Alexis B

Today I was teamed up with a canteen and sent out into the field. Now the lady that was driving our touch was a member of our team from Montreal so she named our canteen "The Frenchy Cantina". She is really a fun lady with an excellent sense of humour.

So we loaded up our truck and head out for the day. First order of business was to get gassed up, then to head over to our location. Once we were over at our location we needed to set up for the day.

As soon as we pulled into our location people start coming. Today we served 375 meals, I personally handed out around 100 Bibles and another pamphlet we have to give out. I prayer with several people, gave out lots of hugs, took a list of request for things to try to bring out tomorrow.

I think I saw and spoke to around 500 or so people. The sense that I received from most people is they are so grateful we are here; they are so positive and just are moving ahead to make the best out of a bad situation. I gave out lots of hugs and was able to counsel those who just needed a listening ear. It was a very fulfilling day.

Their was one young man who is going to break a lot of hearts when he gets older but he was so over joyed by the friendly smiles, the hugs and so forth, that he started to cry. He turned to his mommy and said mom that lady is nicer than my teacher, can she teach me. I just stood their laughing with his mom. This family you could tell were having a very hard time come and asking for help. He turned to his mother as they were getting snacks and so forth and said she told me to take more than one, but I feel like I must not be greedy and save things for others. It was the end of the day and we were trying to get rid of what we had so I said you are not greedy if you take what I give you and share with your brother and friends. He said Thank you mame, gave me a big hug and began to cry.

Towards the end of our day there was some action in our parking lot, it was like watching an episode of Bad Boys. It was real cool to watch. The ending of this episode was no one was arrested.

We packed up the truck and headed back towards headquarters. Maria took us site seeing and told us some of the stories as we went along. Lots of pictures were taken. On all homes there is an X but on them. In the top part of the X is the date the house was inspected, in the left side of the X is which team inspected the house, in the bottom part of the X is number of deaths, and in the right part of the X is the number of dead animals. If you see DOA it means dead on arrival.

It was heart wrenching but at the same time it helps to show you the truth of what you see on TV. The thing I saw that got me most was a house where the telephone pole split it in half and a wheel chair lying there. I hope to get the pictures up here or somewhere later today.

After a full day on the canteens the pastoral team was asked to do a second job for the day and that was to go to Yankee stadium and help out at the Halloween party we had for the children. It was really fun to see all the children. My two favourite costumes was the little baby dressed as I dream of Genie and a little boy as Thomas the train.

We handed out toys, books, school bags and it was really special to see them all tricker and treating. The city of Biloxi had the Scooby doo movie for them to watch playing out in the field. Hotdogs and Pepsi for all. It was a very rewarding.
Ok I really need to go now if I want to be showered and ready for work today.