Home from Biloxi3

We got up earlyish in St. Louis yesterday and left around 7:30am.
After an uneventful ride ("Go north here, no, left, no - go the other
way! Who designed Iowa, anyway?") We arrived at Salem UMC just after
6:00pm. We stopped a few times for gas and and we did our final
devotions just outside of Mason City, IA. It was a good bonding time.

When we got into the church, there were people there to help us clean
out the van and we sorted eveything out from the trailer ("Who's is
this? Doesn't this belong to the church in Gulfport? I can't believe
you fit THAT in there! What IS this?")

Now that it's over, I can tell one more story that I was sworn to
secrecy on when it happened.

I think it was Tuesday night and Bob and Howard took Bruce and Jim
back to their hotel for the night. (side note: The hotel was not
paid for out of group funds- more on where the money went later)
They stopped at Home Depot to pick up some things we would need in the
morning. Bruce was pushing a cart and they set a bucket of drywall
mud on it. Bruce suggested to Jim that he have a seat on the bucket.
Jim took a seat and let Bruce push him around Home Depot. At one
point, Jim said, "Faster, Daddy! Faster!" Well, when they got
outside, he said it again, and Bruce gave the cart a little extra
speed. The cart made a crazy unexpected hard turn and Jim fell off
the bucket and the cart. (It's all fun and games till someone breaks
a leg, right?)- The next day, he walked to breakfast, was sore, and
decided to sit out that day at the hotel. The next day he came to the
worksite for a half day and then went back to the hotel. Jim
remained in great humor the entire time. He laughed and joked and
continued to show immense joy. When he got back to Minnesota, he went
to the Doctor on Saturday and found that indeed, he had a break in his
leg. - He is wearing a brace for a few weeks. He continues to laugh
about the whole thing. Amazing.

It was a good trip.

Upcoming: Biloxi 4 "There ain't no more!"
Biloxi 5 "Keeping it alive!"
Biloxi 6 "The Revenge of Katrina"
Biloxi 7 etc.

How many Rocky movies were there?

I'll do some summing up after the show and tell dinner.

The Show and Tell dinner will be THIS Sunday night, the 6th. at Salem
4:00pm- team arrives (set up and SHORT team meeting)
5:30pm- Gumbo!
6:15pm- Pictures
7:00pm- Root beer floats

Prayer requests:
FAST healing for Jim's leg and ankle
Recouperating for all the team
For the next team that will work on Ms. Washington's house
For the ministry of St. James Baptist Church and Disaster Recovery Ministry


The pictures:
The women at the Arch in St. Louis
Harold has been worked to death
On the Road AGAIN!
Troll at the Float party
Teresa hard at work and with a smile!

On the way home

We got out of Gulfport just before 8:00am

We made good time.

We are getting along pretty well.

We got into St. Louis just before 7:00pm. Taffy had asked if we could
see the Arch, so we went downtown. It was nice to play around a
little bit at the Arch (really, just a parking lot right there.) We
took some good and funny pictures. We got to the church and then went
out to grab pizza at a place we've been to two other times we came
through.

There was some talk about going straight through, but when we stopped
in St. Louis, it was obvious we needed to rest.

I talked to Randon who arrived with his team at their home early this morning.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Bob and head north. We intend to leave by
7:00am~ maybe pulling into St. Paul at 5:00ish. - give or take.
Mostly.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying and supporting. Thanks to
those that sent letters to us in Gulfport! Thanks to Troll and
Kristen for showing up!

I will post a billion pictures on photobucket next week.

That's really about it for today.

Prayer requests:
Team unity
Safe travel
Eyes to continue to see what God is showing us

Peace-
Rod

And yet more pcis from the day didnt' go ..

I just couldn't leave these out....

More pics from a day that didn't go as planned

More pics from a day that didn't go as planned

A day that didnt' go as planned Biloxi3

As I write this, I am not in Memphis, which is where I'm supposed to
be according to our itinerary. We are still in Gulfport. We decided
to stay to finish the cabinets which we bought today for Ms.
Washington. Sometimes when you send out emails like this, you want to
only share the good things, but some days aren't like that. There was
some drama and hard feelings today in making the decision to stay. I
learned that I didn't prepare this team well enough to handle
conflict. Maybe I should start at the top.

