Meanwhile, Back at Lucinda Marie's House and Elsewhere...

While Max, Chelsea and Emily were trying to do their part to beautify Biloxi, Roland took a group of 8 students from Augustana College to Lucinda Marie's house to finish the project. They completed the gutting of walls and removal of ceilings. Roland tells a very cute story about how two young men were pulling down a doorframe with their hammers. Despite Roland's encouragement that they use crowbars rather than hammers, they continued in this mode until they brought down the door frame. One young man held out his hammer to Roland and said, "I DID use the crowbar." Roland gently corrected him, saying, "That's the claw of the hammer." (Insert visual aid) "THIS is a crowbar." Well, we all learn along the way, don't we? From Roland's description, this group of Augies worked hard and accomplished a great deal, helping out neighbors and others along the way.

Meanwhile, Barbara was busy working at the Distirbution Center at Camp Biloxi. You could really see the fruits of her labors both at Bethel and at Camp B. Early in the week, Judy had walked into the back room that served as a warehouse of household goods (mostly linens) and clothing and said, "Someday, we'll get this all boxed up and moved down to the distribution center." That was followed by, "Someday, we'll get these shelves moved out and put into the Fellowship Hall." And finally, "Someday, we'll get these shelves in the Fellowship Hall and fill them with food." When she said those things, Judy wasn't counting on Barbara to take her "Someday" wishes to heart - but she did! And by Thursday, "Someday" had become a reality.

Barbara and friends (especially Lynn from Lancaster, with whom we all fell in love - what a sweet soul!) had not only packed up the items in the warehouse but labeled them so that one could tell sheets from tablecloths and twin size sheet sets from full. That made unpacking and distributing supplies much easier on all involved. For weeks, people will be thanking the invisible angels who will have made this work much easier!

Barb, along with Emily, Max and Chelsea, worked most of the afternoon in the distribution center. One woman, who was living in a FEMA trailer with four children (she had two sets of bunk beds and a full size bed; I can't even imagine how she fit all of that in one of those little trailers!) was in need of linens for the beds. However, one of the full-time volunteers - a stickler for the rules - told her she could only have one set of sheets that day. Since people are allowed to return once every four days, she would have to return four more times over a period of more than two weeks in order to obtain the linens that she needed. Well, this didn't seem right to a number of folks, including Lynn, who was working in the clinic with me that afternoon. Lynn trusted this woman and felt horrible that she hadn't received the help that she truly needed. After some conversation and a little thought, I remembered that, stacked up in the hallway at Bethel amidst the bedding set aside for volunteers, were boxes labeled, "Two Twin Sheet Sets." We checked them out. Each contained two fitted and flat sheets, blankets, mattress pads and pillows. Voila! We took two boxes and put them into the woman's car. We're about the business of caring for people in need, not making life more difficult for those who have already suffered much.

As noted above, I spent much of Thursday in the clinic, lending a hand with pastoral care. It was hard work - lots of intense conversation with people - but very rewarding. In a couple of instances, while people waited to see Dr. Bob (an amazing man from MN who is committed to spending 2 weeks of every month for at least the next 6 months working at the clinic pro bono), I was able to sign them up to receive assistance with home repairs. I heard amazing stories of survival, frustration, hope and determination. The resiliance of the human spirit is truly remarkable.

Thursday evening, we went out to dinner at O'Neals, a local restaurant recommended by Judy Bultman. Some of us had real gumbo, catfish and other seafood while others had hamburgers. (I'll leave it to you to guess who had what!)

Later that evening, we were introduced to "Robert the Roofer." For more than two decades, Robert was in charge of all of the maintenance of every roof of every building owned by Maricopa County (Arizona). He had just retired from that position and had trained 50 volunteers to be roofing site leaders. He was in Biloxi for the third time, to spend 5 weeks doing a roofing blitz. What a remarkable man!

Grace and Peace,
Sue