A Slower Pace

While the weather cooperated with us yesterday, today was just downright spectacular. Sunny but not too hot with a nice breeze which made the upper 70’s/lower 80’s temps just perfect. About the only time I really got hot and broke a sweat was when a friendly stray dog came by and I played with him and rubbed his belly. Other than that, we enjoyed the day and took advantage of it to get quite a few things done. Our initial push on several of the big projects were capped off with time consuming finishing details — but the kind that makes you proud of a job well done. Today was a bit different because our entire team was at the job site, not some at the distribution center and some at the job site. It was nice because the other ladies could see what we talked about Monday and Tuesday evening. We got lots of pictures and hope to wrap up most of the non-professional odds and ends tomorrow. Once they get a professional plumber and electrician in, the house should be ready to move in. There is some cosmetic brick work and, of course, some yard landscaping to take care of. But both those items could be done with the homeowner living there — maybe by the homeowner themselves.

I guess the one disappointing fact with this house is that we haven’t seen anyone there. We have had a little direction by the camp but they have been so overwhelmed with all the other logistical tasks. I think they realised that we were self starters that could run with this house. We also haven’t seen the homeowner. I don’t know their story but, from our perspective, it would be nice to have that personal story which would give us more purpose. I know a lot of the other teams got that from their job sites and it motivated them. It’s not a terribly big deal because we all didn’t come down here for the feely, touchy, Dudley-Do-Right feeling. We came down here to make a difference. However, it would be nice frosting on the cake.

Prior to dinner I encountered another story that requires it’s own post. So stay tuned again and insert following post here.

Our dinner took us to a widely recommended BBQ place called “The Shed”. They had really good BBQ with great ambiance. It was a great hang out and, again, the weather was perfect for our outside table with lotsa folks there enjoying a beer and some blues music. We were stuffed coming back and looking forward to our last work day down here. Thanks for the BBQ treat, Doug!

Thank you again to all who have supported and prayed for us. We are so blessed to be down here and are really enjoying the spirit of the camp and each other.

Please say a special prayer for a church group from South Carolina — Wittenburg Lutheran — who are hitting the road tomorrow and returning home. Pray for a safe journey back to their loved ones.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This story is from Tuesday, Sept 19.

One of the items on our list is to tackle the front and back yards. They are severely overgrown with anything but grass varying from 2 ft to 5 ft tall. It makes it really hard to believe that someone could actually live in the house. In addition, getting it all cut down is a nice psycological motivator — some instant gratification visually as well as being able to check something off our list.

So being at the beginning of the day and full of energy and enthusiasm, I set off to cut, mow, weed-eat, whatever, the front yard. I started with the weed eater. Things were going ok if not slow. But at least I could look back and see where I had been. I was eating through line though and my lower back was beginning to hurt even though I was switching hands and sides. It finally became evident that I was not going to be able to even get the driveway done, much less the whole front or even think of doing the back.

So I decided to follow the old adage – “Work smarter, not harder”. I told one of my teammates that I was setting off to a neighbor’s to see if I could beg, borrow or rent a mower.

The house directly across the street was a logical choice. They have a direct view upon the eyesore house and I figured there would be some incentive for them to lend or rent me their mower since they would enjoy some of the improvement benefits. So I sauntered up to the house, all the while their little ankle biter dog yipping at my presence. I knocked on the door and an old man answered. In my humblest request, I told him I was a volunteer from Kentucky working with Christus Victor doing hurricane relief and could I borrow or rent his mower. His one word reply was “No” followed by the door shutting. Deflated, I wanted to take it out on the yipping little mutt who mocked me all the way back to the street. I was bummed — my hope in southern hospitality knocked down a peg. A quick survey of the house kitty corner revealed no one home. I wandered down a side street looking for help. As I walked down the street, I could see in the back yard of the crotchedy old man neighbor and there sat a fairly new Craftsman riding lawnmower. Trying to focus on my previous test of “not judging” I tried to rationalize his response by the possibility that the mower was broken and I had just interrupted a long distance call to his daughter.

