Locked in place - Come to the Gulf and help for you will then know of the post-Katrina syndrome.
The volunteer related her story, "We showed up and looked at the house. The house had lost its roof and there was a lot of water damage. Mr. Hargrove had the roof fixed so at least things were dry. It was chocked full of stuff. It was hard to see how the family moved around. It looked like nothing had moved since all this was placed here after Katrina. Furniture, boxes stacked around and unmoved for the last three and one-half years. We had opened the door to a small room of the kitchen and looked in. It was the laundry room. It hadn’t been opened since the roof was put back on the house. It was terrible. All sorts of critters had been using the space. There was dirt and filth all around inside it."
We asked if we could start moving things in order to work on his ceilings and Mr. Hargrove said "ok.”
Mr. Hargrove watched the crew moving his belongings for a while and then spoke up, “Let me help.”
He started in with an activity he probably hadn’t shown since 2005. Surprisingly he opened the laundry room and started dragging out stuff and throwing it out in a pile in the yard. Before we left for the day he had it emptied of all the wasted things and had cleaned off and wiped down the first shelf I n the cabinet over the washer.
Louise is a dedicated single mother. She had just adopted her two pre-school grandchildren. She had her significant other live in a house where only a living room (garage conversion), bath and one bedroom for her and her significant other live. The other parts of the house still are damaged from Katrina. The dining room and living room are full of what belongings they saved from Katrina and so full as to b unusable. Her “significant other” is handicapped; he had a stroke a while back.
We left them with a fully restored home. I dropped off a lot of Christmas gifts given to me for that purpose by from Northside Presbyterian Church.
Mrs. P, working part time in D’Iberville with three children. The house is virtually empty of furniture. The house needed repainting, roof fixed, eliminate water inflow into the rear of the house from that roof problem. We did it all, and she was our first home blessing.
Mr. and Mrs. Pearson are in a bind, their house wasn’t even 25% restored when I met them. They has lost large sums of money on disreputable contractors and had some construction problems I only had a bare idea of how to fix. We managed to get a Salvation Army grant and with the help of CARE, a Pennsylvania Mennonite relief group we rebuild that construction problem. Last week my good friends from Fountain City Presbyterian Church, on their 13th trip down and 56th house, dry walled 95% of the house. A good crew from Youngstown is finishing what remains this week. It is looking like we will get them into their house soon.
Mr. & Mrs. Seale were living in a molding, 100 yr old home in Gulfport. We successfully got funding and with some of our own resources stripped the home to studs and refinished it. It has taken six months but we should have gotten a certificate of occupancy yesterday or today. We’ve become good friends and I’ve learned lot about the dedication of a son to his parents.
Preaching at Trinity PC in Fairhope was my first foray into ministry. I still remember the lady who walked up with a check for our mission effort that I thought was for $500 but was for $5,000.
I can’t get the woman with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease out of my mind. She lives in a mobile home without central heat, spent $30,000 of her FEMA money of a new home, her children and this worthless mobile home. The man never delivered the new home - she paid cash. Her caseworker doesn’t like her so she gets no access to even the little public resource that might be available.
I remember the majestic home on thirteen foot piers that is slowly crushing the supporting girders holding the house on the piers, yet the owner, caught between insurance company fraudulent contractor and MEMA insisting on taking his cottage back insists on moving in rather than letting us fix the problem before the next major storm that may destroy the house.
There were the days on the bayou out at Jimmy’s home, eating shrimp or crawfish and talking about what we had done in Pearlington and where the future may lead.
There are the special people I’ve met as village staff, Heather, Jeremy, Leslie, Mark, Michelle, Jessi, Michael and others. There are the volunteers from Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Minnesota, Arkansas, Davison, Virginia and North Carolina.
There is the group from Utah led by a pastor’s wife who announced, “I won’t work on that house, it is nicer than my own,” and whose youth volunteers apologized for the behavior of the adults.
There is the fellow in Pascagoula whose kitchen floor and bedroom walls we repaired who brought us po-boy shrimp and crawfish sandwiches for lunch and who wrote us checks every week for offering from his meager social security, a giving of proportion probably greater than almost any of us give. He would apologize if the check were late.
There is Larry who helped me learn more about Pearlington so I could figure out when I was helping good folks and who to watch out.
I helped as we struggled to set up our efforts for Ike relief in the Galveston area.
There has been the outpouring of support from my church, Northside, and the rock and roll effort to apply and gain admittance into seminary.
There has been for me the most profound humiliation by my pride as I watch and help people who by all rights should have given up; a humiliation of us as a people as we fail to really work to help those in need as I drive down US49 or I-10 and read the billboards advertising the next big entertainer or music group or the loosest slots in town.
There has been for me an assurance, a reaffirmation of the goodness of humankind as I see the suffering show more bravery and hope than I have mustered, as I see volunteers return as changed lives.
And finally, I heard someone in Louisville say ruefully last week as staff reductions were discussed, “You aren’t in the Presbyterian Church you were born into.” I see a glimmer of hope that this church is being changed by these volunteers and the needy they help into something more than the “church we were born into” as they live the Good News Jesus preached.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Day 363 - The Waters Came
It started raining two days ago.
Each night we had very strong thunderstorms. I was awakened Wednesday night by a peal of rolling thunder that lasted about 30-40 seconds. and worry over tornado watches and warnings. We had one hit several miles north of our village but no fatalities thank goodness.
It began raining in earnest Thursday. Fortunately in Gulfport most of the rain was fairly light and the heavy downpour was west and north of town. Thursday night the jet stream had moved further south and the storm track was through New Orleans and out into the Gulf. There was a continuous line of severe rain and thunderstorms literally just off shore extending out in the Gulf. For the entire day ominous dark clouds lay low in the sky over the Gulf but we had partly sunny/rain in Gulfport.
I went to Pearlington yesterday to help finish drywall in one of our special clients and we had rain on and off all day. On the way over I almost had to pull over on I-10 because visibility was so bad. Fortunately that downpour only lasted a few minutes but rain continued all day. We had one small tornado hit a high school ball field in Pascagoula, destroying the scoreboard. Early Friday morning (1:30AM) a twister hit St. Matthew's Catholic Church in north Hancock County (Pearlington's county) and shredded the parisj hall, sparing the sanctuary and rectory.
As I left Jimmy Lamey's home after dinner in Pearlington last night, the rain bgean again and followed me all the way back to Gulfport. The forcast was ominous for the remaiming night.
It started raining in earnest about 10 PM in Gulfport and kept on, at times in a torrential downpour.
Thunder awakened me about 1:30AM. I discovered my RV was leaking, rain drenched my cell phone so do call me on the PC(USA) phone. Water soaked a lot of my papers. I turned on the TV to get the latest weather. We were in the midst of a "train" of storms.
