Back from Eight Days of Hope

I just got back from Bay St. Louis Mississippi. Eight Days of Hope had their 5th Katrina relief event there. All I can say is Wow! What an amazing organization, the passion and commitment are incredible. I was very impressed with the leadership of EDOH. They have learned a lot over the past 2 years and have made an amazing impact in the communities they have worked.

About 1,100 people were a part of this outreach. People from 43 different states. There were 16 people from NewPointe that made the trip. I traveled and worked with Doug Miller (left) and Mike Miller (right) (no relation).

We left last Thursday night and drove 16 hours straight (we stopped 5 times). We got there Friday morning around 10:00. We checked in and they asked if we wanted to go work right away. There was an 80 year old lady that needed some some small jobs done. She had just moved back into her home from her FEMA trailer. We worked at her place for about 5 hours and then went back and got settled in.

Our first official work day was Saturday December 29th. We got to pick out our job on Friday night, so we hit the ground running on Saturday morning. Mike, Doug and I hooked up with Lowel Rice and his wife Shirley. Lowel had built three home and was retired. Another retired couple Pete and Pat also joined us to round out our team of seven.

Our job was for a single lady, Ms. Leonardine Curry. She had been living in a tiny FEMA trailer for over two years, just her and her dog. We had to install wood Pergo flooring in every room, hang all the interior doors and one exterior door, and put down all the finish trim. We ended up doing a bunch of other small jobs for her as well.

At the end of the four days we had everything done and she was ready to move in. All she had to do was get the gas turned on and have a final inspection. She was very grateful and gave most of us a hug. We all gathered around and prayed for her and her new home.

In the first four days of work over 100 projects were completed. There was another 50-75 to complete and four new houses that needed to be finished. Originally they wanted to build seven new homes but three did not have enough pre-work done to get started.

I really enjoyed getting to know the people I worked with and the families we met. The people are so grateful for the volunteers that come to do work. For many people they cannot afford to pay someone to do the work, so it sits there until they can save a little money. Many of these folks also have been taken advantage of by dishonest contractors.

I ran to Lowes about 6-7 times to pick up supplies and materials and met some nice folks there as well. This area is slowly coming back.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was Steve Wingfield. Steve is an evangelist from Virginia and I have known him for almost 10 years. He spoke to all the volunteers on New Years Eve. What a great message! He really challenged and encouraged all of us to not be “normal”, but abnormal. What normal person takes a vacation to go work on homes in Mississippi? He said that the people that we are trying to reach, those that are not saved, view Christians as boring, judgmental and hypocritical. He also shared some amazing stories of how God has been working in Long Beach MS, which is the area he has been working with the past two years. God is truly Good and Amazing.

This trip helped to increase the fire inside of me. I want to make a difference in this world with the time I have left. I want to bring the Eight Days of Hope attitude to this community and our church. I want more people to be so in love with Jesus that they do abnormal things. I want our church to show compassion to the hurting people in our community. I want to be Jesus with skin on. I hope many of you will join me.

Eight Days of Hope will be doing another trip later this year back to MS. They also will start doing shorter 4-5 day projects throughout the country. Probably two per year. The next one is scheduled for April or May in northern Mississippi.

Here are some more pictures from my experience. Enjoy!