Further down the street, I came across a home that had quite a bit of stuff in the front yard. Amongst the building supplies, blow up pool, lawnmower, etc were three crosses about 6 to 7 feet high. I had already passed the house but decided to give it a shot. Halfway up the driveway the owner came out and I recited my previously failed request. He immediately offered up his weed-eater lawn mower and we began to conversing. He too had some damage to Katrina but felt blessed that he could still live in his home. He just got the kitchen finished — with help from church youth groups — and was proud to show me the completed room. He still had dirt in a side room but continued to include the word blessed in the conversation. He has a son in the Air Force and two son-in-laws in the Army. He is a very typical God fearing, Jesus loving, military supporting, cheerful giving, southern hospitable guy. He even offered me gas for the weed-eater and additional line strips. We also talked about NASCAR and how his faith in the Lord saved him from gangs, drugs and alcohol. I asked him if he was going to be home all day and he replied “yes, unless I go out to take one of my older friends to the Dr or an appt”. How cool is he? After a little while, I walked away with the mower and just marveled at the circumstance. Had the first neighbor said yes, I would not have had the pleasure to meet Martin or hear his story. I said a little prayer for Martin as well as for his family serving our country in the military. As I write this, I continue to be amazed at the way God weaves things into our lives.

Thanks for saving the day, Martin! I really appreciate your neighborly sharing and southern hospitality. I will never forget your quote — “If we say we have faith in Jesus, we need to give back when asked.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Being veterans of one day, we got a much earlier start on our duties today. Luckily, one of my teammates was on his game because he saved us a few times. First, as we were leaving, he remembered to get the key. The rest of us were focused on the punch list of items we needed from the warehouse and we did a great job of getting all those. But that one little piece of metal was key to getting us in the house (I know, I know — a very bad pun). And my teammate made sure we had it which saved us a whole trip had he not remembered.

Secondly, as we were getting off the freeway, he remembered we needed gas for the generator and the weed eater. Again, he saved us some time and effort. A quick stop at the kwicky gas mart and we were on our way.

And finally, he was instrumental in taking care of the many little jobs that appear to take 15-30 minutes but are time sponges costing 1.5 to 2 hours of labor. He hit all of those inside the house and on top of it including the roof, while my other teammate and I completed the laminate floor (complete with some very custom cuts and positioning) as well as tackled the hideous jungle of a front yard.

We were very lucky with the weather today. It cooperated and at times was downright pleasant. We still had to drink lots of water and sweated out most of it. But there were times in the shade with a nice breeze that I would almost not be swealtering and actually enjoying the day. We were also working smarter today and got quite a bit done. The house will still need a professional plumber to come in, probably for a day or two, but after that the house should be almost quite inhabitable. And that is the frustrating thing — access to professionals. That appears to be the holdup on quite a few things down here. All the volunteers in the world can be made available but things won’t progress further until bureaucrats and experts get on all these jobs. These places needs permits, expert installs, sign offs, signatures and release for occupation.

Lots more to write and describe but technical computer issues have also hampered my jumbled thoughts. And I have been busy from lights on (6am) until lights out (10pm). It’s enough to get your days work done, clean up, grub, prep for the next day and wind down before lights out. The neat thing is the nice socialization that happens all over. The folks here — both staff and volunteers from all over — are great. There are church groups here from South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Indiana, and Ohio — Ohio. Let me tell ya about Ohio. Those folks know how to volunteer. One church is down here on their 4th trip! And they’ve raised over $15,000! And looking at the map, there are an unbalanced amount of pushpins rising up from the state of Ohio than other states. An interesting note, the only two states missing pushpins are Idaho and Rhode Island.

That’s ’bout it for tonight. Lights out soon. Stay tuned because I had a great blog post story today that needs a post of it’s own.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

For those of you that have offered spiritual and financial support for my trip, you are getting your efforts and monies worth. I spent today with two of my teammates at an outlying house quite a ways from here. It took a while this morning to get organized and figuring out what out tasks were. The house was a previous hurricane Ivan victim as well as a hurricane Katrina victim. Quite a bit has been done and the house is on the bubble of move in condition. However, it needs electricity and because the power has been off for so long the property needs a perk test. It made me wonder how much bureaucratic red tape has held up rebuilding and reconstruction efforts. I know rules are rules but Katrina bent almost every single one of them and we need to be creative and flexible in getting things back to normal.

