BILOXI Team 2007...

On July 14th, Hope sent out 57 adults and high school students to minister and serve in Biloxi, Mississippi.  While in Biloxi they worked with Project Teamwork and the Salvation Army, rebuilding and repairing homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. 

Friday, July 13th - the team arrived at the church for it's final meeting, checking the luggage for the 20 hour road trip.

Saturday, July 14th - 5am, yup they met at the church at 5am!  Hope's Men's Ministry surprised us with donuts, coffee, and juice. We met our bus driver, Don ... who likes to be called "Double D".  After some final seat jockeying, we pulled out of the church parking lot at 5:40am, 10 minutes behind our projected departure time.

Movies/TV shows watched while on the way to Biloxi -

Back to the Future - classic 80's movie.  It received a round of applause at its conclusion.

Batman Begins - terrific action flick.

The Office - Season 1 - Nicole Wetmore rocks!  Good pick Nicole.

Robin Hood - the Disney cartoon, not one of my personal favorites, but it seemed like the bus crowd enjoyed this theatrical presentation.

Transformers - the 80's cartoon version. 

We arrived safely in Knoxville, Tennessee at around 4:30pm, Saturday afternoon.  We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel and successfully invaded the Courtyard Marriott for a good nights rest.

Sunday, July 15th - we arrived in Biloxi around 4:45pm, Sunday evening, ate dinner at CiCi's, an all-u-can-eat pizza place. We moved into Yankie Stadium (our home away from home) and were all in bed at 10:30pm.  A looonnnggg day of driving.

Monday, July 16th - it rained Monday morning, but by the afternoon we were working hard in-between brief showers.   In spite of the rain, we were able to work on four different homes - sheetrocking, spackling, finish framing a home, and siding another home.  And in the afternoon, after the rain, sheathing a roof.  Busy day. 

Tuesday, July 17th - The good news, no more rain.  The bad news, lots of sun. It's been hot and humid. It was a busy day - the teams continued sheetrocking, spackling, painting and roofing.  They even unloaded a trailer filled with roofing shingles for a roofing project later in the week.

Wednesday, July 18th - 1/2 way point for the trip.  Everyone is hot and tired, but having a great week! We ended our work day at 3pm and headed over to Aunt Jenny's Catfish Restaurant in Ocean Springs (neighboring Biloxi).  Aunt Jenny's is an authentic  southern restaurant - and its all-u-can-eat shrimp, catfish, and chicken.  56 of us invaded the restaurant - we are uncertain of the final count, butthe conservative estimate - we ate over 500 shrimp, several chickens, and a small pond of catfish. A very fun night.

Thursday, July 19th - Today is the hottest day so far.  It's expected to get over 95 degrees.  Someone this morning walked out the door and commented, "Wow, the air feels like a wet blanket." I thought that was a pretty good description.  You know what they say, it's not the heat, it's the humidity that gets to you. :)

Everyone is still working hard and doing well.

Friday, July 20th - Friday was our last day of work, so we spent the day finishing our projects, cleaning up the sites, and returning all of our construction equipment to the warehouses.  Its been a great week ... we worked hard, played hard, and served hard.

Saturday, July 21st - Back on the bus for our return trip to NJ.  We arrived safely at the SpringHill Suites Knoxville.  We'll eat dinner, have our final team devotions, and go to bed after a long drive. 

We arrived home to Hope Church at 4:30pm.

What a great week!

That's the latest news from the Biloxi Team. 

Thanks for the prayers!!!

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