Day 425 -Lingering Reflections

We had a big spring rain this year and the Pearl River ran quite high. Here is one of the locals enjoying a stroll at the boat ramp. All you see here beyond the tern is reflection of the sky and telephone pole.



The rising water always threatens the village because a small swamp is just behind the shower trailer. The water made it up onto the concrete before subsiding.



Sorry the exposure is a little off; here is a remnant of Katrina about a block from the Pearl River. The stump has been here all this time.




Many of us heard there was a plan to bring in water to Pearlington since before Katrina. I imagine this fire hydrant is a good background for my good bye to Pearlington, 2009.



I've said it over and over, much damage remains to be repaired. In Gulfport near the Waffle House on US 90 I came across these flowers sprouting out of concrete pad where a building once stood.



Across the street, I find an oak that didn't survive.



Bye, Jessi.




What will I find on my return?

Peace

Day 423 - The Long Good Bye

My plan for my last day in Gulfport with PDA is to leave my keys, credit cards and client information in Gulfport with Leslie very early Saturday morning so I can get to Chattanooga before too late in the evening. It is a six hour forty minute drive, so with the one hour loss in time I need to leave by 9AM or so to get there by 3:30PM, early enough to plan for the evening. The drive is familiar enough by now that II know within ten minutes or so when I’ll get to my house.

Fortunately I started packing up the trailer on Tuesday, not Thursday. I am amazed at what I managed to drag down here to Gulfport over the last year. Quite early I realize there is almost more than a full truckload to bring back.

Since the only thing going on in Gulfport is taking down the village, most of my time has been spent in Pearlington this week, making every effort to get a few things settled with Mrs. Alice, Mr. Terry and Mary.

These are three cases have a special interest to me. I followed them, and made sure the critical things get completed. Mrs. Alice and her husband may face a mid-June eviction from their MEMA trailer, we have just completed redoing her porch, I managed to convince the Mennonites to do that, plus re-roof the house, bless them.

My good friends from Fountain City came down and almost completed the drywall; they have no idea how grateful I am for that. Crews in Pearlington, from Canada and California have been finishing the drywall, painting and laying flooring. I think Jessi will get the crews to complete that in time. A lot after the last week in May depends on the focus of the temporary work site manager – they are not going to replace me. Will he form the connections to the people?

I have managed to pull together enough donated funds to get the re-wiring started on Mary’s home. Now we depend on the Arkansas Presbytery to finish that home by next fall.

Mr. Terry is a problem, he has very serious structural problems, problems too big for me to tackle, I know more or less how to fix it but the risk is pretty great. Jacking a house up that already is on 13 foot piers and replacing girders is a big job. Terry is obsessed with moving in ahead before fixing them. He feels the pressure from MEMA.

It is one of my more painful decisions, do I go ahead and get the interior items with the donated funds before the structural problem is corrected ?– knowing I’m leaving in a few days and probably no one there will be as forceful with him as I am. I fear for him when the next big blow comes from the Gulf.

My good office mates want to have a ”going away” get-together, but I have been sleeping in Pearlington, working on these homes and have not yet to really taken the time to just suit back and enjoy Jimmy Lamey’s company. Time runs through my hands like grains of sand.

I call Jimmy on Tuesday.

“Jimmy, you said if I wanted to have a party at your place to just say the word. Is that offer still on for this weekend?”

“Henry, sure it is, but this is Mother’s Day weekend, you know. I have plans for Sunday.”

“That should work ok, Jimmy, I was kind of hoping we could have a little get together with my friends and yours Friday evening. I was thinking that I could pick up some shrimp over in Waveland and we could have a shrimp boil and just enjoy some time together.”

“How many do you think would come?”

“Well, I‘d call Larry, and guess there might be maybe eight or nine plus you and your family. I’ll pick up the shrimp and beverages.”


“Henry, there isn’t any need to do that, I drive by the shrimp stand coming home from work every day, I’ll pick it up. Robin can pick up the other stuff.”

