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