We started out the day groggy and during breakfast we made a plan
determining what we were aiming for, time wise. I thought we had
decided we just couldn't get the cabinets done. And I was worried
about finances to pay for them and still get home without hitting our
credit cards any more than we would have to. We got to the work site
and set to- people with a mission! (Really!) And we got a lot done.
And then Pastor Hartwell got there and took Bob and Susan and Jim to
the cabinet store to price and look at cabinets. This was only an
hour before we were supposed to start cleaning up and sorting tools
and getting ready to head to Memphis. There was a lot of running
around to do with getting Bruce and Jim checked out of their hotel and
such.

Fast Forward to 1:30pm. We are eating lunch and sitting down to talk
about what we're going to do. Most people were preferring to stay and
finish, but a few were preferring to get going and stick with the
original plan. Some tempers got heated and I can only imagine how it
would have gone if y'all had NOT been praying for unity for us. Not
everyone was happy with the decisions, but now as I write this,
everyone is cooled down and we have joked around together and played
on the beach together since.

I got a call this morning from a friend in Texas who wanted to donate
some money. She Western Unioned some to us here to help make sure we
have enough to do what we said we are going to do and still get home
without hitting our cards. (Each of the team members has paid to come
on the trip). After I picked up the money, I called to thank her and
she said the amount she sent was the amount she found in a cup
yesterday. It was for something else some time ago, but now it was
found and she believes it was sent for us to use. God is amazing.

So we are here in Gulfport tonight, one more time, I'm in the Burger
King parking lot typing up this email. Here is what we accomplished
on Ms. Washinton's house:

Fixed drywall "errors"
Sanded
Mudded
Sprayed/Textured the ceiling
Bought the cabinets and got them to the house
Installed MOST of the base line cabinets
Put in window sills on all the windows
Finished putting up trim siding on the house
Finished installing soffit and soffit vents
Put in screens in the attic at the attic vents to prevent bats
Jacked up the house to remove temporary supports and leveled the house
on concrete pillars.
Built a temporary hand rail on the front porch

It was a lot. We spent about $3100 dollars (most of it on cabinets)

Tomorrow we leave early for St. Louis. We are skipping Memphis
entirely (besides just driving through.)

Taffy has asked to see the Arch, so we will try to swing by it. (It
isn't exactly on the way to the church we are staying at)

We should still be in St. Paul by Sunday night.

Prayer requests:
Team unity!
Save travel!- lots of driving hours tomorrow
Thanksgiving for a lot of work well done
Thanksgiving for a lot of friends we have made
Thanksgiving that Bruce and Jim have made it home safely
Maybe more team unity.

Pictures are of:
Barbara with a mission!
Corring and Bruce putting up soffit
Erin hard at it
Erin putting up soffit
Playing tonight in the ocean
Jim with the cabinets
Rod with power tools - (WHO let that happen?)
Susan's place in the truck
Bob and the cabinet project as far done as we can get it
The girls
The three virtues

More pictures will be posted at our photobucket site once I get back.
It was hard to narrow it down to this few!

Good night. Long drive tomorrow.

Rod

Biloxi3 Day Something

Sorry, no pictures today.

Things Rod did today:
Spent a lot of time cutting and postitioning ONE piece of wood for soffit
Went to meet with a local United Methodist Pastor to talk about
service trips in the Gulf.
Set up a tent for the root beer floats
Served floats
Got surprised by a surprise visit from Troll and Kristen. They just
showed up. amazing.
Took Erin and Harold to the Ocean~ Walked in the ocean
Talked money with Susan.

Things Bruce did today:
Got stung by a hornet
Twisted his ankle
Put up lots of soffit
Met with the pastor we are working for.
Spent a little time with Randon and the Wartburg crowd at the rootbeer
float party


Things Barbara did:
Many things
Missed her flight back to MN
Decided not to buy another ticket and ride back with us

The rootbeer float party was fun. Troll and Kristen and a friend of
theirs from Atlanta showed up and did magic tricks with the kids that
were there. It was great to see them.

We tried to talk Cynthia (our cook) into coming back to MN with us.
Tomorrow we may think about kidnapping.

We have a lot to get done tomorrow. Tonight Howard and I talked about
priorities and what we can realistically get done tomorrow.

Howard and Lewis went to see another previous homeowner that we worked
for last October. (CeeCee)

Prayer requests
Team Unity
Our finances.
Productivity
Safe travel to Memphis

Thanks all!
Rod

What day is it? (Wed) Biloxi 3

Hey all-

I just got done typing up the letter and then I lost my signal and lost it.

