Half, Whole, and Home Again......

We worked half a day on Thursday, which is day 6.

We are so proud. We got all but the last coat of paint on the little house we work on. For some reason paint does not like to stick on wet surfaces!!!

Yes, the heavens opened up and soaked us and the house!

The house owner had home grown watermelon, that was just wonderful, for us to eat the last day!

We learned later that the supervisors all went back when the house was dried out and finished the last coat of paint, so the house that had been worked on all summer was finished!!!!

Thanks be to God!

We spent the rest of our day in Port St. Louis, at the beach!

Aron and Kayla both got stung by jellyfish, and went back to camp early!

For dinner that evening we went to a local place called 'Pirates Cove'. They specialize in Poboy's!

I had a fried shrimp poboy, corn nuggets (which are to die for!), and had a few french fries dipped in brown gravy! Who knew that would be so delicious!

We walked down at the wharf and looked at the different boats in their slips.

That evening we went back to camp and the kids started up a game of 'Apples to Apples' with new friends they had met from different states, and countries! Yes Canada had a group here working with us! We pretty much thought they'd melt, but they did really good in the heat and humidity.

The kids stayed out playing until they were told to go to bed, lights out!

Day 7 was spent in New Orleans, LA.

We walked the French Quarter! Went through the French Market! Ate bienets and drank cafe Au lait. Went to the Aquarium! Walked down Bourbon Street, and ate at The Gumbo Shop!

I even had to drive the 15 passenger van, for the first time, in New Orleans!!! I couldn't figure out why everyone kept honking at me! I did a great job driving that monster in traffic! Then I remembered we had 'Honk if you Love Jesus' written on the back window!!!

As I said we ate in a lovely Restaurant called 'The Gumbo Shop'. We split 2 orders of Alligator Sausage, and I had the Chicken and Andoullie Sausage Gumbo! Several of the girls wanted dessert which was a chocolate cake with ice cream and fudge drizzled over the whole thing! OH MY!!!!!

On our trek back to the van, the fortune tellers were setting up for the evening. Soooo, what do good Presbyterian children do when in New Orleans?...........

They get their fortunes told of course!

We got back to camp late so missed the closing chapel! But it couldn't be helped! We had a fabulous last day in 'The Deep South".

Kids played games and talked to friends until told to go to bed, lights out!!!!

Let me say, This was a very worth while Mission Trip! Unless you go and see, you just don't understand how devastated it still is in Mississippi and Louisiana!. Hurricane Katrina was 3 years ago, and some places still look like the hurricane just happened. A person can not help but be changed by the devastation. Some have left and will not be back. Others are still struggling to get back what they lost!

God's Grace and Peace to those still struggling, and to those who had to give up their place and move on!

Amen

We packed up the van, and the Home Again portion of my story begins.

We left at 7am, after hugs and last minute pictures!

Back to Memphis and Balmoral Preabyterian Church, where we spent the night. We got our first GREAT shower than we have had in a week! (The showers at camp were nothing to write home about!) We got out what we were going to wear the next day and got everything we could pack back up packed.

We went for a walk down Beale St, home of a lot of Jazz greats! We went into the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks in the fountain. They were getting ready to take the ducks back up to the penthouse when we got there, so we couldn't see the ducks. Doug was tall enough that he was able to hold his camera up and get a picture as the ducks walked up the red carpet to the elevators. Then we walked back to Beale St. and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

Back at the church we played card games, pool, air hockey, and everyone took turns getting on Facebook!!!

Next morning the last leg of our incredible journey began! We left at 6am and we were home by 3:30pm! Of course Rick and I still had to take the van back to the rental place, so still had and hour of driving left to do!!!!

Thus ends the Mission Trip To Mississippi!

Thanks be to God!

Days 3, 4, and 5 Work, work, work, sweat..........

Day 3 started off with coffee!!!! Yeah! I needed a cup or two to get going.

We had breakfast at 8am and headed for our first day at the work site.

We briefly met the homeowner, and had a short devotion. Then, the fun began!

Brittany was scared of heights, and doesn't like to get dirty! Oh my! So, I was really proud of her when she climbed the shakiest ladder in the world and tried to do some painting on the trim. Finally, she had to get down, we found her a shorter ladder and she worked a little lower on other trim. Leah, was a little scared of climbing the ladders too, but soon was climbing up and down like a pro! We stressed getting water to stay hydrated, and taking a rest to cool down. I don't know how many have ever been to the coast of Mississippi in July/Aug. but it's hot, humid, and muggy!

