Wrapping up

These beautiful days are getting monotonous (just kidding). More pancakes and bacon for breakfast and back to Ms. Mann's house to work on the roof.

While we were gutting the house we had noticed one hole in the roof where a furnance vent had been, so we decided it needed to be patched. David is quite the craftsman.



When we arrived at the house and actually got up on the roof we discovered that the roof on the addition at the back of the house was missing almost all of the shingles. Since it may be a while before her house gets worked on, we went back to Lowe's and got a tarp to cover the entire roof on the addition.





As usual, things like this take longer than expected, so by the time we finished it was lunchtime. One final time at Compassion Center for some more chicken and green beans and potatoes.



We noticed that a new tent had been erected since yesterday and that a clothing boutique ( that is what the sign said ) had been set up for the residents. There were a good number of people in the store or waiting outside.



Since we had finished our house and didn't have time to start another one, we decided to ride over to Waveland, MS. The destruction there is beyond what pictures can convey. These homes were right across the road from the gulf and took the full force of the storm. There is not much wooden debris on these sites. It was apparently taken further inland by the storm.







In the midst of all this destruction, we found a sign that amused us (being the old guys that we are!).



Our final place to vist in Waveland was Christ Episcopal Church.



Like the homes, it was just across the road from the gulf. Only the steeple remains. It was not on a building, but was anchored in the concrete. In the background you can see the tent where they hold Sunday services.

I believe that this picture says it all. It has been our privilege to come in service to the people of the gulf coast. Our prayer is that we have helped them to see (and to remind ourselves) that our hope is in Christ and Christ alone.



We are anxious to return to our families and to share the story of this trip with all of you. See ya'll on Sunday.

More of the same

Yet another beautiful day in Biloxi. Fixed breakfast for 5 new people that just came in from New Jersey (french toast and bacon - thanks to our trusty Coleman camp stoves)

We returned to the home that we started gutting yesterday but first made a trip to Home Depot to buy two stepladders and a wheelbarrow that we will be donating to the camp when we leave.

There is not much new to say about the work today. It is hot, dusty, and tiring. We take frequent breaks to get a breath of fresh air and some water. Fortunately there is not much mold in this house since Ms. Watts had already cleaned it out and sprayed it with bleach.

Lunch at Compassion Center (hot dogs with chili, corn and apples). Always good to get out of the sun and sit down and eat a meal that someone else has prepared.

After lunch Ms. Watts came by to see the progress and we think she was impressed with how much we had gotten done. She definitely seemed pleased.



We finished about 4:30. Please don't tell our wives that we can work this hard!



Here are the piles of debris that we removed from the house. All the streets in our area look like this. Huge piles of debris waiting at the curb for pickup.





Had a nice dinner at Westminister Presbyterian Church. There are 150 young people from University of Tennessee who just came in tonight and will be staying at that church.

Don't know yet what our assignment for tomorrow will be. We may go back and put a blue tarp on Ms. Watt's roof and cut some limbs that are resting on the roof.

Hard to believe our time is up tomorrow. There is so much work to be done and so many people who need help. Please pray for them as they work to put their lives back together one day at a time.

Destruction is our game, Demolition is our name

Another beautiful day on the Mississippi coast. Sunny and warm (almost too warm, but we are not complaining).

This morning we had some training on our new task of assessing homes. We were cautioned to be very careful in talking to the homeowners and to be sensitive to their situation. If a home needs to be condemned in our opinion, we are to be very cautious and to say something like 'I think that someone with more experience needs to come look at your home' rather than saying flat out 'I think your home needs to be condemned'. Again, if you try to put yourself in this situation and some volunteer told you that your home needed to be condemned, how would you react?

We went back to the same general area of Biloxi to the grid that PDA has been assigned. It is about five to six streets with maybe 30 homes on each street. That is a rough estimate. Anyway, we split into ten teams with people from different groups on each team. The idea was to make sure each team had someone with some experience in this work so that a reasonable assessment could be made. We went door to door and spoke to homeowners that were there. By lunch time we had assessed about 50 homes which gives a good backlog of homes to work on. Here is a picture looking through the front door of one of the homes we assesed. Without the smell, it probably doesn't have the same impact that it had on those of us that were there.



