UPDATE #4 ~ LAST UPDATE FROM MOSS POINT, MS

The month has now wound down – we left Moss Point on Saturday with mixed feelings. We have made many friends, here at the church and those that have come through the doors of Dantzler Memorial UMC.

A recap of this past week:

Ken has been working with more volunteers at Mrs. Finklea’s house laying wood flooring. In fact, the last couple of days he has been with students from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD and they want to do a TV Home Improvement show called: " Ken and Katrina". He has been teaching these young women how to use a circular saw, power miter saw and a coping saw along with how to lay flooring. They have been students anxious to learn. Each day Ken had a different group of ‘students’.

I finished up the spreadsheet on the volunteers on Friday morning and helped Ken finish the floor installing transition strips in doorways, installing base trim, and touching up paint on walls and trim. We gave Mrs. Finklea a hibiscus tree to remember us and she had us plant it in her front yard. I caught her during the day sitting in her living room looking at it.
Mrs. Finklea makes 120 min-pies, twice a week, for a local BBQ restaurant here…pecan and sweet potato pie. We have had both and they are exceptional.

One day this week she went next door to her daughter’s house and asked Ken to answer the phone. He did, and it was her daughter from Chicago calling wanting to talk to her mother. It seems Mrs. Finklea went to her daughter’s house and told her Ken was leaving and she was crying tears of sorrow. Her daughter from Chicago was calling to console her and find out what had upset her. She wants us to come back next year to visit her and see how her house looks with furniture in it. Mrs. Finklea was so appreciative that she made us two more pecan pies which we will be sharing with our family in GA. She gave me a hug and told me that she loved us both for helping.

Last Sunday evening, Frank (the supervisor) and his wife, Laverne invited us out to their ‘camp’ on the Pascagoula River. What a beautiful camp – built on piers and such a view of the river. They sold their home in Moss Point and moved out to the country and this ‘camp’. The camp is quite large, about 2500 square feet! We had a lovely dinner and sat out on the deck overlooking the river, in front of an outdoor fireplace.

Monday was Pastor David’s birthday and I had talked with the teams that were there this week and we did a surprise birthday party for him. …and he was surprised! I made a chocolate Texas Sheet Cake and with candles that relight after you can blow them out.

We were dinner guests of the Pastor and his wife, Sandra on Thursday and went to a seafood place, Seaman’s Cove. You must get there early or you have a long wait. Fortunately, Frank and Laverne were there before us and we were able to get seated right away. Shortly after, the line was quite long.

The other team that was here from Jacksonville, FL finished sheet rocking the house of Mrs. Kirkland (the house that looked like a barn) and did as good a job as could be done with the walls that were bowed. We stopped in to say good bye to her and she was so excited about her house. She can’t wait to get into it. In fact, the group had made her an archway with ledges and put flowers on them for her.

I mentioned in one of my previous updates about the shower situation – there are the ‘towel ladies’ who come in every day and wash and dry over a hundred towels for the volunteers to use. What an undertaking, but they are so happy to do it.

Sandra, the Pastor’s wife, came over to give us a going away gift…jellies (fuzzy navel, apple and cumquat), a ‘hooked’ pin (she is one of the ladies known as the "Happy Hookers", they do hook rugging), an Easter bear not saying good-bye, but saying ‘come back soon’, two volunteer certificates of appreciation and our lime green VOLUNTEERS IN MISSION t-shirts!

We will certainly miss our new-found friends and look forward to going back next year!

See most of you soon.

julie & ken