Thursday, 11/24/2005 -- Day 5, Thanksgiving Day

We did demolition work on two more houses today (actually on three but I was only involved in two). One of the homeowners, Mr. Jones, was home. He’s an elderly gentleman. Very quiet and gracious. We prayed with him before and after the job like we did for Benny. He also graciously agreed to pose for several pictures with the team. The demolition work on all houses today was very easy. They are not as extensively damaged (although the damage is still heavy) and by now, we as a team have gotten better at what we’re doing.

We also made it down to the waterfront in the neighboring town of Biloxi. This was a minor miracle since most roads to the waterfront are still blocked off by the National Guard. We found one road though that got us to across the highway from the beach. I dipped my hand in the Gulf of Mexico and saw the damage that was done to the nearby shorefront casinos. This damage, of course is extensive. I can’t believe that those buildings are even standing anymore. Saw some of the offshore floating casinos that have been washed ashore. We walked a little bit on the beach which is strewn with all kinds of debris (chairs, stuff from the adjacent souvenir shops, etc.) I picked up a few shells and some Mardi Gras beads. Justin got a torn up hat with the tag still on it from one of the gift shops. After souvenir hunting for awhile, we decided to make our way back to the van. As we were walking across the highway (pockets bulging with loot, me with beads hanging from my hand) a police officer sounded his siren at us and said over his loudspeaker “This highway is closed to pedestrian traffic. You are subject to arrest. GET OFF THE HIGHWAY!” At about the same time, Matt and Jaime, who were lagging behind us, got stopped by a person from one of the casinos who informed them that they were on a private beach, owned by the casinos and that they too were subject to arrest. They were also informed that there had been armed guards and video cameras watching our every move ever since we walked onto the beach. It seems that when the storm came through, it tore a bunch of gold coins out of the casinos and washed them out to sea. The casinos were working on recovering their money but they were afraid of looters. So along we came in our minivan and started poking around the beach, not knowing that we were walking right through the middle of a high security restricted area. And that’s how we almost got arrested for looting on our mission trip.
So after our encounter on the beach, we decided that it was time to leave the waterfront somewhat quickly. On the way back to the church, we drove through some of the devastated neighborhoods on the opposite side of the military check points. It was the worst destruction I’ve seen thus far. One car that we saw looked as if it had been made of paper and a giant hand had just picked it up and squeezed. Houses have been reduced to rubble for block after block after block. Stray dogs are running everywhere. Some have begun running in packs. All look desperately ill with their ribs showing and hair falling out. One of them was a gray dog with patches of hair missing. His face looked like an evil version of Yoda from Star Wars. He literally looked like a hell hound. I cannot describe with words the carnage in this area. Hell came to the gulf coast with Katrina and some of it is still there.

When we got back to the church, we all got showers (another miracle) before having an awesome Thanksgiving dinner complete with fried turkey and stuffing.

Met a man named Terry* tonight. Terry is a former Drill instructor in the army however you wouldn’t know it by his personality. He’s very friendly, quick to laugh and extremely outgoing. He was dressed in a suit and obviously takes great pride in his appearance. As the evening wore on, Terry began to look kind of sad. When we asked him what was wrong, he shared that he and his wife had just separated. She was spending Thanksgiving up in New York with her parents and Terry is obviously heartbroken about what is happening to his marriage. We prayed with him and then began playing cards. Terry quickly perked up to his old self and began joking around again and at least on the surface, having a good time. Jaime, Sarah, one of the kids from Arkansas, and I stayed up with him until about 1:30 AM playing cards and chatting. I can relate to Terry because in another life, I was constantly lonely. I can tell you that when you’re alone on the holidays, the greatest gift you can receive is to have someone stay up with you late. I praise God that we were able to do that for Terry.

We also met Randall* tonight. Randall is an elderly gentleman who uses a walker. He came to the church tonight for some food but he didn’t eat a bite while he was there. Instead, he just sat at our table and talked with us. He told us a bunch of jokes but we could understand only about half of what Randall said. Luckily, he would start laughing at his own jokes so we knew when it was time to laugh. It was a lot of fun having him there. Randall has some hard times of his own ahead of him. He’s going in for back surgery this week and has to have a knee replaced. I really think that his time with us made his Thanksgiving. I thank the Lord that He allowed us to minister to these two folks. Tomorrow, we drive back to New Orleans.

* Name has been changed to protect privacy.