A Mission in Mississippi

Right now I'm lying on my bed listening to Bebo Norman, getting ready to fall asleep before my normal bedtime. Or I was, before I started to write this post. ;-) Dad, Eric, Luke and I got back from a trip to Mississippi yesterday morning on the train. We left the previous Friday night on the train, and got to Slidell, LA for a short trip to Waveland, MS. Monday through Friday, our daily schedule was to get up by 6am for devotions and breakfast, then leave for your work site around 7am, except for the 2 days at had to get up at 4:15 and 4:45 to help make breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Those days I didn't have to go work though. The three days I worked I spent laying hardwood flooring, except it was bamboo, but you lay it the same. And I put up some insulation under the same house. Eric helped lay some of the flooring too, so now we both know how to lay hardwood AND tile. Maybe we should start a business... I think Dad did mostly drywall finishing, Eric did several things, including putting up hardibacker siding, the flooring, and pouring cement. I'm not sure what all Luke did, but I do know he helped with an electrical job, and did some decking. Saturday morning we got up by 5:30 and left at 6:30 for the train station for another 23 hour train ride...not something I want to do on a regular basis, but its not so bad if you can at least sleep for a few hours during the night. On the way down I hardly slept at all, but on the way back I was so tired that I could hardly wake up to get my stuff together to get off the train. Then I almost fell asleep in church, and came home and took a 3 hour nap, which NEVER happens to me. I normally can never sleep during the day. And I'm still waaaay tired tonight. But it was so worth it, seeing the people who would never have any hope if it wasn't for volunteers. I heard a stat that 90% of Waveland, where the storm surge was up to 32 ft., was rebuilt by volunteers. And still there are rows and rows of lots along the beach and a mile back that are just cement slabs or a few pilings. Everything along there was utterly destroyed. We seriously have it so well. Some people had there government trailers taken away and they are living in a shed. Others can hardly pay for the supplies for the volunteers to use. But slowly it is getting rebuilt. And those of us who go down to help get so much more than we could ever give. This was our third trip, and everytime, we always gain new lessons, new skills, and friendships. It was an awesome trip!



I don't have any pictures right now because mom wanted to keep the camera. I may get some sometime...We were expecting baby bunnies, but now we don't think we're going to have them. Our kitty Star is pregnant and we didn't know when she was going to have them. Our other kitty Pumpkin sadly got hit by a car in Febuary, so we're excited about having more than kitty again.