Pictures

As promised, here are some of the pictures of the houses at the end of 2007! I dont have all of the houses on here because I havent gotten around to uploading the pictures from my camera...but here are the ones I have.



Top: Miss Dorothy's House
Middle: Miss Jerry's House
Bottom: Miss Laura's House

Final Week

I'm very sorry about the lack of updates this week. I've been soaking up time with people before we all disperse for Christmas. It has made for some late nights!

This group has been small but mighty. We have accomplished a lot this week. One of the major projects was organizing the big shed at camp. The paint is all up on shelves, the scaffolding has a rack, the nuts and bolts are in little bucket shelves and there is a pile of cabinets in the middle. It looks so much better and life is so much easier in the morning. It's just too bad we didnt do this when we first arrived!

As far as the houses go there was a massive push on to get both Blassingames and Browns' roofs and porches and stairs put on this week. There is a little bit to go for each but the work is essentially done and it will be finished tomorrow. Dorothy's house also moved forward this week. The electricians were around wirig the house, Shelley and Steve placed duct work so the drywallers can go ahead, and Ivan and Jim are in the midst of building stairs for her porches. Her brother is going to do the siding over Christmas and the house is now ready for him to go ahead with that.

We also had two crews of gofers. Curt and Howie were the shopping gofers and made countless trips to Lowes and Home Depot for Alvie. Shelley and Linda were the site gofers. We renamed that crew MDS-UPS. "Always on call". They loaded and unloaded and loaded and unloaded and loaded and unloaded the F150 more times than anyone cares to remember.

We also managed to finish Laura Dedeaux's house this week and had the dedication for that today! It was a nice small affair that was held right at the house. The Mississippi Power guys showed up around 4 and were working on hooking up the electricity when the dedication started at 4.30pm. When they finished the crowd gave them a roaring round of aplause and went to turn on lights throughout the house. It was pretty exciting.

Tomorrow will be finishing up those staircases at all three houses and cleaning up the sites. Everything will be coming back to camp to be locked up for the break and all of the sites will be left clean.

In other news, a rodent of some sort has taken up residence in the girls trailer where Shelley is staying alone. Traps have been set but we are still working on catching it. It got the bait off of two of the traps last night so we set them more sensitivly tonight so hopefully there will be some snapping! Also, the Canadians brought home a new sort of treat from the Shell station a couple of nights ago. A small cat followed them home and has taken up residence at the MDS camp. We named her (?) Lassie since the whole way home she was mewing and scouting for danger. She was skiddish, but has become very affectionate toward most of the volunteers.

As tomorrow is my last day for both the blog and at Pass Christian I doubt I will post anything tomorrow. Thank you to all of the volunteers who have come to Pass Christian to help out. Each week was fun and exciting in its own way and there was never a dull moment! I will post pictures of each house as we left it sometime after I get home. Merry Christmas.

Weekend Fun

We had a busy weekend! On Friday it was Christmas in the Pass. They shut down Davis Street and set up little vendors and decorated and had some performances by various bands. Shaggy's sponsored a boat parade. There were 8 boats decked out in lights that paraded along the coast. Apparently that is twice as much as last year so it is a sign of rebuilding. The gazebo in the park has a large Christmas tree in it now. Unfortunately it blows the breaker every 3 minutes.

Saturday the long termers had their monthly outting. We had to drop off a truck and the big white trailer at the New Orleans MDS Unit so we made a day of it. After dropping by the new building and the convent where they are currently staying we left the truck and took off for the French Quarter. We went to the Imax show and saw Hurricane on the Bayou. It was very interesting and there were some heart wrenching images. We also toured through the Aquarium. It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

From there the group split into two's and three's and wandered up and down the streets. Quite a few ended up at Cafe du Monde to have coffee and bisquetts. Alvie, Joyce, Howie, and Curt hopped on the trolly and rode it all the way to the end and back! They said it was quite fun. We decided that we would start driving home to find dinner and ended up at a Mexican restaurant in Bay St. Louis. It was good food and they had two men with guitars singing for the tables. We had them sing for us and since it was Rebecca's birthday the next day they sang Happy Birthday especially for her.

