Requiem: Gods's Katrina Kitchen RIP

On July 31, 2007, God's Katrina Kitchen will serve its last meal, and cease operations on August 1. The Long Beach city council met last Tuesday and denied our request to share a 10-acre site with a local church. Numerous other offers of property to move to have been received, but none of them included political support from the surrounding community and city.

Although GKK will no longer exist, the need and the mission continue. Current plans are to parcel out all of the donated equipment and bunkhouses to one or more ministries here on the Gulf Coast. There are more than 20 permanent volunteer staff associated with the Kitchen, but none of them have heard a call to stop ministering to the Gulf Coast. It is likely that most of them will continue to serve God's call, but under a local ministry with a different name.

Church Army Gulf Coast will continue to operate under the same name. We now have three volunteer residents of the NoAH program seeking to transform their lives from homelessness and alcohol/drug addiction into what God would have them to be. Our residential location as of August 1 is still uncertain.

Here I offer a photo requiem for God's Katrina Kitchen:

This composite overview photo was taken from the balcony of the concrete apartment building, shortly after GKK moved onto the site at 554 Camp Avenue in Gulfport, Mississippi. The following photos show the many improvements made to our home in the succeeding months.

Members of the public who come to eat at the kitchen enter across a flowered garden with a picket fence.

James planted a rose garden to grace the lawn beside the tent, and the owners of the property brought additional roses to plant last fall.

The south end of the lawn has the Cross and flagpole transplanted from the former site in Pass Christian,

and another flower garden graces the south edge of the slab on which the tent sits.

Okra thrives at the east edge of the slab.

Throughout the site, de- construction has already begun. Here is a trench opened up to prepare for the removal of the conduit and wires.

A massive power grid supports the tent, office, cabins, motor homes, and travel trailers that serve the Kitchen.

The power grid supports this laundry room, while wastewater drainage is routed through the sewer systems of the existing slabs, the only remains of a 120-unit apartment complex.

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Cabin 88 is the residence of Tool Room John. This palm was transplanted here to grace the volunteer housing area.

North and south views of volunteer housing in the interior of the camp,

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and the housing that faces the street.
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This new neighbor is missing from the overview photo at the top, when the Waffle House site was an empty slab.
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The fire pit is the late-night gathering place for the permanent staff. We sang to the Lord here this Monday and Tuesday.
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Between the trailers near the fire pit is the Kid Parking Lot.
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. And here is Mary Giles with two of the Giles grand-kids.
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The sunflower garden runs up to a massive pokeweed plant. So far, none of us have tried to cook any pokeweed.
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James' and Mary's front porch features a porch swing,
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facing the vegetable garden with its tomatoes and peppers.
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So now it's story time. Come August 1, God's Katrina Kitchen may seem like it continues only in the stories that will be told and retold, to grandkids of grandkids. But look closer: you may find that the work of the Kitchen never ceased, indeed never missed a beat. Stay tuned.

Soggy Retreat

Behold, a great and strong wind came and tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind came an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire, a still small voice.

Sometimes you just have to go camping.

At least, that's my motto.

The weatherman saith: scattered thunder- storms on Saturday, more thunderstorms on Sunday. But then, what does the weatherman know?

Sometimes you just have to go camping.

Besides, it was time to take Freddie and Van on retreat, to break from the frenetic rhythm of the camp, and to find a quiet place to listen for God.

And we each asked the Lord, "What am I doing here?"

And the Lord in a still small voice answered each of us.

And in reverse order from Elijah, then we had the thunder and the lightning and the wind. But we didn't notice any rocks being broken, nor did we notice an earthquake.

We did, however, notice the puddles inside our tents, and the wet sleeping bags and the soggy clothes. Saturday night's rain cancelled the steak, which had to be deferred to Steak and Eggs in the morning.

We also noticed the dead battery in the car. I had tried to entice Steve to come along with us, and thought the dead battery would lure him. But it was James to the rescue. Once the car was running again, we took a side trip to the flowered trail beside POW camp, then headed for Camp Avenue in Gulfport.

While we were getting our visitation at Bigfoot Camp, the folks back home also had a visitation. When the thunderstorm passed through, it was accompanied by a pretty significant waterspout just offshore of God's Katrina Kitchen.

REPORT: The Move is On?

In the meantime, the camp had been hearing mixed reactions from the councilmen of Long Beach about the impending invasion by God's Katrina Kitchen. But on Monday when the mayor returned to town, he invited WLOX TV to join him and the camp leadership and Pastor Larry of the church that invited us onto their property. Pastor Larry's impassioned speech was carried on the 10:00 news, along with the mayor's statement that he was not opposed to GKK coming to Long Beach.

