Kiski Gulf Coast Disaster Assistance Team

It is Saturday night and we are all home.  The first part of tonight’s blog is written by Dr. Irene McIntosh, the director of the D’Iberville Volunteer Foundation.  The #2 in command is Dr. Ed Cake.

Hi! This is Miss Irene from the D’Iberville Volunteers Foundation!  First, a million thanks to the Kiski Crew who blessed our lives, our city, and our citizens with their love, their work, their laughter and their faith in action each day this week! You have been hope to our people. Your warmth, flexibility, willingness to help with anything that needed to be done, your wonderful skills, and your love in action will be cherished for a lifetime by Mr. Ed and me and by this entire community!

I also want to thank those who supported the Kiski Crew from home. We have felt your love, your warm interest, and your caring spirits during this week. Thank you for the financial support for this mission trip! I truly appreciate those who took on the responsibilities of those who were here so that they could come and work in peace! We are truly blessed by the investment of time, prayer and love of the entire Presbytery.

     We  have been blessed by the love of our Lord God ll week long in D’Iberville.  We hope that the transforming love of Jesus Christ that moved and encouraged your Kiski Team has touched you, our internet family and prayer partners. 

 Thanks for journeying with us.

Thank you to our incredible Kiski 33.   No more meetings! We know that your heart has been renewed as we have been immersed in the Grace of God.  Remember the stories, your new friends in Kiskiminetas Presbytery and especially those on the Gulf Coast.   Remember that you have a ‘second home’ in D’Iberville, MS.  Remember that you have been loved.  Remember, and then love  and serve the Lord boldly. 

 The Team is home! Thanks for your prayers and support! We appreciate the comments and still are checking. What a week of blessing it was!

 Today’s blog is about the unsung heroes of the week, the office staff. Linda Coulson and Richard Hartsfield shared the duty, which involved data entry (volunteer time logs, volunteer registrations), answering phones, running errands, answering questions, photocopying, scanning documents, and everyone’s favorite, filing. It can be boring, it’s not nearly as exciting as shingling or painting, but it’s extremely important to the D’Iberville Volunteers Foundation. Without accurate, detailed records, D’Iberville would most likely have to raise taxes in order to pay back a larger percentage of FEMA dollars back to FEMA. That’s quite a burden on a community that suffered such losses in the business community (no businesses, no jobs, no money). Without cheerful, helpful voices on the phone, citizens might never open up and ask for the help they need. Without someone to answer the phone and take messages, Ed and Irene might never get out of the office at all, and since they often put in 18-hour days, that would be a crime! So thanks, Linda & Richard, for doing a job no one else wanted to do!       

 Irving Lindsay told me that Mr. Bill showed him around his neighborhood today. It’s mostly vacant lots and concrete slabs where homes used to be, including Mr. Bill’s mother’s house, in which he grew up. With tears in his eyes, Mr. Bill described which families lived where, and what might lie ahead–or not. Irv told me that those moments defined the week for him, gave it meaning and purpose, made it so worthwhile.       

The Koom Project team told of Koom’s neighbor, who every day walked down the street and invited them to his house for a coke. They finally got there today, and this gentleman, who rebuilt his home with his son’s help and therefore never needed the Volunteers, thanked our volunteers over and over again for caring, for coming, for helping his fellow citizens.

It’s hard to believe so much was accomplished in one short week! Every one of our crews finished the jobs they were assigned, and some were able to start on another one. This includes an entire roof on what were bare rafters; a semi-demolished chimney with masonry, roof and siding repair & painting and the installation of a gas fireplace insert; soffet & fascia, painting, hanging doors and so on; and assessing every quadrant of the city. In between, they cleared brush, had kitchen & camp duties, delivered appliances, off-loaded shingles & other materials, ran to Lowe’s and the lumberyard for supplies, ate lunch & had photos taken with the mayor at his convenience store, put together patio warmers, went dumpster diving for firewood that they then chopped up, and listened to the stories of the D’Iberville citizens they had come to help.

 At the end of the day today, they cleaned their job sites, packed up, carted and put away all of the tools, vacuumed the cars, took showers, ate dinner, helped clean up after dinner, attended devotions, packed, cleaned their tents, and finally headed for bed to be ready for our 5:30 a.m. departure from camp to the airport.        

 We thank all of you in Kiskiminetas Presbytery for your prayerful support this week, and for your financial support, which made this trip possible. Remember in your prayers Jim Dietrich, who flew home this morning, a day early, as his father was re-hospitalized and underwent a heart cathaterization. Jim called us this evening with the good news that his dad is doing much better. We also had 2 minor injuries this week, a fall resulting in a sprain, and a dog bite, but both victims are doing quite well. Some people will do anything in order to ride on the motorized carts at the airports!       

Tomorrow night we’ll post our last blog, including, for your entertainment, a game called “Match the Caption to the Photo”. No prizes will be awarded. Keep checking the blog, and keep your comments coming, because many in our Kiski team will only get to see the blog after they get home, and some may want to respond to you as you have responded to them.       

 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

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Today’s blog comes from the Marie project.

Hello! My name is Richard Hartsfield and my group from Kiskiminetas Presbytery (PA) arrived here on Saturday, October 27th. I was assigned to a roofing crew and we were given the job of helping Marie with her brand new, beautiful stilted house’s roof. We did not get a response when we knocked on her FEMA trailer several times during the day, only to find that she works the night shift and was sleeping! When we arrived there were only bare rafters. When we left: a beautiful new white shingled roof!

