Two New Homeowners

Tony Tomasich & Lil' Bit

David & Gigi Lablanc

Pictures from Roddy

Roddy captures the bay

LaBlanc: raising the flag as we build his new home

tool girls

2 new interns (Stephanie and Sarah) and a friend/photographer from Scotland (check him out at www.roddymackayphotography.com) have arrived on the scene here at Lagniappe. We, the girls, were thrown into the craziness with a tour and orientation of our new home, the tool shed (or Home Depot LPC style). From this moment on, we were welcomed as though we had been here from the beginning. Our new friends put us right to work organizing nails, putting up dry wall, writing expense accounts, and more. Although this might seem incredible in itself :) , the greatest parts, however, have been the conversations with local families, a crab fest (where Sarah was danced in "Mississippi" circles), late night conversations, and a special key lime cake from Kim's Mom. Moreover, we have found in our four short days that this Church is in fact what one dreams a church might be: a community with welcoming arms, a great sense of humor and a willing attitude to share and show the Gospel in action and words. The staff and interns find laughter in long hours of work, give joy and hope in conversations with the hurting, and love God with honest and beautiful hearts. We can absolutely say that there's truly no where else we'd rather be than here in this 100 degree heat!!

Rubble for sale...

There are remarkable sites to see in the Bay these days- try $565,000 for the rubble above. This is on Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis- prime real estate on a good day, but to see it with a fresh 'for Sale' sign is sobering. I found myself asking two questions, "What are they thinking?" and secondly "Who would pay that?"

Presently, I am preaching through Luke 15 on Sunday mornings- the series is called, "The Lost and Found of the Kingdom of God" and last week we talked about the nature of the Father, a beachcombing God. It is amazing to note that God's nature is simply the answer to the above question..."Who would pay for that?" God says, "I would!" Consider that for a moment- not for an investment, not for nostalgia, but for love. God places an open bid on disaster sites. He openly claims those places that are rubble.

I find myself very often sitting in the mess of my life, not even willng to put out a sign, not worthy to be offered for sale and yet God comes asking, inquiring again and again- "is this property for sale?" You wouldn't want it- that is the cry of my heart, but yet the persistence of His spirit transacts the Gospel over and over again. Blessed, painful grace.

As God leaves us over and over again in the good/hard places where we have nothing but Himself I am praying for the grace that I would know He is indeed enough. I find my propensity is to pile up bricks, content to live there while He beckons me to live with Him. Pray for all of us that we may find grace in the rubble- he is calling us to go inquiring on the mess. Pray that we might go toward the mess as the messes we are. God is good. It is okay that we're not okay.

Build a shed the revised way

Revised "Sheds of Hope" instructions are now avaliable on the web site under "Mission Trips". If you are coming to build sheds print a copy and review them before you come. Call Dr Tom, the shed doctor for more informaton at 724-458-1279, or email him at tarmour@zoominternet.net.

Shrimp Boil Friday

Pansy Brown's Home built and on WLOX-13 in Biloxi

Yesterday Mrs. Pansy Brown called WLOX tv 13 in Biloxi and invited them to come and see the work that Trinity Presbyterian from Orangeburg, SC was doing on her home. The TV station came and aired the story at 10 p.m. last night- picutued above are Kenley Leslie (green shirt) who was the project manager for all 4 homes being built this week and the real heart and hands behind the work. Pansy is in the yellow shirt and the team from Orangeburg is on the top photo! It is remarkable to imagine but 4 homes will have been built to the 'dry' by the end of this week! SIDE NOTE: Pansy moved to the Bay 3 months before Katrina and lost everything. On this past Sunday there was nothing done on the home except the foundation piers set, the top photo is the stage at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

jordy got new shoes...

