Best Wishes to all Future VIM teams.

Lynda Gomi

Through a lot of twists and turns our team was once again able to work in Biloxi in March. This year's team included 13 members from six different churches in New York and Connecticut -  Kaaterskill, Grace - Newburgh, and Asbury - Croton from New York and Newtown, Litchfield, Thomaston and First - Middletown from  Connecticut. Eight of us were coming to help in Biloxi for the first time and there were three pastors in our group... The morning contingent was met at the Gulfport Airport by our good friend and Motor Pool Manager, Loyce Searight, who has faithfully looked after the needs of all of the NY Annual Conference VIM groups over the last four years.  After finding our way to our home for the next week , the Seashore Assembly Conference Center, literally right across the street from beckoning sands and waters of the Gulf of Mexico (and you though Mission work was all about hardship!) we were warmly received and checked in by Anne Steinaway. Despite the forecast of rain we headed out to feast our way through "BBQ on the Green", Biloxi's annual BBQ competition.  From pork butt to baby back ribs  to grilled oysters we managed  to not only engage in a mission focus of helping to enlarge the local economy, but also succeeded in enlarging our own waistlines, a recurring theme throughout the week!

Half of our team was presented with a unique opportunity by Craig Snow of HopeForce, another agency working with EBCCRA. Craig had struck a deal with a local landlord to help rehab a property in exchange for three years of below market rent for a single mom, Luanda Hanford and her five children.  This home had been boarded up for over three years until December of 2008, with some piles of household items still awaiting pick-up at the street. Being ever flexible we signed on and installed sheetrock nailers throughout the house, hurricane brackets and strapping, several areas of custom framing, siding and all manner of small jobs both inside and outside the house. While this may not have been the straight forward job we had hoped for, as on many mission trips, sometimes the work picks you.

The fine meals and fellowship continued on Thursday and Friday nights, as we again took friends out to dinner with us including Pastor Robinson, George and Deborah Parks, Earlene and Loyce.
Of course no trip to Biloxi would be complete without extracurricular building efforts and this year's came in a project that was close to Earlene's heart.  Earlene is one of the sparkplug's of St. Paul's, particularly in working with it's youth. Like my own church, the children of St. Paul each year put on a dramatic performance as part of Easter worship. This year Earlene wanted to create a model of Christ's tomb with with Jesus coming out of it. She found some willing helpers on our Team, most importantly Barry.  Barry designed and cut a frame of  1X2's to support the recycled refrigerator box that Earlene had found that would become the face of the tomb.  On Friday afternoon we went to Earlene's backyard and had a rehearsal of assembling the "tomb"  along with the near life-size Christ figure Earlene had cut out, painted and decorated right down to long dark yarn for hair. (See picture above.) We had a lot of fun seeing it come together and reports from Biloxi are that it was a big hit on Easter morning. 
Holding our last devotions together on the beach Saturday morning we stood in a circle on the sand contemplating that during our week the last unidentified body from Hurricane Katrina, a young man nicknamed "Strength," was finally identified as Frank Jones  3 1/2 years after the storm. 

Our week was over and although it was only March I knew that come December I would look back at this week as one of the very best weeks I had spent all year.

excerpts from team report by Jud Ramaker Team Leader 86