“I do not want you spending your money on it, you keep the receipts and I’m paying you for it. How much shrimp do you think we need, ten pounds or so?”

“Yeah, that ought to be about right. Like I said, I’ll ask Robin to pick up the rest of the stuff and get it going when I get home from work.”

“What time?”

“About 3:3PM or 4:0PM.”

“OK, I’ll get my stuff done and get over about them to help.”

Then I start thinking about how I‘m going to do all this. Mr. Terry has enough donated funds to get his kitchen cabinets and bath sinks. I had planned to buy all this stuff with him on Wednesday but he went to the doctor and is feeling pretty bad.

“Henry, I am so sore I can’t leave the house. Can we meet at Lowe’s Thursday and pick up the cabinets? “

“Terry, let’s do I early, OK?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll call you when leave Gulfport Thursday morning, that gives you time to drive over to Waveland to meet me.”

We meet a Lowe’s and sort through all he needs. We find everything until we get to the double sink for the bath vanity and find out they are out of stock and there is no plan to reorder. Crud.

I ask the floor clerk, “Do you think one of the other stores might have one in stock?”

He gets on the computer and finds out there is one left in Gulfport.

If I drive back early Friday, I can pick it up and then deliver it to his house Friday afternoon. I have to be in Gulfport Friday noon anyway. My office buddies have planned a lunch for me. They are already a little hurt I planned my own going away party Friday evening, even though I invited them all.

Time is getting really tight. In the midst of all this I finally reach Larry who is working on some property near Hattiesburg and invite him.

I also have to make another run to Lowe’s to pick up gutters and some other materials for Mrs. Alice. It looks like I’ll be spending Thursday evening in Pearlington. How am going to get back to Gulfport, go to the luncheon, drop by Lowe’s and pick up the sink, get ready for the party and also pack and leave on schedule Saturday morning? I’m going to take care of Mrs. Alice, Mary and Terry; everything else is going to wait.

Driving back from Gulfport Thursday evening, I realize the moon is almost full. It I eerie, I’m driving down MS604 with the almost full moon shining the way. I immediately think about driving in from Picayune in November, 2006 on my first trip when the moon was near the same phase. Friday night, it will be the day before the full moon,

I check the calendar. Just like my first arrival in November 2006, my trip to Pearlington for the going away will be the day before the full moon. I’m inclined to fall back on my college days and say “Far out!”

On Friday I do nothing but work all day, trying my best to get every last detail tied up so can get to Jimmy’s on time. We had a great luncheon in Gulfport at noon. Afterwards I pick up the sink and drop by the package store to pick up some beverages.

I hurry to get back to Pearlington, but I’m late. I get to Jimmy’s about 5:15PM. Jimmy has these humongous shrimp, 10-12 count per pound. They are absolutely beautiful. Plus Robin has picked out garlic, potatoes, brussel sprouts, corn and all the rest. I’m a little worried no one will show. No one is there yet but Jimmy and Robin and their two daughters. I call Jessi to see what is going on. She tells me they will be there about 7.

About 6:45 Jimmy, his daughter Julia and I are talking about the bayou.

“We ought to go to on bayou down towards the Gulf. I can’t keep Dr. Bob from Fountain City satisfied. He wants to go out every time watching the birds.”

“You know Jimmy, I’ve never been out on the bayou with you in all this time.”

So Jimmy, Julia and I get into Jimmy’s nice aluminum bateau and head down the bayou.

Jimmy’s place is at the head of an arm of the bayou. As we motor down we have to run through some shallows, some thick grass and dodge a few snags before we get out into the bayou proper. I took my camera, I’ll post some pictures.

The sun hasn’t set yet but it is so low I the sky it bothers the eyes. We pass several houses; Jimmy tells me their history from Karina. We are passing trough all the marshes, I see a little side trail that runs up to a partly rebuilt dock, but mostly it is miles of swamp grass, birds, and the wind blowing in my face, sitting there shoulder to shoulder with Julia. I just miss seeing a couple of alligators. I turn to look in the direction of Julia’s pointing just as a fairly big one makes a quick roll and dives under the surface at the sound and presence of our boat.

