Locusts and Wild Honey

Quiet Around Here

Monday, August 21st, 2006 | General, Hurricane Katrina | 2 Comments

With the fall semester starting all over the country our summer flood of volunteer help begins to slow. Believe it or not, the usually bustling Lakeshore Baptist Church property sits almost empty and quiet this morning. My administrative assistant, JoEll, began her maternity leave today, Greg London is in Atlanta attending the FIRE conference, and James went to visit his sister in a Shreveport hospital. The one family with us this week is working off site in one of the homes. That leaves Me and Jamie (our intern) here waiting for the group of ladies from Crystal Springs to arrive some time today.

So much more still remains undone. We pray that this temporary lull in volunteers will give us time to breathe and continue on for the glory of God.

I’ve been trying to take this opportunity to catch up on email this morning, now that we have inter net access and air conditioning in our new office. I just set up a folding table in here to get out of our cramped office camper. We still need to paint the interior doors and trim work, complete the bathroom, and several other miscellaneous things. The outside still needs another coat of paint and the storm shutters need to be built and hung. It won’t be long before we can officially move in. Doing so should make all the efforts here more productive and efficient. If you would like to come help, please call us at (228) 469-0110. If no one answers, please leave a message and we will return your call asap.

Back to School

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 | General, Hurricane Katrina | 2 Comments

Local kids returned to school this week outfitted by our school uniform drive. The give-away proved a great success. Lakeshore Baptist Church distributed over 600 uniforms to grateful parents.

Plans for Gulfview Elementary School are up in the air - literally. As demolition crews finish grinding the remains of the school’s foundation, officials battle over where and how to rebuild. Locals unanimously want the school rebuilt in its historic central location, but federal authorities have other ideas. Meanwhile, many Lakeshore elementary school children catch 6:00 am busses to shuttle them up to their temporary school location near the Stennis International Airport

Stephen’s 8th trip

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 | General, Hurricane Katrina | 4 Comments

Things continue to happen much faster than I could ever blog about them all. A few weeks ago, Stephen Ake made his 8th trip to Lakeshore since the storm. I failed to blog about our Family Bible Conference, so please check out Stephen’s blog for a summery of God’s activity that week. He also snapped a good number of pictures from this trip. That week we hosted about 200 volunteers and saw a lot of progress being made on over a dozen homes.

On Vacation

Sunday, July 16th, 2006 | General, Hurricane Katrina | 5 Comments

In the almost 11 months since the storm I’ve only taken a couple of days off. Heading up a disaster relief effort of this magnitude requires constant vigilance and attention. Hosting, housing, feeding, and directing thousands of volunteers, fighting to provide the essential needs of an entire community, putting on multiple vacation bible schools, planning and implementing community wide events, rehabbing over 50 houses, rebuilding houses from the ground up, stocking, staffing, and running a food distribution center that sees 400+ people a day and has given out millions of dollars worth of goods, maintaining a blog, keeping a church going amidst the controlled chaos, performing weddings and funerals, preaching twice a week, counseling the distressed, and making plans for the future leaves me reluctant to take any time off.

I hate to walk away from Lakeshore, but for the sake of my family I finally surrendered to a vacation. After church this morning my wife and kids will head toward Gatlinburg Tennessee for the week.

In addition to trying to catch up on some sleep, spending time with my family, and taking in the sites of Gatlinburg, I hope to make time to get in some much desired reading. Sleeping in your office amid eager volunteers means you have to wake-up, shower, and prepare for the day mighty early. With my sun-up to way past sun-down schedule, I’ve only been able to squeeze in reading before 5:00 am. In the last several months I’ve only had time to read a hand full of books. I’ve read:

• Today’s Gospel by Walter Chantry
• The Doctrines of Grace by James Boice and Phil Ryken
• Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God by C. J. Mahaney
• This Little Church Went to Market by Gary Gilley
• The Invitation System by Ian Murray
• Ready for Reformation by Tom Nettles
• Stop Dating the Church by Josh Harris

I’ve never been to Gatlinburg. Taking a trip with no plans of what to do and see there goes against my nature. My wife booked us a room and we have the google map directions printed out. That’s about it. After the service we will head that direction. Lord willing we will breathe mountain air before nightfall and wake up tomorrow morning to His refreshing mercies.

Gulfview Elementary School

Thursday, July 13th, 2006 | General, Hurricane Katrina | 4 Comments

Please participate in our school uniform drive to help the children and families of Lakeshore.

School Uniform Drive

Thursday, July 6th, 2006 | General, Hurricane Katrina | 13 Comments

The children of Lakeshore head back to school in mid-August after their summer break. While crews complete the demolition of storm damaged Gulfview Elementary School, kids return to the make-shift temporary buildings housed 25 miles north of their community. The long commute, loss of friends, mixed school district, unfamiliar surroundings, and homework in FEMA campers leave families and teachers yearning for a little normalcy. The reinstituted dress code should provide a small step in that direction.

Lakeshore Baptist Church plans to distribute school uniforms as a wonderful ministry opportunity. You can help by sending dress code approved items to Lakeshore Baptist Church, 6028 Lakeshore Road, Lakeshore MS 39558. Please label as “School Uniform Drive.”

Dress Code

SHIRTS/BLOUSES

• All shirts must be solid colors, white, navy blue, royal blue, or red.
• Students may wear button down (Oxford/pointed collar or Peter Pan/Rounded collar), knit polo (2 or 3 button closure), or turtlenecks.
• Shirts may be long or short sleeve, with or without pockets.
• Shirts must have plain fronts without trim, lace, ruffles, pleats, etc.
• Crop tops, Midriff shirts, or tight fitting shirts are not allowed.
• Shirts may not carry visible trademarks, brand logos, writing, etc.

PANTS/SLACKS/SHORTS

• All pants, slacks, and shorts must be solid navy blue or khaki (tan, beige, or similar).
• The length of shorts must be mid-thigh or longer.
• Girls may wear caprise.
• Pants, slacks, and shorts may be pleated or un pleated, cuffed or uncuffed, with or without elastic, but must be hemmed.
• Wash-n-wear or permanent press fabric only; Denim, stretch material/spandex fabric, velour or fleece is not allowed.
• Cargo or carpenter styles or bellbottoms are not allowed.
• Very small trademark or logo is allowed.

JUMPERS/SKIRTS/CULOTTES/SKORTS

• Jumpers, skirts, culottes, and skorts must be solid navy blue or khaki (tan, beige, or similar).
• The length must not be higher than four (4) inches above the top of the knee.
• Jumpers may be V-neck or round neck.
• Skirt style must be box pleat, knife pleat, A-line, kilt style or flared style.
• Wash-n-wear or permanent press fabric.
• Denim, stretch material/spandex fabric, velour or fleece is not allowed.
• Cargo style skirts are not allowed.

INSIDE WEAR

• Students may wear sweaters, vests,sweatshirts, or fleece in either cardigan-button down, pullover-scoop, or V-neck or zip up. styles.
• Outerwear must be solid colors, white, navy blue, royal blue, or red.
• Shirts may not carry visible trademarks, brand logos, writing, etc.

OUTSIDE WEAR

• Coats and jackets may have hoods and may be any color.
• Trademarks and logos are allowed.
• Coat length is limited to mid-thigh,
• Trench coats are not allowed.