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The team left Camp Hope at 6:30 AM Saturday, Oct. 27. We stopped for lunch in Memphis and ate at McDonalds. We dropped Cathy and Ed off at their home in House Springs, Mo at 5:30 PM. The balance of the team arrived at the COS McClay Campus at 6:30 PM. Friends and family were waiting for us.

Thank you all for following our mission online. We appriciate all your prayers and support.

Loose Ends, 5th Working Day

This post is one day late. Sorry. We arrived at Camp Hope late last night and left early this morning.

This whole week has been about getting families out of FEMA trailers. Here is a picture from inside one of these trailers. Could you and your family live in one for 2 years?

Yesterday Bob worked with Hanz and finished up two homes. Tom and Merle are ready to move in. They are only waiting on the city inspectors to give the OK. Bob and Hanz also finished up Doug Barber’s house. Doug lives next door to Tom and Merle. Yesterday Doug’s house was inspected by the city and failed. The water heater needed a drain pan installed under it and a gap in the wall between the car port and attic needed to be filled. Tom and Hanz fixed these items and it should pass inspection.

The whole team went to Ms. DeDeaux’s house this morning and presented her with a few gifts from the Church of the Shepherd (COS) congregation. COS gave us two hand-made walnut crosses. These crosses are beautiful. They are hand made by someone at COS and the design is very intricate. COS also gave us two crocheted schalls that were made by members of the COS prayer ministry. After the presentation to Ms. DeDeaux, we went to Ms Riad’s house and presented her with the same gifts. Ms Riad showed us exactly where the cross would be hung; right above the area with all signatures of previous workers. We are humbled the cross will be placed in this honored place. Ms Riad should be in her house before Thanksgiving.

Today, Cathy, Ed, Chris, and Terry went to Ms. Hanna's house. Cathy and Chris worked on sheet rock, cleaned windows, and scraped debris from tile floors. Terry and Ed worked on the electrical systems in this house. They were able to get about half of the electrical circuits working. Now Larry and Barbara will be able to have light in most of the rooms and they will have working electrical outlets to work from rather than a 100’ extension cord. Larry and Barbara are from South Carolina. They have adopted Ms Hanna's house and spend many months a year working on it. Here is a picture of Chris and Cathy with Larry and Barbara .

Brandy, Bob, and John finished up the backer board in Ms Riad’s house. John also worked on some of the plumbing. John finished getting the water faucet attached to that darned kitchen sink. Yeah!!!!!!!!

I traveled with Brian today. He asked me to look at an old house they are working on that has some serious siding issues. This house was twisted off its' foundation by the storm. Contractors were hired to replace the foundation and reposition the house on it. In the process the siding on the lower 20% of the home was destroyed. The house is over 150 years old. Brian and I worked out a plan to make this repair. Brian had never met Larry and Barbara at Ms Hanna’s house, so we went there to visit and see how Camp Hope could provide additional help. Fifty volunteers will be at Camp Hope in two weeks. There will be many skilled workers on this team. Brian wants to deploy some of these workers to Ms Hanna’s house and try to get it ready for inspection.

After work today we took Sam and Bonnie, our Camp Hope hosts to dinner. The Canadians went with us too. We had a great time together. We shared stories and recapped our week together. There is something special about breaking bread together. We got back to camp at 9:00 PM. Our team go together and had our devotion. We shared our stories, read about the Last Supper from the book of Matthew and shared Holy Communion together. It was very moving to hear how team member's lives have been changed by this week of service. We are a changed people. I am reminded of these word from the song we sometimes sing in worship, “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord.”. We have seen God in the faces of the families we serve and the friends we have made. WE all have a changed heart. We have been blessed.

Friends

There are Canadians at Camp Hope working with us. Following are pictures of some of the new friends we made working together at Camp Hope.