We go down past the new bridge on US90 in White’s Bayou and go on to within about a quarter mile of the mouth of the Pearl River. Jimmy says we ought to come back late with a floodlight and look for gators. It is getting late and we figure by the time we get back to the house it will be past time to put the shrimp on. The almost full moon is rising off to the east giving us plenty of light.

Sure enough by the time we pull up to the dock, I see Frank and Mark standing by the cooler, and Jessi and Neal sitting at the table talking to Robin. Larry has shown up and even Jimmy’s friend Tommy Joe and his wife.

We get the shrimp going and soon there is pile of it poured out on the table and we are all eating to our hearts’ content. I sit there nursing a beverage listening to the conversation and watching people. The though strikes me, we need Lizzie, where is the karaoke?

About nine o’clock the talk turns to the bayou again.

“Do you want to go back and look for alligators?”

“Sure!” I say.

So Jessi, Mark, Jimmy and I climb back in the boat. The water I about a foot lower, the tide is running out. With a good bit more effort we negotiate the shallows and get out on the bayou. Jessi has the spotlight and she is finding a lot of frogs but no gators.

“The white spot are frogs. Look for little bright red spots, that is the gators. The light blinds them and they freeze.”

We go down just about as far as before but don’t see anything big. Jessi finally tires holding the spotlight and hands it to me as we turn back. I scan well out from of the boat along the marsh edge and we start to pick up the little red eyes. When we pass a little inlet off the main bayou I shine the light up the edge ohe marsh and the eyes look like a Christmas tree in the water. We motor up and find many small gators, fledglings, maybe 6-12 inches long. There is a big gator around her somewhere but all we see are the fry. We almost run over a three foot one, probably cruising for a dinner of his cousins.

We finally turn back towards home. The almost full moon lights our way as we cover the last few hundred yards, only this time it isn’t MD604.

A thought passes my mind, I think about the new fire hydrants on 604. Who would have thought we ever see it. As we near the dock I hear conversation and see people on the deck sitting around the fireplace. The party has started in full. Someone is showing one of our PDA staff the watermark on Jimmy’s barn. They didn’t realize this place was under about ten feet or more of water, or that the folks from Fountain City rebuilt the house (without a liability release), or that I spent a Memorial Day in the sweltering, buggy heat with them re-roofing Jimmy’s house. As I said, Jimmy and Robin are family.

So much has happened in a year, I’ve learned an awful lot about many things and suffered some real disappointment with the decisions and choices of the person in PDA who made it possible. I’m grateful but saddened by his pride.

Even so, my ties here are strong. There are good people here who have unwittingly opened the eyes of hundreds of Presbyterians. They have made us a greater people than we were.

It still sure seems like home to me.

Thinking about the moonrise, earlier in the evening, I wonder, when will I get back again?

Peace and Grace

Day 422 -Dry Bones

Work in Mississippi is still calling out to me. I’ve gotten a couple calls about questions, and methods, money, etc. I won't tell that they came also during the furlough. What I’m sensing is that work is still getting done due to your willing hearts and helping hands.

When I was moving all my belongings out of my home the week before it closed (a brutal week), I came across several documents I’d saved, things such as the budgetary plan for the PC(USA) mission effort in Mississippi (they have abandoned that plan) and it caused me to think more about what is going on inside the church organization. I said I wouldn't go on about this thing, but what is not happening there is an old story that will not go away without some help.

One of the things about moving out of my home that stimulated this line of thinking was my skinnying down my possessions, giving (well, long term loans) my woodworking tools away, tools I’ve worked several decades to collect and use. I threw away 30 year old notebooks of technical ideas I had wanted to pursue when I had the time in the future.

It was a strange time. But, what do I really need in a small one bedroom apartment when the only time I will have is going to be to read or write coursework?

The absence, or longing for what I gave up really didn’t sink in while I was doing it, it really hasn’t fully yet, but I’m living out of my truck, more or less, and this really reminds me of stories of experiences heard in Pearlington after Katrina when all of most people’s possessions were lost essentially instantly. No one had a home.

