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.