Today, Tuesday July 17, at 5:00 the Long Beach city council will meet to consider whether to welcome GKK to their city, and what kinds of conditions they may wish to impose on us.

Today we are in prayer.

Sneak Preview: On the Move

As promised, I'm sharing the breaking news as it develops about our eviction from Gulfport. Please pray alongside us as we move closer to our July 31 deadline to move from our current property.

By a unanimous vote, a church in the interior of nearby Long Beach, Mississippi, has invited God's Katrina Kitchen and Church Army Gulf Coast to move onto their 10-acre church site. Last Sunday the staff from the Kitchen attended their service and we were received with open arms. Their church was in the forefront of the early relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina and was the site of one of the major relief supply distribution points working alongside the Kitchen.

Final approval for this move is dependent on the results of a meeting with the Mayor of Long Beach, who is on vacation and will not return until July 16. Please pray for God's favor for us, and for our favor in the sight of the people of Long Beach.

We also need prayer for divine help in coordinating and executing this massive move, involving an institution that houses 200 volunteers at a time and coordinates and sends out work teams for up to 200 additional volunteers housed elsewhere.

In the meantime, here is a SNEAK PREVIEW of GKK on the move:

(Some of you may remember this photo from my email post about our last move in October 2006)

Thanks to all of you,
Rolin

The Widow's Mite; A Date to Move; Lives on the Move.

THE WIDOW'S MITE:

Jesus watched a poor widow put two very small copper coins into the temple treasury. "I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on." (Luke 21:1-3)

One street over and a block north of my bunkhouse at Gods Katrina Kitchen you may find a row of fairly nice homes along Woodward Avenue. Most of them were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but they are beginning to show new attractiveness as the residents make repairs and clean up their properties.

But just a few steps farther, walking north to cross the railroad tracks, you will find a different picture. Looking around, you might think the calendar had been rolled back to 1907 instead of 2007. Ramshackle wood shacks which were hardly livable before Katrina show decades of disrepair, with no sign of any improvements since the devastation of the hurricane. This is a neighborhood which speaks of generations of grinding poverty and lack of hope, a neighborhood neglected, ignored and despised.

Last week as I was walking back from the nieghborhood store I was hailed by a resident south of the tracks, who assailed me with the bitterness she felt about the presence of God's Katrina Kitchen a block south. She spoke of alleged crime and occasional litter, but some of her most bitter words were reserved for the residents north of the tracks who would walk through her neighborhood to eat at the Kitchen. Some of them were young mothers leading 4 to 6 small children for one or two meals per day. "This was a nice neighborhood," the woman said, "before all these people north of the tracks started walking through here every day."

A different viewpoint can be seen in this letter to the local newspaper from a woman who lives about four more blocks to the north:

http://www.sunherald.com/editorials/letters/story/91458.html

This Tuesday while I was in the office trailer of the Kitchen, a young black woman came in, dressed as one might expect for one of those residents that live two blocks away--that is, north of the railroad tracks. She told office manager Vicki that she wanted to make a donation, and handed her a fifty dollar bill.

Vicki looked misty-eyed. "That's the kind of thing," she told me, "that makes it worth going on here."


A DATE TO MOVE:

Other donations have been coming in the last few days, along with a few offers of places for God's Katrina Kitchen to move to. You see, on Monday the city council of Gulfport denied the kitchen's request to stay on the property for one more year, and the city sent a notice to vacate by July 31. The council meeting was covered and reported by the local TV station whose article may be found here:

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=6740591

A video clip of the meeting shown on the evening news, with clips of founder Greg Porter and director James Giles can be found here:

http://www.wlox.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?ClipID1=1558461&h1=Elise%20Roberts%20Reports%20On%20Future%20Of%20God%27s%20Katrina%20Kitchen&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=133700&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp%3FS%3D6740591&rnd=33258236


The staff of the Kitchen have been kept busy for the last few days pursuing possible places for the Kitchen to stay, and following up on new offers. In the meantime, the Kitchen continues to feed 1000 to 1500 meals per day, and James' children's ministry has been reaching out to the kids in a neighborhood park, where the children share the turf with a local street gang.

What the future holds for the Kitchen and for the ministry of Church Army Gulf Coast has yet to be revealed, but no one here finds it easy to believe that God wants us to stop doing what we have been doing. Please pray God's peace for all of us as God unfolds his plan.

LIVES ON THE MOVE:

Three weeks ago the kitchen staff were steeling themselves for long hours and extra shifts after our cook Mister Bill (our first graduate from the NoAH program) moved on, and other cooks were expected to be on leave.