Not helping them last week, never helping them again in Gulfport and Pascagoula made me think about Ezekiel, about how the people of Jacob lost everything by simply turning from the covenant.

I think about the wind blowing around 100 Witherspoon St. in Louisville last week during their self-imposed furlough, even imposed on mission workers. The time when the leader ordered everyone to cease helping the poor and needy, to turn off the cell phones out of fear of some legal action by a disgruntled employee, I suppose.

That wind might have sounded like wind rustling dry bones. Can you imagine the sound?

I wonder if the leaders in Louisville are dry bones, spiritually dead. Would Langston Hughes' poem give succor?

Peace

We passed their graves:

The dead men there,

Winners or losers,

Did not care.


In the dark

They could not see

Who had gained

The victory.

It made me think of the retired man whose home we remade. He consistently sent a title of his social security to us as his gift of thanksgiving for our help.

The world is full of hope for you who live and burn with righteous zeal.

Day 407 – Days of Rest

I'm on vacation, ha! Not only vacation but a fast running week headed towards a walk through by the buyers of my home Sunday afternoon.

The impact of this move started getting to me as I began cleaning out my woodworking studio. I looked at that pile of cherry and walnut with a few boards of maple and quite a few quarter sawn oak boards. There are the boards I had sawn and planed for a bathroom table-sink sitting on my work bench, a gift, an unrequited one at that. I started thinking about when, if ever, I'd get back to woodworking again. The import and implication of this choice is really unsettling now.

Last night I learned a few Hebrew letters, aelph, beh, gimmel, dalet, hey. I ran through several pages printing the letters out. It's really hard to go from alphabet to words. It's fascinating though. No articles, all capital letters. Words are not written like they are supposed to be with the funny symbolic annotatios because Hebrew readers know the meaning in context.

Then I received an e-mail from Pearlington about one of our dear clients and a call about one of the work site staff who has an "inexplicable" charge on his credit card. It turned out we had bought two handicapped shower stall inserts for a couple of clients in Gulfport and he'd lost his receipts.

One of the clients is blind. I was at his house when we removed his tub. Someone had installed a "jacuzzi tub" but hadn't leveled it properly or connected the electrical hook up to the pump properly.

I knocked at the door. No answer. After a while I got a call from the work site manager - he said go on in, the client had just gotten back from dialysis and was resting, he knows we are coming.

I hesitantly opened the door and heard his voice, "Is that the PDA people? If you are come on in."

"Yes that's who we are," I replied as i opened the door and edged in. He was lying on the bed, obviously very tired.

"You'll have to forgive me for not getting up. That dialysis really takes it out of me. I've got to rest a while, you all just go on in."

"Ok Mr. Jefferson, I'll just take a look at the bathroom."

"Just don't move anything in the bdroom, ok?"

It was awkward trying to work and not disturb Mr. Jefferson. As we pulled out the shower, we found a lot of water had leaked behind the tub since the contractor hadn't leveled the tub so it wouldn't rock; and he had just run a line of caulk along the bath-wall line. The first time someone stepped in the tub that seal broke. The result? A lot of mold in the wall behind the tub.

We had to tape a plastic sheet over the the bathroom door so all the mold we scraped didn't get into the bedroom. It was hard because we had to pass through the bedroom to get out of the house. We managed it, then treated the wall with bleach.

The next day we came back. After knocking, Mr. Jefffeson hailed us in. He was on his hands and knees feeling round underneath the bed for his shoes.

He reached under the bed and pulled out a leather dress shoe, "This isn't it. "

"Can I help?" I asked.

"No, I'm trying to find my other white tennis shoe. It is supposed to be here under the bed." He leaned over and reached further under the bed.

About that time a horn honked out in the driveway.

"Oh that's my taxi. He's supposed to take me to work. I'vegot to find that other shoe."

At a knock at the door, Mr. Jefferson says,"Come on in, Ralph."

