Katrina the Fourth

Getting Better

2008-01-22T08:36:00.000-05:00

Pastor Rob made the comment tonight that Monday was the best day, then came Tuesday and Tuesday was the best day, until Wednesday came and Wednesday came, and Thursday came, then Friday, Saturday and Sunday, continually getting better and better. God was continually doing extraordinary things that blew our minds. Until Today. We stood back today dumbfounded. We started out trying to get some last minute work done and finish some jobs up. Everyone was in a dead rush to try to get done by noon to be able to go the the prison to go see Jerome, a man who we had been working for that changed his life, got pulled over for a taillight being out while we were there and was arrested by order of a warrant a decade old. Everyone was excited to see Jerome. Many were confused as to why Jerome was in jail and what God's purpose was for all of this confusion. Today we found God's purpose through all of this. God not only allowed Pastor Rob and I to get back to see Jerome, but God led some of our team members to a young man named Steven. After general conversation with Steven, Pastor Rob came over and talked to Steven about the Lord. Steven listened so intently, and by the time it was over the prison minister was leading him to the Lord. God allowed Jerome to go through all of that just to save the one lost sheep.

Later in the evening we enjoyed a final dinner at Cracker Barrel, and it was a great dinner, but at the end everyone was told to get on the bus, and to do it quickly. There was a man that was going to share his testimony with all of us. This man explained that he was a missionary to Hawaii, and had moved back here and that he pulled into Cracker Barrel and the Lord laid on his heart to share his testimony with this bus, but he asked the Lord, "If I am supposed to share please send someone to talk to me." We did not know this at the time, but our very own Mr. Kemerling spoke to the man. The whole ordeal is too much of chance to be coincidence. We are continually seeing how God works in miraculous ways!

God Bless

Kolby Dukes

Letters From Sean

2008-01-21T07:49:00.000-05:00

Sunday, All woke up, and got up and got dressed for church, got on the bus and went to CiCi's where the ladies have made another spectacular breakfast. Before going in I got off of the bus, I saw Tim Phillips walking off to take some pictures and I walked the other way and went to stand on a large slab of concrete, which used to be someone's home. While walking through the house I could decipher what room I was in by the flooring. Then I stood in the middle of the slab and I looked out to the gulf about one and a half football fields away and tried to imagine a thirty-five foot wave coming at me and taking it all away. Everything we worked for all my life came in a flash and thinking if it were me and I stayed to ride it out with my family that we wouldn't be here. Just trying to feel and think what it must have been like but I cannot. The only thing I can do is pray for the people of Mississippi and help and show the people the way to the Lord.

Listen, Listen, Listen, Listen, and love these people in the Gulf areas, you can see in their faces even two years later, they are hurting and they need someone to just listen to their story so they can release that pinned up feeling inside and start to restore, not houses or businesses, but themselves. If you don't do that, it will just stop or slow down the healing process the need. Just be bold and talk to someone and show them that you do care and it will be a blessing for both giver and receiver. Today at Miss Whey's open house of the Rusty Pelican, one of the businesses we helped, we were bold, the group talked to strangers and made friends and just by listening showed the people others still cared and loved them. At the restaurant I met a man named Oyd Davis, an accountant from Long Beach. We talked and he told me his story. He tried to hold back the pain, but he released and I gave him a big hug. He told me the churches from all over are the best thing that has happened here. He said it seems like no one cares. "Glory be to God and his many churches." So many people see us, ride by us, stop by because they know why we are here and just say thank you.

Every Mission Trip I go on gets better and better every time my walk with the Lord is getting better and I see the students, the expressions, the eyes, they love the Lord. You can sense it, we all had a true bond with the Lord this week. I want to thank all the students. Tom, Paul, Thomas, Yeiri, Lexi, Jessica M., Jessica S., Whitney, Derek, Hans, Kate, Susan, Cassidy, Caitlin, Emma, Patrick, Meghan, Rebecca, Charity, Kolby, Kyle, Amanda. One challenge was to remember all the students names. You all are truly a blessing to me and the other adults on this trip.