There were two "trains." One tracked north of the coast but the other started in Gulf and tracked across our south Mississippi area, hitting the Gulfport to Pascagoula area very hard. Water is covering roads in Ocean Springs and as I write this morning, all the rivers are peaking at or over flood stage or have already done so in the eastern side of the coast. We are safe here in the village but we have had almost ten inches of rain in this storm.
Between about 10PM and 5AM when the last tornado watch expired we had 3.8 inches of rain. That number is at the airport, some areas have had over 6-8 inches last night in a lot of places in the back country. Many areas were taking up to or over 1 inch/hour over most of the night.
The Biloxi River is 4 feet over flood stage this morning and still rising. Our Volunteer Village Manager is trapped in her home by water surrounding her neighborhood in Ocean Springs.
The Pearl River, already over the flood stage, isn't expected to crest until Tuesday or Wednesday, two or more feet over flood stage. The village manager in Pearlington says everything is ok; but she may not be thinking about that impending crest on the river a quarter mile away from the camp.
I'm heading for Pearlington again about noon to debrief our work site manager whose last day is tomorrow. I cross the Wolf River and the swampy area at NASA Stennis between MS 603 and MS 607 on the way over. The water is always only a few feet below the road, It will be interesting to see where the water is.
I'll check the Pearl River when I get to Pearlington, and hope my RV dries out a little by evening.
What a night!
Each night we had very strong thunderstorms. I was awakened Wednesday night by a peal of rolling thunder that lasted about 30-40 seconds. and worry over tornado watches and warnings. We had one hit several miles north of our village but no fatalities thank goodness.
It began raining in earnest Thursday. Fortunately in Gulfport most of the rain was fairly light and the heavy downpour was west and north of town. Thursday night the jet stream had moved further south and the storm track was through New Orleans and out into the Gulf. There was a continuous line of severe rain and thunderstorms literally just off shore extending out in the Gulf. For the entire day ominous dark clouds lay low in the sky over the Gulf but we had partly sunny/rain in Gulfport.
I went to Pearlington yesterday to help finish drywall in one of our special clients and we had rain on and off all day. On the way over I almost had to pull over on I-10 because visibility was so bad. Fortunately that downpour only lasted a few minutes but rain continued all day. We had one small tornado hit a high school ball field in Pascagoula, destroying the scoreboard. Early Friday morning (1:30AM) a twister hit St. Matthew's Catholic Church in north Hancock County (Pearlington's county) and shredded the parisj hall, sparing the sanctuary and rectory.
As I left Jimmy Lamey's home after dinner in Pearlington last night, the rain bgean again and followed me all the way back to Gulfport. The forcast was ominous for the remaiming night.
It started raining in earnest about 10 PM in Gulfport and kept on, at times in a torrential downpour.
Thunder awakened me about 1:30AM. I discovered my RV was leaking, rain drenched my cell phone so do call me on the PC(USA) phone. Water soaked a lot of my papers. I turned on the TV to get the latest weather. We were in the midst of a "train" of storms.
There were two "trains." One tracked north of the coast but the other started in Gulf and tracked across our south Mississippi area, hitting the Gulfport to Pascagoula area very hard. Water is covering roads in Ocean Springs and as I write this morning, all the rivers are peaking at or over flood stage or have already done so in the eastern side of the coast. We are safe here in the village but we have had almost ten inches of rain in this storm.
Between about 10PM and 5AM when the last tornado watch expired we had 3.8 inches of rain. That number is at the airport, some areas have had over 6-8 inches last night in a lot of places in the back country. Many areas were taking up to or over 1 inch/hour over most of the night.
The Biloxi River is 4 feet over flood stage this morning and still rising. Our Volunteer Village Manager is trapped in her home by water surrounding her neighborhood in Ocean Springs.
The Pearl River, already over the flood stage, isn't expected to crest until Tuesday or Wednesday, two or more feet over flood stage. The village manager in Pearlington says everything is ok; but she may not be thinking about that impending crest on the river a quarter mile away from the camp.
I'm heading for Pearlington again about noon to debrief our work site manager whose last day is tomorrow. I cross the Wolf River and the swampy area at NASA Stennis between MS 603 and MS 607 on the way over. The water is always only a few feet below the road, It will be interesting to see where the water is.
I'll check the Pearl River when I get to Pearlington, and hope my RV dries out a little by evening.
What a night!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Day 360 - The Chief End of Mankind
Fountain City Presbyterian Church has made 13 independent work trips and worked on 56 houses. On their first trip they stayed in the First Presbyterian Church in Bay Saint Louis in November 2005. The church shuttled workers between there an the airport as they came in. First Baptist Church of Los Angeles arrived with two big refrigerator trucks full of food and set up two big dining tents in the parking lot. They fed anyone who came. They placed a big sign out front, “No Donations Accepted.”
This time Fountain City is helping us get a couple into their home in Pearlington who are facing loss of their MEMA cottage. I managed to get the CARE group to help us rebuild the disaster a local contractor made and re-roof the house. Fountain City started hanging drywall last Sunday afternoon and it looks like they will finish by Friday so we can finish it and then tackle the floors.
The homeowner's MEMA “representative” had scared them to death asking them to sign a “demo” notice since their “lease” expires March 31. What does “demo” mean to you?
They spend weeks worrying they would come back and see all their belongings piled out on the ground and the cottage gone.
I was there with our case manager liaison when the MEMA representative, her “advocate” came by.
“This notice means that at any time from now on, MEMA may show up to demobilize this cottage.”
”But we have to be in Mobile for a medical procedure on my husband April 1.”
Only after persistent questioning were we able to extract the information that their cottage would not be removed until they had vacated it and removed all their belonging. We also found out we could request an extension, hopefully beyond the time we estimate it will take to get her house ready.
Thank you, State of Mississippi for your compassion.
Bay Road Presbyterian Church has been coming since November, 20005. They came to Gautier, MS with 17 people that first year, 9 church members and 8 from the community, then 28 the next year at Houma, and by the third year they had 60, enough they decided to break into 20 person groups and come over three weeks. This year they are back again for three more weeks at Orange Grove. The have people from Mexico City, Savannah and Canada with them.
They are putting the finishing touches on a couple’s home in Gulfport. We started this work last Fall and we ought to see a home blessing this week or next.
West End Presbyterian Church is down for he third time. Their first trip to Orange Grove was the day before Easter in 2006 – the flower baskets that they placed on the front of the church are still there.
Trinity Presbyterian Church is on their 10th trip. They first came to Orange Grove in November, 2005. The camp was rough. They used PVC framed showers with black plastic bags for walls. They returned in December and again the following March.
These two churches are working in the Gulfport area to complete two homes. One of them is the one in Pascagoula where a couple are taking care of a 100% handicapped adult child. The other is the home of a couple west of here. This couple has taken in foster children and adoptees building character and values in them. The family retrieved their two sons from school so they could work with the group one day.
