Hi everyone,
We have just been busy doing work and school, nothing too exciting to share.
Danne headed back home and arrived safely. He traveled last weekend and had to endure snow and bad roads in Wisconsin.
Last week included working for several people. On Friday Essie hired Brian to drywall 3 ceilings in her home. She got new walls after Katrina but her ceilings were not storm damaged. She did not like the texture and look of those ceilings. Essie was our host the first year we came here.
On Saturday and Monday, Brian painted the entire interior of a 3 year old home that was sold.
Beginning on Tuesday he began work on a elevated 2 story home. He is subcontracting labor to a contractor named Jeremy. It is a 3300 square foot home on the Bayou. The customer lost their entire home in the storm. This week was spent doing carpentry on the roof system. We were going to start the metal roof today but we had heavy rain. We are expecting heavy rain tonight and tomorrow. They are posting a flood warning for the Pearl River, 1 hour west of here.
Jeremy is a contractor who relocated here after the storm from Duluth, MN. In fact he is returning home to finish a house that he built for his own family, but they never moved into it.
While it was raining, our entire family helped Pam, the church administrator sort and fasten 500 50 page church directories. We had the help of one other volunteer. We can be an army when you put us to the right task.
We are invited to dinner tonight by a couple who wants us to side their home. I can not remember a customer ever doing this before. MS is known as the hospitality state but this is new to us.
Hope you can find somewhere to put your snow.
We will post some pics when we can.
In Christ
The Haines family
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tea time
Hi everyone,
We have certainly been staying busy. Sorry it has been a bit since we posted.
Last week we did tile bathroom for Maureen.
On Saturday, Brian completed Jeff and Lori's railings. Also, Charlotte, Nicholas, Joshua, and Samuel went to Winterjam in Mobile, Al with CLCA. Artists included Skillet, Barlow Girl, New Song, Mercy Me, and several others. Charlotte drove a 15 passenger van for the trip. The concert sold out and the doors were closed directly behind their group. They were fortunate to get in.
On Sunday Jeff and Lori had us over to their home for ribs cooked on the grill. They served us in their backyard on the bayou. It was a very pleasant sunny afternoon. This was all during below zero temps back home. Wow, you have had winter this year. We do not regret traveling south like the birds do. We have had much nice weather lately, but last night and today were certainly cooler.
This Tue and Wed. Brian worked for Ina. Projects included installing a ceramic bathroom floor, peeling wallpaper, painting, and general household repair. Ina is our friend Susan's mother.
Last evening, Charlotte and Brian attended a missions banquet sponsored by Global Support Mission. It was an inspiring evening. GSM has been launched by some very young people from CLCA and has some very big dreams of helping orphans and others worldwide. They have already done some awesome things in Uganda and other places. They have installed new wells and helped orphans out of their poverty. There are many orphans in Africa because of AIDS and poverty. We were treated to a sharing time by a lady who has cared for 1500 orphans with almost no resources. If anyone wants to know more about this mission, let us know. It is great soil to sow in to.
We are planning to be very busy in the days to come.
We miss you all back home. Peggy, May 3 is coming!!!
Thank you to all of you who have been helping us.
The Haines family
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Working in Pass Christian
Hi everyone, Wow those of you back home have had a blast of winter this year. We are glad to be here where it is at least a bit warm. This evening included thunderstorms and tornado watches. It rained hard again this evening. It has been a common occurance lately.
Brian finished at the church yesterday. 2 of the offices used a very bright red paint requiring 6 coats to achieve the desired results.
Today we began finishing the drywall in the first of the Apostolic World Relief houses in Pass Christian. The interesting part of this project is that it may very well lead into a series of 9 houses that they are building there. Brian and Joshua spent the day working there. The state of disaster in their community is still very desperate. There is very little restoration complete. It is like being in a war zone.
We will be posting more pictures soon. Thank you for taking the time to check our blog.
In Christ
The Haines family
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Welcome Danne
Hi everyone,
For those of you from home, Danne arrived safe and ahead of schedule before 6 P.M. this evening. He has just retired from nursing and is on his 2nd tour here. He will be once again providing services on behalf of Good Shephard Lutheran Church and Orphan Grain Train.
He will be working at Biloxi's free medical clinic for the next month.