 

A Little "lagniappe" for Lagniappe (UPDATED)

Covenant Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee worked in Mid-June in Bay St. Louis and then presented LPC with a little 'lagniappe' of their own. They brought over $1,100 dollars with them and made a shopping trip to Home Depot in Slidell, LA. When they returned they filled the tool crib with everything you see in this picture. Thanks to everyone at Covenant PCA for their generosity and kind gift. Below is a list of needs that are current at Lagniappe. If you would like to add a little of your own Lagniappe give us a call and we'd love to let you participate in the restoration in this VERY needed and tangibile way! Current outstanding needs:

• Vent-A-Hood for Kitchen
• 8,000.00
• Ice Maker
• $2,000.00
• Microwave Ovens
• (4) $1,000.00
• Janitorial (mops and buckets etc)
• $500.00
• LCD projectors
• $2,500.00
• Motorized Dropdown Screens
• $1,000.00
• Flat Panel Monitors
• $700.00
• Sound System for sancuary
• $25,000.00
• Gravel
• $5,000.00
• Outdoor Lighting
• $3,000.00
• Chain-Link Fencing and Gate
• $11,000.00
• 9000 sq feet of VCT floor
• $8,000.00
• HVAC for office space (including installation)
• $5,000.00
• Flooring for batchroom
• $6,000.00
• outdoor basketball goals
• $500.00
• Picnic tables & outdoor furniture
• $250.00
• Misc Kitchen Equipment
• $2,500.00
• Kitchen Refrigeration Repair
• $2,599.00
• Insulate and Panel Walls in Building
• $25,000.00
• Plywood and Panelling for offices etc
• $15,000.00
• Roof Installation
• $15,999.00
• Copy Machine Lease
• $3,600.00
• Computers
• $700.00 each (15 needed)
• Computer Installation
• $3,000.00
• Phone System Installation
• $3,000.00
• Outdoor Signage
• $5,000.00
• Server for computer system
• $2,999.00
• Fuel Costs (Shell and Chevron fuel cards)
• $2,500.00
• Building Maintenance Equipment (mowers etc)
• $1,200.00
• Office Depot Gift Cards for office supplies
• $50.00
• Domino's pizza Gift Cards
• $20.00
• Delta or Northwest Airline Miles (intern trips home, and travel)
• A/C for Jetta
• $1,200.00
• Windows for Jetta
• $200.00
• Compressor for Astro Van A/C
• $1,200.00
• Sams Wholesale gift cards
• $20.00
• Temorary Office Building
• $3,999.00
• Carpet in New Office
• $3,500
• Handicapped Bathroom finshing
• $4,000.00
• Finishing out Offices (pastors study) / Bookshelves etc
• $5,000.00
• Scaffolding
• $3,000.00
• Laser Level
• $1,300.00
• Lighting & Fixtures for offices
• $3,000.00
• Parking Lot improvements
• $1,000.00
• Software
• $2,900.00
• Postage Meter
• $300.00
• Printing Supplies and costs
• $5,000.00
• Outdoor Garbage Cans
• $1,000.00
• fire extinquishers
• $3,000.00
• travel trailers
• $27,000.00

Please know that WE know that no one person or church can meet all of these needs, but that we have a God who owns EVERYTHING. Everyone knows someone or someplace and we hope and pray that by spreading the "Big" list broadly that everyone will find something they can contribute.

Anonther day at LPC

It is Sunday afternoon in Bay St. Louis. We had worship this morning with the teams staying at Lagniappe and then enjoyed fried catfish, hushpuppies and slaw. Several Bay St. Louis residents joined us this morning including the Bradford family who has one wall up on their new construction- unreal. It is amazing to see the visible answer to prayer. We were able to tell the EPC general assembly on Friday that their funding was being used to complete the foundation of the Bradford home. What an encouragement to be sitting and reporting to brothers and sisters in a sister denomination that their funding was being used to complete a foundation on a home with labor from OPC churches working on the Coast. Cristendom could learn alot from the coast- the Kingdom is bigger than one church or one denomination. Narnia is indeed thawing.

