I'm reading like crazy this summer. I haven't been reading the usual novels as I've enjoyed past summers. I love a good novel but there seems no time in my life for that. I am on a quest! There are so many things I am eager to get my eyes on! I need to learn, study, questions, soak up other ideas. Okay, I admit that I am a Guidepost Magazine junkie. I read it while we watch the World Cup games. The stories are sometimes hokey and sweet but there are often great quotes and tidbits from stories that I can use in my Junior High Bible study. I try to tie them in with a scripture to help the kids understand it better or how they can fit the lessons of a scripture into a real life situation. At that age (12, 13, 14) half the battle is getting their attention. No, it's more than half the battle...oh, but when you hook them they listen in a way that adults rarely do. They hunger for God and to understand. They need him and they know it. They haven't reached that stage where they think can do without him.
It depends which chair I am sitting in. "Guidepost" in the livingroom recliner but in my reading chair I have recently read, "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell. I had seen three of his mini-films that we had used in the Wednesday Youth worships and Bible studies; "Kickball", "Luggage" (that's impact!) and the incredible "Dust". When I ran across his book I snapped it up. Wow! Lot's of food for thought and controversy there. There is so much truth in it and also a lot of stuff I will have to chew on awhile. Definitely food for thought...unless you are afraid to think about what God, Jesus, the Bible and Christianity really mean. I can't imagine that...but then I'm Methodist and that's what it is all about for me ☻... growing closer to The Truth....that's the God-truth not the Man-truth or the American-truth.
So, while in my reading chair I am now reading a book that I don't know how it got on my bookshelf. I was grazing my library and the title caught my eye. "Does God Believe in You?: Developing Spiritual Self-Confidence" by Keith R. Anderson. I pulled it out and started reading.
I am fascinated since this is just what I need to be reading right now (it's a God-thing).. I have been having a bit of a spiritual crisis as far as wondering if there is any way that I could possibly even figure out God's plan for me... let alone to live up to it! Am I too old? Did I miss it? It is an easy-read but offers more to think about so I am limiting myself to one chapter a day so that I can ruminate on it and how it speaks to me in my life right now.
Upstairs I have a copy of "Cure for the Common Life" by Max Lucado. Pretty boring at first. Heard it before and, yes, I know that God calls each of us, but around chapter 4 I began to see that it was fitting in with what I am looking for...how to find out what I'm to do and why and, well... I'm still reading.
Oh, I wish I could read all day every day...but then when would I serve the God that gave me everything and expects me to go out there into the world and love it and glorify him? Can I figure out this balancing act of learning and teaching and getting with God and serving him? It's not rhetorical... I'm looking for answers.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Hipolito was living alone in the FEMA trailer parked next to his home. There was a wheel chair ramp going up to it for his wife but she had had to leave since she could not find the kind of care she needed there after Hurricane Katrina had drown their neighborhood. Hipolito was a sad, elderly man. They had left for higher ground but their home had been destroyed. His wife's doctor had stayed... and died. Hipolito told us that he had been a kind man.
He asked us what had happened to his hardwood oak floors that had been there. The oak had been pulled up and thrown out by a group before us. They'd been swollen and warped and ruined in the flood. You could literally see the ground beneath his home between the boards and in the empty nail holes. The group before us had put up insulation (there had never been any before), hung sheetrock and painted. A volunteer electrician was working on it. I think the group before that had given him a roof. It was finally falling into place for him.
The group before us did the sheetrock and it is the worst sheetrocking I've ever seen. The walls in the livingroom looked as if they had not even been sanded but they had already had a coat of paint so there was little we could do. We have had to change our thinking a bit in regard to remodeling. Having to cut corners because one doesn't have the money or the equipment and especially the time to do things "right". They want to be living in their homes. Hurricane season is upon them again and they want to start living normally in their own finished homes. We all did the best we could..
Hipolito had paid two different contractors ($1800 each) to do plumbing so he could get back into his home. Both had taken his money and run. It's hard to understand that someone would pay up front for a job to be done... especially twice. But he was desperate to get his home in order, to have a home, to get his wife back with him. Desparate people grasp at straws. Desparate people attract unscrupulous contractors and apparently they are plentiful around these parts.
We painted the trim in the livingroom and all of the dining room and set his kitchen cabinets and sanded some sheetrock and scraped up sheetrock mud off the livingroom floor and painted a bedroom floor... and they set his toilet and got it working!
We had worked on Hipolito's house all morning and then had to leave for home that afternoon. We left him, so grateful to have more of his home ready and yet,so sad at all that he had lost.