Although I don’t like to see kids taken out of school frivolously, I imagine this was a good thing. The boys, 12 and 13 worked side by side. I’m sure they learned something valuable about giving of one’s self from the volunteers. I know the volunteers learned something.
These ministers, along with the thousands who preceded them, achieved the great end.
This time Fountain City is helping us get a couple into their home in Pearlington who are facing loss of their MEMA cottage. I managed to get the CARE group to help us rebuild the disaster a local contractor made and re-roof the house. Fountain City started hanging drywall last Sunday afternoon and it looks like they will finish by Friday so we can finish it and then tackle the floors.
The homeowner's MEMA “representative” had scared them to death asking them to sign a “demo” notice since their “lease” expires March 31. What does “demo” mean to you?
They spend weeks worrying they would come back and see all their belongings piled out on the ground and the cottage gone.
I was there with our case manager liaison when the MEMA representative, her “advocate” came by.
“This notice means that at any time from now on, MEMA may show up to demobilize this cottage.”
”But we have to be in Mobile for a medical procedure on my husband April 1.”
Only after persistent questioning were we able to extract the information that their cottage would not be removed until they had vacated it and removed all their belonging. We also found out we could request an extension, hopefully beyond the time we estimate it will take to get her house ready.
Thank you, State of Mississippi for your compassion.
Bay Road Presbyterian Church has been coming since November, 20005. They came to Gautier, MS with 17 people that first year, 9 church members and 8 from the community, then 28 the next year at Houma, and by the third year they had 60, enough they decided to break into 20 person groups and come over three weeks. This year they are back again for three more weeks at Orange Grove. The have people from Mexico City, Savannah and Canada with them.
They are putting the finishing touches on a couple’s home in Gulfport. We started this work last Fall and we ought to see a home blessing this week or next.
West End Presbyterian Church is down for he third time. Their first trip to Orange Grove was the day before Easter in 2006 – the flower baskets that they placed on the front of the church are still there.
Trinity Presbyterian Church is on their 10th trip. They first came to Orange Grove in November, 2005. The camp was rough. They used PVC framed showers with black plastic bags for walls. They returned in December and again the following March.
These two churches are working in the Gulfport area to complete two homes. One of them is the one in Pascagoula where a couple are taking care of a 100% handicapped adult child. The other is the home of a couple west of here. This couple has taken in foster children and adoptees building character and values in them. The family retrieved their two sons from school so they could work with the group one day.
Although I don’t like to see kids taken out of school frivolously, I imagine this was a good thing. The boys, 12 and 13 worked side by side. I’m sure they learned something valuable about giving of one’s self from the volunteers. I know the volunteers learned something.
These ministers, along with the thousands who preceded them, achieved the great end.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Day 353 – Broad Shoulders and Willing Hearts
The man said, “It’s hard, I feel like God sometimes.”
It was early 2006 in low-lying Gautier, a city east of Biloxi that took on severe damage by the hurricane. He was standing before a makeshift table made of scrap plywood resting on sawhorses and a crew of thirty or so was waiting and watching patiently behind him. The group was still a little grimy and muddy from the work of the day before. Everything was soiled. muddy and moldy.
The table was covered with those square plastic crates; each crate was full of clipboards holding several sheets of paper covered with handwritten notes. The top sheet of each board had a street address and the work to be done at the house at the address. The worksite manager, well, he really wasn’t a work site manager then because this whole process had just begun a few weeks earlier and no one had the time to figure out exactly what an organization might look like, they just came. They just came for what reason? Some of them probably couldn’t really voice a reason, they didn’t come to be a writer or hold some longstanding internal theological struggle, they came because this is such a vast disaster and so many are suffering, they came because of an internal theological imperative, and this man is standing there looking at the table covered with plastic container filled with vertically stacked clipboards each holding a tragic story while he thinks about the thirty people standing patiently behind him and measuring their skills against this kaleidoscope of trouble before him on the table. Finally, with a little sigh he reaches out and pulls up a clipboard at random and reads aloud the work order, “Needs a roof. You guys can’t do a roof.” He puts that clipboard back in its nest and reaches for another one a few inches away, “House shifted about a foot off foundation, need to see if it can be moved back." " Too dangerous and needs heavy equipment,” he says, and slides that one back with another sigh.” He takes a third one. “House needs to be mucked out, tear out all drywall to studs.” He smiles and turns to the group, “You guys can muck out a house, here take this one.” The group leader, standing by the work manager takes the clipboard from him and notes the address. As he turns to marshals his group to the job, the work manager speaks to him in a low voice, “This job, sometimes I feel like Solomon, or God, I don’t know how long I can do it.” You can see the glint of a tear in his eye.
***
PDA has come a long way on the sacrifices of the people who came in the absence of organization, when chaos called. They gave much of what they had. They forged the beginnings of a program out of nothing but hope and a theological imperative somewhere deep within themselves. The beauty of action and commitment is we get better at it the longer and harder we work.
This morning I am about to step out into a new day, it is supposed to be sunny and in the 70’s. We have a village of 104 volunteers; all our jobs are organized; no longer on clipboards stuffed in plastic crates, but printouts from files on our personal computers. Each job has been reviewed and a work plan mapped out with a material list and as best we can, work assigned to groups by skills.
We have a way to go, we are closing this village on a month. As I look out over it, I see the image of that early worksite manager, the insurmountable glut of work on those clipboards, some of which still are in our village office, and that tear in his eye.
We couldn’t be here without his effort and those of the few who helped move a stodgy organization, as inflexible as ourselves because it is ourselves, to action. Hopefully we have further forged our process into an improved working response that we can carry forward to the next challenge. The weight of our choice for work today, the unmet need of the one we can’t help today, still lies heavy on my heart though.
It was early 2006 in low-lying Gautier, a city east of Biloxi that took on severe damage by the hurricane. He was standing before a makeshift table made of scrap plywood resting on sawhorses and a crew of thirty or so was waiting and watching patiently behind him. The group was still a little grimy and muddy from the work of the day before. Everything was soiled. muddy and moldy.
The table was covered with those square plastic crates; each crate was full of clipboards holding several sheets of paper covered with handwritten notes. The top sheet of each board had a street address and the work to be done at the house at the address. The worksite manager, well, he really wasn’t a work site manager then because this whole process had just begun a few weeks earlier and no one had the time to figure out exactly what an organization might look like, they just came. They just came for what reason? Some of them probably couldn’t really voice a reason, they didn’t come to be a writer or hold some longstanding internal theological struggle, they came because this is such a vast disaster and so many are suffering, they came because of an internal theological imperative, and this man is standing there looking at the table covered with plastic container filled with vertically stacked clipboards each holding a tragic story while he thinks about the thirty people standing patiently behind him and measuring their skills against this kaleidoscope of trouble before him on the table. Finally, with a little sigh he reaches out and pulls up a clipboard at random and reads aloud the work order, “Needs a roof. You guys can’t do a roof.” He puts that clipboard back in its nest and reaches for another one a few inches away, “House shifted about a foot off foundation, need to see if it can be moved back." " Too dangerous and needs heavy equipment,” he says, and slides that one back with another sigh.” He takes a third one. “House needs to be mucked out, tear out all drywall to studs.” He smiles and turns to the group, “You guys can muck out a house, here take this one.” The group leader, standing by the work manager takes the clipboard from him and notes the address. As he turns to marshals his group to the job, the work manager speaks to him in a low voice, “This job, sometimes I feel like Solomon, or God, I don’t know how long I can do it.” You can see the glint of a tear in his eye.
