Great Leap Epilogue: People and Places

Here are some of the photos from October through December 2006, before this blog was born. ..Here's a view of our destination: our new home-to-be in Gulfport.....
These are our nearest neighbors. The man who said he was the owner of the demolished house on the left was known to sleep there on occasion, even though the interior floors had been removed and sold for the value of their rare old-growth lumber. Big Johnny lived large in the house on the right: he spent the first few weeks after the Hurricane wondering what to do with the new skylight Katrina had left in his roof.
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Volunteer teams from out of state came to help us clean up and move, while we served refresh-ments to curious neighbors. .. Here's Dale and Barry, two of our first Church Army residents, with James, Mary and me. .. .. The trucker delivering more of the Mennonite-built cabins
helped us load up and move out of Pass Christian,

while Smiling Al waves good-bye to Pass Christian and its spectacular view of the seaside sunrise. .. .. ..
The Church Army program of spritual discipline was intensive, and a break to go camping was well appreciated. .. .. Back in Gulfport, long after the cabins were unloaded, we were still running generators to keep heaters running at night, while we waited for new power poles to be installed. .. .. And there was still much work to be done to convert the apartments to warehouse space, and to grace the grounds with garlands. .. Jeff (below, on left) filled out the available cabin bunkspace for men struggling to transform their lives. Some did well, some did not. Some partings were tragic, others were hopeful. All of us learned. All of us heard from God. ..

Thanks for coming along for the Great Leap. For more about Church Army Gulf Coast and its history, go to the archive and begin with the first post in January, 2007.