If ya’ll have been paying attention then you already know that this trip was over Thanksgiving break. Of course that meant Thanksgiving Day as well. Our fith full day down on the Gulf Coast was Thanksgiving. It had always been a question as to what exactly we were going to do that day. It was decided that we would’t work a full day, but we were so excited about finishing our projects that there was no way we were giong to take the whole day off. We started the day by heading over to the next town, Long Beach, MS. That town was so bad off that you had to have a special pass to get in. We somehow managed to scrounge one up, and went to a church that was practically dead before the storm, but the hurricane destroyed the inside and it doesn’t look like the congregation was even big enough to make it worth rebuilding. But another group was down there trying to rebuild it, praying with a “If we build it they will come” mentality. Around noon we were headed back to Pass Christian. On the way back we saw a cross in the clouds, that was a nice reminder on Thanksgiving day. Not long after we got back to the church 80 Thanksgiving meals were delivered in styrophome “to go” boxes. It was tasty. After we finished that we made a quick turnaround to get out to our job sites. We went back to the Alicia St house we had been working on, we were hoping to get it done so we could do one more house before we left town on Saturday. So we all worked quickly to get most of tht done. A few stayed back to spray bleach to kill the mildew while the rest of us went to start on another house.
By how we were all tired not just from working a hard half day, but after five days of work, I know I was starting to drag and can only imagine that others were too. Someone from Steve Thorson’s group had heard about a fire station the next town up that was serving thanksgiving. While the official plan was just to eat at God’s Katrina Kitchen, our group, Steve’s group and Dr. Olsen’s group were willing to give it a try. And why not, we had heard that there were going to be lots of pies. Keith and Michelle also joined us. So we head there. Now this fire station was considerably smaller than God’s Katrina Kitchen, so I got out of the van and asked if they had room for 21. They assured us they did and would not let us entertain thoughts otherwise. It turns out they really did, because besides us, only a family of four showed up. As we were walking in, they started moving everything around, they had pushed a bunch of tables together so that we would all sit at one big table. They ditched their plan to serve buffet style and instead set the food, in large aluminum cooking trays, in front of us. This group serving was made up of students from Lancaster Bible College, who had met up with a congregation from Maryland and had teamed up with the fire department. Those from up north had travled down with the primary goal of serving Thanksgiving Dinner. The bunch of amateur waiters and waitresses did a great job. The smile on their faces as they got us more tea and instisting that we had not had enough pie yet, really rejuvinated me. They were interested in all our stories and it seems like everyone found something in common with someone in our group. It was also one of the best tasting thanksgivings I had had, the sweep potatoes and stuffing we’re particularly delicious. It was so nice to be served after a week of serving other. That thanksgiving dinner, with what a week earlier would have been 20 strangeers really rejuvenated me and I could have worked for another week. And I count that as my best Thanksgiving yet.
