Look Lord, My Shell Collection!

I don't usually like to post a couple videos in a row, but this clip of a sermon by John Piper really caught my attention again today. I had heard previously heard this sermon and it made an impact on me then, but hearing it again today was just a great reminder.

The Wall Comes Down

We recently partnered with the city of Bay St. Louis to help with the process of getting rid of the blighted property still left over from the storm. There are still hundreds of homes left in the county that need to be torn down. This is just a start for us in the partnership as we help to beautify our community.

Crabbing

Sometimes I just have to try things because I can. So tonight I decided I was going to go crabbing off the pier in Lakeshore. I've only ever been crabbing once in my life and I wasn't the one even doing anything. But I was feeling a desire to go and knowing if wouldn't be all that expensive to get started I decided to go for it.




I ran to walmart to pick up my supplies:
1. Crab nets
2. Chicken

Since the crab nets were only $2.16 a piece I decided I'd get 4. I ran back to the church to get my bucket and cooler and fill up on ice then I was off.

I had a great time sitting and watching people as I waited to periodically pull up my nets to see if there were any crabs taking the bait. It was one of the most relaxing things I have done in a long time and for about $15 (most of that for the start up cost of the nets) it was well worth it. I am looking
forward to hitting the pier in the morning.

"One day of Bad Weather"

"It's crazy that one day of bad weather, very bad weather, caused all this"

This was said to me today after spending time driving around checking on different properties in our community. This was in response to the number of sights we saw, including:

Empty slabs where homes once stood, many with tile flooring still in place where kitchens and bathrooms once were. Places where families sat around their kitchen tables and discussed the happenings of their day and shared meals together.

We passed a gas station still boarded up. Though it had been gutted after the storm the business never move back in. I imagine before the storm neighborhood children frequented the store for candy bars and cokes and adults passed through and spoke to familiar faces.

Still many houses line the streets abandoned by the families that once occupied them, for one reason or another, but non the less unoccupied, unfinished, and weathered by the storm and 6 years of neglect.

An entire shopping center sits abandoned, looking worse as each year passes. Next to it a bank sits on the corner of a heavily traveled intersection waiting for something to happen, but will remain an eye sore until then.

Trees stripped bare of all their leaves and branches, some twisted off at the top, some uprooted, and all exposed to salt water, which killed many of the trees from the large magnificent oaks, the tall pines, and the flowering magnolias.

All of this caused by one storm, one day.

I don't believe the enormity of the storm will ever entirely sink in, but some days things hit me a little harder. Today was one of those days.

Four month recap

Wow, 4 months since my last blog post. Much has happened in that time. It'd take me far too many blog posts to tell everything, but here's a brief update.

• In February I took part in a Biblical Counseling Training Seminar offered at our church.
• We had eight great weeks of spring break teams, hosting around 400 volunteers in March and April.
• My sister came to visit. I had a great time showing her around Lakeshore and New Orleans.
• I've been praying for God's leading on whether I should stay in Lakeshore or move back to Wisconsin since my funding is running out.
  
• I made a visit to Wisconsin. Had one interview while I was in Madison, but have not been offered the job.
• Most recently I've really been considering raising support for another 6 months in Lakeshore, though I've not made this decision as of now.
• This week will be the start of our fourth week of volunteers this summer. It's been great and very productive thus far and I'm look forward each day to see what the Lord will do.
  
• Pastor Don continues to preach through Titus. The Lord has been using these texts and sermons to really speak to me, challenge me, and encourage me to examine myself.
• We've had a very helpful young lady, Erin Allison, from Georgia join us for the month of June on our team leading volunteer teams and doing anything else we need done around here.
• In the life of our church we've had a couple families join as members, we continue to have great attendance at our senior adult luncheons, our plans for the fellowship hall are well under way, and we've completed the building of the Mercy house and we had our grand opening with a coupon seminar and dinner on the grounds.

The Lord is doing great things here and I'm ready to see what it is the Lord has in store for the coming months, what he does in the life of the church, which direction He leads me, what He does in the lives of the people in our community whose homes we work on and in the lives of each of the volunteers.