Finally

Well the trip is over and I've finally been able to access the blog. My name is not Janet, but my wife created the account and so that's that. It was an interesting 8 days to say the least. I've yet to find a copy of Operation Peticoat, but you know I won't stop looking until I have one in hand. Still haven't found a way to silence my flip flops.

Bernie

Thank you everyone who kept up with us this week, and I'm terribly sorry for the difficulty many had in trying to comment.
We are all home and hopefully safe... after a week of nail guns and heavy machinery, one would hope that home would be less dangerous...

If you have any questions: comment
If you cannot comment: email (yalee@allegheny.edu)
If you cannot email: talk to me or one of the group at church
If you cannot talk: ask God (he knows better than any of us)

Elizabeth

Here is the wonderful orange brownie recipe that Bernie astounded us with this week, a definite must-try:

Ingrediants
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup softened butter
2 tsps orange extract
1 tsp orange zest (Bernie uses 3)
_____________________

Glaze
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tbsps orange juice
1 tsp orange zest (Bernie uses more, lots more)
_____________________

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
grease 13x9x2 pan
stir together flour, sugar, and salt
add butter, eggs, orange extract, and orange zest
beat until well blended
bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown
while baking prepare glaze
combine confectioner's suger, juice and zest
upon removing brownies from oven, use fork to poke numerous holes
spread glaze overtop and allow glaze to soak into brownies

ENJOY

Bernie and Elizabeth

A tired crew has returned and are anxietous waiting our showers... we will soon be packing with much fewer t-shirts and shorts, the landfill is now filled with something other than Katrina's mess... some of us were filled with joy at not having to wake up at 5 tomorrow until other members of the team reported that if we didn't wake up at 5 we would not be catching our plane...

in other words a long day at the houses painting, cleaning, hanging pocket doors, and finishing up.


Last night we visited the site of the former St. Patrick's which is currently meeting at CCC. We also visited the Friendship Oak on the Southern Mississippi University Long Beach campus. We gave it an eight person hug.

This is our sign (on the top of the post... obviously the one with the Moravian star on it) We lied a little bit and wrote on the plaque that we came 1225 miles... it seemed appropriate...

(it's ok if you don't get it, Beth didn't until we explained it)

This place is amazing and some of the stories are unbelieveable. They say it is different once you see it with your own eyes, and it is absolutely true. Most of us will be doing an Adult Forum on September 14th to show a little bit more and share more experiences. There will be more pictures and a few other voices. If you are interested in CCC, the website is http://www.campcoastcare.com/. There are 730 houses on the waiting list here at CCC and there are other places doing good work.

I will not be able to attend the Adult Forum, so I will probably be updating again sometime with my personal experience... in more of what I learned...

and because all I wear are free T-shirts... the committee was so great as to buy me a CCC tshirt

hungry, still vaguely painted white, and exhausted...

the church's daughter

Elizabeth

For Jo:

Bob the Builder

The Incredible Caulk

Captain Morgan

Miter Man

The Cookie Monster

Bobcat Betsy

Corporal Countertop

(Couldn't have two captains on one ship)

Nothing beats a Royal Flush (portable bathrooms are delicious)

I was on grounds duty today and it was awesome, in a very redneck/engineer way. I worked an elephantine pneumatic nail gun, a four wheeler, a fork-lift, a lull (a giant fork-lift) and a bobcat. All of the machines in this picture except the one with the shovel on the right hand side.

Bob was with the ladies from Boston being the punchlist guy. Dave was also with the ladies installing doorknobs. Beth, James, Ray, and Bernie returned to their house and hung cabinets. Beth used a jigsaw(!!) and installed a lazy Susan. Ray and James hung the kitchen cabinets... it was a very calm mob... Bernie framed and cut for pocket doors.

The girls in the middle are Meg, the Americorps leader, and Jayme, being very silly.

This is the sign to the camp.

Last night we walked the bridge to Bay St. Louis, about 2.2 miles and had some fun caravaning the vans back and forth.

Elizabeth and the committee plus one

Thank you, Ray Arcario for all the comments... but the committee thinks you should be doing some actual work.

Today Bob returned to the grounds work and went on a roadtrip loading and unloading equipment into trailers. I moved to a different house with a group of people from Boston. I was using the compound miter saw and the pneumatic nail gun to put baseboards and trim on the wall. Dave was hanging doors at the same house as me. Beth, James, Ray, and Bernie had another adventure at their house. Some cabinets were placed, touching up on the paint and caulk, and some doors were hung. On their way back to CCC they stopped to videotape a drive up ice machine. (For Follett employees only)

This is a picture of the FEMA trailers of the two families that live in the house that Beth and James, etc, etc, etc... are working at.

This is Ray, Darrel, and Bernie hanging the cabinets.

Before our walk last night, we took out the trash...

And the toliet is currently living behind the house that I was working on today...

