The story of one little church's efforts to bring hope and healing to a small town after Hurricane Katrina
Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recovery. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Work project news...
Got an email today from Ben. The Yellow house, aka the "purdy" house, aka Pretty house has 3 rooms ready for us to rock...Sheetrock that is. Yay! Three years after first stepping foot into that house and mucking and gutting, it will feel good to be putting walls back up!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
A letter
This is not the letter from Ms. Donna I've talked about in previous posts. This one just came this weekend. This is why we keep going back to Mississippi:
To my Wonderful Friends in California,
It is people like you that are willing to give to us who continue to struggle post-Katrina. People like you are few. It seems that Mississippi continues to be smothered out by the New Orleans shadow. I do know God will continue to work for us through you all and others like you.
I do know that God sent you all to me. I think Him for that everyday. The gift of hope, love and encouragement that you all gave me is priceless. Thank you!
One day, when God decides, my house will be restored. For now I take one day at a time.
I have many things to be thankful for--two fantastic children, Nicolas and Ashley, my son-in-law, Brent, a beautiful one year old granddaughter, Avery, another grandchild due in June, both parents--82 and 78 years old, four sibling, nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews and good friends. Most of all, I thank God for giving us His son so that we may have eternal life.
In closing I want to say I have heard many empty promises since Hurricane Katrina. You all have given me action behind your words. When my new found friends left, they assured me that I would not be forgotten. Thank you for everything. My love and prayers are with each of you.
Love,
Donna J.
To my Wonderful Friends in California,
It is people like you that are willing to give to us who continue to struggle post-Katrina. People like you are few. It seems that Mississippi continues to be smothered out by the New Orleans shadow. I do know God will continue to work for us through you all and others like you.
I do know that God sent you all to me. I think Him for that everyday. The gift of hope, love and encouragement that you all gave me is priceless. Thank you!
One day, when God decides, my house will be restored. For now I take one day at a time.
I have many things to be thankful for--two fantastic children, Nicolas and Ashley, my son-in-law, Brent, a beautiful one year old granddaughter, Avery, another grandchild due in June, both parents--82 and 78 years old, four sibling, nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews and good friends. Most of all, I thank God for giving us His son so that we may have eternal life.
In closing I want to say I have heard many empty promises since Hurricane Katrina. You all have given me action behind your words. When my new found friends left, they assured me that I would not be forgotten. Thank you for everything. My love and prayers are with each of you.
Love,
Donna J.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The cost of recovery
Debbie is our people person. Every trip we can count on Debbie to talk with someone new, to find out new information and to make new friends. We can also count on Debbie to do the jobs that no one else really is excited about...like crawling in the attic to put in insulation but we've already talked about that.
Debbie spent time this last trip talking with Captain John about his house and volunteers. Captain John shared that in Bay St. Louis workers were trying to stop the volunteers from helping with rebuilding process to guarantee the workers jobs. As a result people aren't getting their homes rebuilt as quickly. Seeing both sides of the coin, so to speak, it's hard to condemn the workers for wanting work and earn wages to support themselves and their families but it is also so hard to watch homeowners continue to live in trailers or Katrina Kottages when they really want to be in a house but don't have the money to pay for people to do the work.
Debbie reported that the workers are earning as much as $40 an hour, which made my jaw drop and my mind start whirling. A few weeks ago I listed some numbers of what we had spent on 6 trips and how many hours we had worked (approximately). Adding in the hours from this trip we have put in 5194 hours into the recovery efforts in Pearlington. If we were paid $40 an hour for that work it would come out to $207,760, just for labor costs. Though I don't have the exact amount we spent on this trip I estimate we have spent under $100,000 total on the trips to Pearlington.
It's easy for us to complain about having to raise money for the trips but yet when I think that our raising money to get to Pearlington is saving people in Pearlington thousands of dollars, that they don't have, and helping to get them one step closer to being in a real house, it's all worth it. Yep, fundraising is a pain and the cost of the trips seems daunting but the reality of it all is that we are helping people who need help. The cost of recovery doesn't seem so high anymore.
Debbie spent time this last trip talking with Captain John about his house and volunteers. Captain John shared that in Bay St. Louis workers were trying to stop the volunteers from helping with rebuilding process to guarantee the workers jobs. As a result people aren't getting their homes rebuilt as quickly. Seeing both sides of the coin, so to speak, it's hard to condemn the workers for wanting work and earn wages to support themselves and their families but it is also so hard to watch homeowners continue to live in trailers or Katrina Kottages when they really want to be in a house but don't have the money to pay for people to do the work.
Debbie reported that the workers are earning as much as $40 an hour, which made my jaw drop and my mind start whirling. A few weeks ago I listed some numbers of what we had spent on 6 trips and how many hours we had worked (approximately). Adding in the hours from this trip we have put in 5194 hours into the recovery efforts in Pearlington. If we were paid $40 an hour for that work it would come out to $207,760, just for labor costs. Though I don't have the exact amount we spent on this trip I estimate we have spent under $100,000 total on the trips to Pearlington.
It's easy for us to complain about having to raise money for the trips but yet when I think that our raising money to get to Pearlington is saving people in Pearlington thousands of dollars, that they don't have, and helping to get them one step closer to being in a real house, it's all worth it. Yep, fundraising is a pain and the cost of the trips seems daunting but the reality of it all is that we are helping people who need help. The cost of recovery doesn't seem so high anymore.
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