In the meantime, two men came to me and asked to be admitted to the NoAH program. They had heard about it from Eddie, who had recently left the program. Freddie and Van had met on the West Side Pier near the Kitchen, and in discussing their lives (and why they had to sleep on the Pier) resolved that they were never going to use drugs again. I showed them the NoAH covenant and, as usual, asked them to pray about it overnight before signing the covenant.

The next morning Freddie and Van were not to be seen, and we wondered what had happened. But late that evening they showed up at the Kitchen and told us they had been arrested for sleeping on the pier and had spent the night in jail. After being released, they had walked directly from the jail (in the north of Gulfport, 6 miles away) to the Kitchen. Nothing was going to deter them from trying to get into the program.

James and Steve and I found some lodging for Freddie and Van that night at the Rescue Mission in Biloxi, and interviewed them extensively the next morning before admitting them into the NoAH Life Transformation Program. Today is their 20th day, when they will be presented with their personal study bibles. They have been taking in all they could of what Church Army could give them: Morning and evening devotions, spiritual growth classes (Making Peace with Your Past), bible studies, AA meetings, 12-step classes, and work, work, work. They are doing so well that I am afraid to boast.

Oh, and did I fail to mention? Both Freddie and Van are seasoned professional cooks. They stepped into the breach in the kitchen and have been pairing off for the morning and evening shifts leading groups of volunteers to feed 1000-plus people each day. In addition, Freddie has been helping out with the outreach to the children at the neighborhood park.

God knew exactly who to send to us at exactly the right time when our programs here had matured to exactly the right level. Please pray for Freddie and Van as they look forward to new lives as New Creations in Christ.

I will try my best to keep you all updated on the news from the Gulf Coast. I pray that this time will be our time of blessing, and not the Time of Trouble.

In Christ,
Rolin

North Carolina Trip

Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her!

I have a great capacity to find things to fret about. The first week of June was my time to fret about the car: “Did the old jalopy have one more trip in it? Would it make it to North Carolina for the weekend of 9-10 June for the baptisms of Timothy and Peter, the sons of my Pennsylvania friends, Kurt and Katie Grossman? Would it make it in time for me to assist as Bishop’s Deacon in the ordination of my friend Colin Munroe to the priesthood, and the baptism of their daughter Catherine?"

As often, my fretting was misapplied. Steve Anderson here at God’s Katrina Kitchen replaced the plugs and checked the fluids for me, and the car achieved more than 27 mpg, a new record well appreciated at the going rate of $3 per gallon.

I should've reserved my fretting for the timing of the trip. About half-way there Alan Morris, my bishop, called to see if I would make it to the 2:00 pm rehearsal for the baptism. I swallowed and said “Sure, I’ll roll in there just about on time!” Then I recalculated the miles and kicked my freeway speed up several notches.

Later, Alan called me again: “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” I said, “I’m 40 miles out and I’ll be there on time.”

“But,” Alan replied, “It’s 2:15 right now.”

Oops. I had neglected to factor in the switch from Central time to Eastern. After a harrowing downhill trip through the Great Smoky Mountains, I pulled in to the church in Black Mountain, NC. To Alan I seemed a bit dazed, so Colin stood in for me as Bishop’s Deacon for the baptism service, pictured above.
By dinnertime I was feeling a bit more myself. Around the table here is pictured Timothy, Katie, and Peter Grossman, Colin Munroe, Alan and April Morris, Kurt Grossman, and myself. We had all met in Ambridge, where Kurt is working towards his degree from Trinity Episcopal Seminary. Colin has since moved to a little town called Black Mountain, near Asheville, NC. Some of you may know this as the location of the Wineskins conference. Nearby Montreat is the location of Billy Graham’s retirement home.

The conference center in Montreat has a lovely camp­ground perched beside a rushing brook, where I stayed both Saturday and Sunday nights. My campsite was right on the camp road, but on the other side it was situated just above the rushing stream. With my car blocking off the road I had just enough room to pitch my backpacker’s tent, and slept quite peacefully to the babble of the brook.

The Grossmans were camping right next door to me, but their campsite was secluded in the trees at the end of a short entry trail. Peter and Timothy were delighted to explore up and down the creek, discovering the orange juice I had stashed in the water to cool. We had time to bring each other up to date, to fellowship, and to sit by the fire and relax.

