Interesting stories

Hi everyone,

We have had a very busy week. I did almost 60 hours at Ron's house. I am well into the finishing of the drywall and also am progressing on tile and bathrooms.

We enjoyed a nice Sunday. We were treated to an awesome service at CLCA. We had a guest speaker from the Chicago area who was a R.N. in a supposedly Christian hospital where she was forced to participate in one of the most awful types of abortion called live birth abortion. She eventually went public with her story after hospital officials would not listen to her concerns.
She was put on main line media like Fox and CNN. She has been invited to the White House.
I will share privately with any of you the details of her story. For those of you at North Ridge, I will be sharing about her to pastor.

Some cool stories:

I booked building a carport a couple of weeks ago and the materials were ordered. Ed and Marcella found us on the internet. He also is hoping I could add on to his house. He only lost his carport. His house had light damage. He called my cell phone Friday to ask me to contact him because he had a"situation", and he may need me more than ever. He woke up at 2 a.m. Friday morning to the sound of a can falling in his bathroom. He used the bathroom and went to his kitchen to drink some water. He looked out his window and noticed a person wandering in his yard. He looked out his office window to see a full size car literally ran into his house 2 feet. He was concerned for the lady. She was bleeding from her nose and she pleaded with him not to call the police. When he was calling the police she fled the scene on foot. She left her license in the car. She was very drunk. She had multiple O.W.I. offenses and the car was stolen. Damage to the house is probably at least $15,000. The part of the house hit has been separated from the main house 3 inches. They live in a quiet residential neighborhood. Spared by Katrina, Hit by a drunk.......... what are the chances of that???

Ron's Katrina story:

Ron works for a V.A. hospital as a janitor. He was required to stay at the hospital to help. He spent 2 full days before the storm at work with no sleep moving people to other facilities and numerous tasks. He returned home before the storm to get personal items to camp at the hospital. He packed his truck and had time to nap. He took his nap and went to return to the hospital. He then realized he left his vehicle lights on and the truck would not start. Not to worry, he had a charger. He hooked it up and waited. Then the power went out. He had no power, no neighbors to help. He was caught in the storm. He lives 2 blocks from the beach on the border of Gulfport and Long Beach. Long beach was one area very hard hit.

Ron saw the wave come up the street and in one second his house had 6 feet of water. He swam out a door. He never beleived he would die. When the flood water receded, he had 3 dead bodies on his property. One was on his living room window sill. His next door neighbor had a child dead in a tree. He found six bodies. His brother is a mayor in Brandon MS and arranged a helicopter rescue for Ron. He lost everything including his vehicle. That is more adventure than I care to experience.

Everyone is a victim and has a story to tell. It helps them to have someone to listen.


Another misrepresentation by the media is the toll of lives. They say 1300 fatalities happen but there are

6500 missing. They do not bother to tell this.

We miss you all. It was sunny and high 50s today. We had lunch at a Taco Bell and taught the Truth Project this afternoon.

We love hearing from you. Use the links on this page. It only takes a minute to set up a Google account to let you respond.

God Bless
Brian, Charlotte and the kids.

Finally, lots of sun

Hi everyone,

I know everyone back home is freezing, but WOW was it a beautiful day here today. The highs were in the 60's but what was special was how scenic the water and the colors were. We don't think we have ever seen more awesome colors than we did about 5:30. I drove back from Gulfport to Biloxi along SR 90, right along the beach. It was so refreshing.

The forecast for tomorrow is 100% sun again.

Samuel and I pretty much finished hanging Ron's drywall this afternoon. I will begin taping and finishing tomorrow.

Our host lady Maureen treated us to an Italian buffet in D'Iberville tonight. It was awesome.
After supper we went for a drive along the beach where the large casinos and businesses are. It amazes us everytime we go sightseeing.

Thanks to everyone for looking at our blog. Keep us in your prayers. We know God is using us to be a blessing. It is great to be in the will of God.

Brian Charlotte and the children

Sunday ~ A Day to Rest

Hi everyone,

We are just relaxing in the camper. It is Sunday evening. The kids are listening to the second playoff game in the tent and Mom & Dad quiet time is refreshing. We have a very light shower in progress. It finally warmed back up, It is well into the 60's at this time. As you can see in the pictures, Rosa is adjusting to camper life quite well. (As you can see Mike ~ she is even smiling)

We had a fun day. We went to CLCA for church this morning and also launched a Truth Project small group there this afternoon. We only had three show, but we were competing with the Saints game. Many including Pastor's wife Twila are excited about hooking up with us.
We had lunch on the beach at a brand new Waffle House restaurant. It was rebuilt on the site of one of seven Waffle Houses sites that were completely destroyed by the storm. It opened one week ago. It is one of the very few rebuilt businesses on the beach. They are rebuilding a large swim/dive/beach store right between us and the beach.