Sean Swain
First Gulfport Trip

A Day of Rest

2008-01-21T00:25:00.000-05:00

Breakfast all started out today in a warm dry place. Mrs. CiCi's generous donation of her house allowed us to have breakfast in a warm dry place this morning. We were so very grateful for having that. Church today was an impressive experience. There may not have been an abundance of members, but those that were there were on fire for Christ. I had never been in a church service that required a spanish translator before, but their translator broke down in Louisiana and could not make it. God made sure that our team member, Yeiri, was well equipped so that she could help minister to those that could not understand. Also the worship team sang through a couple of choruses in spanish for those there. After church we all traveled back to Mrs. CiCi's base to have a quick snack before heading back to camp to clean up and prepare for leaving Tuesday morning. At three O'Clock we were set out to visit an open house at The Rusty Pelican, the restaurant which many of us helped at all week long to help this lady get back on her feet with her establishment. Tonight at six we held a reunion party for all of those we helped since we have been coming down here. Although not everyone could make it, we had a great time reminiscing and going back through pictures and videos of trips past. Many of the students and adults shared about their experiences while they have made Gulfport, Mississippi their home.

God Bless

Kolby Dukes

What a fine day...

2008-01-20T02:36:00.001-05:00

Saturday, wowee we had big plans for Saturday, but God had bigger ones. Our plans were to have a big ole' block party with everyone there. So we awake this morning to thunder and lightning and much, much rain. Pastor Rob warned us all Friday night that Satan is out to destroy anything good we do. So everyone took a vote on whether to postpone the block party to tomorrow as it was supposed to be sunny and warmer. Everyone said go for it today, that we were not going to let satan have the victory! We continued with the block party today at Jerome's house, and it was a great success, many were led to the Lord or rededicated their lives, but no one ever saw Jerome, the man's house we were using to hold this party. We found out that Jerome had gotten pulled over last night and because of something unfinished from 10 years ago they put him in jail. We still do not understand God's timing for all of this, but we know for sure that Jerome knows he is loved. Overll we had a great victory over satan today in not letting him ruin our plans. While the whole block party was going on, the ladies were back at camp cooking away when a gust of wind came and picked up our kitchen and dropped it back down a ways away. Meanwhile, we had received a call from Mrs. CiCi, a lady that we helped finish her house last year. She made a great sacrifice for us, she moved out of her house and got a hotel room so that we could move in. This is all in God's timing that these events with the kitchen blowing away and Mrs. CiCi calling inviting us in. The kitchen ladies and several girls are staying there and everyone else was able to squeeze into campers. Her house also provides for us a wonderful kitchen and meeting place. We spent hours there last night fellowshipping eating a wonderful meal provided by the ladies of spaghetti and meat balls. God also moved greatly in our hearts, several people gave their testimony, and just felt the release that they had needed for years from different circumstances. The past two nights God has broken our team down and brought things of the past to the front and is confronting them head on and defeating the fear. Another amazing time. I was so tired once I got home, but I began to blog anyways, but i woke up around six and my laptop battery was dead and when I turned it on there were several unknown characters all in the blog, I must have fallen asleep! Thanks everyone for their support, now to Pastor Rob with the weather!

Kolby Dukes

1 Thessalonians 1:3,4
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

We have been here for six days so far and have experienced awesome wonders of God in our own team. The question we are challenged with is this, "Are they that those people we meet and help seeing in us the same passion for others as Paul saw in the church of Thessalonica?"

I am encouraged as each day goes by that those we minister to are touched by the students servanthood and compassion for others. We have seen peoples lives changed and people receive the Lord. Our team has ministered on the streets daily and their boldness is growing as their unashamed love for Jesus is lived out loud here in Mississippi. My desire is the focus we have here for serving others, loving others no matter what, that their lifestyle would be like a river of passion and glory for Christ when we come home. Praise God for a generation of warrior

Pastor Rob Brown

Friday...

2008-01-19T00:33:00.000-05:00

Today was a great and productive day. We had a crew at the Rusty Pelican, the hardy job, and good old Jerome's house. We finally finished up the grout at the Rusty Pelican and moved in the tables and chairs for the restaurant. It was quite a fun day. Many different handy jobs were done through out the day...even roadside trash clean up of a more less fortunate neighborhood (Jerome's neighborhood) Jerome and his sister and nephew were very surprised and happy about the work done around the house.

We experienced an AWESOME evening tonight after dinner. We all gathered around for devotions and heard J.T.'s testimony. He gave his life story and prime examples of how sin will completely destroy your life...it was wonderful to just sit there and listen to such a great testimony and also to see how far he has come in his walk with God every day. Following the testimony time, a prayer session broke out and it was wonderful to see God's hands at work. To see all us teens and adults come together in unity and pray fr one another. The devil wants us to stay in the darkness, to keep sinning against God, to completely destroy our lives. But God has revealed himself in way that no one else can. He has opened our hearts and eyes for his glory to be seen and heard. He has defeated satan, in our own camp. Disunity is very common among teenagers on missions trips , but I believe tonight was the night that we all came together as ONE in the name of Jesus. Prayer was awesome and I feel we have gotten a lot accomplished on this trip, whether it be little things or big things.... GOD is ALWAYS in control no matter what.

