Guys, pray for me, keep me in your thoughts, whatever it is you prefer to do. I will be heading out for VanCleave, Mississippi (about 10 miles north of Biloxi) at 6 a.m. Saturday morning with a team from my church to help with the massive clean-up effort down there. What we are doing in the Southern Baptist Convention is partnering with churches in the area to come in and work with the affected church membership and other locals. We will be "mucking out" in the houses which were flooded with 3 feet of water. The people at the local church have been providing meals for the many workers and we will be staying there in the church.

As bad as things are, we understand that power is on, the local WalMart has reopened and cell phones are working but people can't return to their homes until they've been cleaned out and dried up. We were told that at this point the people are starting to realize just how long this is going to take, so it's not only the physical needs but the psychological needs that are critical.

I'll be there until the following Saturday and we have committed to sending a new team each week at least until December. I decided to jump in now because of the imminent loss of my job. Might as well go now or lose the opportunity to help. Hopefully I will have a new job by October. I hope to pack my UK and wear it at least some of the time though I don't want to "muck it up." Talk to you when I return!