Month: May 2013

Brad doing his MLK for us one (last?) time on our last night in Mississippi, and thanks Gary for enhancing with the musical accompaniment..

Last weekend was Mother’s Day and at Habitat that is a reason for celebration because of our Women Build event.  You’ll read below about the success of the event and you’ll see why we have reason to applaud.

We’ve got lots of other reasons to celebrate as well.  Our affiliate, our staff and even a Board member has all been recognized recently for their good work with a variety of awards.  To say we are excited about the awards is an understatement.

Continuing this message of celebration, I would like to recognize the Evergreen Church volunteers.  This group recently completed a week of volunteering with HFHMGC.  For the past seven years, this group has traveled from Los Angeles to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to work alongside our staff and AmeriCorps members.  We thank them for their commitment to Habitat and we celebrate their tireless efforts in rebuilding the Gulf Coast

Tommy has been on every trip we’ve made to Mississippi

As he returned to work today, he took a few moments to write to the team, and then allowed us to share it with you

If you only have 5 seconds to read this please wait until you have at least 5 minutes.

These are some rambling thoughts about our trip and I hope that you’ll be able to lift up some prayers as you are reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness.

First  – thank you all for your part in a glorious trip.  You each contributed  and I mean really contributed.

The word the Lord gave me for this trip was freedom.  At first I thought it would be for me – that I would have a freedom to enjoy, minister, work, engage, worship and pray.  As it turned out I think freedom summarized our entire team.  We were able to freely obey what the Lord had us do.  Even when we didn’t, we acknowledged it, confessed it and freely moved on and obeyed the next time.  We didn’t abuse the grace given, but let it grow us.  I woke up early this morning on Mississippi time, but more in Mississippi spirit – that is with joy in my heart even though I was going back to work alone, not surrounded by my beautiful, supportive and joyful teammates.  There was somewhat of an emptiness as I began my drive on the crowded 405, but earlier the chorus to the song “Jesus, Thank You” kept running through my head.

Your blood has washed away my sin

Jesus, thank you

The Father’s wrath completely satisfied

Jesus, thank you

Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table

Jesus, thank you

I long to be seated at the plastic dinner table with our Lord manifested in each of you.

I long to be co-laboring (co-sweating in the attic) working beside my Jesus inhabited teammates.

I long to be laughing and eating ice cream at quakes with my joy filled and loving brothers and sisters.

I long for the talks, prayers and worship.

Jesus thank you that you gave (and give) us freedom.

Jesus thank you for creating wonderful lifelong memories that make us miss what we experienced.

Jesus thank you for grace that allows us to even be a part of all this.

Jesus thank you for the privilege of ministering in Your name.

Jesus thank you – and thank y’all for being Jesus to me.

Our last day was one of goodbyes.

We bid farewell to our host family, the Wetzel’s and prayed with them (as well as Molly the Collie) and once again, they voiced their appreciation for our continued commitment to come back year after year. They restated that the door is always open to us.

Mosaic Church
After a quick breakfast at McD’s, we went to Mosaic for church and heard a great message on Depression from Pastor Dustin. It was a great balance of practical and spiritual support. From their webpage:

This weekend at Mosaic is especially important.


We will take a short break from Hebrews to talk about Depression. It seems to be on the rise both in our church and in our community. The Bible has much to say about it and there are great medical and psychological resources to help. We will share them with you this weekend in all three services. If you want to read the passage we will study check out 1 Kings 19:1-18.

We had a goodbye pizza lunch with Brad, Paul and Denise. The fellowship was sweet and heartfelt. Our goodbyes and hugs (including the typically non-hugging Roy) almost went too late and we took off for the airport.

Airport and flight delay
Departure from Biloxi went reasonably well, with the last of us walking up to the gate just as they called for boarding, but minutes after our arrival in Dallas/Fort Worth, we found our flight had been delayed by two hours (our scheduled plane had been shuffled off to an international flight with a mechanical problem, and we received another plane in the shuffle)

Texting and calls to alert those we expected to see at LAX, we settled into an additional couple of hours to enjoy each others’ company, some reflecting on past trips, some discussing the possibility of returning, some just taking advantage of our close bonds and discussing life.