Sunday we went to the Baptist church again. There was a baby dedication, communion, and Alvie and Hank made a presentation of the money that we raised / had donated for their food program (which is resuming Jan. 9). Lunch was at Shaggy's. After the orientation meeting we had cake, flowers, and hot wings for Rebecca's birthday.

The new group is from Ohio again and, though it is a small group, they should be great volunteers! Thanks to last week's group...i've never laughed so hard because of one liners in my life!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

This week seems to be flying by! This morning was the weekly tour around Pass. As usual the shrimp boat was the highlight for most people. We also had our guest speaker in tonight. This week it was Jerry Brown, who we are building a house for on St. Paul Ave. Her story was a little different from the others that we've heard because she was working at a nursing home with 180 residents and had to stay with the residents (who were moved to nursing homes further inland). It was pretty crazy!

As far as the work goes...the deck on the Blassingam house have been started. The roof on the Brown house will be getting shingles tomorrow. Miss Laura's house has most of the floor in as well as a lot of the baseboards. The finish painting has begun there as well. We are still aiming to dedicate that house on Friday but it's going to require some intense work to be ready in time. Dorothy's home still needs the plumber and work has halted there for the time being. The priests house recieved the first coat of white paint today. The painters will return there tomorrow for a final day, but they are leaving one gable end for a group that is coming down that really wants to do some of the painting on this house.

The painters had lunch at the beach today as a special treat. The men became jealous so we are planning a group lunch for tomorrow so that everyone has some fun.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

We have been having some internet connection issues the past few days so I apologize for the lack of updating, but we seem to be running well now.

This weekend our wonderful cooks from Winnipeg went home. They finished their term of duty with a great clean up meal. Their quiet, serving presence is greatly missed by the long termers. However, on Saturday our new cooks arrived and have kept the main building in such an uproar that we have to shush THEM at 10.00! Peon and Cindy are sisters out of pennsylvania and attend the same church as one of the groups that was down a few weeks ago. Yes Jane, they are a hoot!

This week group is from Ohio again. They are a lot quieter than last week's group, but no less fun or hard working. This group really likes the late night ice cream snack!

As for the houses...Miss Laura's house is now slightly ahead of schedule. The ceramic floor was supposed to take all of today and some of tomorrow to set, instead it is set and some of the lamenate floor is done already. So now the finish painter and the cleaners can go in late tomorrow and thursday to get their work done in time for the dedication on Friday.

The Brown residence on St. Pauls Ave. is coming together. The men were able to sheet the sides and begin the porch. Miss Jerry stopped by to see the house. She started up the ladder but decided that she'd maybe wait until there were stairs available before she went inside the house.

The Blassingame house (henderson ave) is also waiting for a porch, which has been planned out now by Hank.

The painting crew took on some extra work for this week. They returned to Miss Rosie's house and painted the interior columns. They also repainted her trim that was scuffed when the furniture was moved in. All that is left there is to wrap the aluminum around the exterior columns. Hopefully we can tear Rudy away from St. Pauls for a day to finish that up this week. The rest of the crew went to paint the soffet and facsia on a house that is being built for the priest of the Mother of Mercy Catholic Church (the cute white one with the steeple on E. Railroad St.). Though it does not look like much was finished today the women were moving very quickly. We expect 1.5 to 2 days to finish that job. In the morning they also managed to get the trim painted for Dorothy's house.

Storm Aid has reopened their unit in Pass and they are setting the foundation for MDS' next project (across from the Catholic church). Storm Aid is the Amish version/sister organization of MDS. We are very glad to have them doing that for us while we finish up Miss Laura's house.

Pictures

Corey has created a webpage with everyone's pictures from last week and has sent the link so I am passing it on to all of you. Enjoy!

http://www.ruffer.net

Thanks again to all of the Ohio volunteers who came last week. We had a lot of fun with each of you...especially the card games!

