Kiski Gulf Coast Disaster Assistance Team

The following was composed by Robin Cable and Jim Dietrich team members at Belinda’s Project:

A happy camper whistles while he/she works and that was what was happening on Monday at the brand-new home of Belinda Baugh. After having a hearty breakfast, the crew, under the leadership of Randy Bell and Bryan Huwar headed for a full day of work and fellowship. The saws were buzzing, the paint rollers were rolling and the nail gun was singing a tune. Extensive priming and painting was tackled in the two-story-high garage by Dan Clark, Jack Loucks and Irv Lindsay. Meanwhile, back in the house, Randy and Bryan were diligently measuring, sawing, and installing trim, base molding and doors. Jim Dietrich, Diana Wilshire, and Robin Cable kept busy and out of trouble with paint brushes and rollers in hand. Everyone painted so much that they ran out of paint! Work day 1 came to an end with the crew heading back to camp and a fabulous meal of Cuban chili and rice, with coleslaw and strawberry shortcake lovingly prepared by Sonja and John Taylor from Harrisburg, along with some of our own dedicated volunteers.

New work continud on Day 2 with the garage painting completed. Bi-fold doors were installed on closets by Randy and Bryan. The inside painters once again ran out of paint. No need to fear: 20 more gallons of paint were purchased, which should cover all interior work and some of the exterior. The crew leaders arranged to meet Belinda at Lowe’s and went supply-shopping crazy. Three men, one woman – she didn’t stand a chance! The entire shopping spree took only 45 minutes from start to finish, and she had to pay.

Wednesday’s goal is to have painting in the 3 bedrooms finished. Lighting installation will have to wait due to an electrical glitch. Whoever heard of getting an electric shock touching a wall with a paintbrush? Only Robin and Jim could do that. Twice!

Outside work will begin first thing with soffit and fascia installation. The weather will be beautiful once again with sunny skies and temperatures somewhere in the 80s. Word has it that there may be “po boys” for lunch from the mini-market owned by the mayor of D’Iberville, Rusty Quave. Mmm, mmm, good, y’all! Things keep moving forward and looking up. Belinda stopped by today with her daughter and granddaughter and they were all quite pleased with our progress. Smiling and grateful for help from strangers.

One of the most special aspects of this mission trip is the special connections and fellowship being shared by members of our four different churches, Blairsville, Clarion, New Rehoboth and Pisgah. Working together towards a common goal, sharing stories and laughter.

Thanks for the grace of God and your prayers.

Today we sign off from the Gulf Coast thanking God continually for the people that we have to know and love, our new friends and family in D’Iberville.  Please continue to pray for us and we’ll be remembering you.  In particular we ask that you hold Vera Johnson in your prayers.  Our Street Walking Team met her when they were knocking on doors today assessing the needs of community members.  Vera asked for our prayers at our evening devotions because of some pretty unusual circumstances she is facing.  So we ask you to join us in prayers for Vera,  a person who is now a part of our prayer community through the efforts of our Street Walking Ministry Team.  We’ll keep you guessing about Street Walking until tomorrow.   Blessings do abound.

 Beginning today members of the Kiskimentas Gulf Coast Mission Team will begin to give you reports of their work team projects.  

Dave Larimer reports for team Koom: Alex Clark, Andy Early, Ann Himes and Dave Larimer worked on the Koom Perry project. Koom is a 65-year-old living by herself and supporting a special needs son. She had been evacuated before the storm. The water level totally had come up to the point where only a small amount of her house was not under water. The whole inside had to be gutted and refinished. Today Ann and Andy completed digging a drainage ditch to direct runoff water away from the house. Dave & Andy removed some shrubbery to work on the chimney. The whole team demolished the chimney down to the directed level, because it was pulling away from the house. During the next couple days, we will put a finishing top on the remainder of the chimney, fill in and finish the hole in the roof where the chimney had been. As we packed up tools for the day, an elderly neighbor gentleman came by to express his thanks for volunteers who have come to help rebuild. He indicated that he was blessed in that he had a son who was able to help him rebuild. He then expressed a desire for us to come down to his house sometime for a Coke. Wow!

                It has been an amazing day in D’Iberville.  The food continues to be different that any of us are use to on a regular basis.  Tonight’s supper was beans and rice with some spicy sausage in it and some great coleslaw.  This was topped with strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Folk that came looking to lose a few pounds are thinking now, even with all their hard work, that won’t be possible.

                It says in I Peter 4 that we are supposed to use all the gifts that God has given us.  We are endeavoring to be true to God’s claim and are coming to a clearer knowledge of God’s awesome blessings with every task we undertake with the folk on the Gulf Coast.

                In closing, your Kiski Team on the Gulf Coast especially appreciate your comments.  Many smiles came to faces as Lisa shared the comments our families and friends have sent to us from Pennsylvania.   Blessing do abound.

                                                                                                                           PS:  A special greeting from Barbara Parker to her friends at the Cross Roads Community Presbyterian Church.  Barbara is  a Cross Roads Community  honorary member, whose home they worked on in January 2006.  Barbara’s grandson will in the high school jazz band that will be playing in the opening of the new bridge to Biloxi on Thursday.  This bridge was destroyed by the hurricane in August 29, 2005.    

