CCOP Volunteers in Mission Trip #4-Waveland, Mississippi

2009-01-29T01:06:00.002-05:00

The whole Motley Crew!

Front Row: Stephanie;Dottie;Vicky;Carole;Tom A.;Liz;Skip;Jenny;Joanne;Susan

Back Row: Stacy;George;Rev. Tom;Ernie;Rob;Jim S.;Russel;Blogmaster Rick;Lee;Dan;Jim D.

2009-01-29T01:01:00.002-05:00

The place we are staying used to be an African-American camp for Methodists. It was purchased illegally in the 20's by the first Methodist African-American bishop. Illegally because blacks were forbidden from owning land. During the civil rights era many prominent leaders of the movement met and stayed here to plan their strategy.

2009-01-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

2009-01-26T22:17:00.003-05:00

2009-01-26T22:05:00.003-05:00

It is now Monday evening and we all seem to have had a very productive day. We are working on 4 different houses ranging from a 'new build'. That is the term used here for a site where the house was completely destroyed and the Methodist Church relief organization is building a family a home from the foundation up. (Sometimes that foundation is pilings that go up as much as 18' above ground because of the new building and zoning laws put in place after Katrina.)

2009-01-26T08:46:00.003-05:00

Well, we're here!
The team arrived in New Orleans Saturday evening after a smooth, on-time flight. Several members of the team are still wandering aimlessly on Bourbon Street... (just kidding... we hopped in our rental vans and drove straight to Waveland, Mississippi.) This is Monday morning and I've got to go to work. More later today... (Barb, Liz said she hopes you and Penny and [her other dog] are doing well...)

2008-02-02T00:50:00.000-05:00

mudding and sanding at one of our houses

2008-02-02T00:41:00.000-05:00

a few of the gang at a meal

2008-01-31T23:32:00.000-05:00

Just some random photos from the past few days:

Robbie K. & Denny, Electricians. (Call 911)

2008-01-31T23:24:00.000-05:00

Bill says Hi Tami! He really misses you... (some of the people he's with down here are really weird...)

2008-01-28T23:02:00.000-05:00

We've arrived at Vancleave UMC and I'll have to be brief. It's after lights out time and I'm on Reverend Tom's work team. I don't want to get in trouble tomorrow! Yesterday was a day of rest. ( they don't allow volunteers to work on Sunday at this church. ) So half of us went to New Orleans (to survey the damage and to save souls on Bourbon Street, of course.) The other half toured the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Biloxi to Bay St. Louis. (Bay St. Louis was under 28 feet of water during the storm!) Today was our first work day and from all accounts it went well. The 5 teams are all busy at different houses. One is helping to construct a log cabin! Several are doing drywall and insulation. No one injured today... lots of sore and tired people... I'll just add some more pictures and let them speak for themselves: Click on them to enlarge...

2008-01-22T17:35:00.000-05:00

Well, we're going back... (I suspect we'll keep going back until we're asked not to return.) This is year 3 and things are a little different this time around. Trinity Methodist Church in Gulfport is no longer housing, feeding and co-ordinating volunteers so we've found a church in Van Cleave, Mississippi to house and feed us. We'll be about 30 miles from where we were last year. Believe it or not, there are still houses in the area that have not been touched and need complete gutting! This is over 2 1/2 years after Katrina... So we may be doing some gutting. Certainly we'll be doing drywall and painting, maybe insulation. We've gotten pretty good at these trades.

We fly this Saturday 1/26. This church doesn't allow the volunteers to work on the Sabbath, so Sunday many of us will probably go to New Orleans to see the sights and of course to save some souls on Bourbon Street!

More to follow from Mississippi on Saturday night...

I'm going to try a video upload/link. Never did this on a blog. This is the short video I made after last year's trip to show in church the Sunday after we returned. i hope you enjoy it...

2007-02-04T22:42:00.000-05:00

For those of you on last year's trip, you'll never believe what I'm listening to right now... A certain Ms. Angel Snow's 1st and so far only CD! I was looking for some music for this Sunday's presentations and I remembered Ron sending us her Myspace address. The Myspace thing refers you to www.DigStation.com where you can search Angel Snow and download the album for only $9.99! Anyone present at her after dinner performance last year knows that she deserves to sell a boatload of CD's... 3 of the 4 songs she played for us that night are on the album, with the exception being her renditon of John Prine's, "Angel From Montgomery." (A song I absolutely love that was passionately covered by Bonnie Raitt... I think Mr. Prine and Ms. Raitt would have been smiling at Angel's rendition...) Oops, low battery... more tomorrow...

2007-02-02T00:48:00.000-05:00

well, it's Thursday night and we're feeling alright... Tonight another group from Ohio cooked up a shrimp feast for everyone, including the homeowners of the houses that are currently being worked on.

Above is the official 'group photo taken tonight... lots of happy, tired people...

Ann, Courtney (Trinity UMC's rebuilding coordinator), Mike, the homeowner , Russel, Carole and Luna Muna...

A team that was audacious in it's accomplishments:

I had no interaction with the homeowner, but heard some great stories... not the least of which is how this team went above and beyond 'reasonable' to get him a blue living room ("White'll show all the grandkids fingerprints!" They were sent to paint and they ended up jacking up a good portion of the house (complete with Muna slithering around under the house with the lizards and spiders...), completely rebuilding his front porch and reglazing his windows (sometimes several times per window, eh, RevTom...) among other improvements... I think this was the spirit of the entire group... go beyond just what's expected, to the core of what is needed. Many times, when we went above and beyond, we used the CCOP's funds that were raised specifically for this mission. Because of the generosity of donors, both within and outside of, CCOP, we didn't have to ask the homeowners if they could afford it or ask Trinity Church's rebuilding coordinator for the funds. Many thanks go out to you who helped us financially, as well as spiritually (ie. all the prayers and goodwill).

