New Orleans

We took a little break last evening and went for dinner in New Orleans. We got to see about 40 miles of the coastline on the way and were amazed at how broad the destruction was.

Shipwreck!

On our way to New Oleans we saw this house boat on the side of the highway.

Lily's Temporary House

When Lily first came back to her house after the storm her old house was completely destroyed. If you look real close you can see a platform with a folding chair and table on it that washed up on her property. Lily and her family lived on that platform for three weeks while they slept in their car. After three weeks they purchased a tent that they set up on the platform and they slept in that for three months before a FEMA trailor was delivered, which they have been staying in ever since.

Lily's House

Lily is the woman we are doing electricity for in her new house. Here is a picture she showed us of her last house taken three days after Katrina.

Hannah

This little girl will live in the house we are building. They are hoping to be able to move in by June.

Electrician Team

Here is Henry (Blue shirt) and Gary (Green) with the man,Clinton, we were doing electricity for in the middle.

Ground crew

Esther was our official ladder holder and ground cleanup person.

Take us to your leader

Here is the whole roofing crew taking preventative action.

Help it's an alien!!

We tried just about anything to keep the gnats away!

Dave and Todd clearing the roof

Sanding the ceiling

Here is Mike Hengst sanding the ceiling.

Phil Fairchild

This is Phil Fairchild. He is the long term volunteer running the camp and projects here in Waveland.

Gnats!

It's funny how God uses the small things to humble us. The gnats are pretty bad but they are the worst at the roofing job. You can see in this picture people trying to swat them away.

Lunch

It's a lunch break forthe drywall/painting team.

Sanding!

Here is Colley doing some sanding.

Painting

Linda B. rolling paint on a ceiling.

Workin'

April got a chance to use the nail gun.

Alice the chef!

Alice Leight has been awesome cooking for everyone at Camp Gulfside. We really appreciate the meals she has been cooking for us!

In the kitchen!

Each day one person from our team helps Alice cook meals for the day. Here is Esther cracking eggs.

Girls gone wild!

This evening a group came in with some young adults that were willing to give up their spring break to come and serve the people of Mississippi.

I vant to suck your blood!

One of the problems left behind from the hurricane is a lot of staning water. That has given rise to a new problem... gnats! These gnats are everywhere but they were the worst at the roofing house. here is a small sample from Brad Ludwigs arm. Notice how many bites he has on his forearm in just this little area!

If the water didn't get you the wind did.

A tree fell on this house in Pearlton

Roof damage

This house is one street over from the roofing job. You can still see the stump from the tree that fell through the house.

Up on the rooftop click, click, click!

Here is the roofing crew replaceing a roof on a house in Pearlton. this entire development was under water and about 50% of the houses were total destroyed and the rest suffered major damage. This was a poor community before Katrina and is even worse now. The damage was so bad in this area that all the schools were destroyed an the government has decided not to rebuild any of the elementary schools.

The "Church" is not the building!

This Baptist church, just three doors down from the UMC church we worshiped in on Sunday is a total loss and must be torn down.

The "electricians"

Willie and Gary relaxing in the dining room.

Casper the friendly ghost!!

Dave Dunlap looks like a ghost!

Dusted!!

Linda, Colley and Donald covered in dust!

Is that more snow?

Linda B. is sanding so hard she created a snow storm of spakling dust!

He was that masked woman?

Today was our first day of work on the sites. Here is April sanding drywall in preparation to paint a house.

Tornado go low, Hurricane go high!

We thought this house "almost" survived because it was built on taller pilings than the rest of the houses. After a closer look, we realized that this was the second floor and that the first floor was totally missing!

Kim, Deb and April

Kim, Deb and April out on a peir after church.

How safe is safe?

This is the a bank that is on the same street we are staying on. All that is left is the vault and the big steel door to the safe.

This is the church and this is the steeple!

Here is the church we worshiped in on Sunday!

And here is the steeple!!

This side walk leads to a concrete slab that used to hold a house.

Up and down the beach from where we are staying this is the common sceene. The Pilings from the houses are still there but the houses that used to be on top are gone.

Camp Gulfside

Here is the building we are staying in this week. It is a module building that sleeps 56 people. The rooms are a tight fit but overall it is a great facility for us to work out of.

Sunrise over the Gulf.

Watched the sunrise over the gulf this morning.

Waveland at Last!!

After a very long Drive we finally arrived in waveland at 10pm. It was an eery scene as we drove down streets with street lights and sidewalks but no houses. They had been completely washed away by the hurricane. We drove up 3 miles of beech front to get to Camp Gulfside and all along the beech you could see the pilings from home on the beech with no houses on top. Tomorrow we will see in the full light of day the complete devastation left from the hurricanes.

What a difference a day makes!

After all that snow on Saturday we were greeted with beautiful sunshine and signs of spring in Tennessee. These pear trees were all over in Tennessee and Alabama.

Thank you Wendy's

After hearing what we were up to this Wendy's in Virginia gave all our drivers a free meal! Thanks

A big thanks to Gray UMC in Tennessee who put us up for the night. After our delay and the slow
drive in the snow we arrived 4 hours later than plan and only got 2 hour and 45 minutes of sleep but it was much appreciated. We got up early for the remaining 12 hour drive.

God was with us in our travels as we towed a 12 foot trailer and drove 2 15 passenger vans the 1,100 miles to Waveland, Mississippi.

Contrary to weather reports we actually encountered snow here in DC and all the way into northern Virgina. Here the team is clearing snow and ice from the wipers of a 15 passenger van. We had already replaced them with new ones at Smith's Garage in Stewartstown!

The Team comes together!

After a one and a half hour delay to our start time we finally gathered together at Chapel Church in Red Lion to leave for our trip.

Praise God for bringing together such a great team!

A snow delay?

We were supposed to leave for Mississippi at 4pm but at 2pm things weren't looking too good in Pennsylvania!

Welcome to the Servants Blog Site for the March 2007 Mississippi Trip!

Thanks for visiting our blog site! Soon you will see the pictures and stories from our mission trip to Waveland Mississippi. We are excited to get there and begin "Serving Christ through Serving Others"!

Please pray for team members; Trent Davis, Willie Henry, Lana Henry, Gary Boyd, Colley Boyd, John Leight, Alice Leight, Deb Kitner, Linda Brillhart, Todd Krout, Mike & Esther Hengst, Brad Ludwig, Kim Hengst, April Ludwig, Henry Reinoehl, Dave and Roxanne Strine, Bernell & Jola Shoff, Dave Dunlap, Marty Hake, Don Deitz & Chloe Smith.