Final Thoughts..

Today I received an email from Michael, the volunteer coordinator of Camp Coast Care, making an appeal for volunteers. As Michael puts it..

Help Camp Coast Care fulfill its 7 year pledge to the communities of the Gulf Coast.

We cannot do this alone, we need your support and most importantly your participation.

Volunteer today!

I've been slow to jump back into my old routine. Somehow the work back here seems so self centered and abstract. I've tried a couple of things like baking bread and gardening to get into a more centered and simple frame of mind, but I keep going back to the great feeling I got working so hard each day to achieve a simple and focused goal; to create and restore shelter for people in great need, and to do it in community with others.

Here is a note I received from Heather that expresses much of the same feelings I've been having.

Being on this trip really made me wake up and think about things outside of

Columbus, OH. Everything that happened while I was in Mississippi taught me

something new. The friends I made not only from St. Stephens but from other

groups also taught me a lot about myself and about everything around me.

Even listening to what the homeowners had to say about the hurricanes, and

what they and the people around them did to escape, just really opened my

eyes to how bad the situation actually was. The whole trip was definately

what you could call an experience, but its also one that I won't be

forgetting any time soon.

Heather

So yes, it would be great to go back and help Michael and the wonderful community there in Bay St. Louis continue on the road of recovery. Perhaps before the year is out, if enough folks are committed to it, we can do it again. But in the meanwhile, I hope we can find a way to bring the same commitment, dedication and the willingness to sacrifice and work hard to our own missions both corporate and personal here at home. Needs are everywhere. People in pain are everywhere. Hungry, lonely, abused, addicted, confused, and searching people are everywhere. I pray that the God of Compassion touches all our hearts and inspires works of love and charity in us all.

Finally, here is a picture of our sign, the one that we imagined and created together while at Camp Coast Care. It hangs on the entrance wall to their new facilities, among a wild array of other signs marking the visits of hundreds of other groups who have

worked to restore lives in the Gulf Coast region. We went back to our old "motto" at St. Stephen's, a quote from the Book of Micah.. to do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God ..

Please let George, Pam, or one of us who traveled to Mississippi know if you are interested in a future mission trip or just identifying good work we can do together here in our own community. Amen.

..Joe

Lindiwei Shows Her Moxie..

On our last working day, Friday, Lindiwei and I were part of a small team given a very big job.. to prepare and raise the 16 foot high wooden piers that would be the foundation for a new house. Everyone had to give 110% to get anything accomplished, but I would single out Lindiwei as a true heroine that day. Check out the picture on the left where she drives the Bobcat backhoe.

..Joe

Leaning, leaning...

Gulf Coast folks have to endure a lot to live here. The church pictured above was built in the post Civil War era. When this Long Beach, Mississippi Baptist congregation was founded they lived without the comforts we take for granted like air conditioning, electricity, and instant communications, but they more than survived as they experienced the "good life" in food and music and fellowship with one another. And every now and then just as today they endured the furies of storms that loom up out of the southern skies and bring destruction, pain, and sometimes death.

Our little band of workers have come here for a short time to enter into that fellowship, to share something of the good life as we know it, and to learn even more about living well through service to others. We sleep on hard beds (but we have beds), we endure punishing heat and sun (but we have cool waters and shade), we labor with our hands (but we have our physical strength to share), and we pray together, not just with words but with actions. Hallelujah! AMEN.

I want to thank everyone back home who supported our mission this week with prayers, dollars, care packages, cars, and comments. I hope this blogging from the field has helped give a sense of the work we have done and the people we have met in the spirit of fellowship. It has been an unbelievable healing for me to help in this small way to offset the terrible impact of these merciless storms that can roll in from the south. When we lean on one another, even the mightiest winds have trouble pushing us down.

..Love.. Joe


What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Some Days You're Down, The Next Day You're Up

Today, as I was sweating up on a roof - pulling out nails, ripping off damaged shingles - I got to thinking how much this experience is like a trip to the monastery. At least it is for me. There is this community that is gathered to worship, to eat, to support one another. And then there is the work. It is the monastery it is very individual and very private whereas here it is work work. I did not expect to find this. Many things that were of importance fade in the background as the work is encountered or the community is experienced and we are focus on this one thing.

I could not live at this height ... I need some TV, some down time, my own house, the dogs ... but I really like visiting it. There is something transfiguring about it but I will refrain from building any booths. George

Some Thoughts From George Written Wednesday Night...