***
PDA has come a long way on the sacrifices of the people who came in the absence of organization, when chaos called. They gave much of what they had. They forged the beginnings of a program out of nothing but hope and a theological imperative somewhere deep within themselves. The beauty of action and commitment is we get better at it the longer and harder we work.
This morning I am about to step out into a new day, it is supposed to be sunny and in the 70’s. We have a village of 104 volunteers; all our jobs are organized; no longer on clipboards stuffed in plastic crates, but printouts from files on our personal computers. Each job has been reviewed and a work plan mapped out with a material list and as best we can, work assigned to groups by skills.
We have a way to go, we are closing this village on a month. As I look out over it, I see the image of that early worksite manager, the insurmountable glut of work on those clipboards, some of which still are in our village office, and that tear in his eye.
We couldn’t be here without his effort and those of the few who helped move a stodgy organization, as inflexible as ourselves because it is ourselves, to action. Hopefully we have further forged our process into an improved working response that we can carry forward to the next challenge. The weight of our choice for work today, the unmet need of the one we can’t help today, still lies heavy on my heart though.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Day 351 - Aliens and Sojourners
Things are extremely hectic. We have 104 volunteers in the village. It is really an interesting challenge to keep ten-twelve groups in materials and supplies, scheduled and organized, not to mention keeping track of what is going on in Pearlington.
I spent the weekend in Chattanooga. I had a couple of business matters to attend, more on that later. It was rainy the whole weekend and I had to build a hand railing on my lower deck landing in the rain. Still haven't rented my house, and I'm getting antsy about that. It is hard sometimes to abide and wait on events.
I had a couple folks ask me about my last few blog entries. I know three or so entries ago I was pretty harsh on some issues.
My opinion hasn't really changed, but during the interim I had to write a scholarship essay for Columbia Theological Seminary on my convictions on an important issue for the church and how the church might respond. (I received notification today I have been accepted there. Now I've succeeded in making my life difficult because I have to decide between three very good seminaries.)
I'm wandering but the blog entries and the scholarship essay really reflect on the title of this blog (from I Peter 2:11-12 and some commentary by Professor Lewis Donelson at Austin PTS.) It has some good ideas but I wrote it fast and it has a few semantic or logical holes.
Here is the essay:
What are your convictions about one significant issue facing the church and/or society?
Church, Culture and Values: Can Christian Realism be saved?
One significant issue facing the church has challenged it perhaps since shortly after its inception; the study, understanding and instruction of Holy Scripture and confessions to form a doctrine of Christian living in a dynamic (changing and seductive) culture. It is a particular issue in our western world since the post-world war II era. Karl Barth, one of the “Christian realists” of the mid 20th Century, in Dogmatics in Outline defines dogmatics, the church’s proclamation to the world, by a question: “What are we to think and say?”
His definition follows from the idea that interpretation of Holy Scripture and Confessions arises not from an absolute inspiration of “(religious) truth,” but rather from a spiritual measure of the church at work in the world that is always liable to some error and subject to refinement and correction in the light of experience and growth. He further formulates three “public languages” of that church proclamation:
(1) The formal language of the church evinced in our Sunday worship,
(2) The common language of the World, by which I understand to mean that we speak publically to the “sick” or “evil” attitudes of the World,
(3) And finally the most important, the language of our public actions in the World.
The Christian realists (see for example, Heather Warren, Theologians of a New World Order) forged a Christ-centered world-view to manifest church proclamation in the early to middle of the last century. This was a reaction to the Social Gospel of the previous century. The realist’s doctrine of activism is based on acknowledging individual sin and pragmatic personal action, and they extended it to include manipulation of the state to advance Christianity.
Warren quotes R. Niebuhr (p51), “…because social groups are more selfish than individuals, society must use coercion – that violates the ethics appropriate for the individuals - to restrain the destructive egoism of races, classes, and nations.” This thinking led them to rationalize the use of the state to promulgate “just” actions up to and including intended assassination of world leaders such as Hitler. These realists were instrumental in bringing the United States into war with Germany.
Seventy-seven years later we are surrounded by a material society that begs us to buy and has a growing scientific understanding of the world that challenges traditional belief - all more or less a consequence of those Christian realists. We have churches that offer gyms, evening self-development programs and the like, usually under the rationale that once we get people into the church building we may develop them as members. At times a primary consideration of the sermon and conversation appear aimed to avoid “ruffling feathers.”
An outside observer, for example, a follower of Islam or even a Christian living in Africa, might conclude a goodly portion of the culture of the Western World has supplanted or seduced our own dogma. In a candid moment, we might acknowledge that our post-WWII Western culture has embraced an increasingly high economic status for us and principal preoccupation with it as a cultural substitution for Christian dogma grounded in care for the widow, orphan and alien in our land.
On the other hand the explosion in the post-WWII era of scientific knowledge of the world and technical capability to manipulate it has caused some in our reformed church to react to use the state to promulgate belief. They follow R. Niebuhr’s idea in the previous paragraph but have abandoned Barth’s caution to remember that our understanding of Scripture is “ liable to some error and subject to refinement and correction in the light of experience and growth.”
The result is an unhealthy (to our reformed tradition) reactionary response of the church to use church and state government to proscribe certain behaviors as being objectionable to belief and remove individual choice to think and decide. Some recent examples are homosexuality and church, reproductive choices, genetic manipulation, and the advance of neuroscience to reveal mental processes of personality, love, morality and spirituality (Science, “Neuroscience and the Soul, vol. 323, 27 Feb 2009, p1168)
How might the church make a faithful response to that issue?
Many of us appear to have lost the sense of Matthew 16:24-27; 19:16-26, 22:35-48 and 25: 31-46, if not also our fundamental faith in our earliest creed, “I believe in God…” It does little good to call for individual action and use Barth’s three languages of Christian proclamation if we fail to understand our limited knowledge of the world in the here and now and acknowledge our fallen nature at all personal levels. Christianity needs a living document as its doctrine. How do we save, or recast, the valuable elements of “postmodern” Christianity into a functional Realism?