from GA to shining GA

Jean and I are dead on our feet. I know the BSL folks would argue, but standing up all day shaking hands and telling people the story of Lagniappe has worn me out. I have never been this tired from a "trade show" but the PCA and the thousand people I've talked to has been both refreshing and tiring. It's great to see old "brothers and fathers" like Palmertree, Habig, Sessions, Duncan, Jordan, Downing and soo many more...and I even shook Tim Kellors hand in an elevator. The kingdom is so big. We are trying to raise 1 Million dollars this week for the ongoing work at Lagniappe. Tomorrow (in 13 minutes it will be tomorrow...) we are going to the EPC GA and will meet many people there. We are at the HO-JO motel in Rome Ga, and will be waking up in 6 hours. The desk clerk said "6 AM is too early, you should sleep till 7..." If he only knew, I'd love to sleep till 11. The Kingdom is so much bigger than I ever imagined. I don't know why it suprises me, but somehow it has been made more clear in my mind than ever. Jean fell asleep watching fox news, I had to blog, you guys need to know what is going on. Talking to Conrad on the phone today, it sounds like things in the bay are going really well. No panic stricken phone calls all week. Miss you guys. We'll be home soon. Pray that we'll be functional tomorrow. I know we'll still be tired, we are picking up JLF IV in Birmingham tomorrow night or Saturday and we'll be headed home ASAP. Hope ya'll have a good night.

Could this be Just One Day

The day picture is the view out of my office at 2 O'clock this afternoon. If you will notice the bunkhouse in the background, trusses are still being put up. Another picture is of the folks staying in this bunkhouse tonight. We are at capacity with the six bunkhouses that we now have available, one of which was finished at 10 o'clock tonight. Teams worked on this all day long. We had two teams framing up the bunkhouse, another team that came in and put hurricane straps, insulation, and Tyvek up and finally the team that needed to stay in the bunkhouse tonight came in and pushed through to finish this project so they could sleep. Welcome to Lagniappe, could you go work 8 hours to finish your bunkhouse so you have a place to stay. That doesn't even cover our electrical team that stayed up until midnight last night to finish wiring the place so they would be out of our way and make all of this work possible today. All the teams have been incredible and more than excited to help us accomplish our needs. Dave and Eric, two of our interns, along with James, a high schooler back to help us from and earlier trip, took alot of the responsibility and coordinated and made this happen while I was able to shoot out to Gulfport to get some shoes that were needed ever since unloading a truck full of rotten chicken. Work went on until 10 o'clock tonight to make this happen. This is just the beginning of what has happened today. We have 3 teams totaling about 40 people working on foundations for 3 homes we are hoping to build next week. They have been digging and working hard out in the hot sun with now shade for this whole week to get to the point where the next step is concrete. Unfortunately, we could not get concrete until Monday. Conrad and myself went over to the plant and Conrad laid it out that we needed help to accomplish our goal. We had to get concrete set so our team next week from Orangeburg could frame up these three houses and we could get moving on these families homes. While talking to the dispatchers at the concrete plant things didn't look good seeing everyone is so booked for work down here. As we were there their headquarters called and they handed Conrad the phone instructing, convince this guy and you can make it happen. Conrad told who we were, what we needed and about these families we were helping. We got concrete, this means our teams slaving all week in the sun are able to see their projects to fruition, we meet our deadline enabling our Orangeburg team to frame these houses, and my worst fear of teams not having work for the day was averted. As Jean says God is only as good as His last home run to us. God continues to provide over and over for us and we get in a tough spot and we still worry. God provided more than ever and this may have been one of the greatest days I have had at Lagniappe. It was day of many first that I was blessed and excited to be a part of but just a few more stories in a long list of blessing and provisions that He has provided for in our short existance. I can't help but weep and smile while writing about this. And still on top of all of this I had a team take our problem of not having enough mattresses for our volunteers tonight, go out and find what we needed and provide what we needed for our remaining beds. A volunteer also spoiled me and took care of my dire need for new shoes. And again still on top of this we had a gutting crew, electrical work, shed teams, 9 more shed teams dropped off, visiting with residents in the community, and on and on go on. As Curt believes, God is not providing all of this and filling all of our physical needs to not see spiritual needs met and see His kingdom advance in Bay Saint Louis. Please keep praying for the people of Bay Saint Louis to know this God that provides for us folks who are not OK and advances His kingdom inspite of us. This blog is long and full of many run on sentences I'm sure but moral of the story is God is good, God is sooo good.

