Thursday, April 9

Day #4 began with a delicious breakfast (sound familiar??) and work groups departing around 8 am for their various job sites. Today was productive for most groups and things are starting to come to a close for our work week; we will be leaving Friday evening so our work day tomorrow will be shorter and end around 2 pm instead of after 4 pm. We have to have some time to pack and eat dinner before hitting the road! We enjoyed a good, hearty dinner and most of us headed out to the bonfire on the beach for our group, the group from Allendale, MI and the East Biloxi association who we are working with in addition to CRWRC.

Devotions this evening focused on the passage where Jesus washes His disciples' feet. The analogy was made that although Jesus did many miracles and was sent here to accomplish much in his short time on earth, the simple and loving act of washing their feet was also so important. We came here this week with high expectations of moving mountains and completing so much in a short time, when in reality it has been the little things that have been or will be the most important part of what we did. Things like meeting the person or people who's home you are working on, taking time to talk to them or listen, and showing Christ's love and compassion in what we do and say. The relationships that are formed as we work and live closely together for a week and the little things we do for one another are all just as important as the bigger tasks.

Wednesday, April 8

Day #3 of our work week began with our usual breakfast in the cafeteria, but we also celebrated Hannah's birthday with a card signed by the group and a "Sweet 16" balloon which was a surprise to her. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her while we were eating our breakfast too.

Work groups departed again after breakfast, and we were all on our same sites except for Dean Wubben's group who worked with Russ Quick's team. Jason and Randy's group finished up insulating and most of the drywalling is completed-- some mudding will still be done on Thursday, but the sanding and painting will begin on Thursday for Geraldine's house. Kathy and Megan spent the afternoon boxing up clothing as we will be sanding tomorrow and that will make quite a mess!

Devotions tonight focused on I Corinthians 13, substituting the word "God" for "love" and showing the characteristics of God as we read this. We spent some time sharing things about our day and work sites, and also how we were able to show God's love or how His love might have been shown to us. Yesterday's frustrations seem to have subsided and a feeling of accomplishment was present, which we are so thankful for.

We are enjoying some ice cream right now in a final celebration for the birthday girl. The weather was gorgeous again today, sunny and about 70 degrees but the breeze off the gulf is definately refreshing and cool. We are thankful and appreciative for such awesome weather conditions to work in, and praising God for such a productive work week in Mississippi. Thanks again for checking up on us, praying for us, and thinking of us while we are here.

Tuesday, April 7

Day #2 began again at 7 am with a nice, hot breakfast of biscuits and gravy with sausage links. There is also a variety of other food items to choose from and we are so appreciative of the people who cook for us daily, and who do it with a smile! The groups again departed shortly after breakfast to their various work sites, and all came back with shared thoughts of frustration with certain aspects on each site. For one group, it was the lack of materials available when they arrived to do the work. That resulted in lost work time and unproductiveness, and rerouting the group to another site. Hard for those who want to dig in and get something done, but with this type of work it is to be expected sometimes. Other groups stripped wallpaper, continued working on drywall and insulation and started painting, worked on ceramic tiling and laying laminate flooring, etc. Kathy spent some time in the morning doing laundry for the group, taking care of Ben and Mitch back at home base and getting them to rake the volleyball court in anticipation of a great volleyball match with the Allendale, MI youth group. We will also be having a bonfire with them on Thursday night on the beach in front of where we are staying-- we are all looking forward to that! We were treated to a delicious dinner of lasagna, steamed broccoli and cheese sauce, breadsticks, salad, and dessert.

Tomorrow is Hannah Damsteegt's 16th birthday and we have some fun plans for helping her celebrate, but we'll fill you in on that later! We hope you are enjoying the pictures and posts from our group as we work here in Biloxi.

Monday, April 6

Today was day #1 of our work week. Some of us are still recovering from our second degree sunburns... but doing better! We got up early around 6:30 am and had to be to breakfast by 7:00 am, which for some of us is kind of early! We did all manage to make it and had some yummy breakfast. After meeting the director and getting our work instructions, the groups departed for the various job sites. The four groups painted, put in ceramic tile, packed up clothing and household items from a home that was recently flooded, removed drywall and moldy insulation, fixed a faulty construction job, painted and installed a door, and one group was treated to a delicious lunch fixed by a Vietnamese woman who's home they worked on.

After arriving back from the job sites, we ate a good dinner together and had devotions and talked about the things we did during the day. We are anticipating a good day tomorrow, and a volleyball match with a work group who is here from Allendale, MI after dinner Tuesday night.

Saturday, April 4

We have arrived!! A little bleary-eyed and stiff from lots of hours in the vans...but we made it. After departing a little bit off-schedule on Friday afternoon around 4:30 pm, we drove through the night and arrived earlier than anticipated in Biloxi, Mississippi and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at a nearby Waffle House. You can still see many empty lots where buildings once stood, stripped and crippled trees still standing, and debris lining the roadway from some attempted cleanup after Hurricane Katrina came through almost four years ago. We took a short drive down to Gulfport where they sustained more damage than Biloxi did.

Since we couldn't access the bunkhouse until later in the afternoon, we decided to head over to the Keesler Air Force Base and enjoy a FREE airshow! The Thunderbirds also happened to be performing, so some of us stayed all afternoon just waiting for their famed flight acrobatics. They did not disappoint! The sun was shining with a good breeze and temps were close to 75 degrees today so we all enjoyed some time outdoors after traveling.

Sunday will find some of us catching up on some of our sleep (the traditional day of rest will surely be observed!), some of us traveling to Franklinton to visit the church that was worked on last spring break by members of our group, and some will attend a local church here. We begin work on Monday and it should involve some insulating, drywalling, and perhaps painting or other tasks. The motto our group has adopted is "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape". We are finding this to be so true as we arrange our sleeping areas, figure out an efficient way to get everyone a shower, etc.

Please pray for our group this week, that we may grow close to one another as we work together to help those still trying to pick up the pieces from Hurricane Katrina and also that we may show Christ's love to those we work with and to one another. Thanks for checking in on us and hopefully we'll be able to put some pictures on the blog too.