Dedication

This week was an extra special week for MDS as we finished and dedicated two houses on Thursday, November 30. It was a very exciting and emotional event.

David Sn. and David Jr. recieved a wall hanging, comforter, bible, occupancy permit, and the keys to their new house on Morton St. Edgar and Louise Ladner recieved the same for their new house on Flietas Ave. The mayor of Pass Christian, the president of the Rotary Club (who paid for these two houses), the case worker that assigned the houses to us, and the local Catholic priest were in attendance. This week's volunteers and the families filled the room. The program began with an invocation, the pledge of alliegence and the Canadian national anthem (since MDS is a binational organization and so many Canadians have helped with the houses). The five Canadian volunteers sang their anthem...until the last line when everyone was able to join in since it's simply a repetition of the line before. It worked out well. After the ceremony there were cookies and drinks available, then everyone was invited to tour the houses.

Seeing the finished houses with the families standing in them with the keys was increadible. It made every frustration, missed nail, and early morning worth it! Here are some pictures!

David Dedeaux - Morton Street

The Ladners - Flietas Avenue

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

I attempted to add a post yesterday, complete with pictures, but the internet failed me at the last moment and the post failed. Sorry about that!

Anyway it is midweek now and we are working toward the weekend already! Tomorrow is the house dedication ceremony for Mr. David and Mr. and Mrs. Ladner. Both houses merely need to be cleaned and have some last minute details finished. It should be a really good and exciting day.

As for the other houses... Miss Laura's house has been painted on the exterior and the ladies continue to work on painting the bottom of the house. The counter tops are the next job inside the house. The concrete was poured at the Brown house on Tuesday so today was finishing the floors and framing the house. Travis' house was on pause today as the majority of our workers focused on finishing our dedication houses. Dorothy has spindles on the front porch, bath tubs, and now the frame of a back deck. We are still waiting for the plumber to get going on Dorothy and Travis' houses.

Our meals have been great. Tonight for dinner Rosette (the first client of MDS in Pass Christian after the hurricane) made us jumbalia. It was wonderful! Everyone loved it. The Canadian's provided the after dinner entertainment when they were asked to sing 'O Canada' for the Americans so that they could hear it once before the dedication ceremony. They will be repeating the performance at the dedication. It should be fun.

Here are pictures of Dorothy's house as Dawna requested. There are now doors and the spindles are actually finished.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Another week has begun! This week we have a large group from Ohio. This group is from Curt, Joyce and Alvie's home church. It is definately going to be a loud and fun week! The card games started sunday morning before church and almost everyone stuck around after dinner tonight to play games (or work on quilts).

This big of a group also means that we can have crews on every house PLUS a whole crew of gofers, and a personal driver for Alvie AND a crew of quilters. It also means that we should be able to easily meet our deadline of Thursday for the two house dedications (Flietas and Morton).

Both of those houses are getting very close to completion. Fleitas has been finished inside and we're just doing the last bits of finishing work on the exterior. Morton St. is a little bit behind that but tomorrow the final painting is being done on the stilts. Miss Laura's house on Courtnay Ave. is next in line for completion (hopefully by the time we shut down for Christmas). The floor tiles should be going in later this week. Travis' house on Henderson is still flying along. The siding people were visiting today. Work on the Role's home has been stopped temporarily. Last week we didnt have the people so this week we should be able to continue covering the stilts and hopefully finish that job. The Brown home on St. Pauls is getting it's concrete poured tomorrow now that the columns are ready to go. Dorothy's house is back in business as the duct man was there this weekend and the crew for this week has started on the porches and the bathrooms. Pictures are on their way for Dawna.

Finally our menu! Breakfast was a standard eggs, bacon, and toast affair. Apparently there was supposed to be oatmeal but in the rush of things it got forgotten. No one really noticed though because everything else was so good. Dinner this evening was pork, potatoes, peas, and coleslaw. For dessert one of our short termers baked apple, cherry, and key lime pies for everyone. It was all very delicious!