Colin’s ordination service on Sunday went much more smoothly, with everyone (namely me) arriving on time. I had a chance for the first time to wear my deacon’s stole from Guatemala, prepared lovingly by Colores del Pueblo (coloresdelpueblo.org). Here’s a photo just before the ceremony of (from right to left) the Reverend Deacon Colin Munroe, soon to become a priest; the Right Reverend Alan Morris, bishop of the Diocese of Saint Aidan Lindisfarne, and the Reverend Deacon Captain Rolin Bruno, missionary deacon.

My job as bishop’s deacon is to hold Alan’s crossier (shepherd’s staff) and hand him anything he might need to conduct his business—sort of like Radar O’Riley’s task for Colonel Henry Blake of M*A*S*H. Here I am wondering what to do while the psalm is being recited in unison by everyone except Alan, who could not recite with us because I had not handed him his prayer book situated just at my right hand.

Here’s Alan giving Colin his charge to serve as a Priest in the One, Holy, Universal Church. Both our services were conducted here at the Church of the Incarnation in Black Mountain, North Carolina; a parish of the Charismatic Episcopal Church.
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Before his ordination, Colin prostrates himself before the altar and cross of Christ, symbolizing his complete abandon- ment of service to anyone else but Christ. This is a very solemn moment.
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And of course we need the “after” picture. Here we present the Reverend Colin Munrow, Priest and Presbyter in the Diocese of Saint Aidan Lindisfarne, of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. On the left is the Reverend Shirley Wood, also of the CEEC, who assisted with the ordination service.
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Bonus Photo:
Here is the only photo I have so far of my own ordination as deacon last January 6.

I found it on the ministry news page of the website for our diocese.

Much is happening back here in Mississippi in the NoAH program and at God's Katrina Kitchen. I'll do my best to bring you a new post within the next week.

Of Huckleberries and Retreats

A locally known "super-virus" sometimes called the "Katrina Krud" has been making the rounds of the staff at God's Katrina Kitchen, and it grabbed hold of me with a vengeance the first two weeks of May. When my fever broke I took it as a chance to head for the woods, ending up back at POW camp with a shank steak to toss on the fire.
Toss it I did, but I had little energy for much else, and spent much of the time napping by the side of the seven-acre lake, watching the box turtles pop their heads up and listening to the frogs and birds.

Poking around a bit, I found (Alas!) that the lucious blackberries were no more to be found. However, the Huckleberry bushes were replete with small black semi-tart berries, quite a bit more flavorful than blueberries.

After grazing in the bushes for a time, I started collecting huckleberries, and brought back at least a half pint of these tender morsels, sharing them with James Giles as we sat in his porch swing back at the Kitchen.

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SPIRITUAL RETREAT:

June second and third was time for another retreat into the woods.

I was joined by the new member of our NoAH program, Ed. He and I hiked to "The Duck Pond" (on which no one remembers seeing a duck), a two-acre lake beside the Tuxachanie Trail. We sat pondside and listened to the most marvelous symphony of sounds: frogs, insects, birds, and who knows what else. A good tape recorder could an make ambient sound backdrop for a jungle movie there. Next time I'll try to bring back pictures of this lily-pad covered watersite.

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The idyllic pictures posted here belie the thunderstorm that was to burst upon us later. We had just got a really good bed of coals going, the sweet potatoes wrapped in foil were buried in the hot coals, and the two inch thick chuck steak was on the grill when it hit us.

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My coffee cup on the table indicated that the forty-minute downpour dropped about a third of an inch of rain on us. The bed of burning coals survived the downpour, but the steak turned out quite a bit more rare inside than I had hoped. Nevertheless, when the storm ended we feasted on salad, steak, sweet potatoes, and broiled corn-on-the-cob.

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Ed is no longer with us: he seemed to be doing so well, then he got homesick for Kentucky and hooked up with a streetperson who said he was going there. We don't know if Ed will make it out of town, but we do know that the demons that were besetting him when he arrived with us have seemed to fade away.

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Oh Lord, remember those you have called to yourself, and call them again. Call your child Ed, Lord, and keep calling until he hears and obeys.

Amen.

May '07 Update

Branson Trip; Housing Project; and Announcing: The NoAH PROJECT.

Hello again, my Dear Friends.We’re still here faithfully following God’s call to serve the Least, the Last, and the Lost along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. This is my first update for you since March; I will try to be more regular.

BRANSON TRIP:At the end of April the leadership team for Church Army Gulf Coast drove 11 hours north to visit Church Army Branson's base of evangelism; to observe, to learn, and to attend a special event. The team consisted of James and Mary Giles, Steve and Lezlie Anderson, and myself; and we were accompanied by "Mr. Bill," the first graduate from our on-campus housing program at God’s Katrina Kitchen. Mr. Bill had completed 60 days of residency and training with Church Army Gulf Coast before being accepted into the staff of God’s Katrina Kitchen as a much-needed chief cook.

