Our 8 work teams took on a total of 13 different projects, including a complete roof job, drywalling an entire house, exterior painting of three houses, replacing siding on two houses, replacing one bedroom ceiling, repairing and painting one living room ceiling and walls, building a 24 ft. wheelchair ramp, and replacing, repairing and/or installing 6 doors and two windows. Not a bad week.

Around the Camp Hope center itself, teams dropped in and helped to pour concrete pads around the warehouse door and by well pump, created an enclosure to conceal the external hot water units, and framed up a room inside their warehouse for storage.

Our teams covered a lot more ground than usual, doing work in three different counties, traveling as far as 45 miles to the north and 22 miles to the south. Some teams lost as much as six hours worktime during the week compared to our normal 5-10 minute travel times. Despite this, we did some significant work and achieved some significant accomplishments.

We had our share of casualties during the week that kept us shuttling people to the local clinics in Ocean Springs for things like poison ivy, strep throat, and a stomach virus. On the jobsites themselves, I believe we had a perfect safety record for the week, as no accidents have been reported. Linda, our center director had the only accident on the trip, stubbing her little toe on a box of supplies. At the end of the week, the teams chipped in and bought her a pair of steel-toed boots signed by everyone at the center.

In all, it was a very good week that few of us will ever forget. We worshipped on the beach, swam the local watering hole, told stories of our experience around a campfire, and created new friendships that could last a lifetime.

At the time Rasheen went into arrest, the team was out on a run to get materials. When they returned, part of the family had left for the hospital and they spoke with other family members about what they could do, suggesting that they simply pull off the job and let another team come in the next week to finish. The family however, insisted they return and carry on, which to me, speaks to the bond they had made in only a short period of time. The team returned and worked on finishing as much as they could, without disrupting the grieving family.

One afternoon, to lighten things up, they took a break to go to a nearby Sonic for drinks. Pulling up beside them at Sonic was a car driven by a man with a monkey. I believe the picture speaks for itself as to how it helped lighten the team’s mood…

On Day 4, three of our teams finished their jobs and were ready to start new ones for the last day. Worship that night was held at the beach on the remains of a popular fishing pier that has not yet been rebuilt. Along the street across from the beach were empty lots and new construction where all houses had been destroyed by Katrina. Across the bay to Biloxi, they are still working on rebuilding the bridge. One note: all the beach sand where we worshipped had to be trucked in after the storm, as the original beach had been washed out completely.

So, here we are, as of last Wednesday.

 By mid-day however, you have a pretty good idea of just what has to be done, and what can be done before those missing tools and materials arrive. In the fellowship hall at Vancleave UMC there is a sign on one of the walls that says the following:  Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. Within our group, we seem to be blessed with the “flexible”.

 Here are some pictures of Day 1: