Today is June 27th, and Dave and I will be leaving in one week. Last night I found myself sitting in my family room staring at the painting we bought last year from Bill. The feelings and emotions began to rush through my body and mind; along with feelings of the unknown.

All I know for certain is that I am sent there to help, in what capacity I will not know until I get there. I am a servant of God and therefore, I will serve willing for any task I am given. Some think of what we are doing as servant work, I can’t think like that myself. I truly feel that each person, whom I come in contact with, is teaching me. Last year I learned so much about myself and my faith, which I honestly believe I needed the Gulf Coast more than they needed me. Did I know a year ago that my life would be changed forever? Did I know how strong my faith was? The answer to these questions was NO! I did not realize how differently I would look at life on a daily basis, until I spent a week on the Gulf Coast. Had the wind storm in December hit this area a year ago, I would have been belly aching for months. This year I could not help but think that it was just a sample of what the Gulf Coast went through. Not only did these people have not power, most had no homes, bathroom facilities, clothing, food, water and the water damage was beyond anything you could imagine. Not to mention the health issues that came along with the storms. The area was virtually paralyzed; I just shook my head in December and said “we are so lucky”. I always knew that I had faith, however on until June 22, 2006 when I discovered how strong my faith was. I know that sounds crazy, but sometimes it takes extreme situations to really test your faith, for one to see how strong their faith is.

According to Romans 12: 6-8
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him lead diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. I believe that the group of people traveling from Cross and Crown all have these gifts given to us by grace. Each one of us has a purpose and there is a reason that God called us to go.

I thank God for the opportunity to return the Gulf Coast, and to travel with an amazing group of people. We will be tested daily, but I know that our gifts and our faith will see us through whatever test we are given.

God Bless you all,
Stacey B.

Greetings and Thanks

We of Cross and Crown Lutheran Church, Renton, Washington are blessed to be connected to the work of healing, recovery and rebuilding on the Gulf Coast. We return next week, and this space is intended to help everyone to stay connected. We bring greetings not only from congregation members who have supported this work with prayers and contributions but also from many, many others who are supporting this work.

I feel a strong sense of relief as our trip gets closer, and I believe that this is because so much of our work here in Washington has to do with lifting up something that we do not see on television all of the time-namely, that the work and the needs on the Gulf Coast go on and on. twenty-two months seem to an impossibly long time for us to keep our attention on anything, but it isn't much time at all when we are talking about healing after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Once we are on the ground in Mississippi, we will have many things to do and many challenges, but on the Mississippi Gulf Coast I believe that there is general agreement that rebuilding and recovery are still going on- so whatever we're doing, making that point will not be part of our work. Yet- even as I say or think that, I am reminded of things I heard and people I met in New Orleans and Mississippi in February, and I know that it is more complicated.

On this trip, several of us will spend 3-4 days in New Orleans prior to heading for Bethel Lutheran-Biloxi and I imagine that we will much to reflect on, especially in comparing the neighborhoods we see in NOLA and in Mississippi. The picture above left is from the 9th ward in New Orleans in February of this year. We will be working and visiting in the 7th Ward as guests of Pastor Bruce Davenport (pictured above, on the street in front of the church) and the people of St. John #5 Faith. While in Biloxi, we will have a chance to see the changes and progress that have been made on the house on which our people worked last July (shown in the picture at the top, in February 2007, and athen s it was in July of 2006), and then our group work on house in East Biloxi that will have been gutted and in the process of rebuilding, twenty two months after the storms.

Many of us have been to Biloxi before, but I have found each time I have traveled there to work that it is best not to imagine that I know too much or that my prior experiences qualify me to jump to many conclusions. As we travel this time, we will see a lot in the way of progress in rebuilding in Mississippi, and this is yet another phase of this recovery. The healing and recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita don't have any precedent in history, and so going there at this time is like going there for the first time. It is humbling, and it will be overwhelming. Humbling and overwhelming may not be what we look for all of the time, but I believe that service and God's work begin there. - Pastor Glen