Who says men can't cook?

Our esteemed leader putting his love into action...

2007-01-31T00:33:00.000-05:00

Some photos of the work and the crew... captions tomorrow,
So far at Trinity UMC: over 450,000 man/woman hours put in by volunteers.
Over 550 houses rehabilitated for occupancy.
Thousands of volunteers from all over the country (and a few foriegn lands...)
All coordinated by the amazing Courtney Allen, catered to and tolerated by the good people of Trinity UMC...

2007-01-31T00:06:00.000-05:00

2007-01-30T22:53:00.000-05:00

Just going to throw some photos on, maybe some with short captions.... It's getting late and these people expect me to keep getting up at the crack of dawn(ish) to go hang drywall...

2007-01-29T21:21:00.000-05:00

I'm in the Rebuilding Coordinator's office writing this... she's the only one with an internet connection and has graciously allowed me to use her connection when she's not here. Courtney has been in Gulfport for over 18 months as the rebuilding Coordinator for Trinity UMC Church. In that time almost 600 homs have been rebuilt or repaired by volunteers, like us, who have come and stayed at Trinity. Tonight a group of Trinity members cooked dinner for 75 volunteers, who knows how many thousands of meals they have served... Over 450,000 man/woman hours have been put in by volunteers who have had Trinity UMC as their base.

Ron, Liz, Todd, Sharon, Colby and I spent today insulating and hanging drywall for a family whose had 2/3 of their mobile home blown away during Katrina, probably by a tornado... They received about $25,000 between insurance and FEMA funds. For 18 months they have lived in a very small FEMA trailer with three of their grandchildren. So Wanda and Dwight have chosen to build something a little more safe and substantial than the mobile home. They've undertaken the construction of a modest one-story home, but halfway through the money ran out. So they called on Trinity Church and here we are... The whole trip was worth the look on their 15 year old granddaughter's face today when she found out we were drywalling her room. She walked in, looked around, smiled and just said,"I'm sleeping in here tomorrow night!" And I believe she will...

Our groups are currently working on 5 different jobsites with a variety of tasks being performed. A lot of drywalling, the Koeller/McGillen crew is doing siding, the Rev Tom crew painted on Saturday and as it began to rain, water began to drip from a light socket. Needless to say, today they painted some more, but they also did some roof repair.

Everyone is in good spirits... Muna went jogging at 2am... Sharons Mom and Father-in-Law came from Florida to take them out to dinner (and maybe gamble a little...)... my snoring is driving Ron and Todd crazy, I suspect I'll be banished from the room if I snore alot tonight... more tomorrow, with photos!!!

2007-01-28T00:05:00.000-05:00

Most of the 2007 crew taken at the final preparation meeting.

2007-01-27T23:41:00.000-05:00

The CCOP volunteers who flew on Friday and those who drove on Thursday arrived safely at about the same time in Gulfport on Friday. Today they were already hard at work on 5 houses, most near Trinity Church (our 'home away from home'). The crew that includes Ron Wist is travelling 17 miles to get to their site... hey, we go where the need is greatest... I'm flying in tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully some pictures will be forthcoming. In fact, I think I'll cheat and add a few from last year just to test the system (and my memory...)

2007-01-25T09:57:00.000-05:00

Community Church at Ocean Pines
Well... here we go again! Back to Gulfport, Mississippi to assist in the ongoing recovery from the aftermath of Katrina.

I'm in Bill Wolf's office at Community Church just firing up the old blog site. (Although Bill and I are such talkers neither of us is getting much done!)

Roughly 30 of us are going, about half are returning veterans from last year's mission. The other half are newbies. (Has anyone told the newbies about the 'wait on the veterans hand and foot' rule yet?)

The first contingent loaded up and left at about 8:30 this morning with Russell Queen driving his pickup and a large construction trailer in tow. My ignorance will show thoughout this blog, as well as my missing all but the final organizational meeting... Riding with him are Ron Wist (the only of last year's returning crew foolhardy enough not to fly down...), Phil (the photographer) Lassiter, and an extremely nice, tall guy (who I am embarrassed to say I forget his name but will be my buddy after this week and someday we'll laugh about this oversight...)

Most of the rest of the crew heads out early Friday morning. Driving together to BWI in a 15 passenger van (oh, yeah, with no room for anything but a toothbrush and a hammer per person as luggage.) Others are coming seperately from the DC/Baltiomore area... Including Liz... (Hi Liz- can't wait to do some 'rockin' with you!) Todd, Sharon and Uncle Tom also heading separatley from that direction. Jim is zooming over from the winter retreat in FLA again, glad to hear you're feeling better, Jim! I'd feel bad abusing you while you're sick... (not that it would stop me...) I'll be heading down on Sunday in time for dinner. (Anybody down there reading this: Get those green beans really cooked up and ready for me!)

Anyway, back to God's work... More to follow... stay tuned...

2006-01-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

Ron, Ester Williams (homeowner), Jim and Dottie share a group hug...

2006-01-20T22:03:00.000-05:00

Tools and supplies by Sherwin-Williams: FREE (all donated)
Labor: FREE (Donated by Laura, Clark and Tom)
Having MLK looking over Rev Tom's shoulder: PRICELESS (see B&W poster)

2006-01-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

SERVE!

2006-01-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

'Carpet Guys' Ray and Allen hard at work...