Homeward Bound
Friday 25 November 2005, 9:03 pm
Because of a family emergency, we'll be coming home early from our
mission here in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It's now about 11 pm
and we'll be leaving here around 4 am to catch a 6 pm flight back
home. Another large group has been here since
Monday and they are also leaving tomorrow. We'll be traveling with
them as far as Houston, but then we split up because the last-minute
travel changes put us on a different flight back to California.
While we're home, I hope to continue to collect information about
the situation here in Mississippi and post it here in this notebook.
It might be news that I find in the newspaper, and it might be
news that I obtain from continued contact with CityTeam or
new contacts with
Calvary Chapel Relief.
We hope to come back here after the holidays, possibly as early as
the first of January. By then, the group might have transitioned into
doing "mucking" work instead of the food back. Mucking involves
removing the damaged sheetrock from homes, and treating the frame to
remove and inhibit mold growth. But based on conversations I've had
with many people here, it seems the mucking stage is about done for
most, and the next stage is actual rebuilding of the homes.
I talked to one gentleman today whose home has been cleared, but he
needs to rebuild it himself. He can't afford to pay anyone to do it.
He is 62 years old and in poor health. The only help he has to
rebuild his home is his older brother, who is 65 years old but in
better health. He figures that he will be living in the FEMA trailer
for another 8 to 12 months before finishing his house.
This will probably be my last post from Mississippi for now. Mary
and I still have about an hour of computer entry that we need to do
before we can go to bed. We both got showers today so they won't
toss us off the plane tomorrow. But we can't wait to get back to a
real shower at home. I hope Mary finishes her shower soon ... I feel
like I'm up all alone and everyone else has gone to bed. The lights
are out. Everyone's bracing for a very early morning tomorrow.
Good night ...