Troy, Julia, Joe, and I ended up at a house this afternoon that had been partially damaged by Katrina. The photo on the left is not this house but is comparable in size and the extent of damage. Elaine and Mignonne had been there in the morning and Elaine stayed to finish her closet work. You can read about Elaine's experience in the previous post. Walls had been rebuilt, siding installed, new windows, sheetrock installed and we were "mudding" the walls in preparation for painting. So much had been done but what follows tells you how much remains.

The owner of the home had been living in a FEMA trailer which FEMA had taken back. Reasons unknown. No one knew where this man was. Work continued on his house as he sought some kind of temporary housing. As work began in the morning on this house, the electric company showed up to shut off the electricity for an overdue bill. The Camp Coast Care project supervisor asked the electric company employee to give her time to reach the owner of the house. She found his brother who went in to make payment and the electricity stayed on and work continued.

But this illustrates how for some residents here life stays on the "edge."

To get to this house we passed quite a beautiful landscape of a beach and large mansions facing it that had been rebuilt by the wealthy. Behind this facade of opulence stood the areas where we have been working. People without "deep pockets." People whose meagre housing was destroyed and rendered uninhabitable. These are the people that Camp Coast Care is helping.

As I biked around Bay St. Louis yesterday evening I saw the spotty nature of reconstruction - houses rebuilt here and here and here and then one boarded up. The ocean front of Bay St. Louis (a tourist town which derives most of its livelihood from that industry) looks even worse. It, of course, took the brunt of the storm (photo at left was taken right after Katrina passed). Facing the bay is a large picture of what it will look like when it is fully rebuilt. It seems a long way off in the future to me from where I sit today. But then each resident whom we have helped must have felt that way for days, weeks, months after the storm and things ARE changing.

The holes I was digging out today was for a house for a couple who had managed to get a grant and when it is completed they will have better housing than before Katrina.

Volunteers come and go. We do a little and rarely get to see the finished product. But the accumulation of the effort and the love is something that remains to be determined. Like the drop of water in a pond, it may seem like little is changing but in reality in ponds all over this part of the Gulf Coast the drops of water from volunteers from all over the country is actually making quite a splash. - George Glazier

Elaine 1 - Closet 0

Unwilling to be bullied by a mere wardrobe storage unit, Elaine tackled and tasted victory over the challenging drywalling of a closet at a different house, this time in Long Beach. George, Julia, Troy, and I joined the others from the foundation job in the afternoon to help with a house very close to completed. After the drywalling is done the painting, fixtures and plumbing will be completed and the residents can return to a house they haven't been able to live in for years.

Julia Helps George Dig His Way Out of a Hole

This job was the dirtiest, most tiring, and most exciting thing we have done so far. Sure, it was hard physical labor, but to me it is great to know that some of us from St. Stephens, along with young people from New York, helped build a foundation for a house that can withstand a flood and hurricane force winds for years to come for a couple in their late fifties who lost virtually everything in the storm and have waited for years for this chance at security in their lives.

We're Working on It...

We are working on a sign to commemorate our mission trip here in Bay St. Louis. It was interesting to watch the interactions within the group. We are certainly all getting to be better acquainted as we spend the week laboring together. This will be fun finishing and I'll post the finished product later in the week.

Today's Work...

Since Troy and I worked on the moving yesterday, we were guaranteed a different assignment today. We actually worked on a home site today, but it is a new project just getting started, and we helped prepare the post holes to support the massive square wooden piers that this new two bedroom house will sit upon. It will be 12 feet off the ground to avoid any new flooding as happened with the previous house when Katrina's storm surge came ashore just west of Bay St. Louis.

We met the home owner, a woman and her husband (whom we did not meet) in their late 50's who had lived in the area all of their lives and lost virtually everything they had in the storm. They have been living in an old trailer for four years, and are very excited to contemplate a new and safe home on their old site. They both receive public assistance and qualified for a government grant to cover the basic costs of their reconstruction. Of course they could not afford the house if they weren't working with Camp Coast Care and other agencies to get the job done at a minimal cost. Our donated labor has a great deal to do with the ability of folks such as this couple to remain in the area and to receive a replacement for their destroyed houses.

The others from our group haven't come into the commons area yet after their work, so I'll add more later about their experiences today.

..Joe

Just so we remember..

The picture above was taken shortly after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and of course the recovery has progressed a great deal over four years. But time passing has a way of softening our recollection of events, and I thought it important to share how my own awareness of the massive impact of Katrina and other subsequent storms like Gustav has been raised by this trip.

