Wednesday Morning on the Coast

I haven't been sharing any news from the hurricane relief front, because I haven't been around the church building much these past few days. The Tulsa Crew is doing an awesome job getting some work done at our house. I doubt I can list everything, but here are a few things they have done this week: placed the quarter-round in the dining and living rooms, worked on door trim, hung four doors and replaced knobs, ran the wiring for a new microhood and placed it in place, put up some wood and trimmed it out in a place that the sheetrock folks missed, replaced the shutters on the house, cut out a dead bush and extended the front brick garden, replaced the outside porch lights, cut our shrub bushes way back, trimmed some trees in the yard, and probably some other stuff. Pretty good, huh! Today they will replace the back bathroom commode and maybe do a few other things. I will be sad to see them go tomorrow! In the picture above, Marvin directs Cecil and Larry. Now Cecil and Larry do not need direction, but we all have our gifts. It has been fun having Craig Hicks around also. He has such a great humor and a big heart for everyone. He and JR hung the shutters and replaced the outside lights. They are going to do some more work in the yard today. The boys wanted to play Monopoly last night, so Craig, myself, JR, AJ, and Joel Jordan played for quite a while. Craig and I were the only ones paying much attention to the game. At one point we each took about four turns while the other ones were so distracted they didn't even know it. So not long after that we decided it was a draw and put it all up. Also during the day yesterday Marvin had the opportunity to use his chainsaw, which is one of his favorite things to do. We don't have many trees left to cut up. Rod Tate, Al Sanders, and Bill from Kentucky and their crews came in right after the storm and took care of most of that. I'm sure that the farther West you go, the more of this kind of work there is to do. Marvin's lesson last night was simply good old fashioned gospel preaching. It really did my soul well! His topic was "What's the Hurry?", and he talked about the urgency of obeying the gospel. I have Marvin and Craig's lessons available for a list on our website at www.123Jesus.com. I did manage to get away for an hour yesterday and enjoy some coffee and conversation with Daved Baker, which is always a joy. Tomorrow the Tulsa Crew will make that long trek back to Oklahoma and our house will be so much closer to completion. We are so thankful for these brothers who wanted to come and help us. They will be back in June with even more people, and for that I am so grateful. One of the groups scheduled for this week did not show up. Just a note to the groups: It always helps us for you to remind us of your current numbers, expected arrival and departure dates, and skills. If you have to cancel, just let us know! I would say that 95% of the groups show up when they say they are, with the number they projected, and are ready to work! I read a statistic yesterday that 99,000 people in Mississippi live in 36,000 FEMA campers. I want to encourage churches everywhere to begin to prepare for hurricane season 2006. On the Coast we are in the most vulnerable position we have ever been in. We have learned a lot of lessons. We are still learning. Even a small hurricane will do double damage and set us back even further. I think (hope) that Christians across the U.S. are more conscious than ever of the need to do relief work. Check out www.christiancrisisresources.com for disaster updates, requests for help, and opportunities to serve. There is information there about people in Tennessee who need help right now. Service is not a summer project but a lifestyle for Christians. We are learning as we go. God bless all of you for reading!