One of the teams had an interesting experience with a lady and her boyfriend who have already started rehabbing her home and are making excellent progress. While our assessment team and the homeowner were talking, another woman and man in a car with Oregon license plates came up. The lady from Oregon wanted to paint the home, but told the homeowner she would have to pay $1800 in advance to buy the paint. Well, if you know anything about the cost of paint, you know that $1800 worth of paint would be enough for probably 5 or 6 good size homes. Our team advised the homeowner to definitely not do business with someone like that. It was obviously a scam. It is so disheartening to see people try to take advantage of these people who have already suffered so much.

Back to lunch at Compassion Center. The menu today was fried chicken, black eyed peas, fruit cocktail, and cookies. We spoke to Carl Keyes from New York city who is in charge of Urban Life Ministries that is running the Compassion Center. He said that he had a friend that had already donated $300,00 in meat to the center and that the friend said he would provide support for up to six months. What a friend and what a commitment! When we thanked Carl for all he is doing for the volunteers, he just thanked us for the work we are doing for the people of Biloxi.

After lunch we did two more assessments and then went to cut some trees at a homeowners house. However, when we got there we realized that the trees had already been cut down and partially cut up and that they were at the very back end of the property and were not really causing any problem or danger. We requested to be reassigned to a homeowner who was in more urgent need of help. We got assigned to Mrs. Watts.



Hers was one of the houses we had assessed after lunch. We called her and she was able to come meet us at the house and confirm what needed to be done. She is a widow of about 13 years and had bought this house after her husband died. She has one son in the Marines in Iraq. The house had already been cleaned out and now needed to have the walls stripped. We are now pros at that work! We attacked the house with a furious determination. About 2 hours later it looked like this. We are really very good at making a mess!



We will be going back in the morning to finish and it may take us most of the day. It is an older home with no insulation in the walls and some termite damage, but overall it seems structurally sound. After we strip the walls, she will begin the process of spraying the structure with bleach. The recommended procedure is to spray, wait seven days, spray again, wait three days and then spray a final time. It takes a lot to kill the mold and mildew.

Since it was hump day we knocked off at four, got back to camp, took our showers



and went out for nice relaxing dinner at Logan's Roadhouse.

We got back just in time for the evening devotion/meeting. Our team had volunteered to do the devotion and Phil, Leonel and David Mahan did a great job. Phil read from Matthew and David read Psalm 121. Leonel, with the help of an interpeter from the California kids, told his story about coming to the US and why he wanted to come on this mission trip to help victims of the storm. It is very inspiring and deserves to be told. Tune in tomorrow for the complete story.

Here is the interesting picture of the day. This is a slab of concrete beside one of the houses in our grid. It floated here from one of the refrigerated storage facilities on the bay (which is couple of blocks from where is now rests). Anyway, concrete does not normally float very well so we were puzzled as to how it got there in one piece. Closer inspection revealed a layer of foam insulation (maybe 8" thick) on the underside. Our theory is that the foam provided a measure of flotation and the flood waters did the rest.



Our team (with the addition of Susan and Lon) continues to work very well together. It is tough work but very rewarding in that we know we are making a real difference in these peoples lives. And they are making a real difference in our lives as well. None of us will come home the same person that left last Sunday. None of us will ever look at coverage of a hurricane on tv and not understand what the survivors are going through. Truly amazing. Praise God!

The Muck

The day started well. A beautiful fall morning and a good pancake and scrambled egg breakfast and everybody eager to get to work.



After the morning devotion, we loaded up the van and headed for the work site. Well, we almost headed for the work site. First you need to understand that we are camping in a grassy field on the church property. Last night we parked the van and trailer at the top of the hill near our tents. (Hey, we are lazy and didn't want to walk all the way to the parking area - a distance of about 200 feet). So, with Brian driving, we headed down the hill and Brian decided to take the short cut. Big mistake. Soon the rear wheels of the van were in mud up to the hubs and we were stuck.



Fortunately, there were plenty of people still in camp and the California kids quickly came over to help us. With a little digging and a lot of pushing we got the van out of the mud and were on our way. By the way, the kids from California are high school students. They range in age from 15 to 18 and are full of energy!