Here is Hanz and his wife,

Here is Brian eating Someores at the Campfire we had tonight. Brian and Hanz said this is the first time they ever had Someores. I wonder what they roast over the campfires in Canada? They are here at Camp Hope from Alberta, Canada. Each couple drove here in their motor homes to spend a month at Camp Hope. They have been here before. They represent a faith-based group known as "Word and Deed". Brian is acting as our supervisor (a fancy name for gopher) and foreman. He is overseeing the jobs we are doing.

George and his wife drove their fifth-wheel to Camp Hope from Florida. They travel about 300 days a year. They actually have a home outside of Pittsburgh, PA.

Here is a picture of George and John trying to prepare that darned sink to mount at Ms Riad's house.

Bob went with Hanz today and worked on Tom and Merle's house. Tom recently had some heart trouble and his wife Merle has Parkinson's disease. Tom and Merle have been in a FEMA trailer for two years. Terry and Ed went back to Ms. DeDeaux's house and finally finished it up. Ms. Deaux will move in to her home as soon as the stove is installed and the gas is turned on.

Chris and Cathy went to the home of Ms. Hanna. Ms. Hanna is handicapped and lives in a concrete home very near (300 yards) the gulf. Even a concrete home was no match for Katrina. Chris and Cathy worked with Larry and and his wife doing odd sanding and clean-up work. Larry and his wife have adopted Ms. Hanna's home. They come to Pass Christian, MS several times a year, for a month at a time to work on Ms. Hanna's home. There is so much to do. It looks to me like it will take at least another year to get this place in living condition. Here is a picture of Ms. Hanna's home.

The rest of the team went to Ms. Riad's house. Today we installed concrete backer board on the living room/dining room floor to prepare the surface for ceramic tile. We had never done this before. We completed about half of the area (17 of 37 sheets). In addition, Brandy installed the hand railings she and Kara painted yesterday. Here is John, Kara, and Brandy with their shoulders into those drill motors installing backer board.

Meeting other Christians on mission has been very rewarding. Every evening after work we have a great meal prepared by Sam and Barbara. Sam and Barbara have been to Camp Hope many, many times. In fact, their church in Delaware actually was the driving force which created Camp Hope just a few days after Katrina. It was a mission team from Delaware that got the ball rolling. After dinner, we all have a devotion together. Our team has been doing them every evening except for tonight. Brian, from Canada, did it tonight. We are tightly knitted now. Brother and sisters in Christ serving together. Denomination and affiliation do not matter. We are all serving the same Lord, building His kingdom together. "Wherever two or more are gathered."

God is Faithful

Today was a very touching experience on the mission to Mississippi.

We split up into a few teams and worked on 3 homes, 2 of which we had been to before. The teams did electrical work, cleaning, painting, installed a quite painfully difficult sink, painted more, cleaned more, and so on...

But, the work was by far the least impacting part of our experience today. We were fortunate enough to spend some really good quality time with the homeowners and their lives have been turned upside down.

Brandy and I were taken on a 2-hour tour by Karen Riad, a homeowner we worked with yesterday. She took us all throughout Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, and Gulfport. It made such a difference to drive around with a local from the area and hear, firsthand, the story of Katrina. Karen was able to show us tent cities where those without FEMA trailers stayed, cemeteries that were turned upside down, foundations where civil war era homes used to sit, and countless amounts of christian relief signs in front yards of homes being rebuilt. Karen made it very clear that without faith-based organizations, Mississippi would not be anywhere close to where it is now, and there are still TONS of homes that need attention. It was so refreshing to spend a long time getting to know her. It makes the work we are doing so much more real, meaningful, and fulfilling. I may spend 8 hours painting baseboards, but its totally worth it when you know the story behind those baseboards.

Dinner this evening was just a special. Two families who Camp Hope helps joined us to eat. We had a time to share about our day and the families chose to share their stories with us. Ms De Deaux and her family shared how they spent weeks camping in their yard till they received a FEMA trailer. I can't even imagine. We take our blessings for granted.
Another couple shared about their experience and the husband, and older gentleman, nearly broke down in tears as he expressed his gratitude for what the Christian community has done for him, his wife, and his town.