just another day

Jean, Curt and I are in Atlanta at General Assembly. I've never been to GA before, but it was pretty interesting. I know many of you wonder what exactly we are doing down at Lagniappe. I'll give you a bit of a blow-by-blow of today. Scheduled Departure time: 5:00 AM. Wake up 4:30 AM. Packing and last minute preperation (so I thought) 4:45 AM Text Jean and see when he's coming 5:00 AM Call Jeans phone to see where he is. 5:15 AM call Kim's phone to find out where Jean is. 5:16 AM Jean calls back to say that he's over slept. 5:50 AM Jean calls to say that he had to run by the church...seems he misplaced some important things up there 6:15 AM Jean arrives to pick me up. 6:45 AM Realize we've forgotten some of the carpenters pencils that we were bringing to give away. 7:45 AM Missing items found. FedExing planned 8:45 AM A/C isn't cooling well. Stop at Hardees in Mobile. 9:00 AM Missed turn for I-65, noticed a A/C place for cars. 9:35 AM finish A/C charge, get back on the road. Thanksgiving for providence 10:00 AM Jean makes phone calls, and more phone calls, and oh, more phone calls 11:35 Pit stop. Lunch 3:00 PM Atlanta arrival 3:15 PM Try and find Hyatt 3:45 PM Try and find Hyatt 4:00 PM Arrive (finally) Ok, you get the picture, but our day included stops at Office Depot, Office Max, Best Buy and getting to see some old friends. We also managed a couple of moments out by the deck overlooking the pool with some friendly pigeons. I photographed a couple of them just for fun. Pray for us, long week ahead, families back home missing us. Not to mention Jordy and the LPC team back in the Bay. Pray for the week ahead, we need to raise a substantial amount of money for long-term support. We set up a booth and have a lot to do tomorrow starting with a breakfast meeting with the Oversite Commission. I'm going to bed.

Amazing Grace

Much has happened in the past three to four weeks, much more than ever happened before and yet the blog postings have dwindled. We finally have our own facility up and running and most importantly we have plenty of teams working out in the community. We have had ridiculous stories such as spoiled chicken trucks and new freezers, jail and hospital visits, answered prayers and many things to pray about its just that it is so busy and now we have teams which we have contact with every night it is harder to blog, but back to the many teams running in the community. We have close to 200 people here to staying, working, and eating at Lagniappe. This is our biggest weak as far as numbers go but it is also a very big week as far as sustainability goes. Jean, Andy, and Curt all have to go to general assembly in Atlanta for the Presbyterian denomination. This is a chance for us at Lagniappe to raise support, recruit teams, and find prayer from the entire denomination. Of course this has to be the week that we are running over capacity and have our biggest work crew ever. I haven't had a complete day off for over a month, yesterday was the closest with an afternoon spent on a shrimp boat out in the Bay swimming, I am running on fumes. The only time that I am able to be excited about this week and not completely overwhelmed is either if someone is praying for the week or we are singing Amazing Grace. Of course, with either prayer or song I am barely able to keep from weeping due to the emotional drain that all of this is taking and knowing how much I need to be held and rely on the Lord through all of this. Moral of the story is, please pray, pray, pray for all that is going on here. Please pray that our teams will have work, please pray for Jean, Curt, and Andy at general assembly. Pray that we all stay healthy with the lack of sleep and long hours and sickness that is already getting to a few of us. Most of all, pray that the kingdom will advance this week inspite of all of us broken vessels and pray that we will trust that all that goes on this week, probably one of the biggest weeks in the short but not intense history of Lagniappe is in the Lord's hands and that He is working all of this out for His purposes.

Another Thank you and Answer to Prayer

  Late Tuesday night around 11 P.M. in pulls a truck with two very large freezers. We at Lagniappe were blessed with two gifts from Masterbilt of freezers. I was just out of the shower and on my way to bed but yet I don't know if I have ever been so excited to jump back to work that late at night. It may have been the fact that earlier that day some of the staff here at Lagniappe, including myself had to unload a full trailer load of rotten food which most of it was chicken. This was due to the freezer trailer we had not being very reliable, but that's a whole other blog. It was also another answered prayer. God continue to provide for us and we are extremely grateful for the folks at Masterbilt's generous gift. We could not make it happen without the help and donations. Thank you again Masterbilt. 