In a funny turn of events, we have found a matchmaker to beat Joyce! Cloyce has taken it upon himself to get one of the 4 eligible young men in his group hooked up with Shelley. Lots of people are getting in on the act but they are meeting a strong defense. So it will be a hard fought battle of wills but I'm sure that I will overcome them.

Link

http://www.wlox.com/global/story.asp?s=7398090

That is the link to the script of the news story on MDS from last night. Curt watched it and said that there was video of people on ladders and painting and generally working and then clips from the interviews. I assume that the quotes in the text were where the video clips were played of the people making those comments.

As for the work today, it was another good day and we're getting very close to finishing the house on Fleitas. The trucks are clean and it's time to relax.

Thank you to all of the Nappanee volunteers. We had a lot of fun with you.

Thanksgiving

The "Laura Tree" at Courtnay Ave from earlier this week.
The news people at Flietus this afternoon.
Our Thanksgiving feast. Happy Thanksgiving to our American volunteers!

Since today was a holiday we decided to shut down the sites early (at 3.oo) and have the picture tour after work today. Dinner was at 5.00 and Shirley and Frank went all out and made an amazing turkey dinner complete with all the fixin's. Joyce went to the Family Dollar and got candles so we had a "romantic" dinner as Orrin remarked. After dinner most of the group played various card games or did crafts. There was a LOT of laughter and food tampering is suspected.

In terms of work today, we made progress as usual. The exciting thing was when the crew at Fleitus noticed a car pull up. It turns out the local Biloxi tv news station wanted to do a story on us! So they got a few shots of people working and interviewed Leon, Shelley, and Curt. That airs tonight at 10.00. It is also on their website and as soon as I get that I will put a link on here for you.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

We are now past the middle of the week. So far it has been a much quieter week than last week, but no less fun. For devotionals tonight we decided to go out... to the drag races! Most of the volunteers climbed into the silver van (driven by Shelley) and headed out to Gulfport to see Mr. Roles at the races. After an amusing van ride where the Canadians tried to explain what the Grey Cup was and the different rules of the CFL (our version of the superbowl and NFL for the american readers), we arrived at the races. Then we sat in the van staring at the big CLOSED sign on the gate. It turns out that there was too much rain today and the races had been cancelled for the night. So we pulled a u-turn and headed back to camp for a coke run. Maybe we'll do devotionals tomorrow instead.

In terms of work progress, the brown residence now has it's columns completed. The cement people are coming on Tuesday. While they're here they will be pouring at Fleitus as well since the lift is now in. The plan is to have the house dedications for both Fleitus and Morton a week from tomorrow so we have a lot of work to do yet but hopefully we can get it done with some concentrated effort. The house on Courtnay Ave. is coming along quickly as well. The kitchen cabinets are all in, and one of the bathrooms has all of it's vanities. There were some set backs, including a broken mirror and the wrong type of vanity, that prevented the second bathroom from being similarly completed. The doors and frames are just about all painted with their first coats. A second coat will definately be necessary.

Finally (the part you are all really reading this for)... Frank and Shirley made a beautiful dinner of stew, salad, and rolls today. For dessert we had pudding and left over ice cream cake. We are truly blessed!

Tuesday November 20, 2007

Today was an exciting day in Pass Christian. It was Miss Laura Dedeaux's 80th birthday today. She, along with 6 or 7 of her 10 children and some grandchildren arrived at the house on Courtnay to look around and plant a "Laura tree". So the three who were working at hanging doors and cabinets (Orrin, Minerva, and Shelley) joined the ceremony and took pictures for the family. It was so neat to meet so much of the family and talk to them.

At the brown residence the columns are going up fairly quickly. The hope has been to get the cement poured tomorrow because the workers dont want to do it thursday or friday (due to Thanksgiving) so we'll see how that goes.

Otherwise there have been some rousing games of eucher going and a full out battle has begun, that will most likely last till the end of the week.

