Bay St.Louis/Waveland MS: Thoughts on returning home

Link to some photos on Flickr

Now that I'm home and have had a few days to rest, I wanted to post a few thoughts:

1. One point that hit me was that we have so much. The people of BSL/Waveland (Many at least) have lost all of their worldly possessions. This is, as Pastor Larroux of LPC says, a reminder that all of that is "just stuff". Stuff comes and goes. Stuff doesn't last.

2. A man I was speaking with told me that if it wasn't for the volunteers the area would be unable to rebuild. Each volunteer builds on the work of those that came before. After our team shingled a house and built a portion of the second story of another, we left. Someone else will follow us.

3. All of our work and interaction gives hope to the people and a connection point with LPC. How incredible to begin a church in a hurricane-devastated area. But, as Pastor Larroux told us, what a great time and place to be the Church.

4. You don't need a nice worship area to worship in. A little breeze and sweat doesn't hurt.

Thankful to be home, but wanting to go back.
Paul

2nd Story Construction

This is a house that our team worked on to build the 2nd story

Boiled Shrimp at Langiappe Presbyterian!

What a great time had by all!

Discuss DaVinci

Tornado hits Anna and Westminster TX

I took this photo at 9:20 pm from my backyard. I'm standing about 40 miles away as the crow flies. A few minutes after 10 this storm produced at least one tornado. Sadly, 3 people were killed. This storm completely destroyed solid brick homes.
The power of thunderstorms is incredible. I've always had a fascination and respect for them.

The sovereign God of the Bible controls the storm. They are a fact of life on earth.

Tornado Warning!

At 10:00 PM we had a tornado starting to form just to our west. We got the bathroom ready, including a mattress. Flashlights, radio etc. Fortunately the storm cycled down.

It gets your attention when the weather person tells you that your community will be impacted at a specific time!

Things are calming down. But there's a lot of damage in Gainesville. That storm had baseball size hail!

Here's a radar picture. I drew a black line that shows how the storm line traveled northeast. The tornado was traveling due east at us!




We need rain badly. We don't need tornadoes!

Is this your "floating dock"?

If so it's in Caddo Lake near Taylor Island!

Mission Trip July 1 2006

My church, Metrocrest Presbyterian Church , is planning a trip to Bay St. Louis MS July 1st. We'll be working with a new church plant, Lagniappe Presbyterian. We'll be helping to build storage sheds and houses for people who have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, is helping to plant this church through a native son of BSL, Jean Larroux. Please visit http://lagniappechurch.blogspot.com/ for information and updates. The blog is updated very often. Visit MPC's site for information about our trip.

Yes I'm going! No I'm not a construction worker. This will be quite an adventure.