kate and ryan

kate has really enjoyed "uncle ryan" kalberkamp, who is our newest staff member. he is a regular at the chapman household, and kate even sat in his lap. (maybe it's because he gave her a sippy cup?)

Meet Several Interns

Erin Rachael Becca Ruth Ann

Wednesday Night In Atlanta

Yes. Reason to spend 12 hours in a car. For a 3 hour Jimmy Buffett concert in Atlanta.

"If we weren't crazy we would go insane." Hula Girls Fins to the left. Fins to the right. Anderson who?

Top photo: Barry Oren of Nichols-Bethel out of Anapolis, Maryland, brought us a guitar he handmade for us to use in our community & church. Barry redesigns and builds guitars and loves donating them for use in schools, churches and for "decompression therapy". We certainly could use some decompression therapy at Lagniappe! Bottom photo: the entire Nichols-Bethel team, with the amazing team sign that Rebecca Williams, seen holding the sign, painted for us. Rebecca is an amazing artist and this picture does not do the sign justice. She sat down with kid's paint and whipped out the most amazing crab! Thank you, Jesus, for giving us such glorious gifts and abilities.

This is a group from New City Fellowship in Chattanooga, Tn., and they were given the immense job of thoroughly cleaning the kitchen and organizing the food in the pantry. Not only did they embrace this job with joy and enthusiasm, they also did an amazing job! As you can imagine, with 1000 meals a day being served when at full capacity, it is really hard to keep the kitchen clean and organized, so thanks so much! Top picture left to right, Chris Griggs, Kevin Hartzell and Elizabeth Mask. Middle picture, Becky Cordes. Bottom picture, Chris Griggs.

No, we haven't moved all the toilets outside permanently, but this awesome crew from City Church of Greensboro, NC were the bathroom renovation crew, and not only did they move the toilets out and back in again, they also tiled the bathroom floors! (Ryn: you will be so excited; no more cleaning the floors on your hands and knees!) Also from City Church, the folks laying around on the kitchen floor did an awesome job putting a new floor finish down in our renovated kitchen, but it slap wore them out doing it! Hope the floor lasts longer than this tired crew. Thanks, ya'll!

NAME THIS EVENT! Just a bunch of people gathered in a field? Judge Judy (Eshee) making small talk or saying something profound? All of the above! This is the annual MSU RUF Crawfish Boil at Judge and Judy Eshee's house in Starkville, MS. At this very event in 2006, the Lord used Andy and Cammie Chapman to introduce the Sabins to Lagniappe, and the rest is history! The guys leaning on the truck are Nathan Tircuit, the MSU RUF minister, and Ryan Kalberkamp, the latest victim to fall in the Lagniappe net! Ryan has now joined the Sabins on staff at Lagniappe as a project supervisor, which will enable him to make great use of the construction degree he received from good ole MSU! (We needed another bulldog around here!) As John and I review the last year of our lives which lead us to Lagniappe, it has been amazing to also look back over the whole 32 years of our marriage to see how the Lord prepared us and laid the groundwork for us to be at Lagniappe, even using MSU RUF in the process! God is awesome, and when we learn to trust Him in every area of our lives, even when we don't understand at the time, it is amazing how His perfect plan unfolds to be something we never even imagined for ourselves. Thank you, Jesus, for bringing us here!

See what gets put in the shelves when we run out of needed supplies? We need paper towels! Anyone have any?

These adorable people are "Lake Valley", a great group that come to us about once a month from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Not only do they come once a month, they bring about 60 folks with them each time, and have servants hearts as big as the world! They have been an inspiration to us as they come and work hard out in the community, but also around the Lagniappe facility, helping in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, and anything else we ask them to do. They also genuinely enjoy each other's fellowship, and often bring their own entertainment in the form of a banjo player! Please come back soon. We miss you already.

Don't think it is ALL work and NO play around here! Once every blue moon, we MAKE ourselves escape to the beach for an afternoon of sunning and fishing. Of course this is the ONLY fish that has been caught so far, much the chagrin of our beloved intern, Sarah Denton! Come on back, Sarah. The fish are biting!

this is the way it oges.