Charity Collins

A Great Day

2008-01-18T00:34:00.000-05:00

Today was a great day for working, ministering, and enjoying our time here. Ralph, Mr. Dave, Rebecca, Charity, and Hans all worked very hard grouting all of the tile that was laid yesterday, while Mr. Ronnie and Mr. Burt led a crew in finishing up their sheetrock job. The rest of us spent our time with Mr. Jerome. Mr. Jerome had been through quite some bit of trials that you will hear more of in Jessica Stratton and Yeiri's letters. We truly had a great time ministering and being ministered to. Later tonight the ladies prepared tacos for us all, and we all later went out for an ice cream run to sonic! But without further ado, I will Jessica and Yeiri to tell the story. Thank you all for your continued support and prayer!

God Bless

Kolby Dukes

Today we traveled on the other side of the tracks, where someone told us to be aware of. We worked on a man's house, his name was Jerome. After demolition he sat down and told us about his struggles. He explained how he was pinned between two cars, but relied on Jesus through such a life threatening situation. Tears rolled down his face, and he was unable to continue speaking for the moment. Watching such a big husky guy break down and cry touched me. Today I realized that it is so important that you obey God and live your life according to God's will. Tears overwhelmed me as I thought to myself, "Am I living my life to in obedience to my Father?" Todays job changed my life. Meeting kind hearted people like Jerome makes you realize life is worth living for God. After finishing the job at Jerome's we hit the streets. I was apprehensive about sharing my faith but Lexi, Yeiri and I approached a woman in her car at a liquor store. We talked to her about Katrina, and then asked her about God. She claimed she believed in God. Then we said goodbye after talking to her, thinking I wouldn't see her again. We walked down a street to find her again, but with her family. The explained that they knew God also. After having fellowship, we prayed and it was amazing to see two groups of strangers unite in Christ. Work leads to opportunity, opportunity leads to conversation, and conversation leads to relationships. Today which I have built with Jerome, the husky teddy bear, and Cassandra, the girl at the liquor store.

Jessica Stratton - Delmarva Christian High School Sophomore

Today was an amazing day! I met so many new people. But what caught my attention was this man named Jerome. He was the sweetest guy you could find. Jerome went through a lot of hard times. As we ate lunch today he decided to tell us his life story. At that moment I didn't realize by the end of his story I'd be crying. Jerome had been caught between two cars and shortly after hurricane Katrina came. In the middle of his story he began to cry. By the time he was done tears rolled down my face and I felt like the Lord had told me to not take things for granted, because at anytime he could take everything away. After we were done working at Jerome's, we went to minister on the streets. My group went to the liquor store. While many people were going in and out we found a lady named Cassandra. Soon after we talked, we met her family, she was a Christian so I was able to fellowship with a sister in Christ. This is one of my best days, because I have come to realize many things. I thank everyone for bringing me here.

Yeiri Contireas - Delmarva Christian High School Freshmen

Thanks for your support!

Shhhheeewww

2008-01-17T00:30:00.000-05:00

Well the past two days have been a doozy, we have had so many problems with the internet the past couple of days, but we are trying to work them out, but I know that God has reasons for everything, and this is in his PERFECT will. There has been crews doing so many different things, some were putting tile down for a lady who's restaurant was destroyed by the hurricane, and she had very little insurance to cover all of her equipment and building. She has quite an amazing testimony that she began receiving meals from the organization we are working for, and ended up helping out with serving meals, and ultimately getting saved through God's Katrina Kitchen. There was a crew working at a local church just cleaning up as much as we could. There was a team drywalling for a house that had hardly been touched in three years. There was a crew that was helping an older gentleman, Mr. Carl, with repairing his workshop as he had trees on top of of his workshop and he was not able to climb on a ladder and do the repairs himself. It is truly amazing how with just a little effort we can help someone out so incredibly much.

It has been oh so rainy, but we are all thankful for each and every drop, that we know God is still and always will be in control, doing His work. It is truly amazing how the trips down here have come full circle, we started out in cooking and sleeping in tents in the cold, wet weather, and here we are again in cold wet weather cooking in tents.

