Our last day...

This is just a brief update for trip to Mississippi.

It's our last full day of work; we'll leave very early tomorrow morning so we can get back to Miami tomorrow evening.

We've met soooo many needy people. It's been 3 years and thousands of people still live in FEMA trailers. There is despair and depression that i'm told follows catastrophes like this. Doug P, a leader on this trip, says that many people stopped living on August 29, 2005, there are just existing now. He's right.

Throughout the week our team gets many random "thank you's". Walking in Walmart (which is THE thing to do here) people have stopped our team members they saw get out of the CF bus and thank them, even though we have never been to there house. Homeowners break down into tears often...not just because they are glad for the work, but our team intentionally builds relationships with them and listens to their story. We aren't here just to fix houses, we want to see lives put back together.

Paul, one of our leaders, put a call from a homeowner on speakerphone for me to listen. She was sobbing. She explained that of all the teams that have come, no one has cared about her. She was so appreciative of our students and leaders who loved on her and "let her feel the presence of the Holy Spirit" in her house. That's awesome.

Some of the girls on my team have stopped drywalling the house to build a flower bed outfitted with all new flowers for our homeowner. They've invested in her all week and I am so stoked.

So now I border on rambling...but it's important to see the big picture here. Everyone gets physical labor done and everyone hears the Gospel.

More to come...