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Mission Trip to Mississippi Gulf Coast June 9-16, 2007 Mission Trip Updates Check this page regularly during the week of June 9-16th as we will post daily updates, pictures and prayer requests from the team in Gulfport. Click here for more details about the mission trip and Hope City.
Friday, June 15, 2007 - 9:30pm We have finished our week of work here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and will begin the long trek back home at 3:30am tomorrow. We're heading to bed in just a few minutes to make sure the drivers can get at least 5 hours of sleep before the 3am wake up call. While there is still more work to be done for all of the families we served, we were able to make a significant investment at five different houses, and even fixed the roof of a box truck here at Hope City. You could tell the families were very grateful. Below is a picture of the family that is waiting to move into the house our team insulated and drywalled this week. There are 5 or 6 of them living in a trailer that only 500 sq. ft or so! They've been in that trailer for a year and were in a smaller one for 6 months or so before that. Needless to say, they can't wait to get into their new home!
After cleaning camp tonight, we finished the week by spending some time on the beach worshiping the Lord together, encouraging one another and praying. It was a fitting end to a great week! We were able to serve in meaningful ways and were challenged from Scripture - and by our surroundings - to find our joy in Christ, not in our circumstances.
Thursday, June 14, 2007 - 10:00pm It's hard to believe that we are already at the end of our week here in Gulfport. Tomorrow is our final day of work for this trip. People are definitely getting tired. It was harder to get people moving and it was much quieter in camp this morning. Nevertheless, we worked hard today. Matt's crew is almost finished at their site and may get to do a smaller job at another site on Friday. Richie's crew is getting closer, but they have continued to find more work that needs to be done each step of the way (repairing poor drywall work from a previous team, having to run new plumbing throughout the house, etc). Tom Books spent some time at each site today giving drywall/mudding instructions. Tom's crew will finish hanging drywall Friday morning and should have a coat of mud on the entire house before leaving. We also had a crew start repairing the roof of HCRN's box truck today. Someone had damaged it by running it into the branch of the tree and splitting the fiberglass roof. Friday will be a busy day as we wrap up our work assignments and prepare to travel home on Saturday. After dinner we have to clean all of the trailers, bathrooms and showers. Then we'll finish our trip by worshipping together on the beach and sharing stories and encouragements from the week. We'll head to bed early to get ready for our 3:00am wakeup on Saturday morning. Hopefully we will be home between 8:00-9:00pm. Most of the team will be at both worship services on Sunday and a few people will share some details from the week. I will try to post one more update Friday evening. See you Sunday! Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - 10:30pm Thankfully, today was a little cooler. That enabled us to keep working hard at our jobsites. Matt's crew has made a lot of progress. Check out the before and after pictures for the bathtub below! They will continue working on plumbing and finishing work on Thursday.
Richie's crew set a tub today (see below) and continued working on mudding and sanding drywall. They will be at their site for the rest of the week. They had to get into the crawlspace to do some plumbing and were a little afraid of snakes. Sheri had something crawl across her leg while she was under the house - but it was only a lizard, not a snake!
Tom's crew is getting closer to finishing hanging drywall. Tom and a few others started mudding today. We hope to finish hanging drywall tomorrow. Bob and Kelly should finish the handicap ramp they've been working on tomorrow, as well (see picture below). Then they can join in the fun of mudding and sanding!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - 10:30pm It's almost bedtime, but I wanted to post a quick update. The team is encouraged to know people back home are checking the website and keeping tabs on us. We had 80 visitors to the website on Sunday and 100 on Monday! Thanks for stopping by!
We had a storm come through at the end of the day that cut our work short by about 30 minutes. After the storm, we had a very mild and beautiful evening. After dinner we met with our cabins for group discussions about the work we've been doing and about our study of Philippians this week. While we are here to serve others and work hard, this week also provides a great opportunity for us to grow spiritually and learn from God's word. Pray that God would make us more like Christ and that we would model His humility, willingness to serve and obedience. Monday, June 11, 2007 - 8:30pm
Matt and Richie's crews repaired interior walls and will work on plumbing and electrical tomorrow. The crew at the new home site was surrounded by insulation and drywall (see pictures above). They are also digging trenches for drain pipes and building a handicap ramp. Tomorrow we hope to hang as much drywall as possible and will begin mudding. We are very thankful to have Jan Nowling and Joan Kline here in Gulfport to provide our meals! They are working hard - in fact they are working more hours than anyone else each day - and they are taking very good care of us! Their care and home-cooked meals will enable us to have the energy and nutrition we need to work hard. 
