certainly understandable. Both our teams have become quite attached to the people we are helping. We want to make sure we do as much as possible to bring their homes along as far as we can. We are already concerned about how the work will progress after we've gone home. Dinner is soon, which will lead straight into devotions, then a trip to Sam's, which should take us right into bedtime. The devotions take place in the church each night after dinner. At these, we start out by Elizabeth giving any announcements. Then each team speaks of where they spent their day working and the progress that was made. Then, which ever team put in charge leads a short motivational worship service. Our turn to lead devotions is Friday night. Pastor Myers has shared his ideas with us, and as our last night here, we are sure this will be a very special service for our team. Until tomorrow... God Bless!

Day 3

We are sitting in the most peaceful place sending our message tonight. It's just about 8 p.m., and our day is finally starting to wind down. We'll try to give a brief outline of our daily routine. Breakfast is at 7:00 a.m. As soon as breakfast is over, teams who are either getting their new assignments (which includes a briefing about the location where they'll be working, along with directions, special instructions, and funds if needed to purchase materials)... or teams who are going back to the same job as the previous day and are hitting the tool shed and loading up tools and supplies to head out. You are also responsible for making your own sack lunch at breakfast time, which gets packed into your team's cooler. Today, our group of 12 was split into two teams of 6. One team went to a very sweet 80-year old woman's home. PDA has been with her (Fanny) since they did mold extraction and gutted her home. Her home is now in the phase of reconstruction. The group who went there worked hard all day, with Fanny along their sides. There are still many construction projects awaiting at Fanny's home, and that group expects to be going back there for the rest of the week. The other 6 of our group went to Joe and Clara's home. Joe has a heart condition and Clara works 3rd shift. They first asked for help in early May, but today was the first time anyone could get there to help them. This team installed new windows and did other general jobs for them. Clara and Joe (like Fanny) have been living in FEMA trailers in their yard for nearly a year. Clara told us of their experience the day of Katrina. She said their home (which had not had water inthe 23 years they lived there) filled up with 5-FEET of water in 90 SECONDS! Her daughter does not know how to swim, and asked that her Dad not hurt himself trying to save her and that they should just let her go. They all managed to survive, and saved just a small table full of things from their home. Their home is now down to the studs and ready for reconstruction. The team expects to be helping Joe and Clara all week. As for the rest of our day... after work until around 5:00 p.m., we head back to camp. Everyone is over heated and dirty, so we all hit the showers (which is also a tent, with hoses coming into the sides and zipper doors). We found out the hard way today that the water isn't yet heated up around that time, so the showers were all cold water! Dinner is at 6:30, then Devotions at 7:30, and then of course, lights out at 10:00 p.m. (which no one minds since we're tired). We want to share with you a little bit about our camp and it's evolution. We are stationed at Orange Grove Presbyerian Church, Orange Grove, MS. This is a lovely little rural church. A congregation of SEVEN. Yes that's right, a congregation of SEVEN! Just before hurricane Katrina, this congregation asked the Presbytery to close the church. They were told "try harder". The blessing in disguise is that right after the storm, this was suited as an ideal place for the Presbytery Disaster Assistance to set up a camp. This is one of 6 camps inMississippi and Louisiana providing disaster assistance. It's on 4 acres and if all cots are full, can sleep 160. This week, there are close to 90 people here. What this means for Orange Grove Presbytery, is that they have been able to hire a new Pastor who will be starting soon and the life of the church will be renewed. We have our devotions and personal "quiet time" in the church (during the week). Thanks for reading, and sorry so lengthy. There is just so much we want to share with ya'll. (We seem to be picking up some of the southern draw'll). Here is a new link to view the pictures we've added. Everytime we add more, the address changes. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8UaM2Lho4YsY Also, we would love to hear any responses you may have. Just click on the bottom of this entry where the comments are located. You should be able to type in an entry.
P. S. We have been blessed with the most beautiful weather. It's hot and humid during the day, but at night, it's been almost chilly. We all learned last night that we needed more blankets! The a.c. to the pods isn't turned on during the day, and we haven't had to turn it on yet.
God Bless!

Day 2

We got an early start and met for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. today (Monday). We made it to our destination around 3:30 this afternoon. The photo album shows lots of pictures from camp. There are lots of cats around here, they've obviously found a friendly place to live. The camp at full capacity can sleep 160. This week, we'll be at 85. We traveled 823 miles to get here. We were told by Elizabeth, the camp manager (you'll see in our photos), that orientation would be around 6:00 p.m., and we could go explore the coast and take a look for ourselves. There are quite a few photos from that drive. It was VERY eye opening. The destruction, even after over a year, is still everywhere. We got moved into our "pods", which are actually corrugated plastic (they look like accordians). There are photos of us moving in. We then explored all other areas of the camp. We had orientation, then went to our first dinner, which was prepared by two girls from California. We have groups here from Iowa, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio and Ontario, Canada. Elizabeth told us she had a North Pole, Alaska group last week and that they had survived (meaning, dont even try to be wimps, if the Alaska people can make it, so can you). We learned how the camp operates and what our duties would entail. In addition to going out and working on peoples' homes, we will also have to help maintain the camp. This includes taking turns cooking and cleaning and leading one night of devotionals. We learned we are in charge of Tuesday breakfast dishes, Tuesday dinner dishes, Thursday night cooking, Friday night cooking, Friday night devotionals, and Saturday morning cleaning the camp. The 12 of us have divided into two groups with George as a team leader and Brad as the other team leader. Elizabeth will give us our actual work assignments tomorrow morning after breakfast and we'll head out. You'll see photos, but tonight's devotional was lead by the Iowa youth group from Washington, IA. They did an awesome job with an interpretive dance to a christian song. Another group invited the homeowner who they had been helping to rebuild his house, to join our devotional. He got up and spoke about his experience during the Hurricane. He shared with us that he had climbed to his attic where the water reached the ceiling just below him. He assumed he would not live, and went to sleep. When he woke up, he realized the water was finally starting to recede. We're excited to get our work assignments tomorrow morning. It's lights out at10:00 p.m., and it's getting close to that. We'll write again tomorrow.

Day 1

We left the church around 12:30. THANKS to all who came to see us off!! Thanks also to all of those who are waiting for us at home and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We made it to Memphis around 9:30 p.m. We checked into our hotel and prepared to get a good night's sleep for the travel the next day. We stayed at the Days Inn in W. Memphis, AR. Our hotel was right across the road from a lot of busy motels, truck stops and even a large tattoo place. We neither confirm nor deny the rumors about Pastor Myers' new tattoo!