One of the biggest differences about this trip and the past two, is
that this one is much more work driven. We have not taken time to
socialize among other people or really, all that much as a group,
either. We haven't had time to play. This isn't a complaint, just an
observation.

We are trying to get Ms. Washington into her house.

What we are supposed to accomplish:
More sanding drywall
spraying the textured ceiling
priming the walls
finish the soffit (we have about two thirds done)
put up trim on the siding
acquire and install cabinets.

I'm nervous.

Today Bob taught me how to do some drywall. (some)- I felt a little
like Troll on our first trip when he was excited about putting up the
ceiling fan. He had never done anything like it before. He was proud
that he did it himself, nobody yelled at him, and people walked under
it. Bob had me build a header and then enclose it in drywall. I did
and you can't tell it was ME that did it! People walk under it and
nobody yelled at me. Bob is a fantastic addition to our team. He
knows billions about building, and is also a good manager and teacher.
He used to be a Navy SEAL and has an MBA. Anyway, I would love to do
another trip with him sometime.

We decided to do the rootbeer float party at the church tomorrow night.

People are starting to talk about Biloxi 4

Prayer requests:
Team Unity
Productivity
Endurance
Efficiency
Henry Pippin
Our health

The pictures:

Howard coming down off the roof (Don't Jump!)
Bob (Howard's brother)
Harold demonstrating "Safety First" (please don't anyone show this one
to his mother!)
Teresa -

Biloxi3 Day 3

Thanks to everyone that is praying for us.

We are working hard to get the things done on this house that they are
hoping to get done. We are a little worried that it isn't going to
happen. We are working on drywall and soffit today. We hooked up
water from the curb hose to the meter (now we can get water from our
own hose as opposed to walking across the street.) We are going to
need to spray the ceiling, finish the soffit, trim on the outside
siding, install cabinets, prime the walls, and everything in between
that has to happen before the listed things can get done.

Ms. Washington stopped by again today. She and her daughter promised
to bring us lunch tomorrow. I took a picture of them for you to see.

Darlene did devotions with us over the phone tonight. Very powerful
about taking risks.

I called Curt Pippen's house tonight while Sue and I were running to
pick up water. He was one of the home owners we worked for last
October. His ex-wife answered the phone and informed me that he had
died in a motorcycle accident last week. Needless to say, i was
pretty shocked. Please pray for Curt's son, Henry. This is an
extremely sad deal. Curt and his son seemed very close. I have
copied an email that Curt sent to one of our other team members last
fall after we had been there.

"Words can not express what you and those that helped fix our bedroom
ceiling mean to us. And it is not just the fact that the ceiling got
fixed and in such a great way, but that you all were willing to help
us. You really let God work through you and it means so much to me
and my son Henry. When I opened the note you wrote and the $100.000
bill out I just broke down and cried to think that you thought so much
of us to do such a kind thing. I have cried more this past year than
I care to think about, but this time my tears where those of gratitude
and thanksgiving not pain like so many of the others I have shed.

You and those with you were truly a blessing and I know that God is
going to reward you, if not in this life here on earth, certainly when
you finally get to meet Him. Thank you again for letting Him work
through you and thank you for helping us here on the Mississippi Gulf
Coast from the bottom of my heart. May God Bless you. Sincerely
yours, Curt and Henry Pippin"

Not much more I can say.

Prayer requests:
Team unity
Efficient and productive work for the rest of the week
Henry Pippin and the rest of Curt's family
Bruce's son Randon has a team from his college in Biloxi. Pray for them, also.
Thanksgiving for all we are accomplishing.

The pictures are of:
Ms. Washington and her daughter
Harold working on the foundation
Rod and Harold and Lewis and Howard jacking up or lowering the house
Corrine hard at it
Where we are staying at. (Men in the trailer on the right. Women in the church)

Biloxi3 Day2 and 3

Highlights:

Met a couple "interesting" people when we stopped for lunch. We gave
them some food and money. They were a couple heading to Utah. They
had caught a ride with a guy who was transporting a 58 T-Bird
Convertable as far as Tulsa. They both may have been a little
chemically altered, but I don't know them well enough to say for sure.

Then we met a female pastor that prayed for us in the parking lot. It
was pretty powerful. She had a lot of energy.

Then we drove and drove and drove. I was a little anxious about
getting there. At one point, Sue suggested that I drive the next leg
in the van and she would drive Howard's truck. Was this an invitation
to drive like I mean it? (yes....)

