Day 2
Believe it or not, we all got out and in the vehicles, having already eaten breaskfast, and ready to go by 8am (actually an hour early if you take the timezones into accout).
We stopped for gas at a bit of a scary Shell station in Alabama, complete with hot cold running roaches (don’t ask…)
We then drove into Mississippi and the visitors center where people could gather more reading material and free maps. Shellie also left some Tasty Kakes behind for the nice people attending the desk.
A little further into Mississippi, we had a bit of a scare…first the Oild light came on in the rental car, and seconds later, something happened to the Right front tire of Mark’s Truck. We pulled over and pretty much cleared the message about needing an oild change on the rental, but the tire was another issue.
We wound up pulling off a few miles further down the road, and putting the spare on. The tire was jumping on the road, so we figured it was a thrown weight possibly…but a nice local guy, who happened to be towing a racing vehicle, helped us out and found there was a large bump on the tire. We set off to Hattiesburg with the tire changed, and the truck running smooth.
We got to our residence, to find nobody there. After waiting for a while, and then Mark going in through an window we found unlocked, we checked out the house. It is basically an air conditioned, 80% finished house…no rugs, paint, furniture, etc…just a bunch of beds and a 4×8 piece of particle board on saw horses for a table. We are sure we can make due, as this is still more than many others in the area have.
We locked the house back up, and headed to Walmart. We had pre-chosen cooks for each day, so we bought the required groceries for each of the cooks creations for the day, and we stocked up on Breakfast and Lunch food.
When we returned to the house, we were greeted by Mike, an onsite coordinator. He gave us copies of forms, and safety books, and told us we would be helping finish up on houses, starting at 7am on Monday.
We went about setting up our rooms and putting away groceries. Steve started making a cream of Broccoli soup that smelled wonderful cooking (and tasted great too)…but we unfortunately had another situation come up.
Due to a family emergency Shellie and Sherry left here today, and will be flying home from New Orleans in the morning. Please keep Shellie in your prayers as her family goes through this, and keep Sheery in your prayers as she loves and supports her friend. We will greatly miss the two of these team members during the rest of our time together.
Mark and I (Rob) drove Shellie and Sherry to a hotel in New Orleans so they would be able to get on the plane early Monday. We got back to the house around 1:30 am (2:30 in PA). We even had a “flashing light in the rearview mirror” scare on the way back here tonight, that only turned out to be an Ambulance.
We really need your prayer support, and please email us using the gulfteam email address, or leave us a comment so we know you have seen this. We could all use a bit of encouragement right now, as tomorrow is the first day on-site, and today was quite a stressful experience in many ways.
In HIS service…