(More Mission Trip memories: our own little flood, Katrina Flood, First United Methodist Church of Kearney, Gautier United Methodist Church, Ander's house, Miss Martha & Miss Ruby roofs, "Mississippi Manicures", Flood damage, Gautier, Mississippi, Biloxi hurricane destruction, coming home, Mississippi Hurricane Relief Mission Trip)
He asked us what had happened to his hardwood oak floors that had been there. The oak had been pulled up and thrown out by a group before us. They'd been swollen and warped and ruined in the flood. You could literally see the ground beneath his home between the boards and in the empty nail holes. The group before us had put up insulation (there had never been any before), hung sheetrock and painted. A volunteer electrician was working on it. I think the group before that had given him a roof. It was finally falling into place for him.
The group before us did the sheetrock and it is the worst sheetrocking I've ever seen. The walls in the livingroom looked as if they had not even been sanded but they had already had a coat of paint so there was little we could do. We have had to change our thinking a bit in regard to remodeling. Having to cut corners because one doesn't have the money or the equipment and especially the time to do things "right". They want to be living in their homes. Hurricane season is upon them again and they want to start living normally in their own finished homes. We all did the best we could..
Hipolito had paid two different contractors ($1800 each) to do plumbing so he could get back into his home. Both had taken his money and run. It's hard to understand that someone would pay up front for a job to be done... especially twice. But he was desperate to get his home in order, to have a home, to get his wife back with him. Desparate people grasp at straws. Desparate people attract unscrupulous contractors and apparently they are plentiful around these parts.
We painted the trim in the livingroom and all of the dining room and set his kitchen cabinets and sanded some sheetrock and scraped up sheetrock mud off the livingroom floor and painted a bedroom floor... and they set his toilet and got it working!
We had worked on Hipolito's house all morning and then had to leave for home that afternoon. We left him, so grateful to have more of his home ready and yet,so sad at all that he had lost.
(More Mission Trip memories: our own little flood, Katrina Flood, First United Methodist Church of Kearney, Gautier United Methodist Church, Ander's house, Miss Martha & Miss Ruby roofs, "Mississippi Manicures", Flood damage, Gautier, Mississippi, Biloxi hurricane destruction, coming home, Mississippi Hurricane Relief Mission Trip)
The third house was Ander's. Carol and Andy were going to paint there while the rest of us went on to roof at Miss Ruby's. Carol was a bit worried, unsure about being left there so we decided we'd all go on in and check it all out; see what needed to be done, how many workers to leave behind.
We were pulling up to the house in a nice little neighborhood near the shore in Pascagoula, Mississippi. There was a FEMA trailer in the front yard and a big black man came bursting out. He paced outside the bus as we parked, opened the doors and all tumbled out. He grabbed each one of us and hugged us... a big ol' heartfelt bear hug. His wife was inside and showed us around to all that needed done. Groups before us had gotten it to the stage of painting. Everything in their house had had to be replaced.
Carol and Andy painted there and later more of us joined the effort. Ander (real name was Andrew but he said his mama called him Ander and we should, too.) was a reall chatty guy. He had a deep accent that we had some trouble understanding but he was patient about it and repeated at will. He and his family had been at home when the hurricane hit. They had ridden out hurricanes before but Katrina's number popped up as it hit the shores and it hit harder than predicted. His home flooded instantly with the wall of water. The local lagoon also flooded with it so that was in the water, too. He said he was not afraid for himself but for his wife and his grandson. The water came up to Ander's neck and he had to hold his Grandson above his head. They could not escape their house until the waters receded. They survived... but their house was in shambles.
The house was unairconditioned and so hot and stuffy! We were all soaked with sweat. Ander never lifted a hand to help but kept us entertained the whole while. His wife wanted us to paint her laundry room and her garage but we moved on to those in more need at that point. Ander climbed onto the bus to thank us one more time and mad John write down each of our names so he could "put it in the newspaper".
We were pulling up to the house in a nice little neighborhood near the shore in Pascagoula, Mississippi. There was a FEMA trailer in the front yard and a big black man came bursting out. He paced outside the bus as we parked, opened the doors and all tumbled out. He grabbed each one of us and hugged us... a big ol' heartfelt bear hug. His wife was inside and showed us around to all that needed done. Groups before us had gotten it to the stage of painting. Everything in their house had had to be replaced.