Reality Check

So we haven't kept the blog up as much as we should have this past week. This photo tells the story of the energy level on Thursday afternoon at 4 pm. Last week was tough, many staff had a tiring week. As you can tell in this photo the interns have been exhausted with work. The struggles each day are different, but the heat stays the same. Walking 20 feet to your car from an air conditioned house, will drench one in perspiration. Don't get me wrong, things are going well here, but life is hard some times for all involved. But no one here is backing down, no one came to Lagniappe to stay or work in a 5 diamond resort. We all knew it was going to be ugly, dirty, grimy and broken...just like my heart. We haven't been disappointed. We've just had confirmed that what we are doing is real, it's heartbreaking. It's breathtaking, it's fun, it's very, very tiring. Ultimately at the end of the day, what we see is none other than seeing the very hands of God at work, restoring hearts, homes, lives and so much more. Jean preached this morning about the "chickin' truck of my heart". I think it has been one of the most profound sermons that I've heard in a while. Most of us have heard the "try harder" gospel of self. Jean's illustration of the broken refrig truck that failed and spoiled in the BSL sun, as a metaphor for our hearts was so telling. We need a mp3 recorder to be able to publish those sermons on the web. I think you'd enjoy them. Many of you have been praying also for our housing situation. Praise Jesus, I'm sitting in the A/C of my own home, with Cammie and Kate and we have moved in and things are great (other than a quick visit from RotoRooter). Jean, Curt and I leave for General Assembly this week. I've never been, to GA or Disney Land. I guess there is a first time for everything. I'd rather go to RYM. I think next year we need to have a booth at RYM recruiting teams and churches to partner with us. I'll have to talk to JFL III about that.

Dinner at the Chapman's

Cammie and I cooked for the Interns last night. As you can see some of them needed a little R & R and some time off. Austin's suprised look when I told her the chicken she ate came from the truck that was on the property. (just kidding Austin). Emily and Christy exchange a backrub. Dave has that look again... wonder what he'll be planting next. BACK OFF!!! If a look ever meant anything, I think this one speaks for itself.

No Neutral Ground

"There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan” C.S. Lewis We are confronted almost daily by clear evidence of God's hand of providence and yes there is clear evidence of a counter claim upon everything we are doing. Please pray with and for the people of Bay St. Louis/Waveland, and yes for us.

Genesis 1: chaos to order

Genesis 1: chaos to order

Last night as Jean was nailing up the map of Bay Saint Louis to the wall, he looked around and noted, "today is our Genesis 1 day: from chaos to order". On Sunday our main building was in a state of disarray. But by dinner on Monday the building had been transformed into an awesomely organized space. Now we not only have a well planned out eating area, but also a green intern office and a living room (complete with coffee tables, candles, and a van seat plywood footstool!) Ryn worked with Jean, a team 'o volunteers, and a few 'terns, to organize our mass of chaos. It was an all day job. As we were moving all the kitchen appliances, food, and tables from one end of the building to the other, it was easy to get overwhelmed with the details of how the space was going to be used and where everything was going to go. Ryn finally took a step back from the kitchen area and looked at what we had done. She said to me "Ya know, when you take a step back, it looks pretty good!" I stepped back to where Ryn was standing and everything seemed to be in its place. It made sense. It looked good. I think it's easy to slip into the mindset of being overwhelmed with the details in our own lives. When we step back and think that the creator of the universe is in charge of the chaos of our lives, it makes sense that things come together like they did yesterday. We underestimate what God can do, so we're suprised when He does something big among us. We really shouldn't be suprised. God is capable and willing to do more than we can imagine, and He has great plans for our lives and for Lagniappe Church. "No one is good enough to save himself. Awake my soul tonight to boast nothing else"-D.Webb