Peace United Church of Christ

breakfast at Suma-- biscuits and gravy

     We ate breakfast and then on to the work sites .  At 11 we packed it up ,  went back to SUMA where we are staying and showered, cleaned the dorms and ate lunch.  On the road to New Orleans by 1 pm.  When we arrived we picked up Melissa’s friend, Angela, who gave us an incredible tour of the city.  She had maps and pictures and explained what happened when the levies broke.  We toured Gentilly, Arabi, MId City and the Lower 9th Ward.   We saw Fats Domino’s home which was ruined by the flooding as was 80% of the city.  We also saw the homes that Brad Pitt is building in the lower 9th. 

    We finished the day in the French Quarter.  Folks broke into groups in search of great food and souvenirs.  Now we are back on the bus, which actually has wireless.  I am not having much luck with posting photos.  

      See you all back in Duluth.      – pastor kathy

A home in Gentilly destroyed by the flooding

a "green" house build by Brad Pitt in the Lower 9th Ward

       We worked from 8 - 3:30 today at both houses and then came back to SUMA and most of us went swimming.  The water was incredibly warm.   You can walk way out into the surf .   It was a great way to clean off after a day of work– salt water scraping of sand and paint.

     One group worked at one house getting all the doors installed, kitchen floor tiled and doors and trim painted.  We also insulated the underside of that home.   The other house moved from mudding to sanding.   With a couple of hours of sanding tomorrow it should be ready for next week’s group to prime.  

    Tomorrow we will work for 3 hours finishing up — including putting chicken wire over the insulation we installed.  There will also be some finish sanding, touch up painting and just picking up.   The kids and adults all  have been great workers.   A group are riding the trolley now in search of postcards to mail home to all of you who bought shares.  

    Tomorrow we will head to New Orleans around 1 p.m. and then have a tour of the city and then off to dinner in the French Quarter.  We hope to be on the road home by 7 p.m.  on Friday.

    Thanks for all your prayers.   We are missing Mary Adams who had to go home to be with Sarah who is in the hospital with mono.   Hold Sarah in your prayers. 

    Tonight I was blessed to see Nathan Sandomierski, Peg Pearson’s grandson, who is here in Biloxi at Keissler Airforce Base.  it was wonderful to see him before he ships out to Japan.   Memories of trips with him to the BWCA back when he was in Junior High.   Another blessing was when a complete stranger who talked to some of our youth came up and gave us $100 for our work.  We gave it to Back BAy Mission to buy building supplies.  We used a lot of mud this week.

    peace to you — pastor kathy

        We just finished our third day on the job sites and everything is going great.   Once again we were on the job site by 8 am.   One house got all the kitchen cabinets installed — yeah Peter, Kai and John ; hanging doors;  painting doors and trim; tiling the kitchen and bathrooms.  Great progress on that house.   At the other house we completely insulated the underside to keep the cold in and heat out.  TJ is amazing with a hammer stapler.  Inside Guy and Alison kept our mudding teams going.  Tomorrow we should be ready to sand  . . lots and lots of work. 

     Hot day so we took a break for french pastries in the morning,  lunch at 11:30 and watermelon at 2.  We were headed back to SUMA by 4 so folks could grab a swim in the ocean before dinner.   Tonight we will be going to worship at First Missionary Church at 7 pm.    Several of our girls the last two days have helped to make and serve lunch at the local Loaves and Fishes.  Each day they served over 120 folks. 

     Thanks for all your prayers and posts . . . we will work on postcards tonight.   peace - pastor kathy

    It was another great day in Biloxi.  We rose early and had breakfast at 7 and then on to our work sites.  Again working at two different houses.  One group worked on tiling bathrooms and hanging cabinets.  The other team continued to drywall and build stairs.  Everyone is working well together.

     After work we went back to First Missionary Baptist Church were the Back Bay Mission Executive Director spoke with our group and told us some of the history of Back Bay.  It began in 1922 as an outreach effort to the folks working in the seafood industries.  It has and continues to be a place that reaches out to meet the needs of its neighbors and speak out and work for justice.  This has been especially true since Katrina.  It is currently the only organization in Biloxi  that still has volunteers coming to work on housing on a regular basis.  All of it funded through the United Church of Christ.

      After showers and cleaning up we headed out for dinner at a buffet.  Lots of crab, shrimp and great food.  Our next stop was to the Hurricane Katrina Monuement.    We had our vespers there on a deck built up around a huge old oak tree that made it through the storm.   It was a great place to sing, pray and hear about one another’s day  (onions and orchids) 

    Blessings to all back home  – pastor kathy 

"After 50 everything begins to sag, but our seams are tight" -- Peg Pearson for the Golden Girls

a break with the homeowner

Mixing Mud to tile bathrooms

hanging, taping and mudding dry wall

taping the floor to paint trim

Mia mixing grout on her 18th Birthday

We woke at 6 with breakfast at 6:30.  Our orientation session was at 7:30 and then off to the two houses that our group is working on.   One of the homes needs finishing work . . tiling, hanging cabinets, painting trim.  The second house has a lot more to work on  . . . dry wall to hang, tape and mud, stairs to build and more.  We broke into two teams — Dan Green heading up the team drywalling and  John Thoennes with the team doing finishing work.     We had a great day with everyone working well together and working hard.

We worked until 4;30 and then back to SUMA for supper, showers and vespers -  time to sing, read some scripture and share our “onions and orchids” for the day.   Free time now and folks are walking, watching movies, calling loved ones and just hanging out.  The weather is beautiful– upper 80’s and sunny!  Sorry we hear you are wet and freezing back home.

We arrived at Seashore United Methodist Camp right at 11 am today.  It was just in time to attend worship at Leggett Memorial United Methodist Church which is on site.   The congregation was extremely gracious as our participation more than doubled the congregation.  They had to go out and get extra cups for communion,  we didn’t mind the dixie cups.  It all just felt right.  

The sermon was on John 3: 1 - 17, Nicodemus seeking Jesus under the cover of darkness.  Seeking, but not knowing what or who he would find.   Also perfect for our arrival as we seek to serve the living Christ ,  not knowing even yet where we will be working or with whom.   Trusting it will be enough . 

After worship we all headed to the beach.  The Gulf of Mexico is literally just across the street from the camp.   The sand is beautiful and white.   The kids found jelly fish and flying fish and Val even found a little shark.   Several of us walked the beach down to where there was a parade of shrimp boats.  Today was the blessing of the shrimp boats, so they were all decked out with fancy flags.  

We returned to camp for showers, naps, games of soccer and cribbage.  Dinner was made for us by Cathy and Joey,  both who were here pre-Katrina.  They had stories and pictures to share.  The cafeteria was miraculously saved in the storm and became a place of feeding hundreds of volunteers in the days that followed.  

Soon we will have evening vespers and then lights out.   Breakfast is at 6:30 and work/orientation begins at 7:30.    Many thanks to our bus drivers Tod and Rick for getting us here safely and for all the driving they will be doing for us this week.  

 — Pastor Kathy

Forty (40)  adults and youth from the church left today at 9 a.m. on a coach bus headed for Biloxi Mississippi. This intergenerational crew will be working to rebuild/fix homes that are still a mess since Hurricane Katrina hit.  

Biloxi Departure

The group will arrive in Biloxi on Sunday afternoon and settle into the UCC’s Back Bay Mission.  They will get oriented to the mission and the work that they will begin on Monday.  

Keep watching for daily updates on their work!