Elizabeth and a bunch of scaliwags

For those of you who have failed to read all the old posts, this is the group:

Bernie Leroe

Bob Lynn

David Simon

Ray Vernon
James Vorosmarti
Beth Vorosmarti

Elizabeth Yale

This is from last night's journey to the beach. We had a couple who were walking on the beach take the picture for us... the water was really dirty...

Today I had housekeeping duty which means I helped with the cooking and the cleaning and cleaned up the bathrooms.

Bernie, James, Beth and Ray went back to the house we worked on yesterday. David worked at a different house while Bob was on grounds duty here at the compound.

This was tonight's kitchen clean-up crew

Around the circle we have, me, Bernie, Beth, James, Janice from Georgia, and David, whose head is missing...

This is a picture of the first bit o'rain any of us have seen or felt down here... this again is the Reid house

Happy Birthday Stephen!

from all of us in Gulfport

(the cake was great! thanks!)

Elizabeth and Bob

To answer Bernie's ky friend's question: The memorials are wooden plaques that each group leaves here at Camp Coast Care when they go back home. Each plaque is different and unique, most of them are signed by all the members of the group.

The schedule for weekdays starts at 5am when the lights in the dorm room come on with breakfast at 5:15 and our morning meeting at 6. Then we move to the work sites and work from about 6:30 to about 2:00pm and then come back and SHOWER! At about 4pm we have a meeting to regroup and talk about what happened during the day. Afterwards is dinner and then we are free until the lights go out at 9:30pm.

This is the house that Beth, James, Ray, David, and I worked on today.

The people who will live in it when it is finished currently live in trailers that are on the other side of the yard.

This is some of the group at lunch... the lady standing behind david (the man in red) is the owner of the house

This is after i had to dig through the grout bag to find the tag that clogged the bag

This is a bank vault that is still standing next to the train tracks without the bank building.

This is a pool at the end of the road that Camp Coast Care is on, not exactly the most popular watering hole... all that is left of the house is a concrete slab.

For all who understand... i left home without my towel... literally and figuratively...

Elizabeth

The group split up today and worked in different areas, Bernie helped in the kitchen, Bob spent the day working, sweating, and grouting with four ladies from Boston, Georgia, and Michigan; James, David, Ray, Elizabeth, and me worked together at the same house. Elizabeth and I are now grouting mavens and not too shabby with the caulking gun. I'm happy to report that even after using a pneumatic nail gun and a circular saw I'm injury free and have yet to visit the emergency room. A shower never looked so good, more later.

Beth

earth to bethlehem... can you hear us??

after an interesting church service, we drove out to D'iverville to have lunch at the house of a lady that David helped build on his first mission trip down to the D'iverville Volunteer Camp

The food was delicious and the story was amazing... and while we listened to one person's story, some of us practiced our southern accents...

After which we made the obligatory trip Wal-Mart run and a good drive along the shore line...

which was beautiful... but along the other side...

evidence of the destruction was loud and clear

personally so far the most stirring aspect of the landscape is the driveway outlets on the side of the roads that lead nowhere... or lead to a pad of concrete... which you know used to be someone's house before the hurricane

Here at Camp Coast Care each of the groups that comes leaves a plaque of some sort on the wooden poles... we are still in the planning stages of our master piece

the biggest challenges we have meet so far are adjusting the sweet tea, spilling bread pudding in the rental car, and getting to changed airport gates on time... we aren't looking for trouble, but i'm sure it's going to find us ;P

Elizabeth (with the full committee)

So, travel day:

1. a lovely send off from Rick at the church with a passage from the work of Oscar Romero (look him up on wiki!) : "We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own."

2. From Lehigh Valley Airport to Atlanta to Gulfport Mississippi

3. A shore drive to Camp Coast Care... oh, wait... the train has stopped...

so... I had a little fun before we turned around to find a different route...

but we are here now and lights are out... so time for bed!

tune in tomorrow for the personalized update on the situation on the ground...

goodnight

Elizabeth

The pilgrimage to Seattle left this morning from Newark.
Please pray for them on their journey.

Elizabeth

Hey!
Next Sunday, the 13th, the dean, Tony, will be giving the Mission trip members a blessing.
We should also ask prayers for the pilgrimage group who will be in Seattle about the same time as we are in Mississippi.

Elizabeth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv9PaYw0vPE

this is the link to the first Camp Coast Care video on YouTube.
I'm going to try to upload it here, but I'm not sure how to accomplish that.
Live and learn.

Elizabeth

So, this is the group:
Bernie Laroe
Bob Lynn
David Simon
Ray Vernon

James Vorosmarti

Beth Vorosmarti

Elizabeth Yale

We ask for prayers for safe travel, for safe work, and the people we help.

Later, I'll post a prayer if you'd like something specifically.
(I just have to find/write something ;) )

Elizabeth

Hello!
This shall be the official account of the journey of some members of the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pa on a mission trip to Camp Coast Care in Mississippi.
The Trip isn't until the 19th of July, but we shall have a few updates before then, so keep tuned!

Elizabeth