Ralph, the taxi driver asked, "Are you ready?"

"No, not yet. Just a minute until I find that shoe."

I start looking under the bed. I can see a couple of atheletic shoes but none of them match the one in Mr. Jefferson's hand. It isn't there. I look in the closet behind him. Mr Jefferson sits in the floor feeling a couple more shoes, shaking his head negatively.

"I know that shoe is here, someone must have moved it.

"Mr. Jeffeson, I don't see the match in the closet or under the bed."

"Well, I'll just use another pair. Do you see the match for this one?" he asks as he holds up another shoe.

"Yes, I see it behind you in the door to the closet."

He leans over and rubs his hand on the carpet until he touches it."

"Great! I'll be there in a minute Ralph."

"Take your time," Ralph replies.

In a few minutes Mr. Jefferson walks out of the bedroom unaided to the taxi and heads to work.

We finish our work, priming the wood with a strong primer and carefully take all our stuffed trash bags out to the driveway. Now all we have to do is wait on that special order shower insert to show up.

I wonder, are we doing any better job finding our way with our work in Mississippi than Mr. Jefferson is with his? We see but do not perceive.

Day 406 – Compassion and Change

I’ve been in Pearlington much of all the week before last and again last week. Driving back and forth to Gulfport isn’t much fun, it is pretty much a ghost town.

There are only four people left around Orange Grove. Two of them are dismantling the village, one doing the last odd jobs on clients’ homes and the last our village manager who is trying to get through his exams at the local college.

Pearlington, though, faces a lot of challenges. The work site managers haven’t done a very good job summarizing the cases so one has to get them to visit and then prepare work summaries. The upside of this is a much closer, compassionate relationship with the clients because the activity becomes more of an informal, family-level interaction.

I worry that after I’m gone (not that I am so important but I sense a difference in philosophy), the next work managers will just push through and that family-relationship that sustains compassion may be lost.

The three cases that really worry me are Mrs. Alice, Terry and the woman in Waveland that a group in the Arkansas Presbytery is helping. More on the latter two later.

Thanks to the Mennonites initially, and to several volunteer groups, we have made great progress on Mrs. Alice’s house. We have gotten the roof repaired, the porches repaired and installed all the drywall (Thanks to the Fountain City PC crew for the drywall installation), finished and primed it.

The groups from Canada and California really helped this week. They managed to get the interior mostly painted and they crew is installing the subfloor over the existing one. The original floor is pretty well warped and delaminated in places from water damage.

The contractor who set the house backup didn’t do a very good job leveling the home and some floors are pretty out of kilter. Because of time, we had planned to put in a new subfloor but leave as-is the areas of the floor that are out plane.

We had a skilled crew and as usual, small miracles happen when good people start a job.

As they looked at it, they determined to shim in these unlevel places using ripped 2x4’s. I’m always nervous when a crew starts some thing so significant because I worry they will not get done in a week and I’ll be left with a relatively unskilled crew the next week to finish some skilled work.

This crew worked like madmen and manager to get all the unlevel places fixed and covered with subfloor. They only could tack down the subfloor, the next group will need to carefully nail down all the edges and go down the stud/shims in the floor. Then the flooring can start.

My worry about the team that did the leveling was unjustified. Knowing we have set a mid-June objective to be done if at all possible, they said they wanted to come back from California in a couple weeks and finish.

The REAL worry is the comment by the fellow setting up the move of Pearlington to Diamondhead, “I hope they don’t try to come back in May, we need to set up Diamondhead and they will not have any place to stay.”

The sad conflict between compassion and organizational woodenness persists, hopefully compasssion will prevail.

I am going to send a note to them about where they may stay with a local family in town to get this done.The sad conflict between compassion and organizational woodenness persists, hopefully compasssion will prevail.

We should always seek to sustain compassion. I'm slowly figuring out this is the key to what PDA's mission should be for the long haul and good of the church.