One fact I had overlooked but that is now very clear to me is how the impacts have been quite uneven for different people. There always was and still is a wealthy class of resident in this area. You will see massive mansions on the edge of the Gulf Coast that could be straight out of Gone With The Wind. But these folks are the minority, and in many cases are part time residents at best and have multiple homes to live in. The vast majority of people are living life again as before, although their circumstances have been forever altered. Perhaps they rebuilt their home on the same site, or they had limited damage that allowed for the slow repair of their house. Perhaps they started on the path to recovery only to be set back once again by Gustav, a less powerful storm than Katrina which nonetheless did damage in some of the same communities as Katrina. Perhaps they have lost their jobs and instead of the manufacturing job they had before the storm they now work for half the money at Walmart. And there are those who are still living in "temporary" housing, even tents, because they can not find a way back out of the sudden destruction of their delicate lives before the hurricane.

You can still find ways to help, either through donations to groups that give service like Episcopal Relief and Development, who help fund this camp, or other Gulf-Coast based groups you can find on the internet. I'll try to put together a list before I wrap up this blog in case you feel moved to help.

peace.. Joe

Splish Splash

So after cleaning up the kitchen some of us went to the Bay St. Louis beach for a little toe dipping in the Gulf..











Christopher and Elaine ventured out even further.. mere specks on the horizon..

This doesn't look like building a house.?

So Troy and I ended up with a different assignment from the others in our group. We helped to clear out the tool shed at Camp Coast Care so the tools and materials stored there could be transferred to the Bay St. Louis site. Troy proved to be a valuable asset as he was quite adept at getting the maximum amount of stuff in a step van per trip. We were filthy at the end of the day, but it was an important job to take care of. Tonight we have kitchen clean up duty (yeah!).

Slight Change of Plans...

Turns out we have been redirected slightly and are not working in Long Beach this time but rather in Bay St. Louis which is the next town west of Long Beach and a place equally in need of volunteer builders. We are staying in a camp which is located in the former Lagniappe Presbyterian Church compound, and while the facilities are a little spartan they are very friendly, efficiently run, clean, and safe. Here is a picture of the bunkhouses where we are housed.

Right now it is around 3:30 am. I've slept for a few hours after another great dinner at a local seafood restaurant, but woke up and thought I would get an update in before the big work day starts. We have three meals a day here at the camp Monday through Friday, so no more fancy food for a few days. We meet at 7 am to get our work assignments, and it is virtually guaranteed that we won't all be on the same project. You get placed with others according to what the project manager needs that day. It could be carpentry, painting, or general site prep. I'm kind of hoping I get to work inside as that is my area of greatest experience, drywalling, trim, painting. We will see.

Anyway, our group has great fellowship building, and once we get to know some of the other numerous folks here to work with us I'm sure the experience of mission will grow even stronger. Hope someone is reading this back in Columbus. I've enabled comments so please leave some words of encouragement if you have any for us.

love.. Joe

Glazier's Taillights...

No, this is not the Abbey Road album cover, but the typical view we saw from our car of the back of George's car. We imprinted on him like baby ducklings to mama duck!

We arrived in Bay St. Louis safe and sound around 5 pm. More to follow tomorrow, for we are tired.

mmmmm.. roasted beasties

So we went to Corky's BBQ and had an incredible "last supper" before the arrival at camp. Turns out there is great food here too but we didn't know that then. The aroma of roasted meat over hot coals stayed on our clothes long after the meal. We discovered that Christopher has an amazingly expandable stomach that can hold three times the food of a typical conscious human being!

The sacrifical beasts are about to be served. BBQ in Music City U.S.A.

Grizzle Frazzel...

So we ended up lost in the exclusive Nashville suburb of Brentwood. I believe that is Dolly Parton's house behind George! We eventually do get back on track and have a nice stay in a Hampton Inn for the night.

And the people say AMEN

We stop in Cincinnatti at the cathedral for the service of ordination to the deaconate. A long but very beautiful liturgy.

Yawn..

At 7:45 AM we were almost underway, not quite rejoicing but generally excited and happy.

So I've done a little research.. the weather forecast looks great. It will be hotter than here of course, and more humid, but sunny and no rain predicted for the entire week.

There is a ferry from Gulfport to one of the off-shore islands, so I'm hoping there might be a chance to go exploring before we have to return. I'm also hoping to see some flying fish which can be found in the Gulf of Mexico. Very cool.

10 days till we leave ..

I've been getting my packing started which means I'm excited about the trip. 10 days and counting.

Orange Juice and Pansies

So it seems I most appreciate the things around me when I contemplate leaving them, even if just for a short time. This is where I've been eating breakfast lately. Nice.

getting ready

So the time is getting short. I'm heading to the Gulf Coast in a month! Just practicing posting via cell.

Multimedia message

During an upcoming mission trip to help reconstruct houses in the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi, I plan to post regular blog entries from there and include pictures. This was done via my cell phone.