Some links of interest

The Coast newspaper, the Sun Herald, has done an amazing job since Katrina (and the same can be said for our local TV station - WLOX). Like so many other businesses on the Coast, they have run with a skeleton staff, all of which were suffering from great loss. For weeks and weeeks after the storm they distributed the paper free all over the coast. The information was so needed and timely and was often the only way we knew about things going on, aid that was coming, drinking water safety (HEY - I CAN DRINK MY WATER NOW....WOOHOO), etc.
There are two links I want you to look at if you have time. The first is a series of before and after images. Once you get to the link, scroll down to select various scenes. I know most of you are not familiar with these properties, but you can still get a feel for the destruction. You need to realize as you look at a picture, that the same destruction extends the length of our Coast, especially from Waveland (near New Orleans) to Biloxi. It's the same view over and over again. Click HERE .

The other is an editorial that echoes some of my own thoughts. As I have traveled around preaching and talking about our situation, I am constantly being told by folks "we had no idea how bad it was in Mississippi". The focus on New Orleans really has taken attention away from us, the editorial speaks of a true thing, for I have run across this time and again. In addition, there are some stats at the bottom that help folks understand how bad it truly is. I use these wherever I go as well. Click HERE .

I am so appreciative of all the support and prayers from all over the country. It is overwhelming. The body of Christ continues to be present in powerful ways for us. This will be a strange Christmas for sure. We will gather at the local Lutheran church on Christmas Eve. We will celebrate the Greatest Christmas Ever. Pray for my folks, they are in a slump as the holidays overpower us. During this sermon , (ignore the wrongly named file, it IS from Year B) I absolved them from feeling guilty about not producing a "normal" Christmas, I hope they were able to receive that.
Blessings to all....Merry Christmas.

Waiting and watching...

So easy to preach Advent this year. We are all forced to be living testimonies to waiting and watching....on many days it's all we do.
I was very proud of our local gov. folks giving it to Congress in hearings this week. Much of the recovery work has slowed or has not even started because we cannot get funding. The GREAT FEAR of being forgotten looms over us, and the reaction of congress-people from other areas is disheartening. I wish they would all come for a visit, see it for yourselves, work in the relief center, talk to the folks still coming for the basics of life. Spend the night in a FEMA travel trailer with 6 family members, if they dare, or better yet on a tent on a slab because you STILL WAIT for the trailer long promised, which they can't deliver, by the way, because the debris they promised to move off your lot 4 weeks ago still sits.
The job is TOO massive folks. It will take more time and more resources and more people and more money than ANYTHING WE'VE EVER HAD TO DO BEFORE. You can't judge by past storms, you can't judge by the 4 that hit Florida last year, one Katrina has done more than all those combined and then some.
So we wait....and watch.....and wonder if anything we are doing is the right thing....

Sermons here

Trailer Time

My office trailer has been setup! A bunch of great volunteers moved it last week. The furniture has been installed. We just need ELECTRICITY to be functional. Maybe soon....
I posted last time about media blitz - and now there is MORE. My LW and I and George Werner are on the cover of our diocesan newspaper and the same pic is page 2 of Episcopal Life. Plus the LW's pic with this so cute baby in the medical clinic is on a full page add from erd. Sigh, the paparazzi are all over us!
We spent Thanksgiving in SE Florida with family, then traveled to Marco Island on the SW Coast where I preached on Sunday. Their rector is the former rector of my church and he has been incredibly supportive and involved in our recovery. If you go here you can listen to that sermon (and others).
Restore us o God, let your face shine, that we may be saved.....
Again the Psalms speak to me in this terrible time.

Thank you all for your prayers and continued support. They mean more they I can say.