We arrived at LAX, and after the typical post-flight business, we approached the baggage area. Unfortunately two members (Tommy and Peter), didn’t hear that the team was going to pray and went straight to luggage. The rest of the team prayed in thanksgiving for a fruitful and safe trip and came down a few minutes later.

Unlike our arrival in Mississippi, we made sure to get our luggage before it was too late, we took a team photo and Pastor Kyle led us in a prayer.

We’ll have a few reflections in the coming days, but wanted you to see the video of our last day

Thanks much!

Our flight is delayed 1:50 hours.
American airlines flight 2461

Everyone texting their msgs

Weatherization at Samantha’s Home

This really has come full circle.

On the way to our last work site for the week in Gautier, we passed near the very first home we built in Mississippi. We had a few moments, so we drove by.

It was nice to see it be part of a neighborhood, lived-in an standing strong, despite our learning curve at the beginning. It was poignant to be in a car with three people that have been here every year since we began these trips.

Miss Samantha’s Home
We arrived at the home to see the crayfish mounds in the front yard. We had heard about this a few days ago, and most of us didn’t believe it, so yes, we googled it. It’s very bizarre to think that crayfish are in your front yard.

We unloaded the trailer and began our work.
-sealing ventilation leaks in the attic (hot, hard work)
-wrapping the hot water heater
-sealing/caulking other ventilation leaks in the home
-replacing light fixtures with more efficient ones (including Jeff and crew putting in another ceiling fan)
-installing low flow shower heads

yes, we accidentally put a hole through the drywall from the attic. But we have to say, it made the attic cooler to work in. Don’t worry, we patched it.

Actually, the attic would get noticeably hotter as we kept filling the cracks and leaks we would find, a testament to the amount of energy that was being lost.

We also took out some tack strips that were on the bare floor because one of the kids had hurt themselves on it.

We finished the day with sonic slushies and praying for the family. Many people, including the family were brought to tears.

Saying goodbye to Quakes

We stopped by Quakes, the ice cream shack, for presumably our last visit. Marie remembered us and we got a nice snack, on the way home where Brad was preparing an Indian (Tika masala, curry ) meal for us.

The realization that we were saying goodbye to much of the Southern Hospitality was settling in.

Dinner 
Brad’s Indian meal was delicious and the company was great. We got to hang out with Brad and his friend, and they joined us for a bit of our worship time, and our time of reflections about the trip. Our new friend Melissa chimed in and expressed heartfelt thanks to us as someone that experienced Katrina firsthand. Craig restated that this week was a Gift from God. Part of the gift was that we got to work with resident families. So often we would build homes in hopes of future homeowners we might never meet. To work, talk and pray with the people that were living there was a significant blessing to us.

Debrief
As usual, we had a team debrief. It’s a time to be candid about events during the trip, including any potential misunderstandings, hurt feelings, etc. As much as we are very much a “family” as Millie had called us earlier in the week, we can still have similar dysfunctions of a family on a road trip for a week. The idea is for us to air any problems or misconceptions so they can be addressed before we go our separate ways when we return home. It’s really a great time of growth and appreciation.

The wind-down
We’re done. Tommy’s given away his signature hard hat.

We have no job site tomorrow, but just our last church service in Mississippi. Is this the end of these trips? Maybe, we’re not sure, but we’ll revisit it later.

It’s very bittersweet.
We have grown to really love a community that we never knew before, and over the last seven years, it had grown from a place we wanted to help rebuild because our hearts broke for their loss in Katrina, to a part of the US that our hearts will always remain.

These are good people out here, and we’re proud to serve them. But just as God had told one of our team members, this trip was a “gift to the team from God.’ We weren’t sure what that meant before we started, but a week after starting a new build, then spending some very hard working days with well deserving and hospitable families, we know that the past seven years have been a gift to us.

We’ve grown individually in courage and faith.
We’ve grown to love this region
We’ve grown to love watching God care for people, whether it’s via our hands in rebuilding, or seeing how He’s watched over our safety and hearts for so many visits. We just want to see Him doing cool stuff, it’s just nice that taken out of our element (home), it’s been easier to see what that is.

Well, it’s late, and I’m sorry to say that the guys had to pack and get to bed early for our church and travel day tomorrow, so we don’t have too many photos, but we’ll add some more on this page as soon as possible.

Blessed to be a blessing… make a difference… Leaving our mark. This wasn’t here when we got here…. We just made a hole