Welcome to Lakeshore Baptist Church, Mississippi
A picture of a picture of the church and office before Katrina.
And after Katrina. There was over 30' of water in this area that took out every house and many trees.
A temporary meeting house under a blue tarp. The steeple and the pulpit were all that was salvaged.
The resurrected steeple. It is made of fiberglass and was buried under debris.
The present meeting house and office.
Attractive entrance
The resurrected pulpit
Amen!
Wil Matern and his improvised drum set
Wil and Wil. On the job site I called them Wil and Won't so they both did not respond to "Wil."
The west end of the sanctuary.
The west end of our hotel. A clever use of box containers. Divide them into small pods, add some bunks and you have a hotel.
A view down the hall. No room in the pods for a sofa so it's shared in the hallway.
A typical room; bunks on the left
Julie cleaning her space.
Always some time for fun
A view of the campus. Anything that is hollow and dry becomes a storage place. The pallets provide a board walk to various places on the campus. Wet Mississippi mud is not to be reckoned with!
Our MASH style dining facility is under the red tarp.
Walkway to "heaven."
The dining hall has a hundred or so t-shirts hanging that are signed by the various church groups who have been there.
AMEN!
The dining area.
Nothing too fancy about the plumbing here.
Bill Matern
Amy Leach
Some of the Massachusetts group.
Some t-shirts
more t-shirts
Our t-shirt hanging from the previous trip last November. We added our names to it.
Discussion and games after dinner.
Jen (maiden name Cunningham) and Rob and Linda. (From Mass.)
Craig, Wil, and Won't.
Wanted to make sure you saw our t-shirt.
The cooking galley (after Helen & Julie organized it!)
The bread pile before H&J cleaned it up.
More pantry in the form of a box trailer.
Pretty well stocked for our consumption.
Jen and Helen
Our first day was overcast and drizzle. The next 2 1/2 days was great weather.
Some motherly advice :)
Bill and Amy
A peek down the alley. Looks pretty bad but very functional.
Donations came from everywhere.
Two quonset huts. One for food distributiion and the other for clothes distribution. Wednesday thru Saturday is distribution time for locals to come pick out what they need.
Not very heavily populated out here.
A panoramic view of the campus.
Well equipped tool sheds for the volunteer workers.
More play time. Craig has a 4' stick buried in "quicksand."
He had to try it out.
And required assistance getting hauled out.
Before play time ended, they were all in it.
Scott getting suited up for his first day out on the job.
Mrs. Green's house is pretty well along. It's been under construction for about 1 1/2 years; all by volunteer help.
View of the slab where the owners lived prior to Katrina. Only the stairs remain.
This pile of trees is just one of at least a half dozen that were piled up after the storm.
Our van for the week.
Our job on this house was to finish siding the gable end. The siding material is called "Hardiplank" a concrete-based product. Not the easiest stuff to cut and apply.
Not my favorite place to be but I had to go up on the staging.
Just to prove that it's me!
On our last day we finished the gable end and got the facia trim board on. Hallelujah!
Mrs. Green, had to come out and thank us for the work we were doing on her home. Her husband has Parkinsons. They plan to install an elevator to get him up into the house.
Tourists visiting the former home site. Eileen, Jocelyn, and Julie.
Another home 99% complete that the team worked on in November.
Dedicated missionaries Margaret and Jackson Lewis. They live in Alabama and come to Lakeshore at least once a month for a few days.
The other home we worked on; "Miss Betty's"
Bill and Amy did a lot of sheetrock mudding along with Scott and Eileen and others. Bill and Scott could reach the ceilings without any assistance.
Crys Frederick did her share of mudding too.
Craig and Scott share an important moment; bonding on the job.
Julie and Miss Betty share a moment with some new kittens.
Some planters built for Miss Betty by teens from a previous group.
Wil playing King of the box cars.
And exiting quickly.
The Catholic church just up the road was wiped out too.
Some remaining stained glass.
The price of not wearing a hard hard; or no hat at all!
