Until we meet again (March 23)

After services this evening there was the customary sharing of experiences by those who were leaving. We have heard 6 or 7 groups do this in the past 3 weeks and all of a sudden we were putting up our hands when David asked “Who is going home to-morrow? (Well, it wasn’t exactly true because we aren’t heading home-yet!! but we are leaving the “place of the Singing River” and heading for Texas. ”

I shared our thoughts on our time here along with the others who are leaving tomorrow. We have never done anything like this before but it was (using an overworked expression) an awesome experience that leaves us wondering how do these people do it—volunteers come and volunteers go but they are here day after day -- week after week working sacrificially to help others. Our hats are off to the team of workers here at Central especially David K.., David B. and John D. and we pray God’s richest blessings on them.

We have also met so many great people from other parts of the country. Neal and the kids who came with him, this week I met Doug and Clifford from Lamar Missouri— great guys who were on a team doing drywall and mudding. Doug is using all of his vacation weeks to come down and help with hurricane relief. He has been doing some volunteer work like this for many years. It Is humbling to meet people who give so much of themselves to helping others because they love God and want to show his love to others. The “mission” of the Central church is “We want to be the best friend this community ever had” -- Our experience is that they are doing their best to fulfill that mission. I hope it doesn’t take a Katrina but I wonder if many of us don’t need a Katrina like crisis to help us understand what is really important in this life and to cause us to live and serve accordingly.

We didn’t do a lot to-day. This morning we were cleaning and doing laundry and other things to get ready to ”hit the road”. I participated by teleconference in a Board meeting for ADnet (not for profit community development organization that I am involved with).

This afternoon we delivered and set up a bed for Mr. Kelly. We found they had moved some of the furniture that we didn’t think was ready into the house but that is their choice. We hope it doesn’t cause them to be ill or result in the mold spreading to the house were it has already been redone. Anyhow, we said our good-byes to them. John was in the trailer and we also chatted with him for a while and said good-bye.

Later we met Charlotte at her house to go over Linda’s ideas about how to rearrange the kitchen. Charlotte was at services to-night and the young lady with the toddler also returned and Linda spent some time with her. A group had put shingles on her house this week.

We tried to call our kids tonight but we didn't reach anyof them.If you read this guys we love you!! We'll try to connect on Sunday.

And so we will be “on the road again”—we add our new friends in Pascagoula to the list of those to whom we say “God be with you until we meet again”

My internet access may be sporadic over the next while so the blog entries may be irregular—Keep checking.


Goodnight & God Bless
Charlie & Linda