Monday, November 19, 2007

As Derek has requested here is a sample of the pictures that I have from Pass from the last two weeks. The first is of Larry after our "quiet" mennonite girls attacked him with silly string. The pranks just kept coming last week. The second picture is of Shirley and Frank when we went out for a buffet dinner Friday night with the Saskatchewan group. Below that is Les and the mennonite girls flying kites in the battle of Canada vs. Pennsylvania. To the left is Shelley and Eileen after their paint fight at the Roles home. Although it LOOKS like Eileen won, Shelley managed to put two hand prints on Eileens back so it's really a toss up.

The weekend went well. Saturday was relaxing as everyone did their own thing. Steve and Shelley went out for lunch and book shopping. Joyce and Alvie went to Walmart, and Jay and Rebecca took off as well (I'm not sure where to). For dinner Laura Dedeaux and a large portion of her children, grand children, and great grand children came to our camp and cooked us a fish fry. There were three types of trout, all of which were caught earlier in the day by Mr. Albert Dedeaux. I believe the men are all hoping to get some fishing in with Mr. Albert sometime this week. Miss Laura's house is the one on Courtnay Avenue that has recently been painted on the interior.

Sunday we went to the Episcipal church that Jay and Rebecca like. It was their Thanksgiving lunch after the service. Some stayed and some went to Long Beach for lunch. For the third Sunday in a row the long term volunteers recieved Communion. We must be in good standing now! Also, our new construction foreman, Henry, arrived Sunday afternoon. He is from Winnipeg, Manitoba and apparently worked for Dick for many years so we are glad to have him.

This week we have a small group again. Five people have come from Indiana to help us. There were supposed to be 10, however a tornado went through their area last week and some of the team members were unable to come because their business was damaged. Those that came anyway are greatly appreciated and they understand disaster so I think there will be some good conversations in the week to come. Unfortunately, since there is such a small group we are only able to get a two houses at a time so progress is somewhat slowed.

The flooring is in at Mr. Lander's house on Fleitus so hopefully we can have that one finished up this week and have it dedicated for Thanksgiving.

Thank you to all of the Lancaster PA volunteers for such a fun and high energy week.

Friday November 16, 2007

Well folks, sorry about the lack of posting lately. Due to oddities in internet availability each night when I tried to get online I was without a signal.

The week ended well. A lot was accomplished and by the end of the week there was some scrambling for jobs for all of the people present. Les managed to get the shingles on Travis and Penny's house a day early, the painters finished painting every available surface, and Dorothy's house is moving right along.

Most of the volunteers left this afternoon, among them was Sylvia (who I hear is currently stuck in traffic in Alabama on I10). It was an extremely tearful parting, but we do wish her the very best. On Monday Steve will be leaving us to move to Winnipeg. We are sorry to see him go but do understand why.

Even as we are losing people more are coming. Yesterday a man named Rudy arrived from Waterloo, Ontario to join us for four weeks. We are very glad to have him with us.

The food has been excellent this week and our cooks have definately earned their break! Hopefully we will have a great week again next week.

Tuesday Novemeber 13, 2007

Today was a good day for all of the crews. The painters were able to complete the interior of the Courtnay Street house, as well as 3/4 of the exterior of a random house (not one of MDS's) that needed some help, and about half of the green trim.

All of the teams have made significant progress on their projects and are starting to require more work.

The young old order mennonite girls have really come out of their shells today. As they were painting the exterior house they talked with the man who owns it and listened to his stories from the hurricane. Then at dinner all of the girls sat at a table with Les, and the giggling never stopped. Wilma in particular was in top wit form as she bantered with Les. The table had so much fun that the other tables became jealous.

There were two vehicle mishapes today. Larry thought that he was about to miss his driveway and slammed his brakes. As he did so the 2x4's in the bed of his truck went sliding out onto the street "like toothpicks". Across town, Shelley was attempting to turn around on a narrow street in her grey van when she realized that she had slide into the ditch. She walked back to the Morton Street house to get some of the lads to come give her a push. When they walked back there was a backhoe coming down the road from the "jail crew" down the road ready to give her a hand out of the ditch. Both mishapes were quickly dealt with and no damage was done, but two faces were very red.

