Come on, get SOAPY!

When he arrived in Tennessee two years ago, our bishop encouraged the use of a Life Journal for scripture study and prayer. I was already using a Guide to Prayer from the Upper Room and found it hard to switch gears. But the bishop cranked it up a notch by taking the journal on-line. I've never seen anything so user friendly come out of the UMC. I'm loving it, check it out!

The Monastery X 6

I'm part of a group of pastors who have received a grant to study monastacism and sabbath. Each of us are visiting a different monastery somewhere in the States this year. You can follow our experiences of Methodist Monastics.

Jacob Armstrong has just posted thought from his experiences at Holy Trinity in Arizona.

Ocean Springs Day 3

Another great day of work.

My heart is with a good friend Nancy who has given much of herself to my daughter Gracie. She lost her husband this week. Her husband Sonny used to come over at Christmas time as his alter-ego Santa. He had a great heart and loved his wife very much. If you pray, please pray for Nancy.

Back in MS, we redid the floor we completed yesterday, the plumbing's done and most of the painting is done. I've learned that the adhesive used on floor tiles is quite sticky and I my fingertips are somewhere underneath the floor of a house in Ocean Springs.

The team member of the day is the Cumberland District Superintendant, Ron Lowery. To become a DS you must express great wisdom at the drop of a hat. So when asked to share a bit he said this, (brace yourself)

"Keep the line straight and don't let the paint drip."



That's Ron on the left and Chef Jim on the right.

Ocean Springs Day 2

Above is a picture of our team taking lunch on the front porch of the house we're working on. You can't really see it all, but the area behind the house is somewhat of sunken area. The waters from Katrina would have been over our heads and halfway to the roof.



We did some floor work today, and part of the team finished the plumbing. We're going to see a lot of change over the few days we're here, but as my bro-in-law Jeff pointed out, it's hard to realize we won't see it to completion.


And now for the team member of the day... It's Jim Ricketts. Jim owns his own contracting business in Chapel Hill so he's one who actually knows what he's doing around here. He's one of the greatest guys I've met in a long time, but I couldn't pin him down for a quote. So I'm forced to go with some things overheard throughout the day.



"Well, I'd be dipped!"

"I've been waylayed."

There are many others, but Jim is so busy serving God with the gifts he has, that it's hard to get to pen and paper fast enough!

PS Although I'm seated and laying down in the pictures above, I really do work!

Ocean Springs, MS

I'm in day one of working out of Camp St. Paul in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It's very exciting to be in this place that so many have called base camp while serving hurricane victims for much of the last 18 months.

My team started work on a home that is in the middle of town but backs up to a marshy meadow with a waterway flowing through it. It's beautiful. The house sits up high on the edge of the "swamp", most of the house is elevated high above the low ground before, yet still the waters of Katrina were waist high. It's hard to imagine how much work has already been done on the house, it's ready for flooring to go in, we put another coat of paint on and new plumbing is going in this week.



the full time workers at camp St. Paulo's say that the locals know who we are when they see us in town. They notice that we travel in clumps. The amazing thing is a guy at a rest stop just inside the Alabama state line recognized what were traveling for. Just because we were a group of guys heading south!

Here's a look into some of our crew...

Meet Larry Symons!



His thoughts on day one... "It amazes me how devastated people must have been...yet many people are fighting back and rebulding."

More on day 2...