We first helped in the carrying of buckets-'Bucket of Hope' into the trailer. The buckets are donated by church members, filling it up with food stuff, toiletries etc. This is what it is inside the bucket.
We carried a lot of buckets to load up into the trailer. Packed about 120 buckets in it and few bags of quilts and bedsheets. We car pooled and went in trucks and vans. So, we left our car in the church. It was about a 45 mins ride to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Today, Hurricane Rita made landfall at Texas and Louisiana. It seems that it has caused flooding in these areas. So, the weather reports thunderstorms for the whole weekend in Mississippi and Mobile area as well. However, the whole day we were at Pascagoula, the weather was sunny and breezy. I was actually praying for good weather despite the report saying 100% chance of rain.
Anyway, our first stop was to this baptist church in Pascagoula. From the outside, I do not see much damage, but when we entered, you can see all the carpet and walls being ripped out due to the flooding. The pastor in the church mentioned that the water rised to 1 metre plus.
After touring the church a while to take a look at the damage, we helped to move boxes of donations to a room to sort it out and clear the sanctuary to prepare for service tomorrow.
We had to organise the donations into toiletries, baby stuff, food stuff etc..
After few hours of moving and sorting, we took a lunch break. Got out my burger I got from "Burger King" and ate. Got to know the rest better by talking during lunch in a circle and everyone shared their potato chips. It seems that for lunch, Americans like to eat potato chips with sandwiches and then end off with cookies. Interesting...but I quite like it as well. Ha..
After lunch, we mopped the floor to prepare for their service tomorrow. It was enjoyable as we talked and worked out our lunch by mopping and scrubbing with bleach.
After cleaning the floors, we went with some of our church members to visit the homes of the victims. But before that, we stopped by at another church as some of the members were there to help out to sort the donations there as well...and we wanted to talk to the pastor to ask him where is a good place to go that may need our 'buckets of hope'.
Entering the other church, we saw how the donations were sorted out and they jokingly said that this would bring Walmart out of business as there were a lot of donations and people would be allowed to come in a shop for free.
After visiting the church, we went to homes. There was this couple that striked me most as they totally lost their house and is living in a trailer. What was left on the plot of land was just a concrete slab. Travelling in the neighbourhood of the devastation was a messy place with lots of junk outside people''s house as they had to throw away their carpet, sofa, cabinets etc..because of the flood water damaging all of it.
So, we went to houses to distribute our "buckets of hope" to them and listened to their story. Before we left, we prayed for them and the couple was tearing as we prayed about how God will see them through. It was amazing seeing their happy and hopeful faces at the end of our prayer. I gave them a hug before I went back to the van as we went on to other places.
Seeing the devastion from CNN and actually visiting the sites personally is so different. Being there changes the atmosphere and you just feel so sad as we travelling down the roads looking at devastation-roofs collapsed..houses gone, rubble everywhere..etc..Here are some of the pictures I took..
We reached back church at 5pm and as we drove back home, the rain started pouring and it was so heavy that we could not see the cars in front. God really blessed us with good weather when we were in Pascagoula.
Went home and cooked spaghetti for dinner.
What a fruitful and eventful day!
1 comments:
Meaningful and encouraging. Thanks!!
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