It is so odd to be able to go East via highway 90 to 'downtown' Biloxi and the home site being worked on by Cross and Crown. That stretch was closed in October, and traffic was a nightmare. I've used other roads that were closed back then. It's good to know things are changing and getting repaired, but I've been struggling a little bit to keep up.
This morning I stopped by and saw the home in East Biloxi (see pictures on Ann's entry below)and the various Cross and Crown members working very hard on electrical and many other issues. Isaac and I had finished helping a couple to move furniture, etc before carpet arrived (two weeks early). While there, I met a dog named Jezebel- a St. Bernard/German Shepherd mix. Her owner, Tiffany, told me that they had another dog, a Golden Retriever, who was killed by a truck a few days after the storm. Their fences had been blown down, the road was much busier than usual, and the dog was frightened by a thunderstorm and ran out. They keep Jezebel on the tether now, because they're concerned that she might run off as well. Jezebel really needed some petting and some talking to, or else I needed some dog time, or both.
Jezebel lives in Woolmarket, on the same highway that I traveled last October on the way to take people to the Red Cross shelter there. Back then it was pitch dark everywhere out there, and it was an adventure finding the community center that housed the shelter. While driving this morning, I knew that I had been there before. Once again, I'm just trying to keep with everything.
Yesterday Ashley and I, along with four women from Pennsylvania, went to Bill Johnson's house at his request to help him to move some items from a garage which he has rented and which now has been sold. There were many frames and paintings, and all kinds of other things, most of which had been soaked by the storms, much of which wasn't going to be recoverable or repairable. He saved some items that looked like lost causes, and just watching him pick up things very gingerly and look at them, and hearing some of the stories of paintings and so on, was very moving. When that was going on, I don't remember noticing the heat in the garage or that old mold smell that I remember so well from last October.
I look forward to hearing more and more about what Cross and Crown people are up to over in East Biloxi in the 300 block of Fayard street, and to going back there. I have some commitments to people to help with moving and other things. The week will have gone by way too fast.
-Pastor Glen