Monday night 7/17

   The mission team arrived in Laurel about 9:30 Sunday night, safe and sound. We had a layover in Salt Lake City and another stop in Oklahoma City to gas up the plane. Apparently the heat and the weight caused us to use more fuel than usual but the stop was planned before we left SLC. 

   We saw the devastation of New Orleans area first hand as we drove down I-10. There are blocks and blocks of destroyed houses and businesses.

    Our accommodations are cozy. We are sleeping several in a room using bunk beds. There is another group from Maryland here who are running a day camp and our job is to cook for the campers and the counselors.

    Everyone slept soundly Sunday night, and a third of our group left the house at 6:30 to make breakfast which had to be ready at 8:00. Henry was picked up by his grandparents from Texas and they took him to their home for the week. 

   Our first day of cooking was successful. Cathy Hammer and Lynn Trimble are doing a great job of organizing the kids and kitchens. 

   The pastor of the church hosting the camp gave us a sobering talk about his personal experiences of the hurricane. The kids had a chance to go swimming at a local pool. It felt good in this 100 degree weather. After dinner we had a mix and mingle with the group from Maryland. Good group of kids and adults. We finished off with a discussion and planning for the next day.

Day 2 in Laurel, Mississippi

    The church we?re working at is one of approximately sixteen Methodist churches in Laurel, a town of 18,000 plus 6,500 Katrina refugees. The age range of the kids at the camp is 5-18. The church group organizing the camp is from Laurel, Maryland, the sister city to Laurel, Mississippi. Because of the name similarities, the press has been reporting on the camp. We were mentioned in yesterday?s local paper as a group of ten from Seattle, Washington who were making the meals for the camp. To raise money for the trip, the Maryland group had a piano concert from world class concert pianists, a car wash, and their pastor is riding a bicycle from MD to MS.

    At our evening team meetings, our group is discovering the power of simple acts of grace.  As a support team, our daily tasks may not seem important at any given moment, but without a full belly, the children and volunteer staff would not be able to focus on the task of healing mental and emotional wounds from their experience of the hurricane. Everyone is feeling the love and support of Christ through each other?no matter where you?re from, how old you are or what your role for the week is, the fact that you showed up to help lets the folks know they?re not alone in this world and God?s love reaches far and wide.  

   Our youth have been caught complimenting each other on the meals they prepare. Jackie has introduced some of the kindergarteners to yogurt by calling it ?breakfast ice cream?.  Cathy Goetsch is fast becoming known as the stealth worker bee?silently working along all day long! The collective cooking wisdom of Cathy Hammer, Lynn, Jackie and Jenny proves that cookbooks are for wimps. Andy Morgan is providing the stable male presence and good humor with our youth (and he's brave enough to chaperone a youth shopping trip to Walmart!)

Mission trip day 3

    Wednesday is ?hump day? no matter what your week is made of! We?re cooking like a well-oiled machine now and gaining more down time than we thought we?d have. But as with any group project, folks are getting tired, some have flared a temper here or there and the novelty of the work and the new environment has worn off. To the credit of our youth, it is our young people who continue to remind the adults that apologies, respect and politeness are the basis for Christian Community.

    Pastor Roy put many of the team to work moving boxes, doing computer work and other odd jobs. And many of our youth discovered non-electronic past-times such as playing instruments and singing, playing cards, doing art work and our new favorite game--?Farkle?.

    Our cooking is well received, with the children running to the kitchen counter for seconds before any of the volunteers get their first plate!

Mission trip 7/20/06

    Today was our final day of cooking! To give the campers a great send off, we served ice cream sundaes for dessert at lunch, then cleaned out the fridge, letting them have as much snack as they could eat! 

    After the closing program put on by the campers for their parents and the congregation, the West Laurel UMC treated us to a real Southern Meal at Charlie Catfish. We got to taste fried catfish, hush puppies, coleslaw made the ?right? way and sweet tea. Pastor Roy then treated us to milkshakes at PDI (Phillip?s Drive-In). 

    The Maryland team moves out of the Volunteer House Friday morning, catching the train back home. Our crew will finish cleaning up the church and Volunteer House, then head to Hattiesburg, MS, for an afternoon of exploring. One stop will be the Civil Rights Movement Tour with 15 different sites pertinent to the movement. Another will be authentic BBQ at Letha?s!

    Since we won?t be able to post an update on Saturday (7/22), we?ll let you know we?ll be driving down to Gulfport, MS, on Saturday, then along the gulf toward New Orleans to get a sense of the destruction and recovery efforts. Once into New Orleans we hope to visit Dillard University and have beignets at Café du Monde in the French Quarter, all before catching our flight back to the Emerald City. You can get more first hand news at Sunday Worship on 7/23!  See ya?ll soon!