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...

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...

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!!!

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

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...)

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...