For the past two days we have been joined by two great people from Connecticut. Susan Pfeil is the interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Ossining, New York. Lon England is a member of First Presbyterian Church, New Canaan, Connecticut. They are tireless workers and a lot of fun to be around. They even laugh at our jokes!

For the morning, we worked on finishing the cleanup of Gloria Kemp's house. Here is Susan hard at work.



It took a little longer than we anticipated, but we still finished by about 12:30 pm. We removed all the sheetrock and associated nails on the walls and moved it to the street.



From our perspective, the house looks good and should be repaired without much trouble. It does have some isolated termite damage that shouln't be too hard to fix.

Lunch again at Compassion Center. Hot ham and cheese or turkey and cheese sandwiches, fruit, chips, water and cookies.



After lunch we traveled to the Long Beach area to work on the home of the pastor of Longbeach Presbyterian Church. George and his wife were planning on staying in their home during the storm, but finally changed their mind about six hours before the storm hit. It is a good thing they changed their mind. The highest water level was two feet above the floor in the UPSTAIRS level of their home.

Nothing had been removed from the home before we started.



Imagine a home that has been flooded and then remained closed for about six weeks. Mild/mold everywhere. The smell was much worse than anything we had experienced yet. As we were shoveling the debris out the windows to the wheelbarrows so it could be hauled to the street, we tried to imagine if it was our home and our stuff that was being removed. George had a grand piano that he had spent four years restoring. It was ruined. He had items that his mom had given him just before she died. He saved them, but they were damaged. He had a beautiful grandfather clock that came apart we tried to pick it up. It was hard walking because of the mixture of mud and sheetrock residue that covered the floor. We made the mistake of opening their freezer door. Think about a freezer that has not been opened in six weeks. The smell was beyond description. If you are ever in that situation, resist the temptation to open the freezer door!

After we got back to camp, we helped put up an additional tent to be used for meetings when the camp population grows. The youth from Davidson and UNC Charlotte left for home early this morning. A new group from New Jersey came in about 10:30 am and spent the day working on projects around camp.

Tomorrow we start a new phase. Our camp has been assigned a specific grid area in Biloxi. We will be responsible for going door to door and doing assessments of the damage and what work needs to be done. As we understand it we will even have the authority to recommend whether a house is condemned or not. That is a lot of responibility for a volunteer to shoulder. It also means that we must be very sensitive in working with the homeowners. We are being trained in the morning and we are sure there will be a lot of questions and a lot of on the job training. After we get a good backlog of work to do, we will start work on these houses.

We have been blessed by God with this opportunity to minister to the people of Biloxi through service. Many of them have told us how grateful they are that we are here and that we are helping.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for praying for the people of Biloxi and for us.

The Work

A wonderful day.
Last night was a little cooler than we expected and some of us and some of the people on the other teams were a little chilly sleeping. Up at about 6:30 to breakfast of oatmeal,orange juice and coffee. (Tomorrow we are getting up earlier so we can fix pancakes). Morning devotion at 7:30 am led by the youth. We even did an energizer and a team building exercise! As we mentioned yesterday, the great majority of the people here are youth and their leaders. Here is picture of some of the youth from Carmel Presbyterian Church of Carmel, California eating breakfast.



All the youth here are fantastic. Very energetic and very thoughtful and very caring. If you ever have any doubts about the younger generation, these kids (along with the our youth from First Presbyterian) will dispel any doubt you might have. They are wonderful.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to the area of Biloxi where we are working. The destruction is just overwhelming and we haven't even been to the hardest hit area yet. There is debris piled up along all the streets and trees down everywhere. The smell in certain areas is just awful.

Our first house belongs to Henry Jones. He is 75 years old and apparently lives by himself. Looking at the exterior of his house, it really doesn't seem damaged very much.



This picture of the inside shows a different story.



You can see the water line on the walls about 1 foot or less from the ceiling. Mr. Jones spent about 4 hours by himself in his attic with the water just about a foot or so below him. Think about that for a minute and reflect on what thoughts would be going through your mind if you were in that situation.

We worked for about 3 hours in his yard cutting down a large branch, picking up trash, reinforcing his fence and in general just cleaning up.

