Rainy day travels still!

11 May 10 – 17 May 10

Take care of forgotten business first – Meghan and Becca – we know you liked the alligator pictures so while we were in New Orleans we had alligator with our dinner. Ask your mother what it tastes like – snake and all the other things without a definitive taste. Chicken.

Another week with a move in it and another drive in the rain. So much for clean vehicles on the road. South Carolina and then Virginia this week. Again not near as many site seeing places and we have not been going everyday to do something.

We had a few really hot days – low 90s and barely 70 overnight. I'm sure you are enjoying the warm after the winter Ohio has had. We will be in Ohio in a couple of weeks – it will be a joy to see friends and get back to Pastors teaching and preaching. We have found we are not Baptists nor Church of Christ nor any of those other denominations I could think of – yet I love Christ even after all the bad/incorrect preaching.

I will have to go back and glean for pictures again this week. Next week we will be in Gettysburg, PA so will have pictures and stories.

Pictures:

NO it is not a rice field – Crayfish pond between LA and TX - we did not try them
Knees in the river
Houseboat remnants of Katrina - Pascagoula River MS
Miriam with her new girl friend – NO
Joan-of-Arc in New Orleans

Not paradise yet!

4 May 10 – 10 May 10

As a fellow said to me as I was walking - “Another day in paradise.” My only argument with that is paradise is heaven and not earth, but it has been a glorious week in SC. A little warm for a couple of days, yet not completely unbearable. Friday and Saturday were in the 90s and we lived through.

We were in Townville, SC so I called a cousin living in Woodruff, SC and we spent a wonderful afternoon visiting with John and Carol Wells. Caught up on all the family things since the last reunion and all the new new things happening in the lives of their family. We will see them again the end of next month in Columbiana.

We go on to Dillon, SC for the week end and start of next week. It seems we do not have the places to see interesting things or maybe I am getting lazy. We did get the RV washed on Saturday. What a job for a couple of young men. We could not get back to Ohio with as much southern dirt as we had. It seems that every time we move it is a drive in the rain day for part of the trip.

Our trip from AL through GA to SC was rain all day. We drove through Atlanta, GA in the pouring rain, what a treat when you are not sure when to turn and which lane to be in. I guess they needed the rain though. This was part of the rain that caused all the bad flooding in TN. TN is one of the states we will miss going through as we circle back to OH.

Because of tornado pictures last week I will catch up with MS pictures. We have seen a number of lighthouses on our trip so thought I should use one. What do you do with trees destroyed in a hurricane? Why use the remnants as sculpture, of course. The geese were in the lake at the park we stayed in. They included three pair – we named them 1 – 3 – 5 for the number of goslings they had.

This will be up late as the wifi here isn't fast enough for picture upload. Will do it when we get to NC on Wednesday.

Pictures:
Lighthouse
Birds sculpture
Dolphin sculpture
Osprey – with fish – head first of course
Geese

Yazoo City, MS Disaster

27 April 10 – 3 May 10

Just a short note about us this week. We arrived in Long Beach, MS, with the intention of continuing on to Dothan, AL, with the change of plans we went to Yazoo City, MS.

We went for a ride up a river – around in a marsh and saw some beautiful scenery. Nothing spectacular but it had not been damaged by Katrina and was in full bloom. For you farmers up north – corn in the field is about 6 to 10 inches tall already. The flowers are almost past their prime for color but everywhere it is colorful. When we continue on we will be going to Talladega, AL for a couple of days then on to SC.

We arrived about 25 miles from Yazo City and stayed. When we went over to the disaster area it would make you cry. We talked with the Pastor of the church, he was in his office just before to storm hit, and was led by the Lord to find refuge under the Communion Table in the sanctuary. After the storm he called family and told them he was alright, but buried under debris. He started breaking dry wall(sheet rock) toward what he thought was the top. He had worked his way out about the same time family arrived to start digging to find him.

Our intention when we started this way was to spend a week helping with cleanup and whatever we could do. When we arrived we could see we were NOT going to be very effective. They had had a backhoe move a bunch of the girders and they salvaged everything salvageable before we arrived. I, Ray, was there on Friday morning and talked with the Pastor again. They had logistical problems they were trying to get ironed out – a local contractor was coming in to remove all the debris and haul it to the landfill at no cost. He could not get his 18 wheelers to the landfill because of low wires. It was supposed to rain for 3-4 days and we were not going to be effective. It was just to early so we continued on our journey.

I did take a bunch of pictures that will be all I use this week. In traveling around the town the only non-secular ministries I saw were – God Squad, from GA,a ministry and part of Campus Crusades for Christ – Seventh Day Adventists had a semi-trailer with showers. The only secular agencies were the Red Cross – AT&T – Tyson Chicken(I do not know what the had, but the trailer was there) and Walmart (distributing water).

It was amazing to see the mailbox at the front of the parking lot while the building was leveled.
The pile of rubble in the center of one picture was where the Pastor was buried.
Flag poles - bent but not broken.
The railing in the front was installed last year.

This church will need a lot of prayer – donations – monetary and labor/materials – to recover. This would make a great mission trip/work project for motivated youth groups this summer. Pray for them.

Sorry about the sermon, but I felt I needed to say something.