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.