For lunch we went to Compassion Center which is set up in a nearby city park. It is being run by Urban Life Ministries of New York. They offer hot meals for the volunteers and a food distribution point for residents. Hundreds of volunteers were having lunch and relaxing under the big tents.

After lunch we went to the home of Gloria Kemp. Here is a house we passed on the way.



Ms. Kemp's house had already been cleaned out by some of the youth from our camp. In this picture of the front yard, it is hard to see but there is debris all along the street in front of her house up to the height of the chain link fence.



All her belongings were ruined. How would you feel if everything you owned was sitting on the street waiting to be picked up and sent to a landfill? It is hard to think about being in that situation. The youth did salvage a water damaged family picture album. It is very touching to look at it.

Our task was to remove the sheetrock and insulation. Here are some pictures of what it looked like when we started.



You can just barely see the high water mark just below the top of the window.


And here is what it looked like at 5 pm. It is very nasty work. Damp to wet sheetrock covered in mold and mildew. The kitchen cabinets were ruined and had to be removed.





We were all pretty tired by 5 pm, but had that very satisfying feeling that comes from having done a good day's work for a good cause. We got back to camp and enjoyed a cold shower to clean off all the filth, dust and grime we accumulated during the day. Needless to say, when you are taking a cold shower in an outside shower stall, you don't dawdle in the shower! Anyway, we felt great afterwards. Back to our buffet for dinner and then yet another trip to Wal-Mart. Evening devotion at 8:30 pm and a leaders meeting about 9:30pm.

Tomorrow we plan on finishing Ms. Kemp's house and then going to work at the house of the pastor of Orange Grove Presbyterian. We will be removing furniture and appliances.

We look forward to tomorrow and the opportunity to serve the people of this community.

We have arrived

We left about 10:45 am from Marietta and after an easy drive,arrived about 5:30 pm local time at the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camp located on the grounds of Orange Grove Presbyterian Chuurch in Gulfport, MS.



As we got closer to Gulfport, we saw more and more downed trees and houses and commercial buildings with blue tarps on their roofs. Where we are camping, however, the damage does not seem extensive. We went out to dinner and then to Wal-Mart for more boots and Vicks Vapor rub. The Vicks is to spread on the inside of your dust mask to help with the smell of mold and mildew which is apparently quite strong in the houses where we will be working.

Every evening in camp at 8:30 pm there is a devotional meeting and recap of the day's work. Right now there are about 5 different groups in camp for a total of about 50 people. There are three college age groups from California, a college age group from UNC Charlotte, and a college age group from Davidson. With all these young people, this is definitely a high energy camp to say the least. Two people from Connecticut came tonight also.

In the morning there will be a devotion at 7:30 am and we will leave for the work sites about 8:30 am and should return about 5:00 pm. The house where we have been assigned to for tomorrow has a number of downed trees so we can put our chain saws to good use. Another big task is helping to carry furniture and appliances out of the houses and out to curbside.

I am sure that by tomorrow night we will be veterans at this so we should have a more interesting post for you to read.

We are all in good spirits and eager to get to work. Please pray for us that we may show God's love in everything we do.

October 9th team to Gulfport

The team leaving on October 9th consists of David Mahan, Phil Brand, Leonel Perez, David Corson, Paul Cobb, Kelly Lohman and Brian Wright. We will be commissioned at the 8:30 service and leave immediately after that.

We will working in a camp run by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Gulfport, Mississippi. The camp is located on the grounds of the Orange Grove Presbyterian Church. We will be living in tents with cots. We will be responsible for preparing our own food and are taking a supply of Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) and bottled water. There are also restaurants open in the area and Home Depot and Lowes are nearby and open.

As we understand it, our primary work will be doing debris removal including cutting up trees, hauling furniture out of houses and the like. The area where we will be working is supposed to be about 20 minutes away from the camp.

We plan on returning on Saturday October 15th.

We are grateful to all the people in the church who have helped us so much in preparing for this trip. Thanks!

If we can get reliable internet service ( and we are not too tired!) we will be posting every day including pictures of where we are working.

Please pray for us that we may be instruments of God's love to the people affected by the storm.