katrina relief service trip

i should have put this up weeks ago, but I totally forgot until last night. So here are some pics from a service trip I went on in the middle of January, down to Mississippi. It's unbelievable that people are still affected by the Hurrican Katrina that hit four years ago. People told stories of how the forty-foot wave came; the real devastation was when the water pulled everything back with it into the gulf.
Jobs that the various volunteer teams did during the week included home-building, cleaning, cooking, helping out in the distribution center, and ministry work. It was so great being with cheerful people who wanted to be working, to be helping the people who Katrina hit the hardest. One man described it this way: "faith with it's sleeves rolled up."
Check out arbcainlakeshore2009.wordpress.com for more information on the trip.

there was a full moon our first night there. stunning.

this is my BFF, trying to sleep through the annoyance of me snapping pictures of her. :)
me.

breakfast.

these were the huts the volunteers slept in; there were other buildings in the back as well.

some girls on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico.

this little gumbi toy survived the hurricane. our motto was "semper gumbi": always flexible.
me.
guys working on building a porch.
this is the storage tent for the distribution center. we organized it and cleaned it up.
some customers in the distribution center .
an invitation.

a house in the making.

signs like this were everywhere; signs like "Mold removal: call this number," or "This number for new roofing."

try and figure this one out...

this is a brown recluse we found while cleaning out a storage shed. it was the size of a half dollar.

one of the girls on the kitchen crew liked to get creative with the food that was served. She made ordinary things like lunchmeat and donut holes look beautiful.

this is the porch again; coming along well.

at the end of the week we went shopping for food for the distribution center. we filled up six or seven carts.

there was a casino along the shore. it was one of the first things built after the hurricane. Hmm...what was that parable about the house built on sand?

Well, that's all I have for now.

peace.