We met Marie the second day and her wonderful little chihuahua/pug mix with the huge ears. The third day she cooked our lunch – we loved it!

The work was just plain hard, lifting OSB board (that’s what has taken the place of plywood), shingles, scaffolding and various nailguns and tarpaper rolls.

Our boss, Ron, is admired by all–he’s like an extremely intelligent chimpanzee, scampering around rafters, leaning over the edge, staying six steps ahead of the rest of us, handling full OSB sheets by himself, demanding quality. Ron, forgive me for calling you a chimp!

Ron even put in safety boards for us – you have to remember that we were working 20 feet off the ground (stilts, remember?). But the sun was our greatest safety danger. Several of us were overcome by it and had to retreat to shade. Even with the breeze, we were working in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees F.

The crew is amazing. With a strong and wise leader, each person leaps to do the next job. We constantly lie to each other and kid each other. I provided the humor Tuesday by splitting out my pants and having to work that way for the rest of the day. But the humor is gentle and the affirmations constant. It’s amazing to work with Christians: they say things like “Thank you”. We pray before we start the job each day!

Tomorrow the crew starts on another job.

On Tuesday, we gathered a crowd to go hear Marie’s Katrina story. Her mother insisted on staying in her home during Hurricane Camille, so Marie figured she’d sit out Katrina. She woke up early in the morning and found rising water on her floor. One of her dogs drowned, in spite of Marie’s numerous efforts to coax him out of the house as the water climbed higher and higher (Marie can’t swim). Ultimately, when the water reached near the roof, Marie floated to a tree limb and climbed it onto her roof. She and her other dog spent 4 1/2 hours of the storm up there, huddled under the overhang. Once the water receded a bit, she used the same limb to climb down, but it broke off the tree and plunged her into the water once more. Finally, she wrapped a blanket around herself and waited for assistance. Her house was pushed off the foundation at an angle, and had to be demolished. She says her FEMA trailer is so small, she and the dog have to negotiate and coordinate their movements!

Tonight, 3 carloads of us went to Ocean Springs to watch the fireworks over Biloxi celebrating the opening of the new bridge, replacing the one Katrina destroyed.

Someone commented at dinner “I can’t believe tomorrow’s our last day!” It’s wonderful seeing new friendships blossom and so much being accomplished. We all so appreciate the responses to our blogs (we post them every day by the picnic tables), and while we hate to leave when there’s more to be done, we can’t wait to get home to share our stories and photos!

Today’s blog is a combined effort of the entire team pictured here.  Be blessed! 

The mission of the Assessment Team (The Street Walkers) is to canvas the D’Iberville area to ensure that no person needing assistance falls through the cracks. This is the final assessment as the DVF plans to close May 31, 2008. We traveled two by two to offer assistance, to listen, to give hope,to encourage, to hug and occasionally pray with the people we met. Two of our group stay at camp to do follow-up phone assessments to determine if there are still repairs to be done or if their file can be closed.

Some of the people who have needs are: Vera, who is suffering from cancer; Debra, who needed food immediately for her family; Mike, who has many health problems and still needs plumbling, mildew removal and drywall replacement; Joan, an elderly woman who told how she lost everything and spent the storm night with 600 other handicapped people sleeping on a concrete floor; Dwight lost his home and all his musical equipment; Jason, who watched the storm surge explode two neighbors’ homes and wash them into his, knocking it off its foundation; Deanna & Ed who lost everything in Hurricane Camille and then lost it all again in Hurricane Katrina, including 3 members of their immediate family who have died in 2007.

Members of the assessors team are Mary Winters, Linda Blakely, Prudy Young, Kyle Skarada, Sally Early, Cindi Boyer, Shirley Clark, Ellen Lawrence, Betty Grunstra and Sue Brickell. PLANTING SEEDS of HOPE….We will hold God’s people in our hearts.  

The Kiski crews are working so hard that they’ll finish many of their jobs tomorrow, so we’re scrambling to arrange new job assignments by contacting property owners, assessing the work needed, ascertaining whether materials are on hand or need to be purchased, and whether Thursday and/or Friday will be convenient for the owners to allow the volunteers on site to do the work.

Halloween in D’Iberville means “Trunk or Treat” in the park. It began in October 2005, two months after Katrina, with many streets still clogged by debris and without streetlights. A few folks decided to provide some normalcy for kids by setting up a safe place for trick-or-treating. They advertised it as best they could, decorated the open trunks of their cars or beds of their pickup trucks, and parked side by side. To their surprise, other folks also came with candy mobiles. They hoped to get maybe 50 kids, but over 2500 people showed up! Someone had been inspired to bring a truckload of candy, a genuine miracle, because otherwise they’d have run out in the first 5 minutes.   Trunk or Treat has become a D’Iberville tradition, and we were invited to help distribute the Volunteers Foundation’s candy. Two carloads went over, and Irv Lindsay and Jack Loucks really got into the spirit of it, greeting each and every child who came by with great enthusiasm! 

 We go to bed exhausted this evening but filled with the assurance that God’s Spirit continues to give us the strength and joy to carry on. 

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!