Charlotte told you a little about our present customer Ronald. We worked very hard there Fri. and Sat. I did carpentry repairs, drywalled and cement boarded bathrooms, and the boys and I
drywalled 1300 square feet of ceilings Sat. Ronald was so impressed that he cancelled all of his other contractors Sat. Unfortunately, most contractors are overcommitted and doing very poorly servicing thier customers. It tends to be a bad waiting game.

We have been enjoying tree ripe oranges from Ronald back yard tree. They are soooo good.

Do not believe by the absence of media attention that this situation is under control. I heard a long interview from Gulfport's mayor on the radio. In this region there is a need for 60,000 housing units to be rebuilt at this time. In addition, Gulfports population has increased by 10% since Katrina. Keep in mind these stats do not even consider Louisiana's huge need.

We miss all of you everyday and look forward to seeing some of you here in the coming months and all of you probably early April.
We keep you in our prayers and hope you keep us in yours.

I type slow, the rain has increased.
We enjoy your responses, use the link on the page.
In Christ's love,
Brian and Charlotte

One Week already!!!

Sorry everyone, It has been a week since we updated. Time flys when the weather gets cold (under 50 degrees) and you have to hybernate in your camper. I'm not sure if any of you had prayed real hard for the weather to get cold down here or not, but if you did, it worked. Our dear friend was so worried for the boys sleeping in their tent is such cold weather; that she had the boys sleep over in her sun room. The boys didn't think it was that bad. They wanted to play with their friends, so they gladly accepted the offer.

Since we have arrived, we have been working in Maureen's home. This picture is Maureen's son, Joe and his dog named Sugar. We will have to get a picture of Maureen for you next time. We are keeping her hopping with getting the supplies. She is a real trooper and is very blessed. She is having a surgery on Feb 1st, and we would like to have her ready if she would like to go back into her house. It has been exciting blessing Maureen.

We have a pretty cool story to share. We work with a company that helps us find jobs. One of the leads that Brian contacted is for a Mr. Ronald. While Brian was speaking with him and sharing how we had done this last year, they found out that Mr. Ronald attends the same church as we do. (Whey cool!) So, he loves the Lord with all of his soul and is sold out for Jesus. It is fun to be around him. Brian is going to his home today to start some work. He has much to do and we are trusting God that we can be a blessing to him. It is a wonderful how God has people cross each others paths.

We are praying for all of you. Hope you are staying warm. Miss you. Don't forget to e-mail, skype or instant message us on yahoo. You can do that through viewing our complete profile.

Beauty in January

Well it is amazing how even though we are staying in an area that looks like ground zero, God's creation still declares HIS glory. We have these rose trees in blossom, cactus, palm trees and wild grasses all around. In Luke 19:40 Jesus says, " I tell you that if these(his disciples) keep silent, the very stones will cry out." Lord, let us never get to that point.

More Pictures

Sites and Progress

We wanted to update you with views from our site and with what we see.

We are working hard on Maureen's home with electrical and painting. Please continue to pray for her. She is having surgery on Feb 1st. We are hoping to have her in her house by then. Right now there is no gas or electrical service to the house.

Also, please continue to pray for New Orleans. There have been 9 murders since the first of the year. That is almost one a day.

Love all of you. Thank you for your continued prayers. It has been very much like a mission field. You feel like you are living in ground zero with a little bit of improvement. There are actually street lights and water. Some communities have families living in tents yet. I'm not sure, but maybe they prefer it that way. Living here where the surge has went through is soooo different than the flood area that we lived in last year. Those area's that were flooded are looking quite well. But here, they are working very hard. The work that needs to be done to make it look nice again is vast. I hope much happens in the next three months. There are so many empty lots, vacant and gutted and empty houses. Not many people have returned around us.

Well we are in Mississippi!

We are here in Mississippi. It has been a wonderful trip. We have met our host family and God is wonderful. He is so faithful.

Thank you everyone that is in Wisconsin. We miss you too, but know that this is so rewarding and yes, selfish. We love to bless people. God is soooooo cool to follow.

We arrived at 8:30 pm. It was 63 degrees, the grass is green in many places and all is well. Maureen and her son who's name is Joe, is our host home. Please continue to pray for her and her family. Her needs are great and I'm sure that God would love to meet them. Her needs are greater than the storm damage, she has health needs as well, but GOD can take care of them.

Be watching for photo updates, we will try to make sure we are checking in with you daily.

Love,

The Haines

We Are Leaving 1/6/07

Leaving Wisconsin at 8:30 saturday the 6th. Mississippi here we come!!

Preparing to return to Mississippi

Well, the snow has arrived in Wisconsin. It is trying very hard to take over, but is having a hard time since the weather continues to get warm enough to melt it.

We are preparing to return to MS this week. It could be as soon as this Thursday. We will have to really get organized to do this. We'll have to wait and see.

Hope everyone has had a great New Year. Much is happening in this next year. It will go quickly, so don't be sad missing us, because we will be back before you know it.

We'll keep you posted.

Welcome!

Hi everyone,

We are just getting started and checking to see how this works.