Day 403 - The Unfinished Business, II

Here are more cases of unmet needs for Katrina recovery identified by local advocates in Mississippi:

- Carol recently had a mobile home moved, blocked and tied down for living as a consequence of Katrina. She has some materials including cabinets, toilets and sinks but can't afford the labor to do the work. She also needs repair of flooring and some sheetrock work.

- Katrina damaged the roof of Diane's house and then the water damaged the flooring. Her husband is out of work but has construction experience and can help volunteers. They need to replace the roof, damaged decking, sub-floor and floor. The water caused electrical defects. They need help.

- a 42 yr old client in Waveland has a 52 yr old disabled spouse and three children between 9 and 16. She has completed about 80% of the repairs to the home using insurance, FEMA, MDA funds but still has doors, receptacles and covers, and a lot of interior painting and trim work. She just needs helping hands.

- A family with one child has been struggling to complete their damaged home in Waveland and is about 60% done using FEMA, insurance and MDa funds. They still need exterior siding, insulation, windows and doors but are financially unable to obtain materials.

- A 48 yr old disabled male is the sole caregiver for his two parents (88 and 77). He has managed to complete about 70% of the repair of Katrina damage using FEMAA and MDA funds and has exhausted his funds. Dishonest contractors robbed him of the majority of the FEMA/MDA funds. They failed to complete the work. He is left needing roof work, flooring, electrical work, painting and removal of damaged large tree in the yard.

- A 62 yr old disabled man is caring for a 24 yr old paralyzed son. He has accomplished abouy 90% of the work on his home and needs help with interior trim work and door installation. He has some meager funds left to help.

- A couple in their late 50's has made it 95% of the way back but has fully exhausted his funds completing all the house except the kitchen. They only need to redo the kitchen but are out of funds.

Their are perhaps twice as many cases as these fourteen mentioned in the last post and this one who could use immediate aid. That is about 40 cases. We often find that as we wok in a neighborhood residents who have given up hope are energized and come to us for similar help. There are probably triple those 40 cases, at least, that would come to us as the see help is available.

In the last six months (mid-fall through mid-spring) we resolved about 35-40 cases. That means there is easily a year or more work in the Gulfport-Pascagoula area. I would guess there may be two years of hard work and even then we will leavesome needs unmet.

* * *

The presbyterian news service in an early press release said a record $23 million was collected. A spokesperson further along in the article states "we need to keep some funds in reserve because this is an eight (2013), maybe even a 10-year (2015) response..."

Ominously, the release concludes "Any interest accrued by the contributions will be plowed back into the ongoing recovery effort." Did the church hazard these funds in the stock market? Perhaps not. There should be a published accounting somewhere.

Day 402 - The Unfinished Business

In Orange Grove, we helped quite a few families since last Fall. We completed quite a few homes needing everything from simple drywall or roof repairs to major weeks-long efforts to demolishing houses so new ones could be built. We closed about 40-50 cases in our big mid-fall, winter and early spring surges of volunteers.

Even though the Louisville office closed all the village in Mississippi except one, saying the work was done, or the money has been spent (two years early in Mississippi??) cases have come to us until the end. There are twenty messages sitting on the phone in the Case Manager Liaison's office. In addition Here are a few more cries for help:

- Brenda and her husband were employed in good jobs in the Gulfport area living in a rent-to-own home. Her husband suffered a heart attack ten years ago and Brenda had a stroke right before Katrina. They safely evacuated but when they returned they found their home so badly damaged the DOT bought them out.

Like so many, they bought a mobile home at an outrageous premium, only to find it had significant damage from Katrina. They moved into the home in 2006, spent more money repairing it only to have a house fire that partly damaged it again. The husband made a make-shift repair of the roof and the live there still.

Brenda now has Hodgkin’s disease and has had another stroke. She suffers seizures and fell in the kitchen severely burning herself at the stove. The husband now has to stay with her 24 hours a day that means a full time job is not possible. They are in serious financial trouble but have been unable to secure funding for rewiring and structure repair from any aid agencies due to the depletion of funds (Red Cross, Salvation Army and others have spent all the donated funds.)

- Katie lives in Ocean Springs. She has managed to complete about half her home but is out of resources, stamina and hope.