Bart’s thinking is a persuasive tool. A living doctrine for Christian practice can only be had through investigation and exposition of the Holy Scripture in the context of understanding the world of here and now that we live. The church in its worship and teaching can lead members to contextual understanding of its essential tenets. A vital step for saving the church may rest on its response to materialism and the challenges posed by advances in science and engineering human health and reproduction, weaponry and knowledge.
Consider current scientific astronomical observations that show clear evidence of star systems with planetary orbiting bodies. What will be the reaction and implication on our thinking of the literal authority of the Scriptures if sentient beings come to be known on one such system?
Church leaders need to have a deeper understanding of the science and technology that increasingly benefit, threaten and shape our world and thought, and create social inequities in application. Thereby, we may effectively call the church to interpret Scripture and our confessions meaningfully in the context of here and now (in time).
In this way, the church can refocus on Barth’s recipe of Christian dogmatics as the response of the faithful to interpret theologically the empirical observation of the world (science if you will have it). Programs such as Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, understood in scriptural context, offer a very powerful experience of giving of self to help the afflicted, the poor and the widow.
For many people this creates a healthy dissonance with our materialism. It is tempting to see returning volunteers as glowing embers of zeal that will stoke the remnant of the church that survives these troubled times.
In other words, the Church should help both reactionary and “post-modern” cultural elements manifest the essence of the dogma of the church that calls for acts that reflect being with God (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q #1)
I spent the weekend in Chattanooga. I had a couple of business matters to attend, more on that later. It was rainy the whole weekend and I had to build a hand railing on my lower deck landing in the rain. Still haven't rented my house, and I'm getting antsy about that. It is hard sometimes to abide and wait on events.
I had a couple folks ask me about my last few blog entries. I know three or so entries ago I was pretty harsh on some issues.
My opinion hasn't really changed, but during the interim I had to write a scholarship essay for Columbia Theological Seminary on my convictions on an important issue for the church and how the church might respond. (I received notification today I have been accepted there. Now I've succeeded in making my life difficult because I have to decide between three very good seminaries.)
I'm wandering but the blog entries and the scholarship essay really reflect on the title of this blog (from I Peter 2:11-12 and some commentary by Professor Lewis Donelson at Austin PTS.) It has some good ideas but I wrote it fast and it has a few semantic or logical holes.
Here is the essay:
What are your convictions about one significant issue facing the church and/or society?
Church, Culture and Values: Can Christian Realism be saved?
One significant issue facing the church has challenged it perhaps since shortly after its inception; the study, understanding and instruction of Holy Scripture and confessions to form a doctrine of Christian living in a dynamic (changing and seductive) culture. It is a particular issue in our western world since the post-world war II era. Karl Barth, one of the “Christian realists” of the mid 20th Century, in Dogmatics in Outline defines dogmatics, the church’s proclamation to the world, by a question: “What are we to think and say?”
His definition follows from the idea that interpretation of Holy Scripture and Confessions arises not from an absolute inspiration of “(religious) truth,” but rather from a spiritual measure of the church at work in the world that is always liable to some error and subject to refinement and correction in the light of experience and growth. He further formulates three “public languages” of that church proclamation:
(1) The formal language of the church evinced in our Sunday worship,
(2) The common language of the World, by which I understand to mean that we speak publically to the “sick” or “evil” attitudes of the World,
(3) And finally the most important, the language of our public actions in the World.
The Christian realists (see for example, Heather Warren, Theologians of a New World Order) forged a Christ-centered world-view to manifest church proclamation in the early to middle of the last century. This was a reaction to the Social Gospel of the previous century. The realist’s doctrine of activism is based on acknowledging individual sin and pragmatic personal action, and they extended it to include manipulation of the state to advance Christianity.
Warren quotes R. Niebuhr (p51), “…because social groups are more selfish than individuals, society must use coercion – that violates the ethics appropriate for the individuals - to restrain the destructive egoism of races, classes, and nations.” This thinking led them to rationalize the use of the state to promulgate “just” actions up to and including intended assassination of world leaders such as Hitler. These realists were instrumental in bringing the United States into war with Germany.
Seventy-seven years later we are surrounded by a material society that begs us to buy and has a growing scientific understanding of the world that challenges traditional belief - all more or less a consequence of those Christian realists. We have churches that offer gyms, evening self-development programs and the like, usually under the rationale that once we get people into the church building we may develop them as members. At times a primary consideration of the sermon and conversation appear aimed to avoid “ruffling feathers.”
An outside observer, for example, a follower of Islam or even a Christian living in Africa, might conclude a goodly portion of the culture of the Western World has supplanted or seduced our own dogma. In a candid moment, we might acknowledge that our post-WWII Western culture has embraced an increasingly high economic status for us and principal preoccupation with it as a cultural substitution for Christian dogma grounded in care for the widow, orphan and alien in our land.
On the other hand the explosion in the post-WWII era of scientific knowledge of the world and technical capability to manipulate it has caused some in our reformed church to react to use the state to promulgate belief. They follow R. Niebuhr’s idea in the previous paragraph but have abandoned Barth’s caution to remember that our understanding of Scripture is “ liable to some error and subject to refinement and correction in the light of experience and growth.”
The result is an unhealthy (to our reformed tradition) reactionary response of the church to use church and state government to proscribe certain behaviors as being objectionable to belief and remove individual choice to think and decide. Some recent examples are homosexuality and church, reproductive choices, genetic manipulation, and the advance of neuroscience to reveal mental processes of personality, love, morality and spirituality (Science, “Neuroscience and the Soul, vol. 323, 27 Feb 2009, p1168)
How might the church make a faithful response to that issue?
Many of us appear to have lost the sense of Matthew 16:24-27; 19:16-26, 22:35-48 and 25: 31-46, if not also our fundamental faith in our earliest creed, “I believe in God…” It does little good to call for individual action and use Barth’s three languages of Christian proclamation if we fail to understand our limited knowledge of the world in the here and now and acknowledge our fallen nature at all personal levels. Christianity needs a living document as its doctrine. How do we save, or recast, the valuable elements of “postmodern” Christianity into a functional Realism?
Bart’s thinking is a persuasive tool. A living doctrine for Christian practice can only be had through investigation and exposition of the Holy Scripture in the context of understanding the world of here and now that we live. The church in its worship and teaching can lead members to contextual understanding of its essential tenets. A vital step for saving the church may rest on its response to materialism and the challenges posed by advances in science and engineering human health and reproduction, weaponry and knowledge.
Consider current scientific astronomical observations that show clear evidence of star systems with planetary orbiting bodies. What will be the reaction and implication on our thinking of the literal authority of the Scriptures if sentient beings come to be known on one such system?
Church leaders need to have a deeper understanding of the science and technology that increasingly benefit, threaten and shape our world and thought, and create social inequities in application. Thereby, we may effectively call the church to interpret Scripture and our confessions meaningfully in the context of here and now (in time).