All I could think about is how incredibly faithful God is to us. There is nothing more affirming than knowing that we have a savior, a father, who will wrap us up in His arms and surround us with hope. I'll go to bed tonight knowing a lot more about who God is simply by getting to look these homeowners in the eyes and seeing the gratitude they possess because God is merciful. We are so blessed. So incredibly blessed.

Goodnight and keep all of those here on the gulf in your prayers today.

2nd Day of Work

Today our team split up into two groups.
Group one (Terry, Cathy, Ed, and Kara) returned to Ms. DeDeaux house to try and finish up. There was more finish work to do. Terry work all day to get the electrical work completed. It was really messed up with faulty wiring. Nothing was connected to the distribution panels and Terry just plugged (no pun intended) away all day; one circuit at a time. There is only one circuit remaining to fix. He also wants to hook up the air conditioner for Ms. DeDeaux. Kathy and Kara finished up all the trim work, painted all the baseboard and doors. They also replaced some tile in the bathroom and put tile near the front do to make a nice landing area. Ed put shelves in the closets, and hung closet rods in all the closets. he also pitched in to help the team finish up. Looks like one half day left to get it all done. We learned today that Ms. DeDeaux made here last mortgage payment on this house one week before Katrina. She did not have sufficient insurance. Tornadoes on the edge of Katrina blew the roof off and her home and it was flooded by rain water. She really wants to get out of that FEMA trailer in her front yard and get back into her home. Here is a picture of Ms. DeDeaux and her granddaughter who lives with her.
Group two (John, Brandy, Bob, Chris, and I) went to the home of Karen Riad (ree-odd). George Martin (not the old Beatles Manager) of "Campers for Mission" joined us to help on the Riad home. Ms. Riad was there and told us her story. Her home is in Pass Christian, MS. The home was hit with a twenty foot wall of water (storm surge) and every window and door was blown out. All the sheet rock was ruined and parts of the exterior were destroyed. The home was sitting on foundation piers 10 feet above the ground and the water from the surge nearly touched the roof. Her husband died shortly after Katrina. Ms. Riad has been living in a FEMA trailer since Katrina. A few nasty contractors started repair work on her home and ran off with her money. She lost over $100,000 to these bad people. Camp Hope as been helping Ms. Riad out. Today we put in her kitchen cabinets, grouted a hallway tile floor, and primed handrails along her stairway.
Here is a picture of Ms. Riad and her new kitchen cabinets.


Below is Brandy and Bob installing baseboard in Ms. Riad's her bathroom.

Over the last year volunteers have signed the sheet rock in her living room. Ms. Riad framed around the names with some molding and never plans to paint over it. It is a reminder to her God's love for here by sending volunteers to help her. We plan to sign her wall before we leave Camp Hope.

1st Day of Work

Today we started work on our first home, the DeDeaux home. Ms. DeDeaux, her daughter, and her granddaughter have been living in a FEMA trailer for two years and are now about a week away from moving back into their home!

It is POURING here, so we were limited to inside work and I learned to use power tools! (And that most anything can be hidden with a little bit of caulk) We installed trim, got the electricity going, and a lot of other odds and ends that took much longer than I thought they should, but what do I know about construction :)

The homeowner was thrilled with what we got accomplished, and her granddaughter, who is 16, payed a visit. She can't wait to have her own room, and closet, back. It's touching how much this camp has made a difference in the Gulf Port community. I'm honored to participate in this ministry.

I think I can speak for the whole team when I say that we are really learning what it means to be Christ to our world, and bring hope and resolution to tragedy. Praise be to God for that. It's these types of hard times that these people are facing that teach us just how much we need Christ and how sovereign God really is.

Here's picturtes of our worksite today. Keep in mind the trailer that you see has been this family's home for two years.