- Jannelle was referred to us for help. She needs drywall work on her ceilings, doors, toilet and appliances installed. The cost is about a thousand dollars.

- Andy was referred to us, he needs painting, doors installed, some shelves, and other work.

- Victor needs to have help installing flooring.

- Connie needs help with her siding, windows and interior wall repair

- Vaughn needs a new roof installed.

The sad thing is all these are only a few of the cases of unmet need. They are either home-owner funded or were not able to get their applications in while the other aid agencies had funds. They are referred to us because of our covenant with our church, to hold off spending our millions of dollars of donated funds until the other agencies were spent out.


As I complete my last few days in the Gulf, the church-approved plan (Appendix 25 GAC 4/2006) keeps coming to mind. In it we state that we are to be in the Gulf until 2011, and spend about $27,000,000. Within this document the a long-term strategic allocation plan and supporting principals are enumerated:

“Funds received in the 2005 Hurricane account will only be used for Katrina/Rita/Wilma recovery. Any subsequent disasters in the same area will be responded to out of OGHS funds, or, if the disaster is large a new and separate appeal will be issued. Funds from the 2005 Hurricane account will not be diverted to other responses. (emphasis is mine)“

“This long-term recovery program is designed to operate for five to seven years in Mississippi, and eight to twelve years in Louisiana.”

Among the enumerated PDA principles these stand out:

“4. PDA will work from a long-term strategic allocation and will invest funds based on the long-range plan. All interest earned will be returned to the ongoing recovery. Funds received for 2005 Hurricanes will not be used for other disasters. “

(Question: What is the status of the funds? Were the funds invested in rock-solid instruments such as Treasury bills (as most investment bankers and brokers do with their own money) to protect them against adverse market fluctuations?)

“5. Funds received from individuals and congregations are spent after, and do not replace, government money and/or funds from the Red Cross and other “first responder agencies” that are available in the early stages of a disaster.”

On the 'questions and answers' page:

‘Is there a reason that only $4 million of the $20 million received has been expended?


“Yes. The donation-to-expense timetable is purposely front-loaded to prevent PDA’s long –term response from falling short as media headlines about the disaster fade. PDA funds follow and do not replace governmental funds that are available in the early days of the disaster.

“Is there a plan for the expenditure of the remaining funds?

Yes. We have developed a long-term strategic allocation taking us through 2013.


“Is there a plan for the expenditure of the remaining funds?

Yes. We have developed a long-term strategic allocation taking us through 2013. “

* * *

Are there any more questions?

Peace.

Day 399 - The End of a Mission

When it came time for the village at Gautier to move, someone decided to close it and walk away from the people in need, or hope the village at Orange Grove could tend to them. Most everything was moved to the village in Gulfport, Orange Grove where I lived the last year.

Then, a stumbling block was placed before us at Orange Grove. This village too is now closed rather than relocated.

Orange Grove is now a shell of itself. The pods(volunteer quarters) are down, the kitchen is stripped of almost all edible food and spices, the freezers are empty and standing open and only signs of the past remain.  It is hard to imagine that bustling village I drove into on my interview in late 2007, or on my first day here on March 31, 2008. (See Day 2)

Pearlington will be no more before the end of May. it is headed to another part of Hancock County, alive but barely.

Pearlington comes in a following blog entry. First here is a photomontage of Orange Grove:




It is ironic that an empty marque for the now defunct church at the village stands facing what was a sign of hope.

 Is this the church's message?

Or is this our church's message?

The "welcome" sign on the village office building as the old signs in abandoned towns in the western desert proclaim: "Ghost Town"

Orange Grove Down. All the pods are now down in limp piles.

Yet some ghosts of volunteers past stand sentry to these acts:

Only an empty building remains of a 200 person church. Is this the glimpse of the future, an empty building, or is it a welcoming place for the remnant? I am reminded of and humbled by Matthew 23 (rsv), especially verses 19 and 26,"You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?....first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean."

It is in our hands to be the church.