The church we are staying at is a lot different than Seashore where we
have stayed before. The women are staying inside and the men in
trailers in the back yard.

Great hosts!

Met Pastor Hartwell and he led us to our worksite. We will be at the
same worksite all week, I think, and all of us will be there.
Amazingly enough, it's about three blocks from Ida Mae's house. (a
home owner we worked for last October). A few of us walked down to
see her. She was pleased to see us.

Our work is drywall, soffit, jacking up/leveling the house, maybe
connecting water to the house, and installing cabinets and whatever
else we can do to get Ms. Washington (our current home owner) into her
house.

Then when we got back to the church, Miss Cynthia had cooked dinner
for us. Red beans and rice, baked chicken, corn bread and bread
pudding. Oh my gosh. We decided we don't need to go out to eat at
all this week. This woman should write a cook book. Holy buckets.

After dinner we drove around looking at the devastation and ended up
in Ocean Springs where Bruce's son, Randon, was eating dinner with his
team. "Somebody" wrote on their van with window paint. It was
hilarious. (I will not deny or confirm our participation in this.)

Great day!

Prayer requests:
Team unity
Productivity (they REALLY want to put Ms. Washington in her house when
we are done!)
Jim P. asked that we pray for the Christian school his grandaughters
go to. St. Agnes. They may have to close their High School next
year.
Pray for Pastor Hartwell's ministry and church. This church is ALIVE!

I'm getting kicked out of the BK I am in writing this. They want to close.

Biloxi3 On the Road Again! (Sorry Willie Nelson) Day One

Great day for driving!

Thanks to Bridget W. and Barb L. and everyone else that donated treats
for the road! Erin and Wendy made these sticky rolls that make me
drool just thinking about them!

It was a good day. We left St. Paul around 8:00am after devotions by
Bruce and arrived in St. Louis around 7:00pm.

On the road, we talked with Bruce's son, Randon, who is leading a
team. They left Waverly a couple minutes before we went through. It
felt like we doubled the team.

Awaiting Bob and Bruce and Jim. Bob should meet us here in St. Louis
tonight. Bruce and Jim are going to meet us in Gulfport tomorrow pm.
(flying)

We are gelling as a team and learing more about each other.

A couple days ago, we added Harold M. to the team. He didn't get a
job before we left, so he decided he could come. He is our computer
hack among other things.

I will get this to the blog as soon as possible with some photos, but
honestly not tonight. I am tired.

Written visuals:
Jim and Bruce and Todd and Linda and Judy at the send off.
Bridget walking into the church with two HUGE buckets of cookies. "If
I had more energy, there would be two more buckets. Now, I'm going
home and going back to bed!"
The windy lunch stop
"Is that my exit?" (quickly veering to the right- I was NOT trying
to lose Sue!)
Calling Mr. Wizard
The upside down cement mixer on hwy 61 in Missouri.
The couch in the room I'm about to go sleep on.

Prayer requests:
Continued unity for the team
Harold suggested we pray for patience in our prayer time tonight. I
don't think he knows how "dangerous" that is.
Safe travel for the road team, and the flight team
Our work projects and home owners

Thanks!
Rod

Gearing up for Biloxi 3!

Hello friends and prayer warriors!

We are leaving again this weekend for the Gulf to help rebuild hope
and homes for the people who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Yes, it was over a year and a half ago. No, the work is not done.

The blog I am sending this time will be a little lighter than last time.

This week, there are still a lot of things to do. Please pray for all
the right things to fall into place.

We made over $1500 in fundraisers last weekend. PRAISE GOD! We are
sitting pretty well. Gracious thanks to all those that are supporting
this team financially.

There are over 145 people getting this email. If you don't want to
get it, let me know. If you just want to read the summary in the blog
at the end, let me know and I'll send an email with the link at the
end.

In the mean time, please be praying for us and for the home owners we
will be working with . Specifically, safe travel, eyes to see what
God wants to show us, provision in material goods and abilities, team
unity and wisdom, and hearts that are pointed directly at God.

I am attaching a team picture.

Kneeling: Barabara S., Teresa W., Susan L.
2nd Row: Taffy S., Corrine M., Erin C., and Bruce R.
Back Row: Jim P., Rod S., Howard N., and Lewis W.
Missing: Bob N. (Howard's brother from Ohio will be meeting us in St. Louis)

Thanks for your prayers!

Rod