In Branson I arrived a couple days early to move into one of their “Peer Houses,” which are fueling an explosive growth in Branson’s 12-Step discipleship program. Branson now houses over 100 men and women in a self-supporting program in which they pay rent while recovering from addictions in a supportive family environment. The enthusiasm, excitement and hope is palpable, and overflows in joy at the church service of Peace in the Storm, where the shouts of joy from the 200-plus congregation almost drowns out the 8-piece band.

At the church service, James and Mary and myself along with Stephen Baughan, director of Church Army Branson, were commissioned as Evangelists in Church Army USA, and given the title of Captain. (I don’t know what to do with this new title: “The Reverend Deacon Captain” is way too cumbersome for my taste.) Each of us pledged to do the work of an evangelist in Church Army Here is the Branson website: http://churcharmybranson.org/

HOUSING PROJECT:Two homeowners near the Kitchen have expressed an interest in leasing to us for a Sober Living project, while another is interested in buying a house and leasing it to us. These modest homes were severely damage by the storm and remain in disrepair. In the interior photo you can see the 5-foot-high waterline on the wall from Katrina’s storm surge.

We hope to bring houses such as these on line with volunteer help in exchange for an affordable lease rate. Although volunteer relief workers have been in short supply since Spring Break, we are looking forward to capacity crowds arriving at the Kitchen through the summer.


NoAH LIFE TRANSFORMATION PROJECT
(Narcotic or Alcoholic/Homeless):To help populate these houses, we have launched the NoAH project, on-campus at the Kitchen. While Branson has detox and 28-day recovery facilities nearby which feed people into their program, Mississippi has few such services. NoAH will take hurting people directly into an intensive 40-day recovery period after which they can apply for entry into a Sober Living Home. (Remember that Noah didn’t open the window of the ark until 40 days had passed?) We already have admitted the first person into NoAH: I ask your prayers for Ed, who has 180 days of sobriety and desperately wants to keep his life going in a positive direction.

We are especially encouraged by our meeting this week with the chaplain for the local county prison. He operates a vibrant Christian program with segregated housing within the prison walls, and has been concerned for some time about after-care for those who are released. He was especially pleased that we offered to pick up at the prison gate those men that he would recommend to the NoAH Project.

STRUGGLE: Not all our news was cheery last month. Samuel and “Choo-Choo” relapsed into their addictions and ran afoul of the legal system: I ask your continuing prayers for them. Though it seems as if “sometimes the dragon wins,” yet we are not discouraged, for it has been promised to us that God’s Word that has been implanted into them shall not return void.




Thank you again for all your prayers and your generous gifts to the Gulf Coast, and may the God of All Mercies, the God of the Peace that Passes All Understanding, the God of Promises that will not fail, continue to bless each one of you abundantly beyond your expectations.

...In Love and Peace, Rolin

Tuxachanie: Trail's Rest Mile 12

A week off to go camping! I headed straight for the Desoto National Forest, to the end point of the Tuxachanie Trail, known as POW camp. This site was a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, but little trace of those days remains, just a grassy meadow under the pines beside a 7-acre lake.

I arrived just as the trail was exploding into a riotous bloom of pink flowers, running alongside and overarching Tuxachanie creek. From the camp there is a two-hour loop renowned as the most beautiful stretch of the Tuxachanie trail.

Alas, I was unable to locate the 'Mystery Bush' that I photographed last month. My daughter Amber, a recent graduate with a degree in biology and plant science, asked for some closer pictures and a better description in the hope that we could identify what I had seen three weeks ago. Now I have a date to return here March 25, 2008, to search for this short-lived floral wonder.

Flowers weren't the only notable growth: huckleberrys could be found on the bushes, blackberries were rumored, and a good-sized raspberry patch lay just 50 feet from my campsite. Have you ever tried romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell pepper sprinkled with balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, and chopped wild raspberries? Delicious!

Back at camp, the morning alarm clock was provided by Canada Geese arriving by the pair (or one, or three) announcing their landing run on the lake with enough honking to satisfy rush hour on the Los Angeles freeway. Their joyful noise thoroughly made up for the puddle in my tent after the overnight rain on Wednesday.

Oh God, Creator of the Universe, Lover of your Creation, I give thanks to you for the Fifth Day, on which you declared that everything you had made was Good. I give thanks to you for the Sixth day, when you took some of that Good Stuff and made humankind in your likeness and image. And I give thanks to you for that Resurrection Day, when you restored us to yourself through the death and resurrection of your Son, our Savior, Jesus the Messiah.