We will post another update tomorrow evening. We also plan to have a slideshow of pictures at the beginning of the worship services on Sunday. Thanks for checking in and keeping tabs on us!
 Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 10:00pm We are wrapping up our first full day in Gulfport. It was a great day of bonding as a group, preparing for our work assignments and touring the area to see what progress is being made in the recovery efforts. We were blessed to be able to visit with George & Gloria, a family we had framed a house for last July. They invited the whole team over to see the finished house (see the above picture) and enjoy some homemade gumbo. We will be working on three jobs to start the week. Please pray for our work crews and team leaders. Matt Wilhelm will be leading a crew of people doing some plumbing and a bathroom renovation job. Richie Day will lead a crew in renovating a bathroom and doing some drywall work for another family. Tom Books, Kelly Stephens and Bob Jones will lead a crew of 15 people doing insulation and drywall work in one of the new homes that HCRN is building. We were able to preview and prepare for the jobs today so we can start work as soon as we arrive onsite tomorrow morning. Monday through Friday will all look pretty much the same for our team. We'll wake up at 6:00am to have time for devotions and breakfast before heading to our worksites. We will work from 8:00am until 5:00pm each day. We'll have dinner at 6:00pm, followed by a combination of free time, group discussions or team meetings. Bedtime is at 10:30pm each night. We will be working through the book of Philippians for our devotions and Bible study this week. The book is full of teaching on themes that are very appropriate for this mission trip: joy in the midst of difficult circumstances, humility, servanthood, contentedness, commitment to Christ, etc. Feel free to read along with us this week!  Sunday, June 10, 2007 - 7:30am Good morning from
Mississippi! After a 2-hour delay due to a frayed drive belt
on one of the vehicles, the team arrived safely in Gulfport on
Sunday night around 8:00pm CST. We woke up this morning to beautiful and peaceful weather. I took the above picture from Hope City this morning. Today will be a lighter day for the team. This was the only morning we were able to sleep in (which is helpful after 17 hours on the road yesterday). Jan and Joan are preparing a brunch for the team at 10:00am. Some members of the team are going to worship with Kevin Moss at a local church at 9:00am. After touring the area to see how the recovery efforts are going, we will go to visit a family that we framed a house for during the trip last summer. They were able to move into the home in February and have invited us over to see it and to eat gumbo! We'll spend the remainder of the day preparing for our work assignments and resting. It is going to be very hot this week, so please pray for the team. It looks like we'll be doing a lot of drywall work and a few other projects, as well. We'll know for sure later and will post an update. Thanks to everyone
who is praying for us and supporting us back home! I hope the
updates and pictures will help you to feel like a part of the team.
We couldn't be here without you.
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2007 First Baptist Church Mission Team
We made more progress at all of our sites today. Matt's crew
may be able to finish up Wednesday and move to another job on
Thursday. They keep running into challenges that have slowed
them down. Pray that they would have all of the tools and
parts that they need to finish the job on Wednesday. Richie's
crew spent the day continuing the bathroom remodel and sanding
drywall. They will probably be at the same site for the entire
week. Tom's crew will finish insulating the interior walls on
Wednesday and will begin the process of mudding while some team
members continue to hang drywall. Kelly Stephens and Bob Jones
should finish the handicap ramp on Wednesday, as well. Adam
Sipe has been helping hang drywall on the ceilings. He doesn't
have to use a ladder to drive the screws, but his shoulders are
getting sore!
We've finished our first day of work and most of us are beat!
The heat was intense and draining, but we worked hard and were able
to accomplish quite a bit - with no injuries or trips to the
hospital! Hopefully it's not a bad omen, but our largest crew
is just a few blocks from a local hospital. Pray that we don't
have to make any trips there this week!
We were greeted in camp
by Kevin Moss, the Volunteer Coordinator for Hope Crisis Response
Network. Monte and Kim Brenneman, who have taken over
operations at the Hope City Camp, were back in Indiana due to the
sudden loss of Kim's father to a heart attack a week ago.
Please pray for the Brenneman family as they grieve and take care of
details back home. Pray for Kevin, also, as he is spending
extra time away from family to fill in for the Brennemans.