Thank you all for your encouraging words and keep the prayers up!

Team Pics as Promised

The Team

Kara Griffith

Terry Lewis

Bob Boast

Cathy Kociscak

Ed Kociscak

Brandy Harris

Chris Beppler

John Cochrane

Karl Griffith

Getting ready to work....

We are at the end of day two of our trip to Gulf Port. We are prepping to begin our work week tomorrow, and most are turning in early.

This morning we attended church at Camp Hope's congregation- 1st Presbyterian of Gulf Port, MS. The pastor spoke about the relationship between our knowledge of Christ, or love of Christ, and our obedience to Christ through service. In simple terms... Head, Heart, and Feet. We are looking forward to being the feet of Christ this week as we head out to the homes.


We spent the afternoon touring Biloxi and Gulf Port. Not only did we get to dip our toes in the ocean, we got to see, first hand, the devastation this part of our country is facing. It is mind boggling to see high-rise casinos and resorts next to demolished homes.

It's been two years since the storm, and yet there are THOUSANDS of trailers in the lawns of used-to-be homes. I can't imagine leaving the comfort of my cozy, decorated, just like I like it apartment for a small, cold, unfamiliar trailer. I could probably last a few months, but thinking about two years in these conditions puts a very large knot in my stomach. I'm looking forward to getting into the work. There can't be few too many gifts better than giving someone their home back after two years of displacement.

A few more fun things happened this afternoon:

- We took John Cochrane by his old home in this area. It was the first place he and his wife lived when they were first married over 30 years ago.

- We visited a memorial created by the show Extreme Home Makeover. The memorial had a time capsule where we could look at keepsakes and memories from residents who were affected by the hurricane.

- We learned how delicious Backyard Burger is.

I'll keep you updated throughout the week about what the damage looks like, what the needs are, and the stories of the homeowners.

As promised, I will upload pictures and introduce you to the team as soon as we can figure out how on earth this picture thing works. The internet connection here is a bit whacky. I think I will have "home base" help me out.

Mississippi or BUST!

The team has arrived!

Thank you for checking in on the Shepherds of Hope mission team. Today, we began our week long journey to be the hands and feet of Christ in Gulfport, Ms. We will spend our upcoming week on various projects to help local residents get out of their FEMA trailers and into their homes.

We hit the road at 8:00 a.m. and stopped along the way to pick up two of our missionaries, Ed & Cathy, in House Springs. Then the day got..... really exiting. TWELVE HOURS IN THE VANS! Thank you Chris Beppler for lifesaving, delicious chocolate chip cookies (see below).

The van ride was a great time of fellowship and we spent time getting to know each other a little bit better. These are the things I learned:

- Chris Beppler makes amazing cookies (did I mention that already?)
- Brandy Harris is slowly convincing me I need a real estate license
- Karl Griffith has mastered missing turns
- Exit 289 off of 55 south is VERY VERY busy
- Texas Roadhouse has the most delicious butter
- I'm privileged to be surrounded by such a fantastic group of people
- God is good, all the time....

Camp Hope is an extremely nice (and clean) facility. For this, I am very very thankful. Sam Campbell and his wife are our camp hosts. They are from Delaware, but spend their time living at Camp Hope for 2 month time periods throughout the year. What an honorable sacrifice! We ended our night with a devotion. I've included the verse and a quote below. Feel free to pray through this verse with us during the week as we try and bring good to Gulfport.

"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.
Do not say to your neighbor, 'Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow'--- when you now have it with you" Proverbs 2:27-28

"If I try to imagine God's essence, and think, for example, of the infiiteness of time, I get lost in a mixture of dismay and excitement. I sense the order and harmony that suggest an intelligence, and I discover, with a slight shiver, that my own language become evangelical." -- Toni Morrison

Blogspot is having some technical difficulties so we will post some snapshots from our trip down south tomorrow. I'll also give you the low down on our "day off" and introduce you to each member of the team.

