2-year mark, Labor Day, and sweat!

While the school year has started and we've had a lull in the number of volunteer teams here, life here in Lakeshore has not been without excitement these past few weeks. Last Wednesday, August 29, marked two years since Hurricane Katrina destroyed this community and the larger Gulf Coast area. That night at church, Pastor Don spoke of how normally an anniversary is something celebrated and, while we do not really celebrate the storm itself, the work that God has done here in His people and through them (volunteers included, of course) in the community in the aftermath of the storm is truly something to be remembered so that God will be praised and glorified.

Over Labor Day two friends of mine from Louisville drove 11 long hours to visit me and see Lakeshore again. It was so good to see these friends, I am so thankful that they would spend the few days they had off for the holiday to come down here to visit and help. Also, Joel, who was here over the summer, came to visit, and we all had a great time. We worked, played Mexican Train Dominoes (very fun!), watched movies, went to New Orleans, and just spent good time together. It was sad to see them go, but made me thankful for God's sustaining grace in my life, this visit from friends being one of those graces!

Lastly, a funny, strangely ironic story. You see, there's this school gym that the county has let the church use for storage since the storm. There have been rumors for some time now that the gym would be torn down at any time in order to move forward with rebuilding the school. In the first few weeks I was here, I lead team after team in emptying the gym, no easy task with some of the items that were in there: industrial kitchen equipment, big sliding glass doors, steel pallets, and all manner of other things. Nevertheless, the teams were great and we got it emptied. It was such an accomplishment to me and I was sooooo happy! Then, the contractors who had begun working on clearing the land for the new school told us that they would not be tearing down the gym for about another 6 months. Great we said, we can put more stuff in it, and we did! Well, that didn't last for long because a few weeks ago we got a letter from the county saying that we needed to be out pronto. We called the contractors to try to get an extension or confirm when we did need to be out of the gym, and they said it was true, we have to be out by the 10th of September. So, for the past few days, since we don't have any volunteers here this week, Jamie and I have been sweating like crazy while working to clear out the gym! It's going pretty well and we will have some local people and maybe a few nearby churches help us finish up on Saturday. It would be easy to get frustrated about this back-and-forth game we've played concerning this gym, but it's all part of life here in Lakeshore: flexibility!! Instead, we laugh and get to work and I wanted to share this little laugh with you!!