Travel Day & Arrival

Sunday, April 1, 2007 – At exactly 6:02 am, the Team bus pulled out headed for Pascagoula, Mississippi. After long goodbyes and group prayer between the team and loved ones, we were on our way. The bus seems to be humming right along as we roar down I-85 South. The plan is to stop at three hour intervals, so our first stop will most likely be around 9 am and we’ll be just inside Georgia. (6:24 am)

South Carolina rest stop for bathroom break @ 8:00 am. Kate Keller has virtually stocked a pantry of food for us in the back of the bus… She started us off with sausage biscuits prior to the rest stop and when we got back on the bus, they passed around turtle brownies and banana nut bread!!! Ugh… so much for the idea of working off some weight this week! (8:22 am)

Alabama lunch stop at a little area off of I-85 that had a Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Krystal, McDonald’s, and Burger King. Have you ever seen a bathroom with one & a half stalls? We did! The Wendy’s bathroom provided for an interesting experience in modesty for the ladies… one toilet with a stall and one without. (11:20 am)

Fuel stop a few miles down the road at a Truck Stop that would accommodate the bus well. Had to add about a gallon of oil to the engine… there’s still a leak. Funny story… in the meantime, Whitney Keller was entertaining a random marriage proposal from a New York truck driver!!! (She said, “No.”) (12:40 pm)

Just before everyone started to settle in for more snoozing, we took the time to have a Sunday School on the Bus lesson about God, Hurricane Katrina, us, and Harry Connick, Jr. (More on that later...)

TIME CHANGE! We realized that we’d moved into the Central Time Zone just before Montgomery, Alabama…

A little while later, we needed another potty break and stopped at a little place off of the highway where we were treated to free coffee in exchange for one of the wooden crosses that Doug made! At about 5 pm, we made it to Mobile, Alabama and the house of a friend of Trish Darnell. They led us to a neighborhood Golden Corral were we all enjoyed buffet dinners. We also got to share in the birthday celebration of one of the other buffet visitors named Terry. Following dinner, we loaded up the bus & headed straight to Pascagoula. We arrived at our humble accommodations at about 6:40 pm. After settling in and getting our beds made, David, Wayne, Doug, Mike, Jim, Michelle, Sherri and one our guides Paul, went on a quick tour of the two job sites that we’ll be working on for the week.

This house was right in the heart of Pascagoula and was devestated when Katrina's tsunami-like waves pounded the homes with 4 feet of water. Although it receeded relatively quickly, people disappeared and houses were left in ruins. Paul was even telling us that the drummer for the church in which we are staying was one of those individuals who disappeared. Most of these homes are not in what we consider "liveable" condition, but their homes are all they have and tearing them down would destroy the last bit of their lives. That's where WE come in. Our main work on this house will be to repair a back room & roof that had severe water damage. (And a whole lot of other repairs, if time allows...)

There is another home site where half of our team will be working on interior sheetrock work. This home, while also effected by Katrina, suffered less damage and will be like a large (read: 2,000 sq. ft.) remodeling job. Working with the other two mission teams that are here will be an interesting and hopefully fruitful experience. Please pray for us as we all meet new people and work together to minister to the people of Pascagoula.

Rick & Peyton arrived safely and without incident at about 10:45 pm our time... remember, we're one hour behind ya'll back home.

Breakfast will be promptly at 7:30 am and as soon as we finish, we're off to work!

I hope to be able to post blog updates several times a day, so check back often but at the very least there will be one new update per night. Thanks to all of you for your support & prayers... we love & miss you all!