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Adult Mission Trip 2008: Mississippi

Submitted by admin on Thu, 2008-03-20 20:17.

Thank you, each and every one, who supported the Adult Mission trip through your prayers, financial support, Duck Deli dining, participation in fund raisers; your gifts to the school children of Gulfport and gift cards to Home Depot for their families.  Our Mission Committee Chairman reports monetary gifts in excess of $2,000!.  Thank you, bless you all.

We had a highly successful trip.  This year we saw a lot of progress in both Gulfport and New Orleans, especially in the 9th ward, where there is a tremendous amount of new housing.  Imagine 3 years plus several months after a major hurricane has damaged your home and you still have not had it repaired.  Imagine living without heat or air-conditioning (it gets cold there, it was in the 30's a few mornings while we were there), with your ceilings caving in and black mold all over the place.  Then imagine calling a contractor, plumber, electrician or heating/air-conditioning serviceman and being told no one is available to come do the repairs for months.  My husband was offered many jobs each time he went to Home Depot for supplies.  People still need help.

We worked with a group of college students from Davenport College in Michigan who were on their spring break! They were a wonderful inspiration as they sought the Lord for their lives and we saw how the work and situation impacted them.  We also were joined by our Texas friends again, this time with their daughter and two sons. 

Some of our jobs included working on repairing and rebuilding the roof of the church that was our home base for the week, wiring and finishing framing a home that is being rebuilt for an elderly widow (in her 80's), painting a warehouse that stores items for the ministry, placing windows and finishing a shed, installing doors and trim, replacing a bathroom, tearing out drywall, paneling and ceiling ready to cave in, cleaning black mold, priming and installing drywall and insulation, fixing a heater and doing lots of other odd jobs, including scraping and painting.  Several people also volunteered again at the local elementary school, mentoring, tutoring and assisting the school nurse.  We hope to be able to present more information to you sometime this month (April).  In the meantime, please talk to any of the participants, they will be happy to tell you their stories and share their experiences.

Thank you to all who went on the trip-may you continue the Lord's work here until our next trip.

Leah Weidemoyer, Mission trip coordinator

Participants (in addition to myself): Dale Benner, Tom Brumbaugh, Faith Frank, Bob Fry, Kirsten and Dick Howe, Bill Kurz, Wendy and John Miller, Eileen and Bruce Spencer, Barb Stechert, Bob and Jan Verhelle, Scott Weidemoyer, and Bonnie White