The meals today were amazing as usual. Breakfast was pancakes with a huge vat of apple sauce. Dinner was (FINALLY) spaghetti and meat sauce with ceaser salad. Our cooks are amazing.

Monday November 12, 2007

Today was definately a monday. At least it was for the painting crew. We didnt quite finish everything we had hoped to get done, but we are one living room away from having the entire house on courtnay street 1st layered. The hope is that tomorrow the entire 2nd coat will get on the walls as well. In addition they crew managed to get the trim that is sitting at Morton Street painted green. Just as it seemed they were finished Curt notified the leader that there was in fact a whole new skid newly arrived!!

There were crews on all of the houses today, and hopefully that will continue for the rest of the week. We certainly have the man power. The flietus house was completely cleaned by our ladies crew. They even scrubed the floors! Morton Street was also scrubed out this afternoon.

There are three crews at Dorothy Landers house. One on the porch, one on the doors and windows, and one on interior walls. So progress is flying there.

The newest house, on Henderson, is coming along. Les is heading up that effort with the help of Steve as they race to fulfill Les' promise to have the shingles on by friday at noon. Today they put up the floor. A new batch of 2x6's came in for that to continue.

Finally Morton St. had a constant flow of people today as two of the younger lad's worked on closing in the tops of the stilts, two finishing carpenters worked upstairs on the many details that were missing there, ladies cleaned, more ladies painted, and supervisors arrived regularly with supplies and instructions.

Finally, the meals... breakfast was Shirley's amazing keish. Supper was pork, salads (2 kinds), baked potatoes, and a bean casserole. For dessert we had pecan pie and shoofly pie, both of which were brought by some of our wonderful short termer's from Lancaster County, PA.

In other news, we had numberous spider sightings! Two were of the brown recluse spider (the poisonous one). One was found under a board by Susie one a site. The other was found in the girls dorm in Shelley's bedroom. Yesterday a girl was bitten by something (though we think it wasn't anything dangerous) while napping so the entire girls dorm is going to be "bombed" tomorrow as soon as it is cleared out so that by 5.00pm everyone should be safe to return.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Well our new week began with an exciting day! When our long termers finally rolled out of bed for breakfast and church they were greeted by a bus full of mennonites from Lancaster County, PA. The early arriving group agreed to join the long termers at the Black Southern Baptist church for the morning. Did we ever make a funny picture! However, the congregation was most welcoming and remembered that we are all of one body and that it was a privilage to have so many diverse people worshipping together.

The service was wonderful. The congregation has so much passion and excitement and energy. The organ was played by the choir director who also managed to play AND direct her choir! Quite the feat! The preacher used Romans 12:1-2 and talked to us about being living sacrifices by giving our body, our mind, and our will fully to God. I know I was moved by it, and judging by the reactions of those around me I wasnt the only one.

So after church we had about 30 people to feed so Shirley and Frank whipped up a weiner roast! A fire was built behind the main lodge and a table was set with chips, baked beans, casserole, and of course weiners and we were fed. The boys from the young group made a game of tug-of-war only they were on top of logs. It was apparently quite fun. After the meal half of the first group to arrive continued on their way to Diamond where they will be spending the week and Dave from Saskatchewan arrived. This week we are a group of 36 so I believe all of the houses will have crews so we ought to be able to accomplish quite a lot.

Thanks to the volunteers from last week for their generous attitudes and hard work. I will attempt to procure pictures from some of the other volunteers in the next couple of days.

Welcome

This blog has been created for those long and short term volunteers who have spent time at Pass Christian, Mississippi. I will do my best to update this nightly with updates on our projects, the funny stories of the day, and (most importantly) the food. Please pass this on to others who are interested in hearing what life is like here and what kind of work we are doing. I will also try to add pictures regularly for you. Enjoy!

~ Shelley