In the Beginning...

Our day started on New Orleans (“NOLA”) with beautiful warm weather. In order to better appreciate why we are here and how we will be serving, we took a three hour bus tour of some of the main areas impacted by Katrina.

Some observations throughout our day:
* The Mississippi River,
* Where there was once hopelessness, despair, and poverty and in some cases still exists, we also witnessed gratitude, appreciation, encouragement, people working in community, neighbor helping neighbor.
* In terms of destruction, we saw homes with holes in roofs where people had to escape their own homes after fleeing to an upper story and then in order to avoid rising waters or to eventually get out - had to use a hatchet or other device to create a hole to get out; we also saw plenty of empty lots where homes and been moved off their foundations and/or demolished; further we saw homes with their sides ripped off.
* Finally, we got to see flood walls, flood gates, and levees that withstood the waters as well as those that had been compromised and repaired;

We gained a better appreciation through our tour guide as well as observing what most of the destruction came from – not so much the rains from Katrina, but rather how the rains impacted the already weak coastal system, it destabilized the levees, and overwhelmed the pumping system.

After the tour, we enjoyed lunch at The Gumbo Shop. Some of the meals included Creole shrimp, crawfish, beef po-boy sandwiches, blackened chicken, Gumbo, and jambalaya.

We arrived at our camp and were greeted by Ken, Dawn, and their children Elizabeth and Paul. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the facilities are; our hosts were especially welcoming. We enjoyed a nice dinner of chicken, corn, baked beans, and rolls.

Our group wrapped up our day with fellowship, receiving our work site assignments for the week. We learned that we are being blessed with the opportunity to serve two different families and their homes this week. While this was a surprise, we are embracing it because in our preparation we established the goal to bless, serve, and help as many people as possible. So, half our group will be serving in Pascagoula and the other half will be serving in Gautier (pronounced “GO-sher”).

That’s all for tonight. Thank you for following along. Stay tuned throughout the week as we plan to update the blog each night after dinner.

Posted by Jason & Beth (on behalf of the entire Biloxi 2012 Team)