Hannah, Kayla, and Aron all did a great job up and down the ladders all day. Everyone took their turn climbing the ladders, and holding the ladders for others. Rick and Doug worked with our contractor butch on learning how to reinforce the beams of the soffits and how to make the soffits and put up facsha, (the board that goes along the front of the soffit). At 3pm we packed up our tools, took the ladders down and stored them out of the way and headed back to camp.

As soon as, we got back to camp we went to the beach and walked into the water and sat down, yes some of us were still in our clothes!!!!!!! It was nice at the beach. There was a nice breeze coming in off the water. When we got back to camp we showered and got ready for dinner. Dinner was at 5pm and worship service was at 8pm. We broke up into small groups after church. We went back to the camp. Most went to sleep, I think mainly because we were all just wiped out from the work of the day, and getting use to the climate and working in the heat.

the 4th day was pretty much the same as the 3rd, but I noticed that Brittany was going up the ladders without the trepidation of the day before. Where she was shying away from us when we poured the paint into her cup, she was pouring her own paint! The guys had figured out what we needed to do as far as the soffits were concerned so was having the kids help them some. Hammers and kids, hmmmm......l

The other youth group leader was having a migraine headache and didn't eat dinner with us or make it to church with us that night.

Kids still went to bed earlier than lights out.

Day 5 was our last full day at the job site. It rained some during the morning but dried out and we kicked butt trying to get as much done as we could! We only had one more morning to get the job done! During the day the brother of the property owner came with a piece of heavy machinery to smash some cars that were in the back and had been there since after Katrina hit. After Katrina the police came around and told people they would have to get their cars that weren't running off the streets. Some were brought out to this property with the promise that the owners would part the cars out and then take them to the crusher. Well, here it is almost 3 years later and they had never heard from the owners, so they parted the cars out and the day we were there they were going to crush them up, put them in a wagon and take them to the junkyard. It's amazing how easily a car can be crushed!!!! It was a great lunch show!

When we got back to camp that's all the kids could talk about!

We had dinner and worship was on the beach that evening. The kids started making friends from other group and stayed up playing Apples to Apples. Until they were told to go to bed.

That was fun.

Thus ends days 3,4, and 5..........

Off to Mississippi We Go......

I got to bed at 1am July 26th, and got up at 5am the same day!!!! Oh my!

We got to the church at 6:30am. Everyone was there on time! I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure that someone would be late. I guess we were all too excited to get started on our adventure.

At the church we got the van all loaded up, and we were ready to leave by 7am, which is what I wanted.

We took the driving the first day kind of easy. It took us about 10 hours to get to Memphis. And so the adventure began! Because there was no one at the church we were to stay in to let us in. I was racking my brain to think of what might have gone wrong. Thank goodness I had the for thought to bring all the information about both of the churches we were staying at with me. We started looking up the numbers of the Pastor, asst. Pastor, secretary, even the choir director....... No one was home! We left messages, and decided to go get something to eat.

We ate at this wonderful BBQ place called Interstate BBQ. Yummm.......

We still hadn't heard from any of the people we had left messages with, sooooo we went to the river front and walked on the Riverwalk. That was nice, but Memphis is very hot! We were all dripping with sweat by the time we had walked about a mile.

We got back in the van and decided to drive by Beale St. to see what that was all about. Just as we were looking for a place to park, we got a phone call from the Pastor of the church apologizing for the mix up, and that James my contact was headed for the church and would meet us in the parking lot.

James let us in, and showed us around, where light switches were, and showers, etc....

We were none of us late in getting to bed that night.

Sunday morning we got up those who still needed to shower, showered, we got coffee and breakfast, and were ready to make the last leg of the trip to Pass Christian, Mississippi.......

We ate at a rest area for lunch. My friend and co leader Denise downloaded our Pastors sermon for us to listen to on the way. Technology is wonderful!

We were all excited when we hit the coastal highway and got our first views of the Gulf. We got to the camp at Pass Christian about an hour early. Our trailers were set up in the cemetery behind the church! Yes, I did say in the cemetery!

We unloaded our stuff from the vans and dumped it in our trailers and took off for a walk on the beach. (about 2 blocks away.)

We all gathered at 8pm in the church to find out what we would be doing and have a worship service...... We went to bed! Thus ends the 2nd day of our adventure!