Monday, April 17, 2006

Highlights of the past 2 months on the Gulfcoast

I'm a little behind on my weblogging here which irks me because I have so many exciting story's to tell.
I am witnessing miracles everyday, but I just don't have any time to write about it!
So I'll put down the highlights now and fill in the details later =)
1.) Learning very quickly that I definitely do not have the gift of office administration.
Frankly I hate it with unrelenting passion! I'm much to fidgety and hands-on to be sitting at a desk all day answering phones and filling out paperwork...I do love visiting with the people who come in and helping them to fill out paperwork to get help from CBMI. But everything else about this office with no windows is driving me crazy!
So I'm learning alot about the importance of being willing to serve in a position I dislike merely because there is a great need - for the greater good of all/the mission (this sounds kind of like the Communist Manifesto but I'm pretty sure this is something God is telling me =)
2.) About once a week they let me out of here for a few hours, to work outside with a missions team, and this has definitely been the highlight of my trip. So far I have learned how to operate a Bobcat! yes! heavy machinery (I can upload a picture to prove it) and a Chainsaw! I cut down a tree! granted it was a very small tree, but it was a tree! =) I also helped put a roof on a house; measure, cut, and fit drywall; Install fiberglass - itchy but the slap-stapler was alot of fun; Discovered there is an actual tool called a "Stud Finder" ha Becca, I am so buying one for you at Christmas =) and I learned how to wire a house. All in all I had so much fun building the houses I can't wait to build one of my own someday when I grow up.
And it was such a beautiful thing to watch the excitement and hope on the people's faces as their broken homes were put back together. Praise the Lord for this ministry, and all the volunteers who come down every week to help!
3.) Another highlight has been getting to know the people we're helping, outside of the context of work and CBMI. I have been able to have lunch with a few of the sweet older ladies CBMI is helping, and those are friendships I will treasure forever.
One of the Ladies is Miss Gracie Nesbitt. I ran over a turtle in her yard when I was bulldozing/clearing debris. And we (Miss Gracie and I not the men we were with) were mortified. We called all the Vetenarians in Gulfport, but no one could offer any help for the poor little guy. His shell was fractured in 6 places and there was nothing I could do but take him home and wash him and bandage him together with gauze, and give him a little crushed up Tylenol for the pain. I kept him in a box for a few days and he started to get better, so I brought him back to Miss Gracie and she's taking care of him. Since then Gracie and I have become good friends, I'm not sure if she is a believer so please be praying for her salvation, and opportunity's for us to talk about about Jesus because every time we start to talk about spiritual things something else comes up.
4.) Another highlight of this month was going to Billy Graham's final crusade in New Orleans. That was a lifetime experience! I drove down there with my new Big Brother Shannon. We made quite a pair walking in there, he's a huge biker man, all tatted up in his leather gear, and I'm frolicking alongside him in my hot pink sparkly sandals and sunny surfer-girl look. He actually got kicked out halfway through Billy Grahams sermon because he was trying to help a little elderly lady from Germany - and so I went down to look for him during the alter call and I'm sure everyone was thinking I was going to get saved which was ackward because I had just been praising the Lord and totally into the worship before the service.
But anyhow, it was a great experience.
5.) I joined the Grace Memorial Baptist Choir! I have always wanted to sing in a choir, and I learned that I'm a Saprano (surprise?!) It is great fun. I sit next to a lady named Jean Allgood who is 85 years old and has been a missionary all over the world. Jean is going to China to teach English for the month of July, and she asked me to go with her. So I think I will. Why not go to China for the month of July? =)
So these have been a few of the highlights of my last few weeks in Mississippi - it never ceases to amaze me how God will take you crazy places and to meet amazing people.
Isn't God good? =)

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