Biloxi2- Thursday

Tonight I offered people free beer. I didn't get any takers, so there
were none that were disappointed that it was root beer.

Today was another long day. We did the assignment at the Pippens-
which is what I called Whiggens yesterday. Ray had a good insight.
Mr. Pippen is a man we have never met in person. We have only talked
to him on the phone. Today we went to his house, left unlocked, fixed
his ceiling and installed his light, and left. We left him a card and
a little money. And we named his cat. (Robin called it Lucy, I
called it Spot.- it's an orange cat.)

Ray worked also on an electrical project at Ida Mae's. Her case
worker stopped by. Very cool.

Howard worked at Nate's today. He hung a door. It took awhile
because the house is old and doesn't have common measurement standards
that most use today.

The crowd at Lena's worked hard and got a lot more done. And still
there is more to do. We are going to do as much as we can tomorrow
before we leave.

Our big news for the day was the block parties. I (rod) set up the
tents at both sites. i was a little worried about the wind, but they
were great. There didn't turn out to be a lot of people that showed
up at the block party we had out in Pass Christian but the people that
were there had a good time. In Nate and Isaac's neighborhood, the
participation was a lot higher. Ray and others went out and invited
people spontaneously to the floats. Ray played with the kids while
most others talked to the parents and other adults and heard lot of
stories and listened and cared. They guess that they had around 70 or
so people. Judy says that what was important isn't the amount of
people, but the interactions with the people.

Tonight's devotions were with Jim Parry. We called him on the phone
and he shared with us via speaker phone. What a wise man and a good
friend. Ray hugged the phone because Jim said he would like to give
us all hugs.

Pray for rest for us and safe travel and good attitudes and unity.
Prayers that we can accomplish what we are supposed to.

God is good.

R