 Sunday – another beautiful day, weather-wise. Most of us worshiped at the 8:45 contemporary service at Ocean Springs Presbyterian Church, where Dr. Ed Cake, the No. 2 volunteer at camp, is a member. The rest of our team attended the 11:00 service, and Lee Blose sang with the church choir!

     After worship, 5 of the women took off to tour New Orleans, and 4 carloads toured Biloxi. We visited the Katrina Memorial, the Camille Memorial (which has been extensively repaired from Katrina damage), saw flourishing casinos next to boarded-up buildings and still-empty lots, and walked barefoot on the beach!

     During the rest of the afternoon at camp, we put up a large tent, met other work teams from the Newport, Washington congregation of former Kiski pastor Jim Patton, and some Methodists from Newtown, PA, got better acquainted with one another, and anticipated the “shrimp boil”. A local shrimper and spouse donated 100 lbs of fresh (and we mean FRESH, heads and all!) shrimp to the camp in gratitude for the fine shrimping season they’ve had. Lisa Lyon & Lee Blose got to dig in and help rinse & sort them, removing the odd anchovies and squid.

     “Mr. Bill”, the No. 3 man at camp, was the chief cook of the shrimp boil, which consists of a very large pot filled with water, potatoes, corn on the cob, onion, garlic, spices, smokey sausages, and SHRIMP! Mr. Bill’s house was the very first D’Iberville home to be repaired after Katrina – he and his wife moved back in as soon as one bedroom and the bathroom were ready, on December 24, 2005. Now Bill, who is retired, spends a great deal of his time helping others repair their homes. Be sure to check out the photos of the feast!

     During orientation after dinner, Dr. Irene McIntosh, the No. 1 volunteer at camp, told the story of D’Iberville and Katrina, the week leading up to the storm, the immediate aftermath, the 2-1/2 years since, and the future. God has told Miss Irene in no uncertain terms that the work here will be done on May 31, 2008. That’s in large part thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who have come here, whose work is valued by FEMA at a minimum of $18.02 an hour per person, depending on the kind of work being done. With about 290,000 volunteer hours to date, that’s a value of at least $5 million, probably more like $7 million! Those sweat equity hours will offset the amount of money D’Iberville will have to repay FEMA. Their hope is that sufficient volunteer hours will be worked to prevent local taxes from being raised to repay FEMA.

     We all received our work team assignments for tomorrow, when some of us will be roofing, others painting, hanging doors, installing soffet, cooking, doing telephone & door-to-door assessments, and otherwise having a wonderful time!

     We thank you for your continued prayers for us and for the citizens of D’Iberville.

We’ve arrived 32 strong in D’Iberville.   We come from 14 churches of Kiski Presbytery and one adopted Kiski team member from South Register, GA.   There are 18 women and 15 men.  This week we will be doing roof work, drywalling, painting, block work, demolition, carpentry, office work,  cooking, and doing assessments in the city of D’Iberville.  In total there will be around 50 of us in camp at the D’Iberville Volunteer Foundation representing the states of Washington, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Georgia.

                Camp Directors, Irene McIntosh and Ed Cake, greeted us and shared with us a wonderful dinner of sausage & turkey gumbo.  They also shared the news that someone donated 100 pounds of fresh shrimp that will be cooked up for Sunday’s dinner.  We spent some time during our trip and during our time together this evening,  getting to know each other and the gifts and talents we are bringing to share during the week.

                Sunday, following worship at the Ocean Springs Presbyterian Church in Ocean Springs, some of us are headed to New Orleans and others will touring Biloxi.  The afternoon will find a crew setting up a 30′ x 50′ dining tent that was taken down about a month ago as hurricane warnings were posted.  Gary and Lisa Lyon will be sending work crew leaders out to sites to do some initial assessments before the work week begins early Monday morning.

                Our scripture this evening found us remembering that in spite of some fears we may have about our abilities and strengths, that we are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ Psalm 139.   We feel blessed to be here and we rejoice that our friends, families, and churches back in Kiski Presbytery are remembering us in their prayers all week.  We also rejoice constantly because of the overwhelming gifts given to this mission endeavor by you.  As of Friday, October 26^th, $7,538.58 has been given by all of you to make this trip possible. 

In September of 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States with storm surges of up to 15 feet. The surge of water pushed inland for miles, and the path of the storm stretched from west of New Orleans, Louisiana all the way to the Florida panhandle. Presbyterians were some of the first folks on scene providing emergency aid.D’Iberville, Mississippi is one of the hundreds of communities affected. It’s located directly north of Biloxi, MS, separated by Biloxi Bay. The devastation was horrific.

FEMA didn’t arrive on scene for 7 weeks. D’Iberville responded quickly, providing help to all citizens and establishing a volunteer worker camp, initially funded by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

To date: 405 homes completed out of 1240 damaged, 370 destroyed. As of May 1, 2007, 410 are in the process of being repaired.

In association with the D’Iberville Volunteer Foundation, the Kiskiminetas Presbytery will is sending a volunteer in mission work trip of 33 people to the Gulf Coast on October 27 through November 3, 2007, led by pastors Gary and Lisa Lyon.

Follow their trip through this blog, and hold them in your prayers!