Monday Musings

Today I slept about an hour later than usual. Then I did a little more e-mailing than usual. About mid-morning I started mopping two bedrooms with bleach water. Most of the floors in our house are covered with dollops of sheetrock mud and paint and other stuff. So, it's not just mopping...it's scrubbing. I did two rooms, and although they do not look perfect, they look lots better. Nicole did hers and Claire's rooms and they look pretty good, too. It's starting to look more like a home again, and personally I can't wait to be back in our home. The three 'biggies' that are in the way are heating/ac, flooring, and kitchen cabinets. There is still some framing up to do, baseboards to put down, and floor sanding/staining/sealing. But we can work on that while we are in. I caught myself the other day, though. I kept thinking to myself, "Self, if we had ac and heat, I'd move back into the house." Then I thought, "Move in? What will I move in? We threw it all away!" Oh well, I knew what I meant. I think. That's how I spent my first day "off". I was tempted to go up to the building a couple of times, but I resisted! I did, however, enjoy an update from David on some things that are going on that are going to be awesome. I'll tell you more about them later. I did manage to take some pictures around the house tonight, which are on my picture page located HERE. Tommy Dublin writes a bit about his visit to Pascagoula HERE. Donna Gossett writes about her upcoming visit to Pascagoula HERE. Thomas Stewart writes about his weekend visit to Pascagoula HERE. My good friend Bill Good is an elder in a Christian Church in Oregon. I wish I could meet this dear brother in person, but for now he is an e-friend - a real person that I only know through e-mail. Bill has been praying for us since this ordeal began. He writes today, "John, when I remember what your house looked like and how it looks today, how did you find time to do the ministry and work at home? Did you ever sleep? Then I think of those whose homes were lost, God has protected you from great evil. You are still listed on our Sunday Prayer Journal." Bill asks some key questions that I wanted to answer here. The truth is that I did not do the work on my house, it was all done by volunteers. When Hurricane Katrina's storm surge flooded my home with seawater and sewage, I faced a simple reality: I am the most unhandy person in America. I cannot fix my home. I have no skills at all in that area. I also faced another reality: I cannot pay a mortgage and rent on another house. In my mind, there was no recourse but to file bankruptcy. This brought me great sadness because I knew it would jeopardize my financial future and it might bring embarassment to my family. And that's when the calls, checks, visits, and assurances came rolling in. It is hard to receive these gifts, but it is a necessity to put that pride aside. Friends came from in town and the Gateway Church of Christ in Pensacola to help me rip out carpet and toss out my soaked possessions. Maggy and I dealt with this blow very differently, and had to be sensitive to one another - although I'm sure I wasn't as sensitive as I should have been. For two weeks we picked through our belongings, salvaging what we could. My brother David Kilbern had to come over a few times and give me a 'father-son' talk to point me in the right direction when I was neglecting something I had to do. I owe him a lot for his support and help in this time. We slept at the homes of friends (so I did sleep, Bill, but not much). A brother Jaimeson, preacher at the Pleasure Island Church of Christ in Gulf Shores, Alabama, came to my home with some men from his church. They took video of our home, and of Pascagoula. With the support of the Gulf Shores church, a contractor named J. V. Lamar came and surveyed the damage, bringing a work crew to continue the demolition that several of us (including my 16 year old son) had started, and then renovation. He not only helped my home, but four or five others. Bill, this all seems a blur to me now. I'm sure I'm leaving people out who were here to help. I hope any readers who helped but didn't get a mention tonight in my blog will forgive me! Truly, I barely remember most of it. After our two week period of salvaging, I gave myself to the work at the church for this community. Any work that has been done at my house has been done by others mostly. So, yes, the Lord has protected me from great evil in many ways. And prayer has shielded my heart and caused me not to give up. In one of the last conversations I had with brother Lamar, he looked at me and said, "when you first came home you wanted to pack up and run away, didn't you?" And he was right. I even had opportunities to run away. Some rumors got started and some people thought I had high-tailed it out of town. One brother proclaimed he saw me with a trailer of my stuff headed out! But I couldn't leave this broken community like that. With the help of a grand brotherhood of believers (from all sorts of faith families), we have come this far. Even the camper that we now sleep in is a gift from a loving brother - an anonymous brother at that. A few weeks ago some brothers from the Free Evangelical Church of Bloomington, Indiana came and asked, "Where's the preacher's house? He can't minister if his house is on his mind." They worked all week in my house. Tommy Stewart expressed a similar sentiment in a recent blog. Other people need help, and so do we ... but we'll make it. Sometimes when I think about what I might have done if it had not been for God's people ... I remember that there are people in our neighborhood who are facing that very prospect. And so we go to them and offer the hand of hope that no one else will give them. We invite everyone to join us in that offer. Thanks for asking, Bill. I never want to forget what has been done for me.... unworthy of it all ... God's amazing grace shines brilliantly on a storm-torn Mississippi Gulf Coast.