I had an enjoyable but very hot time putting down some laminate floor with a teammate of mine. She hadn’t done flooring before but she is a Habitat for Humanity weekly regular and very skilled. She and I tackled that floor until we A) ran out of planks and B) encountered a curved step stair section. Tomorrow we hope to get that room done and move on. While we were at the house we drafted up a materials and tools need list so we will be much better prepared tomorrow.

The list for tomorrow is:

• complete laminate floor
• kitchen sink drain (fix a prior mistake where someone put the cabinets OVER the drain
• level all cabinets
• possible kitchen countertops
• locate and position the kitchen island
• mow or weed-eat the 2 foot high front yard
• mow or weed-eat the 4 foot high back yard

Probably the hardest thing for me to do is follow an instruction that came up in our orientation yesterday evening. One of the camp directors told us that we needed to help out with an open mind and not judge, jump to conclusions or otherwise Monday morning quarterback anyone who is in a state of need down here. Our job is to help — and that is it. So I really focused on being a tool of God and not second guess a homeowner, person who stayed during the storm or person who choses to stay down here. That has been hard for me but I pray for strength to do my part, help out and make a difference — not meddle, second guess or all the other paths of least resistance. I think I’ll call it — “Shut your piehole and get involved.”

Lights off in 5 minutes so I’m hittin’ the sack.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I saw this sign on the way back from the job site this afternoon.

Greed: confusing possessions with success

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

We made it down here to Christus Victor in Ocean Springs, Mississippi safely. Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts. The drive was very entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my teammates — fellow church members — better. We now have a supportive comraderie to get us through whatever God has ahead for us.

We had a nice “last supper” meal in Mobile, AL before we got into the devestated area. It was very interesting to hear the waitress’s story. While the hurricane center was quite a ways away, they still sustained quite a bit of damage. Her story was interesting because she evacuated with a days old baby for hurricane Dennis several weeks before. Since that did not do much damage, she was determined to weather “the next one”. She stayed with her weeks old baby and survived the worst but was without power for 2 1/2 weeks — again, with a weeks old baby. It was interesting to hear her perspective and we were glad to hear everything was ok with her now.

The place we grabbed dinner at had bumper stickers all over as interesting wallpaper. One caught my eye as I headed into the men’s room. It was very applicable and perfect for sharing on this blog. It read “You cannot wander too far from God’s love because his arms are so long.” How appropriate.

We arrived at the church and were then redirected to Camp Victor which was kinda like camp for adults. It is in an old garment factory that has been recycled into the center hub of recovery activity for the church. There are dorms for men and women, a dining room, lounge area, facilities and a very crammed warehouse. It is good to see all the donations coming forth, especially this late in the cycle of destruction. Other than the token acknowledgement of the year anniversary mark, the typical main stream media in it’s MTV attention like way has pretty much neglected this story. It is not fun to talk about the devestation, the loss, the hurt, the recovery efforts over and over and over again every night. The MSM has moved on. However, I was shocked to hear in the orientation that Lutheran Social Services is planning on being here for 6 to 8 more years!!!!! To put it another way, approx 75,000 homes were completely destroyed. Another 60,000 were so severely damaged they need to be rebuilt. So over 135,000 homes need to be rebuilt in some form or another. The Ocean Springs residential construction industry can rebuild 1500 homes a year. The Baton Rouge residential construction industry can rebuild about 3000 homes a year. And while it is possible to bring in construction folks, there really is no place for them to stay. And finally, the statistic that 100,000 people on the Mississippi gulf coast are still living in trailers was striking.

The bottom line is that there is much work to be done here. And most of it is getting done by faith and non-profit places like Christus Victor.