He recently discovered that his camp may not be able to provide electricity for his R.V. He contacted us to see if CLCA would be able to help him. We asked Pastor Pete and he said Danne was 100% welcome here. He is presently camped about 200 feet from us. We are grateful to Pastor Pete and CLCA for their commitment to helping the victims here.
Earlier this week Charlotte's dad had a minor surgery to replace his pacemaker. It went very well and he is recovering very well.
Brian spent today installing a solid red oak finished staircase for Jeff and Laurie. Jeff is a teacher at the college here. 1 week after the storm he was volunteering helping clearing trees when he was the victim of a terrible accident. A log was dropped on his upper legs and broke both of his legs. He has rods in both of his legs. He and Laurie had lost everything in the storm. After his accident they decided to rebuild at their old site. Jeff has done a large amount of the reconstruction despite his disability. It was an honor to serve them today. We will return to install their railing system a different day.
We have numerous opportunities for work. We are bracing to be very busy in the coming weeks.
We miss you all and will see you about April 1
Keep in touch.
In Christ
The Haines family
For those of you from home, Danne arrived safe and ahead of schedule before 6 P.M. this evening. He has just retired from nursing and is on his 2nd tour here. He will be once again providing services on behalf of Good Shephard Lutheran Church and Orphan Grain Train.
He will be working at Biloxi's free medical clinic for the next month.
He recently discovered that his camp may not be able to provide electricity for his R.V. He contacted us to see if CLCA would be able to help him. We asked Pastor Pete and he said Danne was 100% welcome here. He is presently camped about 200 feet from us. We are grateful to Pastor Pete and CLCA for their commitment to helping the victims here.
Earlier this week Charlotte's dad had a minor surgery to replace his pacemaker. It went very well and he is recovering very well.
Brian spent today installing a solid red oak finished staircase for Jeff and Laurie. Jeff is a teacher at the college here. 1 week after the storm he was volunteering helping clearing trees when he was the victim of a terrible accident. A log was dropped on his upper legs and broke both of his legs. He has rods in both of his legs. He and Laurie had lost everything in the storm. After his accident they decided to rebuild at their old site. Jeff has done a large amount of the reconstruction despite his disability. It was an honor to serve them today. We will return to install their railing system a different day.
We have numerous opportunities for work. We are bracing to be very busy in the coming weeks.
We miss you all and will see you about April 1
Keep in touch.
In Christ
The Haines family
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Back from Winterquest
Hi everyone,
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.
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.
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.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Off to camp
Hi everyone, Today Brian, Nicholas, Joshua, andSamuel will be going to the Winterquest youth
retreat. There will be over 80 youth attending.
Brian will be helping with various tasks including
carpentry and drama. We are praying that God
would touch these teens including ours.
We finished the work for Olga and Christine. They
retained us for various small projects around the
house. The bathroom turned out very nice and they
are already enjoying the shower. Christine has not
been able to use the old shower for the last couple of
months. She nearly fell and it scared her.
We know you are very cold back
home. We are having colder nights
but the days have been pretty nice
this week. Highs most days have been
in the 60's and lows around 40.
We have been helping more around
the church. They are recarpeting and
painting offices. Pastor Pete wants to
hire Brian to remove wallpaper and paint 2 offices. The wallpaper is not coming off well and the
regular maintenance crew has had enough of it. The
facility here is huge. The office area is 3
stories tall. I would estimate the facility is at least
50,000 square feet. We are helping move
furniture in and out of the offices.
Focus on the Family is launching a pilot program called Faith in the Home. CLCA is one of 1o churches around the nation that will begin this ministry. We will be hosting one of these small groups soon. They will be specifically targeting singles, marriage and families.
Last year we built a carport for a man named Ed. After we left, he has started a major house rebuild actually doubling the size of his house. He has his carpentry, plumbing, and electric inspections passed. He is wanting to have us do the drywall. He saw our drywall work last year.
Hopefully we will do this project this coming week.
We miss all of you back home. Thanks to all of you who are filling our places in our absence.
May God bless each of you today!
The Haines family
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Britt Nicole concert
Hi everyone,
We have had a productive and fun week. Olga and Christine (age 98) have enjoyed us and we have enjoyed them. Christine has especially grown fond of Ethan. They have become buddies. We will complete their bathroom early this week. The shower is complete and turned out beautiful.
