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Second to last day….

It was a long and full day, with a beginning reminiscent of a movie: An inspirational devotional by two people (Chris and then and impromptu addendum by Ken), a morning charge by Jim, ending with a rounding, dancing chorus of “Amen,” then rain, sun, and a goodbye to Jim and Shirley. We continued finishing work on the home, which could be finished within a month, then returned home, washed the grit, splatter and sweat off and had our evening devotional. Peter spoke from Acts 1:8-9 and that we never know when Christ will return, and we will never know when our last moments with anyone or anywhere might be, to sense the immediacy. Just like our time in Mississippi… we never know when we’ll be back, when we might have the opportunity to meet the people we do, and we should act on it.

Craig had us reflect on our time here. We write down the names of anyone that we felt had an impact on us or we on them for the several years each one of us has served. The lists varied: some short, some long, some focusing on people we touched, some on people we served with. It was a significant exercise.

Brad and Paul and Brad (Paul’s friend) where there for our whole devotional time, and it was…natural… We talked as friends, we talked as brothers, we spoke of casual things, we prayed with them. No agenda other than just being Christ, and being brothers to them. If anything has developed during these years on these trips, I think it is being comfortable in knowing God, and sharing God in tangible ways to all those around us. Immediacy, yet peace..

Jim and Shirley Collins spent their last day with us, staying through lunch.

Brad asked for her to give a devotional, she politely declined/refused/redirected. Jim stepped in…

We hope you enjoy this as much as we did…

Editor’s note: I love this team. I had to work on something this morning, so I turned around and handed my laptop to Gary M. and asked if he wanted to write something for the blog, giving the morning update. Without a blink, he picked up the laptop, starts typing away. I wish you could experience the natural ease with how this team can operate. We’re not perfect, but we’re focused on serving God and serving others, and trying to get our agendas and quirks out of the way of those goals. Thanks Gary!

Good morning from Biloxi, MS.  We’re on the way to another day at the site.   The weather reports show a possibility of rain mid-day, but after Chris’ tearful devotional this morning, we are reminded to leave things to God’s plans.

Chris shared about the one year he missed coming to Mississippi (2010).  He was sure that God was telling him that he needed to stay at home and minister to his family after his father-in-law had a major injury the Wednesday before he was to leave.  Although he did not understand it at the time and had deep disappointment with not going on the mission trip, later on he came to understand how important it was minister to his family after his father-in-law passed the day he would have left.
It is a comfort to know that God has plans for us that will sometimes precede our own plans,  and work out for the better of His will in ways that we sometimes may not realize until later and sometimes much, much later.

Ken, the director of New Life Disaster Relief where we are staying, chimed in after Chris’ sharing on how the problem with PK’s (Pastors’ Kids) is so prevalent because pastors have their priorities mixed up.  It should be (in order) personal worship of God, immediate family, church family, then the rest of the world.  He shared about a decision he made to cancel a week of speaking engagements in order to minister to his wife after a traumatic ordeal.  How incongruous it would be to go and speak to all these groups about how their family had been terrorized while he had left his family at home.

Our fellow laborers, Jim and Nannie continue to be an inspiration and example to us.  We will miss them as they leave today after lunch.  Nannie gave us each a big hug this morning before breakfast and then later apologized if she had inadvertently offended anyone’s sensibilities.  She went on to share how we have been the best group they have had the pleasure to work with.  God is glorified.

Heads up.  We drove past the bank that showed the current temperature at 77 degrees now at 8 AM.  Radio just said the highs might be in the low 80’s . We’ll see.

The rain stopped around 11AM.

We were able to resume work at our various places… and eventually the sun started to shine/beat down on us again.

omg.. we’re leaving in a second for dinner…

we’ll update this same post in a few hours. check it in a bit..

Work-wise

Back of the porch (the James-I’m-not-gonna-dig-those-holes-under-the-deck area), worked on by about half the guys at some point today but mostly Steve with Jim. It was interesting listening to Steve interact with Jim, wondering how different it was than his partner last week, Millie.

Sarge/Coach/Kelly doing his usual valuable support position, but also helping Brad sort out the scraps and place them in the eco-friendly Bag-dumpster. Later on, providing musical accompaniment to our fearless leader (see below)

Mo and Chris putting up facade over the porch, working and fixing and tuning a planer in the process.

Tommy, Roy and Craig working on interior hardware: closet organizers, door handles/locks, etc. Check the day’s clip to see how Craig was being the human stud finder… no jokes please…. Also, after they put on some of the hardware, they found it was the wrong color and had to take some of them off.

Gary and Peter working underneath the house, continuing Chris and Craig’s work on the barrier to prevent … unwelcome animals from nesting in the crawl space.

Miss Shirley/Nannie working on trim, painting and more.

Other-wise
Met some locals and old friends.

Annias came upon the site today. Tommy stopped to talk and pray for some of his ailments. Turns out not only has Annias lived in the area since ’66, and we found out he is father to Miss Jackie, the partner family that we have worked with most over the last couple of weeks. Still not sure/confirmed that she will receive this house, but her family sure is hopeful 🙂

Calvin H, Habitat employee, dropped off some items. We have seen him for the last several years starting back at the Connor’s Garden houses, where Craig got to pray for him. Today was his second day returning to work after being ill. He’s been going through a lot of difficult times, including the recent loss of his wife, but he’s back at work. Within a few seconds of requesting anyone on our team to pray for him, we had a group. We prayed, blessed Calvin and then just as naturally, returned to our other spiritual act, building a home.

Calvin with Craig in 2010 (Craig is on the right….)

Working with Jim and Shirley has continued to be an exercise in humility, we understand they are just fellow brethren to us, but their presence, work ethic, humility and strength (as well as Jim’s booming voice) really can make them seem just a little larger than us.

Unfortunately, without James or Art around, and we have even less hands to work… we’re shooting less photos

but we think you’ll enjoy this…