I am going to end with a story that was told to us during orientation.

There was a little boy who, after the storm, was at the coast picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the water so they would survive. An old man came up to the boy and told him he was wasting his time. That he should look at all the starfish and that there was no way he could possible help all of the thousands stranded on the beach. The little boy picked up a starfish and threw it back into the water and said “I just made a difference to THAT starfish”.

Tomorrow, I hope to make a difference…..one starfish at a time.

God bless the people of Christus Victor.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

As you are reading this, I am on my way down to the gulf coast of Mississippi. The hurricane rebuild mission trip is finally here! See original post from June here.

Please keep me and the team in your thoughts and prayers as we go down to be tools to be used for the Lord. Pray that we have a positive impact and can give some hope and help to folks who are going through some tough times. Better yet, say a prayer for them too.

I hope to post some pictures and stories as I am down there. Please feel free to pass this blog website along as well as to post comments.

I appreciate y’alls support!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Early this morning I was scheduled to leave for my mission trip down to help rebuild the gulf coast destroyed by Katrina. (Previous post on the mission trip here.) Unfortunately, a few things came up that decimated our group of 7 into just 2 — the pastor and me.

At this point a few decisions had to be made. Do we still send down an unfull vehicle with only two workers as a token gesture of our support? Or do we wait until the scheduled October trip to combine them? Or do we schedule another trip all together?

It was at this point that human factors come in – selfish interests, ease in scheduling, convenience. For me personally, I was pumped up from all the support I received, had the time off work, and was ready to get down there and get to work. I had also committed to family, friends, co-workers and readers/supporters of this blog to going down there to make a positive impact. I wanted to follow through and make change. I am deeply indebted to the spiritual and financial support from y’all and didn’t want to let anyone down.

But what I had to do was take a step back and really rethink the why of going down there. It’s not about me. It’s not about our church. It’s not about the volunteerism. It is about folks in need down there who are living this day to day. Right now at this very moment in fact. What do they need? How can we best help? Their needs and concerns need to be put at the top of our priority list for this trip to be successful. So I spoke with Pastor Paul and suggested he call down to the volunteer facility — Christus Victor — to actually see what they need. He found out they are currently at 75% capacity which is pretty good. Pastor Paul then asked them when they most would like us down there. They replied some time in September because they will only be at 25% capacity with everyone going back to school and work after Labor Day.

So now we have a rescheduled trip for a week in Sept. We have a meeting Tuesday evening to hammer out more of the details and to pick one of the weeks. I have already reserved the time off at work so I continue to be committed to this effort. I will blog more specifics as I come across them.

I want to thank everyone who has said prayers, kept me in their thoughts and sent in financial support. That means so much and I am committed to getting down there to be a tool of God.

Being a “glass is always half full” person, it does allow me more time to get financial sponsors. Please see my previous post for details.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This post is a request for help. During the second week of July, I will be headed down with a group from my church to help rebuild the Mississippi gulf coast from hurricane Katrina. I am taking a week of vacation to help distribute, tear down, rebuild, aid, feed and support the folks down there — basically being a disciple of example.

What I need is support and sponsorship from my blog readers. You can sponsor me for a whole day for $20 or a half day for $10. Basically, this is my adult version of a trike, bike or jog-a-thon. I’ll do the hard work missing my family and work and putting in the effort in the Mississippi summer humidity. You get the easy part — signing the check and watching your generosity in action.

Below are a few of the links to the places I will be volunteering at. They are God’s “angels with skin”.

Christus Victor Disaster Response – where I’ll be staying

Christus Victor Lutheran Church

Christus Victor pictures

Christus Victor volunteer blog

Christian Appalachian Project — the good folks organizing the group from my church

Even if you cannot give financially, please give me the best gift you can give me — your prayers. I will need them as I prepare for the trip, travel down there, work as God’s hands, and share the burden.

To contribute financially, please send me an email at “dan at aslowerpace dot net”. I will then give you my church’s name and address so you can earmark your tax deductible contribution. I appreciate your consideration and readership.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net