Kentucky and Florida at play

The week of September 28 brought two groups, two guitars and a tamborine. How could it get any better?

By Your Side I Will Seek Other Seas

The Greenville, North Carolina and Sewickley,Pennsylvania teams finished their week out with one final singing of Hymn #377, the "Lakeshore" song. We sang it all week and it fit our work. The version we sang at camp was a little different due to translation from the original but has the same meaning. For many volunteers who come to the coast to help rebuild after a hurricane, their lives change. Their boat has been left on the shoreline and they follow Christ to "seek other seas."

Our Musical Camp

Olive Tree is the only camp to have our own piano..
Our dining room is located in the former sanctuary of the Eastminster Presbyterian Church in New Orleans.
So we have the perfect area for devotions after breakfast and dinner.

This week we've been blessed with an accomplished musician, Allen Amos, a Junior High band director from North Carolina. Here's Allen in the kitchen:

We've also been gifted with two ladies who who "cooked" instead of "caulked."
Mary Helen Stasavich and Chris Riddle from First Presbyterian in Greenville, North Carolina cooked breakfast and dinner every day, most of it "from scratch."

Olive Tree in Great Shape After Gustav

Our camp came through Gustav without a scratch. The Shower Trailer folks at St Andrews called to check on it so I thought I'd update any of you planning a trip to our camp.

We should be ready for us on schedule without much effort. Certainly there will be plenty of work for you. Right now the Olive Tree camp manager is helping clean up and rebuild some of the other camps that weren't as lucky. Our Houma camp took the brunt of Gustav. That camp's manager, Kevin Henry, also lost his home. The entire PDA staff is going to Houma tomorrow morning to see what we can do to bring this camp back. The Pearlington camp also lost a tent or two but not as serious as the Houma camp.

I have a video of the last night in New Orleans. It was really a very surreal experience. The night we evacuated the camp was also the third anniversary and the Project Homecoming people gave a big party for the homeowners to celebrate their rebuilding. So while I was packing up for Gustav and carrying boxes out the building, the Project Homecoming people were celebrating their victory over Katrina and bringing in helium balloons and food through the same door.