The weather straightened out later this week after a couple of tornado warnings. MS was just one state affected by storms.
Last year we went to Winterjam in Mobile. The opening act at this concert was Britt Nicole. Brian was impressed with her. Her first CD was to be released in May 2007 by Sparrow records.
We ordered her CD for Christmas and just received it here this week. WAOY 91.7 was giving away tickets and Brian won a pair. The concert was last night at Pascagoula MS. (a 35 minute drive)
Brian and Charlotte went as a date. Serious, we had a blast. Her concert was one of the very best we have ever seen. She opened with a worship concert, then her brother Bryn preached a message. Their focus is on ministry to the teen generation. They had alter and prayer time and then concluded with their concert. The entire band, Britt, and Bryn completely poured their hearts out for over 3.5 hours. We sang, we laughed, we danced and we cried. We highly recommend that you all discover this great new artist. She is only 20 something years old.
Her CD is called Say It. You will not be disappointed.
We have a busy week. On Wednesday, we will join CLCA to go to the movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" by Veggie Tales and Universal Studios. The church bought a bunch of tickets and are taking the Kids church and their families.
We are expecting it to be a good time.
Go Packers!! We hope you all had a chance to see the game!
Next weekend will be CLCA's annual youth retreat called WinterQuest. Brian, Nicholas, Joshua, and Samuel will attend. Brian will be helping with some work to contribute to the success of this event.
We will be volunteering to do a oak staircase and railing for a couple here at the church. They have built their own home since the storm, but were hoping for some help with this project. They told God they
would not ask for help, but were trusting to have an offer for help. Without knowing this we felt led to help them.
They are Ethan's Kids church teachers and are a blessing.
We stayed at the camp on Saturday this week. Brian worked on the family honey-do list. We had some small projects on the R.V. to help it be a little more functional. This mostly consisted of interior cabinet upgrades to help with storage.
We are all good. Rosa had been a bit congested last week but is better.
May God richly bless you all.
In Christ,
The Haines Family
We have had a productive and fun week. Olga and Christine (age 98) have enjoyed us and we have enjoyed them. Christine has especially grown fond of Ethan. They have become buddies. We will complete their bathroom early this week. The shower is complete and turned out beautiful.
The weather straightened out later this week after a couple of tornado warnings. MS was just one state affected by storms.
Last year we went to Winterjam in Mobile. The opening act at this concert was Britt Nicole. Brian was impressed with her. Her first CD was to be released in May 2007 by Sparrow records.
We ordered her CD for Christmas and just received it here this week. WAOY 91.7 was giving away tickets and Brian won a pair. The concert was last night at Pascagoula MS. (a 35 minute drive)
Brian and Charlotte went as a date. Serious, we had a blast. Her concert was one of the very best we have ever seen. She opened with a worship concert, then her brother Bryn preached a message. Their focus is on ministry to the teen generation. They had alter and prayer time and then concluded with their concert. The entire band, Britt, and Bryn completely poured their hearts out for over 3.5 hours. We sang, we laughed, we danced and we cried. We highly recommend that you all discover this great new artist. She is only 20 something years old.
Her CD is called Say It. You will not be disappointed.
We have a busy week. On Wednesday, we will join CLCA to go to the movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" by Veggie Tales and Universal Studios. The church bought a bunch of tickets and are taking the Kids church and their families.
We are expecting it to be a good time.
Go Packers!! We hope you all had a chance to see the game!
Next weekend will be CLCA's annual youth retreat called WinterQuest. Brian, Nicholas, Joshua, and Samuel will attend. Brian will be helping with some work to contribute to the success of this event.
We will be volunteering to do a oak staircase and railing for a couple here at the church. They have built their own home since the storm, but were hoping for some help with this project. They told God they
would not ask for help, but were trusting to have an offer for help. Without knowing this we felt led to help them.
They are Ethan's Kids church teachers and are a blessing.
We stayed at the camp on Saturday this week. Brian worked on the family honey-do list. We had some small projects on the R.V. to help it be a little more functional. This mostly consisted of interior cabinet upgrades to help with storage.
We are all good. Rosa had been a bit congested last week but is better.
May God richly bless you all.
In Christ,
The Haines Family
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