God is SO Cool!

Lots of interesting stuff about Pearlington this morning - and our Blog!

If you look to the right, you find a new link to a Blog I have created specifically to share the stories of Pearlington. These will include the "Focus On...." series, as well as "Back Home Again" and "A Volunteer’s Tale." I am soliciting stories and articles for these three series: first-person articles of YOUR individual experiences as volunteers in Pearlington; stories of local folks getting back in their homes (hopefully in the first-person as well, but at least with some good quotes from the residents themselves) and information about your group - how and why you started, your mission(s) to Pearlington; what you were able to accomplish and how you experienced Pearlington as a group.

This new Blog is called "Sharing Pearlington." There is so much good information coming to me from P’town these days that I’m finding it difficult to get those stories the space they deserve on this blog. You will also notice that I have revealed the Site Meter count. As of this morning, there have been more than 7000 "hits" to this blog - excluding my own visits! The Site Meter is at the very bottom of the panel to the right.

I am still investigating hosts for a Photo Blog and have not found one yet I like fully. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Let’s show Pearlington - after the storm and now - to the world and each other. I’ll keep you informed as it develops.

I also want to say this morning how deeply proud I am of all of you - for your commitment to excellence, your willingness to serve and to make such a difference and for the outstanding resilience of the people of Pearlington. We all have helped to put this town on the map.

NO ONE will forget Pearlington any more!

Charlie Holmes of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship reports this morning:

"Our CBF group laid the foundation, furnished sheetrock, and will provide all the door hardware for a house for Pam and Mike [who live on Susie Sharp’s property]. All the groups working together are like Larry the cable guy's statement: "Git 'er done!"

We also were able to lay the foundations for Ada Palode, Glen Bazor, and Alma McArthur. Hope we have as much success with teams that can get the houses up in a timely manner. Vickie Netto's house is coming along nicely - roof, shingles, siding, insulation, all installed this week. Beginning to look good."

Jennifer Johnson of BRICK Layers of Alabama writes:

"Many hands make light work. I need some help. I just spoke with Pastor Rawls at the First Missionary Baptist Church in Pearlington, MS. Six days a week, these wonderful folks who are still living in FEMA trailers, feed a hot lunch to all the volunteers that come into the town. He asked if I could find him some fresh meat. They have deep freezers at the church where they can store it. They need chicken, turkey, ham, smoked sausage, roast beef, etc. They also need LARGE (think gallon) cans of greens (they say they are hard to find), peaches (for peach cobbler) and apples (for apple pie). Please call and see if you can get some donations. If they had Wal-Mart gift cards, they could buy the fresh meat down there. I can take LARGE cans of fruits and vegetables when I go May 26, but it will be hard to take frozen meat. PLEASE help find some food so that this invaluable ministry can continue." [This is the outreach of which Jackie Acker is a key element].

Additionally, she tells us:

"I thought you would get a kick out of this. My husband, Keith, talked the Assistant Manager from Home Depot into holding a sheetrock workshop for my volunteers. Shawn is going to build a wall in the store for us and give us hands on experience. Get this....he just e-mailed me and now he wants to go on one of our mission trips."

God is so cool!!!!!"