The most amazing part of this trip thus far for me has to be simply seeing the smiles on everyones faces that we are helping, and seeing the joy on peoples faces simply as they work. If we were to work at home, it is rare to see a smile, but there is something about this that just puts a smile on your face.

Thanks so much for your patience with the internet, we are doing all we can! Thank you for your continued support and prayer!

God Bless

Kolby Dukes

We are experiencing difficulty with the internet
Camp is all set up and the ladies are doing a great job keeping us fed
After dinner last night, we met for a time of devotions
Pastor Rob challenged each of us about our obedience to God and what He has called us to do
We are to be the hands and feet of Christ in our daily walk
For some, this may be the only example of Christ they may ever see
What an opportunity we have, while in Gulfport
Rain, Rain & more Rain
Did I mention that it rained today?
We awoke this morning, Tuesday, to the sound of rain.
It had flooded our food tent and dining tent
Leaking tents, soaked sleeping bags and wet team members were part of our morning
We still had tasks to do
Ronnie, Burt, Tim, Jessica M, Whitney, Paul and Derek worked at the Hardy house doing drywall work.
This house is a block from the gulf and was flooded
Ralph, Sean, JT, Thomas, Kolby, Rebeca and Charity worked at the Rusty Pelican restaurant
The owner, Mrs Whay, allowed Katrina's kitchen to use her property over the past few years to house their outreach facility
They did ceramic tile so that she can open her restaurant this weekend
Alan and Donna Ring, with the help of the students, worked all day at New life church which is now Katrina's kitchen's home base
Rusty, Pastor Rob and Mr. Kemmerling went to look at some other jobs that we must start on Wednesday
We met Jerome, a big guy, who could pass for Mike Halls twin. Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures
His home was destroyed and the city is demanding he clean it up
That's our job tomorrow. I can't wait because he lives in the neighborhood where we feel God wants us to be
I know God has great things in store for us and for Jerome
We had dinner tonight at a pizza place because our dining tent was flooded out
Karim and Eva, a beautiful couple, that we worked for in past years here, also joined us for dinner
There are truly some precious people that God has allowed us the opportunity to meet.
The one thing that the adults speak about on this trip, is how we have such great students on this team
They are so hungry in their spiritual walk and have such a great work ethic
We are so proud of them and our entire team
We are sitting outside a local church, in their parking lot at 1:07 am, using their wireless internet, just to keep this site updated
It's been a long day, we're going back to camp and catch a few hours of sleep and go hard tomorrow
Keep us in your prayers, that we will be the light that He would have us to be
Blessings
Rusty Dukes
Team Coordinator

We are here.

2008-01-14T22:53:00.001-05:00

Everyone is adjusting very well. It is feeling pretty cold outside, and we are staying pretty closely to the heaters. The cooking crew fixed us all spaghetti and meat balls along with garlic bread and salad. This after noon many of us went out to see where we were going to be working during the week. While we were waiting for the lady, everyone had a chance to walk around and see some of the destruction and get to talk to some of the local folks. We met up with old friends and made several new ones. We met back up with Miss Verla, who we worked for three years ago, she had minor flood damage, but her house still stood and we repaired everything we could, and not only worked on her house, we built a relationship that will last forever. This just shows that through simply stepping out, you can build something so incredible as a relationship. That is what life is all about, relationships. Well folks everyone is very tired and very ready for bed. Thanks for the continued support!

God Bless

Kolby Dukes

We have been having quite a bit of trouble with the internet, we will update as much as we can, hopefully situations will improve! thanks

Safe and Sound

2008-01-14T13:13:00.000-05:00

We all have made it here safe and sound, the trip down went very well. No one had a flat tire or anything. We are at the campground and are setting up the tents. It is bright and sunny here in Gulfport, MS! Updates to come!

Kolby Dukes

More Pictures to come soon! Thanks for your continued prayer and support!

On The Road Again...

2008-01-13T06:18:00.000-05:00

Well guys it is Sunday morning here at the Dukes house and everyone is trying to figure out what we could have forgotten, but we know that we are well prepared and ready to head out at 8:30! Continue to cover us in prayer as we travel down. We will update as soon as we get there, and find internet. We are staying in new territory now, so we have no clue what we are running into! Should be exciting!

Kolby Dukes

Leaving Soon

2008-01-10T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Katrina team leaves Sunday, the 13th at 8:30 in the morning, please keep us in prayer. Thank You very much!