The Narrow Gate: Day 395 - Down in Mississippi IV

The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Day 395 - Down in Mississippi IV - Reprise

Gutters for our client on Bayou Woods road and building work schedules with Jessi, our Pearlington Village manager occupied most of my day today.

I had a nice experience. A few weeks ago I was surprised to hear from my friend at Pearlington Recovery Center that Mrs. Watters still needs a little help with final tasks on her home.

Mrs. Watters, if you recall, was the subject of my fourth essay that started this whole experience (see Down in Mississippi IV at the foot of this blog page). That experience in November, 2005, went well into darkness amidst the worst mosquito attack I've experienced.

Mrs. Watters has a home that is two mobile homes joined together. When I first saw the home, it was uninhabited, partially drywalled, and remnants of household items were strewn all over by Katrina. It was muddy. There was a small ditch filled with putrefying green liquid seeping towards the ditch out front.

This time when Jessi and I turn into the driveway we see her car. She is back from work. That ditch with the green liquid is gone. I knock at the door.

"Who is it?"

"I'm Henry with PDA, we came by to see what needs done to finish up your house."

The door opens and before I can introduce myself she sees Jessi and welcomes us in.

"Mrs. Ackers, its been almost three years since I've been in your home."

"What?"

"Yes, do you remember Dr. Bob from Knoxville? I was with his crew."

"Oh my! Yes, you remember my house wasn't quite set right?"

"Yes, the last thing we did was put siding on the ends of your home and those disjointed ends were a real challenge."

I look around. The ceiling is popcorn finished now, but I can see the ridge line in the dining room where we had to work really hard to fit the new drywall in. Standing in the hallway, I looked up at the high wall, remembering as if it was yesterday working with the guys to finish that wall.

Her boys are no where to be seen, one surely must be past high school but the other one is still in school. Sometimes.

The walls are nicely painted, there is furniture everywhere and it looks really nice. She shows us the kitchen counter. It is partially tiled. Completing that tiling will be our job. If there is time, we will install some cabinets in her laundry room.

We talk a while and then take our leave. As we leave we see a compressor of ours left behind by an earlier work crew. We decide to take it to my truck and back to the village.

As I back out of the drive and make a u-turn in the next driveway I wonder where her pit bull pups went.

A thought strikes me. It was so fulfilling back in 2006 to work on these homes, giving our time and getting so much in return. At the end of the day, all we faced was the great feeling of satisfaction of doing a job well.

It changed my life yet these days I have to struggle really hard to center myself and block out all the frustrations of a job, to seek a little humility in the comfort of doing a good job.

Ask, seek and knock at the narrow gate. It is pretty narrow gate and there isn't much room for baggage. Thank you, Mrs. Watters.

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Gates

The gate pervades the Good News. Peter entered the temple gate after the Jesus’ arrest to deny him. Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate, longing for the crumb's from the table, while dogs licked his sores. The blind, lame and paralyzed lay at the Sheep Gate at the Jerusalem temple waiting at the pool with five porticoes for healing water. Jesus warned of the easy road and wide gate to material ease and spiritual destruction and calls us to the hard road and narrow gate to the waters of life.

necessary disclaimer

This blog is created solely to communicate to my brothers and sisters how one person sees adversity bringing out the greater character of humanity. It's early part relating connection to the volunteer relief effort in Mississippi after Katrina and later work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program and the Presbyterian Church(USA) is solely through my participation in them; this blog does not carry any sponsorship from these fine organizations or purport to speak for them. All original content is that of the writer who holds the copyright to all original writings and art or other works (See Creative Commons License above). Every effort is made to identify content from other sources which have been obtained from open internet sources. It's more recent content contains sermons and lessons used in preaching and teaching. The url to scripture are obtained via http://bible.oremus.org unless otherwise indicated.

Texts quoted from oremus bible viewer are from "New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved." and "New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."