Stories From the Road - Project Serve, Mississippi

This summer has been extremely busy for us, and we definitely haven't kept up with our blog. Much of this summer was focused on our Project Serve trip. We returned Sunday morning at 4:30am from our trip to Bay St. Louis Mississippi. While we were there, Aaron kept a blog on Facebook for the youth and parent's to track our week. Here is our journal from the road, and some pictures.

The areas that we worked in were West of Gulfport, most of them too small to get on the map.

August 21 - Day 1 - Getting There
(sorry for any grammer or spelling errors - an iPod can only do so much)

Saturday august 21
Project serve Mississippi

As I write this we are airborne! Headed to new wark, new jersey. Last night we arrived in St. Catherines around 12:30am. We we're asleep, if you can actually call it sleep, before 1am. The team from orangeville ran into some delays through the night, which set us back almost an hour. We woke up at 4:30am, packed and headed to tim hortons to meet up with the team. We got ourselves situated around 6am and headed for the border crossing. We we're all a little nervous because the last Mississippi trip was delayed 7 hrs - needless to say a delay like that would certainly set us back. We arrived at the boarder in a good ol' fashioned convoy. Car one went ahead. It wasn't 30 seconds before they we're released. Thankfully we all made it through in under 5 minutes. As we headed to buffalo one of our leaders had to pull over. Cell phone missing. Thought to have dropped it in the tims in Ontario we knew we did not have the time to retrieve it as our flight was literally taking off in an hour.
We made it to the airport at 7:50am. By airline standerds we we're beyond late. We caused a frienzy at the gate and even annoyed the nice ladies who had to check us in. We should already be boarding. The lady got on the phone to the plane, all we could hear was, "we're not holding the flight". Well it must have been an empty threat or maybe pity over came the crew. The flight was held for us and our last team members got on the plane as the flight attendant was closing the door. Okay so we delayed our flight by 5 mins. But now flight the attendant is bringing some drinks around so it's likely time to pause...

...Back now. We've landed in new Orleans at 3pm. It's 34 degrees, feels like 46 with humidity. Resting up and going for dinner in the french quarter. More later.




Sunday august 22: Day 2

As i write this update we are surrounded by heavy rain, lightning and thunder so loud it's rattling the roof... But first....

Last night we got to spend some time sightseeing around New Orleans. First, we checked into our hotel, got a shower, a quick swim, and new clothes. We headed to the centre of town just in time for dinner which meant authentic Cajun and Louisiana cooking. We all split up so I can't vouch for anyone else but I, and many others got a taste of jambalaya. Yummm! After dinner some more sightseeing happened. What a town. We had to tell everyone what Mardi Gras was and that due to some innapropriate content Bourbon street was off limits.

This morning we got to sleep in! We ate together at an ihop, swam some more, really spoiled ourselves. We had one last stop sightseeing in New Orleans. Today most of the Collingwood crew checked out the New Orleans' aquarium. we spent most of the afternoon there before loading the vans to our work area, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, which is just an hour drive from New Orleans. As we got closer to Bay saint Louis, Katrina damage began to surface. Huge casino halls, shopping malls, gas stations... Damaged. Even after five years roofs have not been replaced-People have essentially abandoned these places. As we arrived in Bay Saint Louis dark omminous clouds began to form and we all had a bizzaar sense of reverence for the area. We drove to the ocean to see the storm come in. The winds picked up, the rain began to teem. Before long we were in a pretty violent storm. We took refuge in a popeyes chicken and bisquits and had dinner and waited the storm out. We found our compound soon after dinner, unloaded and we're briefed on our week ahead. Butch, a worker here explained to us the slow response of the US government and then asked us if we knew who the first on the scene was. We all answerd in unicen the "US army, navy, police?". All wrong. To our amazement it was the RCMP with 13 helicopters. The american workers here expressed deep thanks to us and our help. We are the last group here for the year so we are ending on a very positive note for the Mission on the Bay organization. At the end of our brief thay said, "well, the RCMP we're first on the scene and you guys are last for the year - Canada is a such a huge part in this... More than you'll ever know".

