Word from South Mississippi

I received an email from a friend of mine about his trip from Laurel, MS to the coast. He wrote:

Hi there you lovely people!!! All is well here. Randy and I just got back
from Bay St. Louis and Waveland. We took a trailor load of supplies down to
some people. Boy, it is a mess. A month and a half after the hurricane,
and things there still look like an atomic bomb had hit there. We had to go
about 40 miles out of the way to get there because the main bridge isn't
there any more. The hospital in Waveland is operating out of tents because
of the main building having been under water. There is also a pharmacy
there operating in a small utility building. Cars are still lined up on the
road where the wave left them when the storm hit. The entire place smells
of soured mud. Schools are gone. There are no grocery stores in operation
at this time. The people said that there are only 2 gas stations that are
open. These are trying to serve both towns. This is only a few of the high
points. Things are BAD there.

I was speaking to a person the other day from Gulfport. She said that there is razor wire up and that nobody is allowed past it. These are probably the places that are most contaminated. Her husband told me that a container of chicken had been pushed into their yard. These containers and tractor trailers were placed as a barrier and pushed as far as a mile or mile and a half by the waves. After the storm, bags of chicken could be seen hanging from trees. I can only imagine what that smelled like after being out in the sun for a while.

There is still a great need for flood buckets and teams to work down south. So please don't forget the need.

Let us imagine for just a moment that it were us. We're living in a small camper because we were lucky enough to have a relative who brought it to us. Every day we are awakened to the stench in the air. We worry about whether or not we will be getting sick. We don't know how long it will be before the inspector comes to declare our home condemned. And after that, we wonder how long it will be before we can get to work on replacing it. Will we receive enough money from our insurance? Did we have flood insurance? If not, will they pay? There seems to be nothing but questions as we wait. What do we do? We walk around and try to clean up as best we can.

This is a fictional account compiled of stories I've heard. All I can say is that my heart goes out to those who are living in campers and even tents. Another person spoke to me about a relative that was feeling guilty because her house was the only one in the neighborhood that wasn't destroyed. How would you like to feel guilty just because you had a roof over your head that didn't leak?

So where does that leave us? Maybe our homes are still standing and we're still going to work and we're breathing clean fresh air. As Christians who love our neighbors, shouldn't we be doing all we can to help our brothers and sisters have the same? Pray about it. And see if God has a plan of action for you.

In the love of Christ,
greg