Carol and Andy painted there and later more of us joined the effort. Ander (real name was Andrew but he said his mama called him Ander and we should, too.) was a reall chatty guy. He had a deep accent that we had some trouble understanding but he was patient about it and repeated at will. He and his family had been at home when the hurricane hit. They had ridden out hurricanes before but Katrina's number popped up as it hit the shores and it hit harder than predicted. His home flooded instantly with the wall of water. The local lagoon also flooded with it so that was in the water, too. He said he was not afraid for himself but for his wife and his grandson. The water came up to Ander's neck and he had to hold his Grandson above his head. They could not escape their house until the waters receded. They survived... but their house was in shambles.
The house was unairconditioned and so hot and stuffy! We were all soaked with sweat. Ander never lifted a hand to help but kept us entertained the whole while. His wife wanted us to paint her laundry room and her garage but we moved on to those in more need at that point. Ander climbed onto the bus to thank us one more time and mad John write down each of our names so he could "put it in the newspaper".
"Helping one family at a time" that's what they are trying to do in the face of the daunting need left by the hurricanes last fall. I've been thinking about the people waiting for new roofs and interior repairs; people who have been on a list for months and months patiently living in homes wearing weathered blue tarp scarves, or among the bits and pieces of remodeling being done or nesting in their FEMA trailers.
We first met Miss Martha. (She really wasn't a "miss" but we soon learned that everyone down South is "Miss" or "Mr", even with first names.) She was thrilled and surprised, having been bumped up the list due to the discovery that the guy above her was actually a landlord wanting his rental property fixed for free. We started at her house while she was still at work. (She works for a doctor) We were novices at roofing with a little experience among us but we kicked right in. The first part of the job took no brains or skill...just a lot of tedious, back-bending effort. We tore off her old roof.
It was apparent immediately that the building codes were crazy-off from what we are used to here in Missouri. We were told later that some of the houses were built before there really were many codes. Anyway, her roof was made of 1/4" plywood on 24" centers and old. It was wavy as could be between the rafters and so weak that we didn't dare let Andy up on the roof. He'd have dropped right through to her kitchen! Johh insisted on going up but was pretty careful to keep his feet on the rafter boards. The rest of us walked at will but every now and then you'd hear a "WHooooaa..." as someone stepped into a soft spot and dipped precariously low.
There was one place that a tree had gone through and we replaced it with 2 sheets of solid plywood. The whole roof really needed it but we were there to get things fixed a.s.a.p and we had to remember that they don't have the snow on their roofs that makes it neccessary for ours to be so sturdy.
The roofing was so weak and old that it tore off in small pieces and strips leaving the nails behind. The tarpaper below was in the same condition and was stuck to the plywood below. It came off in tiny pieces mostly that had to be picked off by hand and then swept off. The nails had to be pulled out with a hammer or popped off by brute force with a shovel. We tried to send all the debris to the front of the house where our ground crew of 3 moved it all to within 3' of the curb where it would be picked up by the city.
We did end up throwing some of it off the back because it was just too much effort to drag it up and over the peak of the roof. The back yard was secured by a tall chain link fence with a locked gate. Miss Martha's house butts up to the housing project in the area. Her airconditioner was chained to the ground. We think she probably had good reason to have her backyard locked up but Tom figured out that he could just remove the pins in the hinge of the gate and we got right in for clean up. We had a giant magnet on a pole for retrieving the jillions of nails that went over the side with the rest of the debris.
We had only worked for the afternoon since we had been on the bus all morning getting to Gautier, Mississippi. At the end of the day we were very hot and very tired. It had been in the upper 80°s on that roof and we had really felt it. My back was aching from all the bending and effort with the nails/shovel. Everyone had worked well together and worked hard!
Day 2~ We started earlier so we could bet a jump before the heat. Miss Martha was leaving for work and was so glad to meet us. The first thing she said was how grateful she was and then she asked if there were any black people in our group. We told her there were not. (we didn't tell her that there are only 2 black (1/2 black) members of our whole church and not many more than that in our whole community) She told us she was disappointed...that all the people they had seen coming to volunteer...there were no blacks among them. We didn't know what to say. I don't understand that myself. But she was still, oh so grateful. She wanted to know each of our names. She left a note inside stating her gratitude. (she left her house open for us to use the bathroom) I left her a note telling her we were just trying to do what God expects us to do; welcomed the opportunity. The next day Miss Martha called the church to thank them for sending her angels.
We finished her house and cleaned up as best we could. I am afraid her lawn mower will find a few of the nails that we surely missed picking up. We spread a tarp on the grass below for the roof debris at the next house. It worked so much better... although we almost always filled it way too full before dragging to the curb.