In this way, the church can refocus on Barth’s recipe of Christian dogmatics as the response of the faithful to interpret theologically the empirical observation of the world (science if you will have it). Programs such as Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, understood in scriptural context, offer a very powerful experience of giving of self to help the afflicted, the poor and the widow.
For many people this creates a healthy dissonance with our materialism. It is tempting to see returning volunteers as glowing embers of zeal that will stoke the remnant of the church that survives these troubled times.
In other words, the Church should help both reactionary and “post-modern” cultural elements manifest the essence of the dogma of the church that calls for acts that reflect being with God (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q #1)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Day 349 – The Chief End of Humankind – Pearlington Update
This is an update on the status of our church-wide stewardship to Pearlington, Mississippi and surrounding area. Volunteers at Pearlington serve by working on homes from lower Pearl River County, and in the County of Hancock from Kiln, Bay St. Louis/Waveland to Pearlington itself. At times we also work on homes across the Pearl River towards Slidell, LA.
In the area of Pearlington itself we work on homes that are served by a number of aid and construction partners in addition to PDA. These groups are Pearlington Recovery Center, located at the old Charles B. Martin Elementary School, the Mennonites working under a group called CARE, Baptist affiliated groups and individual church groups who have made Pearlington a primary focus for their mission, an example being Fountain City Presbyterian Church in the Knoxville, TN area.
Some of these groups have been funded by grants. The Pearlington Recovery Center, the longest standing organization, loses its funding May 31 and will no longer be operating after that date. The Baptist recovery organization disbanded this winter. The Mennonites are still here but working out of Bay St. Louis. The Fountain City group, bless them have been coming 3-4 times per year since Katrina hit. I owe them thanks because they led me here.
A few independent volunteer groups such as Fountain City are still coming down. The Philadelphia Presbytery still has a commitment to work with us until we meet the needs in Pearlington. The Arknasas Presbytery is assembling groups of churches in a commitment to follow through on one home until it is completed by year's end. PDA is committed to working at Pearlington at our Village until October, 2009.
A number of factors will influence PDA’s decision to remain or close our village at that time. Our rent has increased therefore it costs more to support volunteers, and our volunteer numbers are dropping which significantly increases that effect. We operate our village under a temporary use permit that must be renewed annually by the County of Hancock. We have encountered some resistance to renewing that permit from local contractors, some of whom are on the board that approves the use.
This worry is really misplaced since the majority of these home owners can’t afford contracted services. In fact, fraudulent contracted services are the cause of much of the heartache in the whole Mississippi area. The bottom line at this point in my unofficial opinion is that PDA will seek to keep running our mission in Pearlington at some location as long as there is a robust flow of volunteers, funds and work to do.
For the most part the future of recovery of Pearlington, and the Gulf, is in your hands.
Is there a need for volunteer effort? The short answer is yes.
PRC has twelve homes under construction. It looks like six of them are in pretty good shape after PRC closes on June 1. The other six however need help or they may not get completed.
There is one home in Pearl River County that is caught up in an alleged fraud by one of the local aid groups and left only as a framed-in shell. The owners are a young man and wife with several very young children, including one who has had operations for a heart problem. They lost everything through Katrina and he is trying to complete the house through loans and what money he can glean from what is left from his pay after taking care of his family expenses, a family. They need help.
As I get into the actual casework, I am finding many unmet needs in Waveland. Historically we haven’t paid a lot of attention to Waveland and Bay St. Louis but these two incorporated cities were hit as badly as Pearlington. There is a lot of socio-economic stratification in these two towns and the poor are being crushed under the hard boot heel of some of the well-to-do in those towns who seem to desire that part of the population go away.
Whether that attitude comes from a pecuniary interest or just the "not in my backyard" mindset, it deserves our resistance through our aid. I apologize for my strong language but this is what I read in the newspapers and hear said by community advocates who are longstanding residents.
There are many more homes that are being repaired. We call these “rehabs.” Between PRC and PDA I estimate there are about eighty known homeowners (perhaps about 150-300 people) who either can’t live in their homes, are living in them but shouldn’t, are in marginally livable situations, or are in homes that have had minimal repairs and can be lived in but repairs are not completed.
In the face of limited volunteers we are in a mode where we have to set job priority on a “triage” basis that takes into account dire need, number of volunteers and skill level of volunteers. Although I will protect the confidentiality of these clients, I can give you some idea of these needs.
There is single mother who has four children living separately from her and who is living in a MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) cottage that must be repossessed by the end of March. She has to work and is also trying to keep one of her teenaged girls out of trouble.
There is a couple in Pearlington who have been bilked out of tens of thousands of dollars by dishonest contractors. The husband has a serious chronic illness and the wife is struggling to carry on the repair work through us. They face an undetermined eviction from their MEMA cottage in the next month or two. We have had to dismantle a large part of the faulty construction of this home by one of those contractors. By the Grace of God we have found aid from the Mennonites on this construction and re-roofing, and hopefully the Fountain City crew will help make a dent in the drywall job so we can get them in a real home.
There is another couple in the same boat. They live in a MEMA cottage and their house has been almost completed when we found gross construction defects by contractor with fraudulent credentials that must be repaired to prevent structural failure.
There is a single mother who has had very extreme, difficult and threatening spousal problems. Living under that dark cloud she has several pre-school and elementary aged children whose small modular home needs repair just to have a small piece of safe, peaceful existence to rebuild her family’s life.
There are many other homes in the Pearlington area among those eighty that need partial repair. If we leave with this work undone, we do not know how, when or if the work will be completed.
If we had commitments from churches to provide 75 volunteers from now through October, only for fifty percent of the open days we would probably have enough support to fight to carry on until this mission work is done hopefully in 2010 and be able to reflect positively on the answer to first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (inclusive language in italics is mine) :
Q. What is the chief end of humankind? A. Humankind’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
In the area of Pearlington itself we work on homes that are served by a number of aid and construction partners in addition to PDA. These groups are Pearlington Recovery Center, located at the old Charles B. Martin Elementary School, the Mennonites working under a group called CARE, Baptist affiliated groups and individual church groups who have made Pearlington a primary focus for their mission, an example being Fountain City Presbyterian Church in the Knoxville, TN area.
Some of these groups have been funded by grants. The Pearlington Recovery Center, the longest standing organization, loses its funding May 31 and will no longer be operating after that date. The Baptist recovery organization disbanded this winter. The Mennonites are still here but working out of Bay St. Louis. The Fountain City group, bless them have been coming 3-4 times per year since Katrina hit. I owe them thanks because they led me here.
A few independent volunteer groups such as Fountain City are still coming down. The Philadelphia Presbytery still has a commitment to work with us until we meet the needs in Pearlington. The Arknasas Presbytery is assembling groups of churches in a commitment to follow through on one home until it is completed by year's end. PDA is committed to working at Pearlington at our Village until October, 2009.
