Bits, Bytes and Pix

I would like to welcome two new members to the C.O.D.RA. family:

Lyttleton Street United Methodist Church, of Camden, SC and Lambda Pi Eta's "Operation EARL" - Emergency Assistance & Recovery League.

Welcome aboard and thanks for all you are doing for Pearlington!

Sam Bailey is a local resident who has been involved in the rescue, care and feeding of the town’s pets and animals in the wake of the storm. He also has a strong interest in preserving some of the historical buildings in town that he fears are - and will be - torn down. He reports:

"A good book for ALL incoming outsiders is "Louisiana'a Loss, Mississippi's Gain, a history of Hancock County from the Stone age to the Space age. This is all about the old structures that are being torn down and why we should have kept them.

Oh, well...."

Is there something we all can do to help this situation? Please contact me if you have ideas.

Jennifer Johnson is a force of nature. She has put together a plan, gathered all the people she needs and is working on materials to rebuild the Ladner home. There are so many people she wishes to thank, so check her link to the right for more information. It is worth reprinting the email she sent to her hundreds of colleagues, teams members and supporters:

"You never know when the tears are going to start flowing. When we realized that George and Margaret needed help in rebuilding, we dared to dream big. Is it possible for a group of volunteers to frame a house in a week? We dared to ask and John Long said yes. When we put a cry for help out to our email distribution lists and Jon White put it on his Pearlington Blog, volunteers who have never even met George and Margaret began to respond with their monetary donations and their offers of supplies and skilled labor.

Two schools are now involved. Channel 48 can’t get enough of this story. We have two newspaper reporters working on stories as you read this (Huntsville Times and Aspen Times). Maybe I have doubted God too much in the past. Maybe I have wondered too many times, is it just coincidence or is it God’s hand? I think that with every email God sends my way and each volunteer that offers help in this project, God is upstairs laughing at me and saying:

"Are you listening yet, Jennifer? Do you get it yet?"

It isn’t coincidence that Mark and Ray and I drove into the forgotten little town of Pearlington in September. It isn’t coincidence that J.P. Rogers and I delivered a care package to George and Margaret Ladner in October and met Eddie and Andrea. I feel so blessed to be a part of this journey, this wonderful adventure that God has allowed us to go on. I feel so blessed that he has put such selfless people as you in my life to share it."

You know, Jennifer, I AM getting it. God IS good and together we will do what we all set out to do.

Jennifer also reminds me the Buster’s full name is Jeff "Buster" Verden and she shares another interesting, yet not surprising, anecdote about the Verden family.

The have a huge pet hog.

His name is Hamburger.