Miss Ruby was the next homeowner we worked for. She was home while we worked on the first day and glad to see us but somewhat reserved. Her roof had four layers that had to be removed! We invited her to dinner with us and she accepted. It was taco salad night and it was good. We ate the delicious Taco Mountains and tried to make conversation with Miss Ruby. She works at the shipyard in the Maintenance Dept....lucky to be in that department since many others have been laid off. We made small talk. I asked her where she worshipped and she opened up. I think her reservations toward us came from maybe thinking that we would be condescending toward her, maybe even toward all those down there. You know, "Oh, how we came to help you poor needy people. Oh, aren't we wonderful." BUt when we got to talking about our churches, about our worship, suddenly we weren't black or white, we weren't rich or poor, we weren't Northern or Southern...we were just God's children. Christians one and all... just doing what we are called to do.
(More Mission Trip memories: our own little flood, Katrina Flood, First United Methodist Church of Kearney, Gautier United Methodist Church, Ander's house, Miss Martha & Miss Ruby roofs, "Mississippi Manicures", Flood damage, Gautier, Mississippi, Biloxi hurricane destruction, coming home, Mississippi Hurricane Relief Mission Trip)
We first met Miss Martha. (She really wasn't a "miss" but we soon learned that everyone down South is "Miss" or "Mr", even with first names.) She was thrilled and surprised, having been bumped up the list due to the discovery that the guy above her was actually a landlord wanting his rental property fixed for free. We started at her house while she was still at work. (She works for a doctor) We were novices at roofing with a little experience among us but we kicked right in. The first part of the job took no brains or skill...just a lot of tedious, back-bending effort. We tore off her old roof.
It was apparent immediately that the building codes were crazy-off from what we are used to here in Missouri. We were told later that some of the houses were built before there really were many codes. Anyway, her roof was made of 1/4" plywood on 24" centers and old. It was wavy as could be between the rafters and so weak that we didn't dare let Andy up on the roof. He'd have dropped right through to her kitchen! Johh insisted on going up but was pretty careful to keep his feet on the rafter boards. The rest of us walked at will but every now and then you'd hear a "WHooooaa..." as someone stepped into a soft spot and dipped precariously low.
There was one place that a tree had gone through and we replaced it with 2 sheets of solid plywood. The whole roof really needed it but we were there to get things fixed a.s.a.p and we had to remember that they don't have the snow on their roofs that makes it neccessary for ours to be so sturdy.
The roofing was so weak and old that it tore off in small pieces and strips leaving the nails behind. The tarpaper below was in the same condition and was stuck to the plywood below. It came off in tiny pieces mostly that had to be picked off by hand and then swept off. The nails had to be pulled out with a hammer or popped off by brute force with a shovel. We tried to send all the debris to the front of the house where our ground crew of 3 moved it all to within 3' of the curb where it would be picked up by the city.
We did end up throwing some of it off the back because it was just too much effort to drag it up and over the peak of the roof. The back yard was secured by a tall chain link fence with a locked gate. Miss Martha's house butts up to the housing project in the area. Her airconditioner was chained to the ground. We think she probably had good reason to have her backyard locked up but Tom figured out that he could just remove the pins in the hinge of the gate and we got right in for clean up. We had a giant magnet on a pole for retrieving the jillions of nails that went over the side with the rest of the debris.
We had only worked for the afternoon since we had been on the bus all morning getting to Gautier, Mississippi. At the end of the day we were very hot and very tired. It had been in the upper 80°s on that roof and we had really felt it. My back was aching from all the bending and effort with the nails/shovel. Everyone had worked well together and worked hard!
Day 2~ We started earlier so we could bet a jump before the heat. Miss Martha was leaving for work and was so glad to meet us. The first thing she said was how grateful she was and then she asked if there were any black people in our group. We told her there were not. (we didn't tell her that there are only 2 black (1/2 black) members of our whole church and not many more than that in our whole community) She told us she was disappointed...that all the people they had seen coming to volunteer...there were no blacks among them. We didn't know what to say. I don't understand that myself. But she was still, oh so grateful. She wanted to know each of our names. She left a note inside stating her gratitude. (she left her house open for us to use the bathroom) I left her a note telling her we were just trying to do what God expects us to do; welcomed the opportunity. The next day Miss Martha called the church to thank them for sending her angels.
We finished her house and cleaned up as best we could. I am afraid her lawn mower will find a few of the nails that we surely missed picking up. We spread a tarp on the grass below for the roof debris at the next house. It worked so much better... although we almost always filled it way too full before dragging to the curb.