It's 10pm now and we're off to bed - work starts at 7:45am. More tomorrow!!!

Oh by the way all your children are doing great and having the time of thier lives!!

Our team of 23

St. Louis Cathedral

First look at Louisiana cooking - Jambalaya and Muffuleta

The Superdome

Monday August 23 - Day 3

Today we worked! We all got sent out to our placements. Two groups per house. Yup that's where we were private residences. Today a few of us met Jim. He has been on disability since 2001 and has Been struggling with health problems since then. Jim we once a oil rig worker until cancer and heart problems began affecting his life. He re counted when Katrina hit. Although we aren't sure if he and his wife were home at the time or if he evacuated he said that three large trees simultanuously collapsed on his house destroying his kitchen area. He was able to to clean up the mess with the little insurance money he had. He was not able to rebuild, only clean. When I asked him what prevented him from continuing the rebuild he said that his medical bills were just too large. He told me today that his triple bi-pass surgery cost him $180,000. He was finacially ruined. The medial bills began to pile on that as his health need attention. We figure he is close to $300,000 in debt. He told me today that we fully expects to die before his debt is paid off. So, fove years after Katrina jim's house is almost 80% fixed. His kitchen is repaired, his house is near competion. Today our job was to prime his whole house because tomorrow we get paint and give his place some character again. Needless to say we are quite looking forward to painting and actually being a part of the finishing touch on a part of his place. Oddly, as we were leaving jim's place today a massive thunderstorm rolled in. Jim's house is not made of brick and shingles his house was a 4 room house trailer encased in wooden slats and a tin roof. It seems that everywhere we go we are greated by ominous storms, a slight picture of what it was like on the verge of Katrina.
We left jim's around 3:30pm to make it home in time for dinner. After dinner we all jumped into our vans to survey the remnants of Katrina on the coast. What we saw was eerie. Alot of stilts without homes. Most of the homes had been washed away leaving only their foundations. What we found interesting is that the remnants have been smothered in weeds and over growth. Many have just walked away and not looked back.
It's 10pm right now and we have 6am wake up so it's off to bed. Everyone Is still taking care of themselves in this heat - no heat stroke or sun burns at this point. Everyone is doing very well.
Good night!

Copy and paste the link below to see one of the sites we visited tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNemF5AA-mo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Working on the Hall House

Working in Pass Christian

Evidence of Katrina Damage 5 years later in Bay St. Louis. The storm surge came to the base of the cross.

Many properties were abandoned after the storm, reminders of what used to stand along the shoreline roads.

We've got more entries, and I will post a few each day.

Guest Blog: Beca Osmond

I would like to start by introducing myself. My name is Beca and I am the summer student working here at the Door. This is such an awesome opportunity as the Door is basically missions on our own front step. The teenage years are a time when kids are evaluating life and trying to figure out who they are. They go to extremes to both create an identity for themselves and to be accepted by others. What amazing opportunity for us to step in and provide for them a place where they are accepted and to guide them towards finding their identity through Christ. Through building relationships with the youth who come here we are able to offer them hope.

Over the course of the summer, I have been able to sit down and really get to know one of the young girls here. One time when we got together we talked about her hopes and dreams. What she wants to do with her life. Where she wants to go to school in the future. I told her that God has a plan and purpose for her life. I challenged her to work hard towards those dreams and not get distracted by lifes ups and downs. I wish you could have seen the smile on her face after that talk. I wish life were easy and I could rest assured knowing that she will make all the right choices, but I know that is not always the case. Now we need to continue to walk with her on this journey, encourage her and pray for her. I believe that we need to commit to walking with these youth on their journeys and commit to praying for them. This is what Aaron and Danielle are doing here at the Door which is absolutley amazing and I am excited that I get to be apart of it.