Pot Pourri (March 12)

Some Sundays at home we have potluck dinners -- this posting is a "potluck" of various items

We visited with Harry & Ann Lane this p.m. – they took us for lunch at a nice small Chinese place in Ocean Springs. They have a beautiful home that they just finished repairing due to damage from about 3 inches of flood water and a tree through the roof. Picture shows them with Linda in their back yard. Very nice people – and they have a motor home too so that makes it even better!!!

After lunch, they drove us up the coast west to Pas Christian –Incredible destruction that got worse as we went west towards the eye of the storm. (I've put acouple of pictures at the bottom but they don't do it justice)

Our home congregation at Pinehill was hosting the Great Lakes Christian College chorus this evening -- sorry tohavemissed it --

We made our weekly calls to our kids this evening . Melissa is homesafe --but she twisted her knee --may have torn ACL -- she will see Dr. this week to findout. Kevin had a cold week before last - was just getting better and then had flu this week. Hope he gets rid of this since itis interfering with the time he needsto spend on his research. Chris is doing OK but there has been a hitch in his Sargeant's promotions and it is delayed. Not sure what happened -Hunter has had an expander installed to stretch his jaw to make more room for his teeth- sounds horrible -Anyhow we have them all in our prayers each day.

More on the Kilbern’s: Further to my earlier post about David & Elaine. It is difficult to get time to talk to David and learn much about him. His cell phone rings constantly – people with needs, workers needing supplies or directions, people interested in coming to help. It is a frantic pace. He was the operations engineer for CableOne – cable outfit for this area and was the main force in building it from the ground up so he is used to construction, logistics and dealing with people. Elaine and Linda seem to have connected - understanding what it is to have a “task driven” husband to deal with. One thing I’ve observed about David is his compassion and willingness to go beyond a rough exterior to help the person inside. There are several people here who have told me the same thing. They were down & out – struggling with serious personal problems and they came here looking for clothes or food and David took them in – and gave them work that helped restore their sense of worth - many of them are on a (renewed) walk with God because of this compassion. David isn’t a pushover and doesn’t often get burned but he has the toughness to let the failures roll off his back. I think of the words of Mordecai about Esther? “Who knows but God that he has put you here for this purpose” (rough quote – Joseph also made a similar comment to his brothers when they were reunited in Egypt)

Some items from Linda’s journal over the past week – a different perspective
“Getting to know more people as the time goes on although with all those kids here were aren’t mixing as much – having breakfast in BBB and taking a lunch with us. Saves wasting a lot of time in lines and getting back and forth trying to get rides”

“Wednesday p.m. John (Kelly) ordered pizza for the girls but they weren’t there – off on a tour of Biloxi – He (John) says he would like me (Linda) to be here when his Mom come home as we must be a lot alike (I think he is a little afraid of what his mother will think of the repairs and wants someone else “in between” (Charlie)

“Didn’t see John (Kelly) all day Thursday (or Friday or Saturday” – (we have knocked on the trailer door but no one appears to be there – although his truck is in the driveway – we are concerned and hope everything is OK with him – we’ll see Monday I guess. – Charlie)

(from Thursday) “I went to get some ice for a girl that had a sore ankle and she told me she was sorry she hadn’t been able to work with us as she had heard so many good things from the ones who had”

March 10- Friday “Well the house felt empty today without all our extra girls”

Pictures along coast
1. Highway 90 bridge used to to across the bay to Biloxi -- it move the whole deck section sideways 8 to 10 feet;

2. This whole block was once filled with houses; the one shown is barely standing

3. We are back 2 full blocks from the highway which is about 50 yards from ocean. There were about 8 houses on the streetbefore the one shown standing-allcompletely destroyed; what mayappear tobe apark used to be a streetfullofhouses.