Miss Ruby was the next homeowner we worked for. She was home while we worked on the first day and glad to see us but somewhat reserved. Her roof had four layers that had to be removed! We invited her to dinner with us and she accepted. It was taco salad night and it was good. We ate the delicious Taco Mountains and tried to make conversation with Miss Ruby. She works at the shipyard in the Maintenance Dept....lucky to be in that department since many others have been laid off. We made small talk. I asked her where she worshipped and she opened up. I think her reservations toward us came from maybe thinking that we would be condescending toward her, maybe even toward all those down there. You know, "Oh, how we came to help you poor needy people. Oh, aren't we wonderful." BUt when we got to talking about our churches, about our worship, suddenly we weren't black or white, we weren't rich or poor, we weren't Northern or Southern...we were just God's children. Christians one and all... just doing what we are called to do.
(More Mission Trip memories: our own little flood, Katrina Flood, First United Methodist Church of Kearney, Gautier United Methodist Church, Ander's house, Miss Martha & Miss Ruby roofs, "Mississippi Manicures", Flood damage, Gautier, Mississippi, Biloxi hurricane destruction, coming home, Mississippi Hurricane Relief Mission Trip)
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Mississippi Manicures!
These lovely Mississippi Manicures were provided free of charge by the Gautier United Methodist Church! Notice the exclusive Missouri Tips on the nails, straight from Pascagoula, Mississippi.
(More Mission Trip memories: our own little flood, Katrina Flood, First United Methodist Church of Kearney, Gautier United Methodist Church, Ander's house, Miss Martha & Miss Ruby roofs, Hipolito's house, Flood damage, Gautier, Mississippi, Biloxi hurricane destruction, coming home, Mississippi Hurricane Relief Mission Trip)
These lovely Mississippi Manicures were provided free of charge by the Gautier United Methodist Church! Notice the exclusive Missouri Tips on the nails, straight from Pascagoula, Mississippi.
(More Mission Trip memories: our own little flood, Katrina Flood, First United Methodist Church of Kearney, Gautier United Methodist Church, Ander's house, Miss Martha & Miss Ruby roofs, Hipolito's house, Flood damage, Gautier, Mississippi, Biloxi hurricane destruction, coming home, Mississippi Hurricane Relief Mission Trip)
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
I expected to feel all goody- goody after my return from work with the hurricane relief down South but... well, there have been so many feelings, thoughts, ideas, prayers and images banging around in my brain! It's taking me awhile to process it all. Especially when I get back home and am expected to, you know, take up the same place where I left off before I went. I don't feel good either, nor bad... just different... 
challenged... changed.I sent out an email to practically everyone I know letting them know about the great need for volunteers since it is clear that is the only way the non-business,
non-wealthy folks are going to get help. The responses I got were diasappointing and disheartening to me. I'm hating all this "Oh, you did such a great thing." "Oh, it's so wonderful that you gave up so much to go do that." "Oh, I want to do something like that but I just don't have time." It makes me want to sccreeeeaam! I do understand how they are feeling and know that they are sincere. It is exactly how I felt before when I would hear about other mission trips our church has organized. But I don't want kudos; I want other people to step up and pick up where we left off!
I didn't do a great thing, I didn't give up anything, it wasn't wonderful, you CAN do something like that, you DO have the time.... I want to say that but I don't. I've been in their shoes. Maybe by going myself I did plant a few seeds among my peers. They can do it, too. Afterall, Lou is the one that showed me that it can be done. She went to Nicaragua!
I do feel good that 2 of my sons gave up their time to come with us. They were both hard workers, and Casey's friend, Chris, was, too. It would have been a much less productive group without the 3 young men that followed me down there. I feel good about that. I worked hard, too. I can feel good about that as well. The folks whose homes we worked on were sincerely grateful that it was finally their turn. We did a good thing for them. There is no doubt of that.
We worked together so well! The combination of young people and adults, male and female was perfect. Among us were those with strength and the vitality, those with knowledge and skill and experience, those with enthusiasm and a willingness to do anything. There was kindness and an honest effort to value everyone; find a meaningful job for everyone that wasn't just busy-work. I feel good about the group. I made many new friends. I learned a lot, too.
There were no slackers among us. We saw the almost unfathomable amount of work that still needs to be done and we just wanted to work, work, work in the samll amount of time tha we would be there. We did all we could, more than most groups that go, but it didn't seem enough. We didn't go shopping or eat out or take in the scenery. We just worked.
It was a good trip. A good group. Good work was done. And yet...
The feelings are still bouncing around. I'm still working on them. I'm letting God work on me.
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