51 Weeks

Song of the South

It is hard to believe that we are fixin’ to leave

Southern Mississippi

.

We wrapped up our projects yesterday trying to finish before a big thunderstorm hit. It was a relatively cool day because the thunderstorms were developing and providing wind and shade. This area is just about perfect, from a meteorological standpoint, for producing storms. It is amazing during the day to watch the very rapid vertical development of these storms.

Each of the teams invited their respective families to dinner (they call it supper here) in the evening.

A lot of good work got done but the work was not as important and the hope was. People here are tired and have struggled long to recover to whatever normal will be here. It is important to realize that all of the landmarks and icons and even the daily familiar ways of driving past familiar houses has all been changed. All along the coast and back over a quarter of a mile are lots empty except for cement slabs or signs indicating that such and such a church used to stand here.

The people here at First United Methodist Church of Long Beach were moved that they are not on their own and forgotten. They say we brought a renewed work ethic and joy and… hope. The families we worked for said much the same.

Well, we finished up our projects and got back to the church in front of the thunderstorm. Actually, my group went to see the Friendship Oak on the campus of

University

of

Southern Mississippi

’ s campus on the beach.

It is an amazing tree.

A sapling when

Columbus

sailed to

America

and it is a huge sprawling tree today. It lived through Katrina. Anything in the first story of the campus buildings did not.

We looked into gutted classrooms and lecture halls. The images in my mind reminded me of imaged of blown out buildings in war zones like

Iraq

, though much of the debris has been cleared out. Restaurants, shops, casinos, gas stations, most were erased from the beach area and the recovery, while steady, is not instantaneous.

After this visit we went to the beach where we knew we could get sno-cones and we watched the storm come in. There was a tremendous squall line out about 8 miles and out of it dropped a waterspout.

When we arrived at the church the rain started. There was water everywhere, in the streets, in the yards, rushing down the streets, in a very few minutes. There was a lot of bright and loud lightning striking close. Two hours later it was over.

We ate dinner with the families we worked for and had a wonderful time.

Evening worship was built around Joshua 4 where the people of

Israel

crossed the Jordan River on dry group (a kind of mini parting of the

Red Sea

. A man from of the twelve tribes of

Israel

were instructed to carry a stone out of the riverbed and make a memorial so that, when future generations asked, “what do these stones mean?” they would remember the that the Lord had done a great thing and let the Israelites cross over the Jordan on dry land. So there was a time before the crossing and a time after.

The students were invited to place sticky notes on a pile of stones in the sanctuary and write on those notes how things were going to be different when they returned home. Worship was very good…and very loud.

This morning we are thinking about going home. We plan to eat some authentic Southern cooking which will include gumbo, crawfish dishes, alligator and who knows what else. We will probably have a little beach or mall time and then we will fly out this afternoon to arrive at PDX at about

11:30 pm

and home sometime thereafter.

To God be the glory!

Mississippi Update from Ted

Hello from

Mississippi

. Yesterday (Monday) we began the work week.

We began with a good breakfast served with that wonderful Southern hospitality. We had a devotional time. All of our students and adults were put into teams. These teams were given a project or series of projects to do. There are fences being put up. There is plumbing, debris removal, painting, yard work, small construction projects being done. There are  windows to install, doors to hang, toilets to secure, fences to build. The mission is even setting up a pre-school for the Baptist church as they move into their new building.

Their old original church building was largely swept away by the surge from Hurricane Katrina and there is nothing left of the building today except for the cement foundation slab. As a matter of fact, from the beach to about ¼ mile inland there are very few buildings or businesses and a great many empty lots. The project I am working on is for Gary and Nell Palermo. They are aging and ailing. FEMA provided them with a new roof. The rest of the damage was left for them to deal with. They have been much abused by dishonest contractors, who have either done shoddy work or have failed to do the work they were being paid to do.

I hear that this is not unusual in post-Katrina

Mississippi

Gulf

areas. We are repairing and painting the ceiling under the FEMA roof as well as doing other interior painting and repair work. The whole yard was cleaned out and a great deal of “stuff” was thrown out.

Piles of it.

What I am finding is that many people have made the front of their homes presentable but they have not yet parted with all of their debris. We removed the better part of a tree from up against the house next door. The

Palermo

’s house was pressure washed to remove grime and algae from the siding.

My big “God Moment” came when I was walking out of the back room and walked through the living room where Mrs. Palermo was talking to a friend on her cordless phone. Loud and unashamed she said, “Here he is! That man from Washington who brought kids from

Washington

State

and

Oregon

. He’s the man who told me that God wanted him to come here to help us.”

The students worked hard and had some fun, especially with the power washer.

It is 90 degrees and almost 90% humidity here- the power washer was a popular tool. Then it was back to church for showers and free time.

We ate another fine meal served up with that remarkable Southern hospitality. We had a fine time of worship and received great teaching from our speaker William Rambo. He spoke from Luke 6: who do you say that I am?

When (not if) the storms comes will our house survive built on the rock? When life is not everything you thought or hoped it would be what then?

After this worship time each of our groups got together to debrief and talk and pray among themselves.

It became clear that many of our students had little idea of the magnitude of the Katrina disaster and some had little idea even of what a hurricane is like. So they were told about the debris field left by the huge storm surge- a swath of debris 12 feet deep over 100 yards wide and 100 miles long along this coastline.

In the debris field were TVs, furniture, cars, pets, houses, the entire contents of stores and restaurants, boats refrigerators, trees and even some people.

Dead people.

Many people had to swim for their lives and emerged from the woods after the storm carrying everything they now owned.

It was then that we decided to invite a 22 year old youth pastor from Bay St. Louis, MS, and his youth to tell us first hand what it was like and what our being here means. I’ve come to understand that at least one of the reasons we are here is hope and to let people here who are struggling to recover from a massive disaster that they are not forgotten, by us, by God.

As we considered what it meant not to be

Mexico

we began to ask the question: Is it harder to have nothing and get something great or to have had everything, lose it and try to recover it.  It is good that we are here.

I’ll tell you David Dorn’s story and more of ours tomorrow…

Mexico NEXT YEAR???

Hi There Meximaniacs

We are just finishing the preparation for going to Mississippi on a mission trip in Katrina ravaged turf. We are excited about this trip and are very glad to be able to do it. But much of my heart is still in Mexico

The violence we are avoiding this year is concentrated in Mexico City and especially at the border towns (especially Tijuana). We are going to have to make some decisions soon about what way we are going to take next summer and we have begun doing some research.

If the violence recedes significantly we could return to the east and south of

She found one that, at first blush, I really like. It is four hours south of the border in Baja. Close to pristine beaches that are relatively unused (I am liking this part a lot). It is in an area called the San Quentin valley (that’s “Sahn Kenteen” and not “San Kwenton”, easier to sell to parents I would think). Anyway, I will shut up and not bias you but I would like for each of you to go to THIS WEBSITE and look it over very carefully.

I would like your feedback about possibly using this agency, if we wish to return to Mexico next summer. God bless you each and all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Grace and Peace

Ted

Update on Mexi-ssippi Mission

Hey to all you checkin' in...

We obviously haven't done much with this blog for awhile.  Sorry about that! 

I've decided to call this years trip the "Mexi-ssippi Mission" since I can't seem to stop calling it the Mexico Mission.  Some things just stick, I guess.

Anyway... the team left for Mississippi's Katrina Relief last Friday.  For a more in-depth update and reason for the change of location, CLICK HERE.

So far, the team is doing great.  They are working hard in the heat and humidity... but having a BLAST!  I'm hoping for a more detailed update soon.  I'll let you know :)