Kitchen Wrap Up

Jean Larroux IV Mike Bloom and Kim Larroux Dave Horodecky, Ryan our new addition to staff, and Cheryl D'Avy For those of you who have been here recently you may have noticed that our kitchen has been gutted. Through sand-blasting, buffing, painting, trimming, tear-out and all sorts of other tasks we have been trudging away to get this thing done before we have higher numbers here this Wednesday night. This Sunday afternoon project was particulary exciting becuase even if you were not here recently you may recognize Mike Bloom, Cheryl D'Avy, and Dave Horodecky. They worked alongside of our Lagniappe staff to get this stuff done so the installers could come Monday in the AM and put in all our new equipment. For those who do not know the story the camp that we got all of our first equipment from is coming back so we had to restock our kitchen. The exciting part for the chefs Eric and Alisha is the new equipment, the exciting part for me is Lagniappe functioning as a normal church. Given we are not normal but we had folks from the congregation, folks whose houses we worked on, folks who still have plenty of work to do before they can move into their homes and out of FEMA trailers here helping Lagniappe out with the most vital parts of the operation. Volunteers have to eat to work and these folks gave up an afternoon to put in time here to help us out. Both Mike and Dave have been around quite a bit and it was very exciting and encouraging to work alongside of them here especially knowing that they would be going home to a FEMA trailer.

Mercy has a Name

Julie Skinner, Helen Buckley, Kelly Moore Gene and Brian, friends of LPC from New City Chattanooga.

Notice the Pray for the Bay stickers. Kamilia and Jocie. Allen Mclean and Curt Moore Ready for home.

Mercy Ministry Conference

Loading up on the Coast. Six staff traveled to Atlanta for the Mercy Ministry conference. It was a great opportunity to promote the work in the Bay with people who have a similar passion. Starbucks in Montgomery Modern Art Hamming it up in a real mall. Outside of a Godiva's. Curt and Kelly in the lobby

Okay, the shirts are ALL the wrong colors, but hey, we take help from wherever we can get it! John has become a Furman fan, and is seen sporting his new sweatshirt the FurmanRUF group mailed him after they left. (Where's mine?) And the two folks in Tennessee orange? Well they just can't help it that they came with the Tennessee Cross group and they made them wear orange! Just Kidding, Mike and Vivien. We can't wait for you to come back and critique the new kitchen!

Anheuser-Busch

To anyone who has been down here you will appreciate this beer water can plane. Our first shipment was of 2100 cases of these water in a can and this may be the most fun we have had with these not so tasty but necessary cans. So thanks to Anheuser-Busch for keeping us actually hydrated and thanks to the volunteer who sent this gift, it is being stolen from office to office as we speak.

New Lagniappe Church Video

Thanks For Coming

This last weekend my parents were in Destin, FL and were able to come out for a Saturday. My pops had been down last year in March and we with the help of a team from Ohio roofed a house. My mother was here last July so she had seen the property unlike my dad but both hadn't seen the church for some time. Showing people around that you know is when you actually realize how far Lagniappe has come. Rob and Lisa Walcott, two friends from Holland, MI were down the week before and did the same with a one day visit while being in Destin. Both Rob, Lisa, my Mom, and Dad get quiet as you show them around. Rob asked me what it is like, that it seems pretty romantic being down here and doing what we do. It really isn't. Half the time we joke about getting out of here but in the same sentence you can't deny that you absolutely love it here. Lagniappe is different in that we do live outside of what we can do, it is just to obvious that it is not us. In that regard it is romantic, in that God would love us so much to use us to advance His kingdom. It is so good to be able to see family and friends that you love especially when it is hard to keep up with folks outside of the bay because it does take it out of you here. It ain't easy trying to keep up with new volunteers each week who are excited to be here but it is fun, mostly. O, and by the way, Batch, I would like you to notice if you read this that our haircuts are not the same.

Westminster Presbyterian Church of Greenwood, MS, my home church, was recently well represented in the Bay by two of its' finest, Melanie Stiles and John Coleman. Melanie and John are shown building our newest bunkhouse designed for permanent intern staff, and those staff actually moved into this bunkhouse last Sunday! They especially are thankful for your work here, as they now have their own personal bedroom with a sink and a closet in it, as well as restrooms and showers down the hall, all in the same building! Still shared facilities, but not with 350 other people! YEAH! As you can see, Melody wasn't scared of nothin!

Meet an Intern

Meet our Wake Forrest intern, Lindsey Perea (on left).

Basketball Halftime

T-Jean and some old friends from Tuscumbia,AL. Jean served there years ago as a youth minister. True dat g