We had a most fun and interesting weekend. We traveled 3 hours north near Laurel MS. We had services in the camps new larger facility. We went to bed on schedule about 1:00 A.M. We had a great night until about 5:30 A.M. when we were awaken by a group of girl students running through the camp screaming OH MY GOSH......IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!! They acted as though they won the showcase on the Price is Right. We actually spent the next several hours watching these teenagers experience their first snow. They received 3 inches of wet packing snow. It came in large flakes the size of a quarter. There were snowballs flying. Brian helped teach Hannah and Madeline how to make a snowman. About 90% of the students have never seen more snow than a flurry or two.
The camp opened a new facility and when we arrived it was 57 degrees in their sanctuary. We were told the heat was turned on but it never went up. We endured the cool temps by wearing coats, hats or whatever. (This is very cold for people here.) I looked into the situation on Saturday myself and we discovered that their heat system was not even hooked up yet to the gas. They obviously have never needed it before.
On Saturday afternoon we endured a a 4 hour power outage due to fallen trees from the snow. It took out the heating and water systems.
Aside of the technical difficulties, it was a great and powerful retreat. 90 students attended and I was impressed at the maturity level of all of them. Usually it seems there is a troublemaker or two in a group that size, but they were a great bunch.
We did some live drama and human video and had great praise and worship and great teaching. Everyone was touched.
Ed was not ready for drywall yet, but the church hired me to remove wall paper and paint 2 offices. Their maintenance crew has been on this project but were spent. They have had a difficult time removing the paper and have damaged the drywall surfaces badly enough to have to apply 3-4 coats of drywall compound. I was determined to find a better way and after 2 hours of experimenting with different ideas, I discovered that my 1000 degree paint stripping gun would remove the paper with absolutely no damage. Needless to say everyone in this office was amazed. It is a bit slow but will be only about 25% of the effort they put into numerous other offices.
We are staying behind the church adjacent to a ministry camped here called Apostolic World Relief. They are a denomonation similar to Mennonite. Most of them come from Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. They are building 8 new houses in Pass Christian, one of the hard hit communities.
They have asked us to finish the drywall in one of those houses in a couple of weeks. They have not been able to recruit the suitable help for this task.
Brian had a tooth extracted today. It has been rotted since his braces as a teen and has been the source of a lot of trouble.
Some wonder how the recover here is coming along. Brian read an article today in the paper about the city Pearlington, MS. They were in the eye of the storm. There are about 1000 houses there. Every structure there was flooded. As of now 35% of their houses are habitable or nearly habitatable.
We will be welcoming our Colby neighbor Danne here this weekend. He is bringing his R.V. and will be on his second tour. He will partner with Orphan Grain Train and the Lutheran Church.
Zion Lutheran in Colby will be sending a team of about 12 in a couple of weeks. They had a breakfast to sponsor the cost of their trip. We are excited about their commitment to help these people out.
We are suffering with all of you at the Packer disaster on Sunday.
We finally have nice weather today, with our windows open and wearing light clothing.
Please keep in touch. We love hearing from all of you.
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