Why We're Here

As Sunday dawns bright and clear, after another night of cleansing rain, I reflect back on the events of the week. I am humbled once again by the sheer determination and force of will exhibited in the hearts and deeds of every volunteer present. This is indeed a unique experiment in cooperation and synergy and I am proud to be a part of it.

I am up before the dawn to create new avenues of service, that we might all find a way that suits us best to serve. The need has never been greater and I trust that all good people will rally to the call. How many more hearts must break, how many more homes must be destroyed, before the world wakes up to a simple fact: we are ALL in this together.

I have made so many good friends; so many women and men of conscience and goodwill who have flocked to Pearlington to make a difference. We all have our "stuff," yet the task itself baptizes us and invites us to come clean. We have never needed each other more, as our greatest fears and our greatest strengths find purchase on the muddy soil of southern Mississippi. We are made more whole through our common goal and we count on the support and unabridged love we have for each other.

I intended this blog to be gathering place, a modern-day flag around which we rally. It is not the American flag or my own Maple Leaf. Rather, it is the flag of all humanity expressing itself in action and outcome. It is, in fact, an opportunity; a chance to do what other great organizations have failed in many ways to achieve. It is harmony and symmetry and a submergence of individual ego in favor of the common good.

As the sultry Mississippi days unfold, there is still much to do. All of us who serve here are daily humbled in witnessing Faith in Action; in resource meeting need in synchronic and delightfully unexpected ways. Beneath the day to day, if one looks closely, is found the common thread that binds us all and that calls us to that place of spirit, where we are connected perfectly and equidistantly, one to the other and to our Creator.

Perhaps I make too much of it, but I think not. Watch for it, in the smallest of transactions in the Pearl*Mart to the rebuilding of homes in their entirety. Who are these people and how does this get done? Why is it that most young people work harder here as volunteers than many youth in our own communities do when they are paid? How and why are the volunteers called here? Whose Hand guides it all, weaving a tapestry of service and goodwill in this experiment we call Pearlington?

Make no mistake. We are all a part of something huge. As daunting a task as this may be, please mark my words. The waters of this world will not close in around us any more. We have been changed and each of us now bears a responsibility; that is, an ability to respond, that has changed our lives and empowered us to individual greatness, if we follow through. And what is that greatness other than an answer to a call from God to be all that we can be and to fulfil our individual destinies as He created them?

Please notice today, to the right, a link to a new blog. It is our latest Call to Greatness: "Adopt-a-Home in Pearlington." My wife claims I am addicted to nicknames and acronyms, so I am calling it the "AHIP Program." She is always right about me. Please explore it today and in the days ahead as its roster of need builds.

Some think they came to Pearlington to seek redemption, or to escape a life that didn’t work. Some came to run away from, or to run toward. Some came needing to fix the world, some to fix themselves. Some came because they were called.

It really doesn’t matter. In the end we will all be healed.

Thank you Katrina. Thank you God.