Mission Team, Report #2

Our whole group from Christ Church are working in the town of Waveland, Mississippi, at the home of 75-year-old Bonnie Willingham. Her home ended up under nine feet of water; she and her dog Prince were in the attic when the floods came in. The entire interior of the house needs to be gutted and all of her belongings were ruined. She had some insurance money and donations to start rebuilding her house. UMCOR volunteers have been working on Bonnie’s house for about a month, and (along with the help of the Christ Church mission team) are getting close to having her moved back in. Grant is the master electrician. John is laying floor tiles. Jim and Carol are painting. T. Lewis is the locksmith. Rejoice is working back at the camp helping to feed the crowd of 200 volunteers. All the residents have been giving us great southern cooking for lunch. This is an amazing experience of personal fulfillment and service, seeing what’s been done and helping Bonnie get back into her house.

Most of the 200 volunteers are sleeping on air mattresses at a church in Ocean Springs; some of us are sleeping in tents on the church lawn. Imagine all of these people at Christ Church filling up every room! There are eight showers (four inside, four outside) for 200 people. Don’t ask about the hot water situation!

We all start heading home on Saturday!

John Jaruzel