A number of factors will influence PDA’s decision to remain or close our village at that time. Our rent has increased therefore it costs more to support volunteers, and our volunteer numbers are dropping which significantly increases that effect. We operate our village under a temporary use permit that must be renewed annually by the County of Hancock. We have encountered some resistance to renewing that permit from local contractors, some of whom are on the board that approves the use.
This worry is really misplaced since the majority of these home owners can’t afford contracted services. In fact, fraudulent contracted services are the cause of much of the heartache in the whole Mississippi area. The bottom line at this point in my unofficial opinion is that PDA will seek to keep running our mission in Pearlington at some location as long as there is a robust flow of volunteers, funds and work to do.
For the most part the future of recovery of Pearlington, and the Gulf, is in your hands.
Is there a need for volunteer effort? The short answer is yes.
PRC has twelve homes under construction. It looks like six of them are in pretty good shape after PRC closes on June 1. The other six however need help or they may not get completed.
There is one home in Pearl River County that is caught up in an alleged fraud by one of the local aid groups and left only as a framed-in shell. The owners are a young man and wife with several very young children, including one who has had operations for a heart problem. They lost everything through Katrina and he is trying to complete the house through loans and what money he can glean from what is left from his pay after taking care of his family expenses, a family. They need help.
As I get into the actual casework, I am finding many unmet needs in Waveland. Historically we haven’t paid a lot of attention to Waveland and Bay St. Louis but these two incorporated cities were hit as badly as Pearlington. There is a lot of socio-economic stratification in these two towns and the poor are being crushed under the hard boot heel of some of the well-to-do in those towns who seem to desire that part of the population go away.
Whether that attitude comes from a pecuniary interest or just the "not in my backyard" mindset, it deserves our resistance through our aid. I apologize for my strong language but this is what I read in the newspapers and hear said by community advocates who are longstanding residents.
There are many more homes that are being repaired. We call these “rehabs.” Between PRC and PDA I estimate there are about eighty known homeowners (perhaps about 150-300 people) who either can’t live in their homes, are living in them but shouldn’t, are in marginally livable situations, or are in homes that have had minimal repairs and can be lived in but repairs are not completed.
In the face of limited volunteers we are in a mode where we have to set job priority on a “triage” basis that takes into account dire need, number of volunteers and skill level of volunteers. Although I will protect the confidentiality of these clients, I can give you some idea of these needs.
There is single mother who has four children living separately from her and who is living in a MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) cottage that must be repossessed by the end of March. She has to work and is also trying to keep one of her teenaged girls out of trouble.
There is a couple in Pearlington who have been bilked out of tens of thousands of dollars by dishonest contractors. The husband has a serious chronic illness and the wife is struggling to carry on the repair work through us. They face an undetermined eviction from their MEMA cottage in the next month or two. We have had to dismantle a large part of the faulty construction of this home by one of those contractors. By the Grace of God we have found aid from the Mennonites on this construction and re-roofing, and hopefully the Fountain City crew will help make a dent in the drywall job so we can get them in a real home.
There is another couple in the same boat. They live in a MEMA cottage and their house has been almost completed when we found gross construction defects by contractor with fraudulent credentials that must be repaired to prevent structural failure.
There is a single mother who has had very extreme, difficult and threatening spousal problems. Living under that dark cloud she has several pre-school and elementary aged children whose small modular home needs repair just to have a small piece of safe, peaceful existence to rebuild her family’s life.
There are many other homes in the Pearlington area among those eighty that need partial repair. If we leave with this work undone, we do not know how, when or if the work will be completed.
If we had commitments from churches to provide 75 volunteers from now through October, only for fifty percent of the open days we would probably have enough support to fight to carry on until this mission work is done hopefully in 2010 and be able to reflect positively on the answer to first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (inclusive language in italics is mine) :
Q. What is the chief end of humankind? A. Humankind’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Day 345 - Up for air
The last couple weeks have been extremely busy. I got calls from NYC to send more detail on needs at Pearlington. I've been overwhelmed and found it hard to reply as we have about 60 college folk from Pen State campuses in Orange Grove this week, and next week we have 78 from U. Minn. campuses for a couple or three weeks. I'll get you more.
We have two new work site managers here in Gulfport. This adds to the confusion since they need a week or two to figure it all out.
On the good side one small set of the group of 60 (4-5) went into the logistics trailer and in the space of 2-3 hours had everything out and back in in a remarkable order. Amazing.
New Life Community Church, nee' Orange Grove Presbyterian Church held its last service this past Sunday at a 3PM service. In our normal morning service we discussed Rev. Castleman's scripture reading, I Peter 2: 4-10. It was a nice follow up on my earlier blog about volunteers being embers taken back to their home church to fan the flames of zeal. Living stones. You guys are a diaspora of a modern kind. Watch for a subsequent blog.
I had three other remarkable things happen in the last two weeks. First, I was in Pearlington late in the day trying to get back to Gulfport for Family Night but needing to stop at a home we are working in Waveland. US 90 is closed between Bayou Woods Drive and MS604. They are tearing the bridges out and rebuilding. As a result, if you want to get from Pearlington to Waveland you have to go down Whites Road to its original terminus and then drive about two miles over a washboard loose gravel road they have extended over to US90. It adds delay, beats up the car and is really dusty. (A couple of us from Fountain city PC tried tp drive down this road in November 2006, and we couldn't make it because it was so muddy and sloppy.)
We I get to the intersection with US90 and find an anomaly, a traffic jam. A big truck is stopped on the gravel road at the US 90 intersection and a van behind it, then me in my pickup. I lean out my window to see what is going on. The truck driver is talking to a couple of bicyclists stopped at the intersection. Soon both truck and van leave.
As I pull up I see these guys are long distance travelers. Being a cyclist myself I have to say something to them. They tell me left Biloxi this morning and are trying to get to the bike shop in Slidell this afternoon to purchase a tire but are puzzled by the closed US90. How do they get to Slidell?
I explain they have two choices, they can turn around and take MS607 to MS604S which dead ends into US 90 0n the other side of the two bridges, probably a 25 mile or more ride. The alternative is to go down the two mile washboard. Believe me, with a road bike that is insane if not impossible.
As usual I have that crew in Waveland on my mind, the homeowner dinner later in Gulfport and how long it would take me to help these guys out.
"Do you want me to give you a ride down to the point where Whites Road regains pavement?"
"That would be really nice of you if you want to do it."
So we put the bikes in the truck bed and I head or P-town. We talk in the truck. One fellow, Tony Thompson, is a 61 year old guy from Britain and the other fellow is from Baltimore, if I remember right. They are on a cross country ride primarily to raise funds for a young lad named Gus who is 10. He has a disability and needs a specially adapted bicycle to do this trip with his family. You can get details at .
I got to the intersection of Whites Road and Jenness where pavement started. I figured why not drive them all the way to MS604. I left them at the United Methodist Church on the corner and after some good byes and hand shakes, I spnd off to Waveland, quite a few minutes late but all the better for having met my new friends.
