Monday, March 20, 2006

mississippi and back again












we made it...there and back again...6 of us...and what a trip it was :) on march 12th at 6:30 am tom, danI, priscilla, jessie(my sister), lynsey (my cousin) and myself hopped in the mini van and started off! we made it 30 minutes down the road before we hit our first delay...in the midst of packing...i accidently grabbed someone elses bag that was sleeping over, but was NOT going on the trip with us...ooops! so we had to fish it out and return it...luckily we were only a short ways down the road. the rest of the trip down went very quickly and smoothly. that was a blessing, aparrnetly we mised a couple of major storms on the way down too! so we arrive at the "compound" - as they called it - at about 11:30 pm. we were greeted by my dear friend and old roomate tiffiny...it was GREAT to see her and spend the week with her :) monday morning...bright and early (6am) we get up and get ready to start our day/week of work. we get assigned to be with "the man" (orley) and his wife bonnie, to help them finish a couple of houses they had been working on by themselves since thanksgiving! so again we hopped in the mini van and followed them to alabama (it was only a 45 minute drive). we spent the week priming, mudding, sanding, painting, putting in floors, putting up trim, putting in doors and so on. we were able to meet and know the owners of these homes. the first home was the tilmin home. they were so sweet to us...everyday they would come out of their trailer to see how we were going and brign us refreshments. mr. tilmin was determined to set us girls up with some fine alabama boys - he even tried teaching us the indian "love" call - no boys ever came though :) we decided that my attempt at making this indian "love" call scared them all away :) oh well...we found out at the end of the week that the tilmin's had had this home in the family for generations. if it wasn't for the volunteers putting it back together...they would have lost this home for good.
the other home was cequoia's (i am not sure that is spelled right?). again they were living in a trailer just waiting for their home to be finished as well. both of these homes were flooded majorly due to the hurricane. the town we were in was bayuo de barte...this was a shrimping town. it was amazing to see all of the shrimping boats. one of the ways this town has suffered the most due to the strom was losing their boats to the land. there were numerous boats land locked...later in the week we also went to see where the eye of the hurricane was and traveled along the coast to see the damage. it is beyond words...there's is nothing left but debri...6 months have gone by and parts of alabama, mississippi and louisiana looks like the hurricane just went through a few days ago...wow...
in mississippi, we were helping through an organization called nazarene disaster relief. it was amazing to see all the churches helping in these areas. the goal of this organization and others like it are to rebuild the churches first, then supply these churches with the necessary means to rebuild the communities...they are trying to set the churches up as the foundation of the communities so as to show these people God's love. all of these organizations are church oriented. i can't even expain the urgency and need of the communities in these areas...volunteers are continually coming and going...there is still so much left to be done...some people are even commited for the long haul. the nazarene disaster relief has borrowed a church's gym for the next four years...there is still so much work to do...and hurricane season is on its way again...
well, the 6 of us worked hard all week...watching God work through our team again goes beyond words...then it was time to say goodbye...all of us really wanted to stay another week...but we had commitments back home...so we left bright and early saturday morning...and God brought us home bright and early sunday morning...(this is a whole other stroy in itself...i'll have to tell later...let's just say we had a little car trouble and learned a heap about patience...no one was hurt or in danger and that was a blessing as well.)
PLEASE be in prayer for these communities down south...if you have the opportunity go and help...it is still very much a need...if you don't know the means to get down there let me know and i will give you a number to call. please pray...please try and go...they need you!!!

2 comments:

Abby said...

Good work Sarah! You're always such a hard worker. Glad the trip went well - except the car thing - love ya!

Dave said...

Hi Sarah

Having trouble with your e-mail address you're sending from. When I reply, it returns as undeliverable. Did you get my note about you coming on April 3rd for GPS classes? Maybe send your phone number so I can call instead of e-mail...or maybe a different e-mail address?

Dave