Thanks for taking time to peak into our mission. We're happy to have you, and your prayers!

Getting Ready - Part Deux

With two days until we leave our team is in various states of readiness. I spoke to several team members today and discovered one packed and ready to go. Another was shopping this evening to buy some work clothes. One told me that Friday night was a good time to get ready. He said, "We don't leave until Saturday morning." I started gathering up my tools this evening and made a neat pile on the garage floor. Clothes can wait until tomorrow evening. I called my wife from work today and asked her to help me prepare. She graciously picked up the paperwork, money, van keys, etc. from the church office to help me get ready.

I wonder what the folks at Camp Hope, Mississippi are doing to get ready for us. We have have exchanged emails and phone calls. They know we are coming. What are the families living in the FEMA trailers doing to prepare for us? I'm sure they know we are coming. Camp Hope coordinates with them all the construction work that will be done.

Saturday morning we will load up the two church vans with baggage, tools, snacks, and team. Our plan is to depart from the COS McClay Campus at 8:00 AM. Before we take off we will prepare for our trip with a prayer. You are invited to join us for this time of prayerful readiness. We believe the trip will take about 11 hours including stops. That will put us in Gulfport around 7:00 PM Saturday night.

1 Peter 1:13 says this about preparing. "Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you..." I think we are ready.

Problem Solved

It is amazing how connected we are with the internet, email, laptop computers, cell phones, PDAs, etc. Two days ago I posted a mission team need. We want to take videos of our mission to Gulfport, MS and post them to this blog. The problem was we did not have a video camera that provided a video digital file output we could post electronically. Well.......a blog reader contacted me by email. I was in Yosemite National Park in my hotel room, with internet access, reading my email, on my laptop, and there it was; the answer. The reader advised that most small digital cameras have a movie mode. I immediately checked my digital camera. You can not go to Yosemite without a camera. Sure enough, the camera has movie mode. DAH!!!!! I checked it out and it worked. It can create digital movie files. So.....now we will be able to post a few video clips of our mission to this blog. This is great news.

Our goal with this blog is to get you involved in our mission even though you can not go. The movie clips we post should help meet this goal. If all works well you should almost feel like you are there with us. Read this blog regularly to stay connected to us and the work being done by your mission team in Gulfport, MS.

Isn't technology amazing? Technology helps us stay connected. It puts us all closer together. Think about it. Only a few years ago there were no bloggers, posting to blog sites, that reside on computers, connected to the internet, that anyone in the world can view. The world has changed. Using technology to God's purpose is a new way to build God's kingdom.

Getting Ready

I'm sitting in a fine hotel near Yosemite National Park posting the first entry to this blog. Outside my hotel room is some of God's most glorious creation. All I can say is Wow!!! What a contrast. In eight days our team leaves for mission to Gulfport, MS. Thousands of families are still living in FEMA trailers on the Gulf Coast two years after Katrina's wrath. Our goal is to spread the love of God and if possible help eliminate FEMA trailers from the lives of a few families. You can be part of our team. It is not too late. Just contact Lisa Conley at the COS office at 636-441-2434 and let her know you would like to join us.

This blog was created to get you, the reader, involved in this mission. Periodically we will post information prior to our departure. Once we leave, our goal is to post every day to keep you informed of our progress and the daily events of our mission. Your comments and responses are encouraged.

We believe we can post short videos of our mission. The only problem is we do not have a video camera with a digital file format output such as mpeg, wmv, etc. If you have such a camera and are willing to trust us with it, we will attempt to use it to post video of our mission on this blog. If you can help, contact the COS office at 636-441-2434 and let Lisa Conley know. She will notify me via email so we can make arrangements. Even without the video, we will post pictures daily.

Please keep our team in your prayers.

Still time to sign up!

There is still time for you to make a difference in the lives of those living in FEMA trailers on the gulf coast!