A few days later, I dropped by the Pearlington Recovery Center to talk to Larry Randall about their case load and to get some background on a few of ours. PRC is closing June 1. This will leave only our organization and maybe one other. I talk about one of my more troubling cases, I need to build some special roofs on this house. Larry says, why don't we call his contact with the Mennonites a they are really pretty good builders. I eventually talk to Aaron of CARE (Community Aid Relief Effort) whose "motto" is "Our goal is to help bring relief to those in need, showing Christ in every effort of aid."
Allen and James showed up today along with roofers and I spent all day with my work site manager driving back and forth to the Lowe's in Waveland bringing posts and beams, concrete pads, roofing felt and nails.We still need to go back for extra sheathing to repair, drip edges and shingles. I expect they will get the gabled roofs up before they leave this weekend.
It hurts me that I have to drive to Chattanooga Thursday for a friday morning physical and to have a conversation with my company. These fellows need my thanks.
Another good thing has been the series of essays I wrote for scholarship applications to Austin Theological Seminary and Columbia. Both were a good exercise, I refined my thinking about some subjects. Watch for them in a blog entry.
Part of that good thing was the gift card to Barnes & Noble from my brother, Mark. I bought four good books:
"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson
"Dogmatics in Outline," a 1946 lecture series by Karl Barth
"Models of God" by Sallie McFague, and
"The Freedom of a Christian" by Martin Luther.
The first was good but not great. Barth'sbook, a dense (and verbose) tomb was very helpful. I'm not sure when I'll get to McFague and Luther, but soon.
The last good thing happened after the closing church service Sunday. One of the crew from Presbytery of Mississippi, Bruce Byers, came up to me and asked about another client here in Gulfport I am really feeling bad about. We will never finish his house before April 30.
Bruce mentioned this guy's name and that a crew who had previously been at our village and worked on the house raised the question of status. Bruce told me thy want to pick up the work on the house after we leave. What a relief.
All I can say is God is good.
All the time, God is good.
Peace,
Henry
We have two new work site managers here in Gulfport. This adds to the confusion since they need a week or two to figure it all out.
On the good side one small set of the group of 60 (4-5) went into the logistics trailer and in the space of 2-3 hours had everything out and back in in a remarkable order. Amazing.
New Life Community Church, nee' Orange Grove Presbyterian Church held its last service this past Sunday at a 3PM service. In our normal morning service we discussed Rev. Castleman's scripture reading, I Peter 2: 4-10. It was a nice follow up on my earlier blog about volunteers being embers taken back to their home church to fan the flames of zeal. Living stones. You guys are a diaspora of a modern kind. Watch for a subsequent blog.
I had three other remarkable things happen in the last two weeks. First, I was in Pearlington late in the day trying to get back to Gulfport for Family Night but needing to stop at a home we are working in Waveland. US 90 is closed between Bayou Woods Drive and MS604. They are tearing the bridges out and rebuilding. As a result, if you want to get from Pearlington to Waveland you have to go down Whites Road to its original terminus and then drive about two miles over a washboard loose gravel road they have extended over to US90. It adds delay, beats up the car and is really dusty. (A couple of us from Fountain city PC tried tp drive down this road in November 2006, and we couldn't make it because it was so muddy and sloppy.)
We I get to the intersection with US90 and find an anomaly, a traffic jam. A big truck is stopped on the gravel road at the US 90 intersection and a van behind it, then me in my pickup. I lean out my window to see what is going on. The truck driver is talking to a couple of bicyclists stopped at the intersection. Soon both truck and van leave.
As I pull up I see these guys are long distance travelers. Being a cyclist myself I have to say something to them. They tell me left Biloxi this morning and are trying to get to the bike shop in Slidell this afternoon to purchase a tire but are puzzled by the closed US90. How do they get to Slidell?
I explain they have two choices, they can turn around and take MS607 to MS604S which dead ends into US 90 0n the other side of the two bridges, probably a 25 mile or more ride. The alternative is to go down the two mile washboard. Believe me, with a road bike that is insane if not impossible.
As usual I have that crew in Waveland on my mind, the homeowner dinner later in Gulfport and how long it would take me to help these guys out.
"Do you want me to give you a ride down to the point where Whites Road regains pavement?"
"That would be really nice of you if you want to do it."
So we put the bikes in the truck bed and I head or P-town. We talk in the truck. One fellow, Tony Thompson, is a 61 year old guy from Britain and the other fellow is from Baltimore, if I remember right. They are on a cross country ride primarily to raise funds for a young lad named Gus who is 10. He has a disability and needs a specially adapted bicycle to do this trip with his family. You can get details at .
I got to the intersection of Whites Road and Jenness where pavement started. I figured why not drive them all the way to MS604. I left them at the United Methodist Church on the corner and after some good byes and hand shakes, I spnd off to Waveland, quite a few minutes late but all the better for having met my new friends.
A few days later, I dropped by the Pearlington Recovery Center to talk to Larry Randall about their case load and to get some background on a few of ours. PRC is closing June 1. This will leave only our organization and maybe one other. I talk about one of my more troubling cases, I need to build some special roofs on this house. Larry says, why don't we call his contact with the Mennonites a they are really pretty good builders. I eventually talk to Aaron of CARE (Community Aid Relief Effort) whose "motto" is "Our goal is to help bring relief to those in need, showing Christ in every effort of aid."
Allen and James showed up today along with roofers and I spent all day with my work site manager driving back and forth to the Lowe's in Waveland bringing posts and beams, concrete pads, roofing felt and nails.We still need to go back for extra sheathing to repair, drip edges and shingles. I expect they will get the gabled roofs up before they leave this weekend.
It hurts me that I have to drive to Chattanooga Thursday for a friday morning physical and to have a conversation with my company. These fellows need my thanks.
Another good thing has been the series of essays I wrote for scholarship applications to Austin Theological Seminary and Columbia. Both were a good exercise, I refined my thinking about some subjects. Watch for them in a blog entry.
Part of that good thing was the gift card to Barnes & Noble from my brother, Mark. I bought four good books:
"Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson
"Dogmatics in Outline," a 1946 lecture series by Karl Barth
"Models of God" by Sallie McFague, and
"The Freedom of a Christian" by Martin Luther.
The first was good but not great. Barth'sbook, a dense (and verbose) tomb was very helpful. I'm not sure when I'll get to McFague and Luther, but soon.
The last good thing happened after the closing church service Sunday. One of the crew from Presbytery of Mississippi, Bruce Byers, came up to me and asked about another client here in Gulfport I am really feeling bad about. We will never finish his house before April 30.
Bruce mentioned this guy's name and that a crew who had previously been at our village and worked on the house raised the question of status. Bruce told me thy want to pick up the work on the house after we leave. What a relief.
All I can say is God is good.
All the time, God is good.
Peace,
Henry
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