Rome wasn’t built in a day, some say. After living in Bay St. Louis for just six weeks now, I can safely say, neither was Lagniappe. However, so much progress has been made since my first few days walking through the front door into a hot, sweaty warehouse building with holes in the ceilings and walls, and no air conditioning or real kitchen.

 

Building May 25th, 2006

 

But now I am sitting in a wonderfully air conditioned main building where I can no longer get a tan since all the holes in the ceiling and walls have been fixed and I can write this letter in an office!  In fact, I am not only in an “office” but I am surrounded by real dry wall, and there is a real ceiling over my head, complete with lights in it!  Behind me is a brand new meeting room for the staff and for volunteers with a large table surrounded by chairs.  It is not a high rise office, but just to have a convenient, permanent, and private meeting place is so wonderful and new here! 

Offices

 

 

The main building isn’t the only part of the Lagniappe property that is getting an overhaul. When I first arrived, there were only 3 bunkhouses to house volunteers and the interns lived in various trailers. I could not imagine having enough groups coming to fill up those beds, but now we have seven bunkhouses that sleep 44 each.  We can now house three-hundred volunteers at a time. God has answered our prayers in a big way. When we prayed for volunteers to come down and help restore the Bay, God answered our requests and then some.

 

Bunkhouses

 

Our bathrooms are getting upgraded too.  Both the boys and girls have twelve showers in their respective bathrooms, and though chain showers are not quite the comforts of home, there is always hot water and there is never a line for showers, even with three-hundred!  We also have handicapped bathrooms and showers, which is important if we hope to serve and house everyone who wishes to serve. 

 

Our kitchen is up and running!!!!  Our commercial kitchen, equipped with a giant refrigerator and several freezers is ready to serve the hundreds of volunteers and staff waiting in line each day.  Eric and Alicia work tirelessly to make sure that everyone is fed, and fed well.  This week we had two truck loads of fresh fruits and vegetables which we were able to store, cut up, and serve on site!  It is such a blessing to be out of Alicia’s grandmother’s kitchen, (where meals were prepared for several weeks) and actually cooking in the kitchen.

Alicia Cooking in the LPC Kitchen

 

This past week, Lagniappe went through yet another transformation. We morphed into convention center of sorts. MNA, Mission to North America, held their disaster relief training sessions here at Lagniappe and we were their home base. We have housed many different types of volunteers, from youth groups, to MNA trainings and football teams, all of which bring their various skills to the table and are prepared to serve God and the people of the Bay.

 

One of our major ways to connect with the community of Bay St. Louis is through the “Sheds of Hope”. Delivering shed kits to the different families for volunteers to build is one of the more coveted jobs that the interns vie for. It offers us the opportunity to deliver much needed supplies and develop relationships with the community. Each time the sheds are delivered interns always come back with great stories from sitting and talking with people for an hour at a time at their houses and hearing their stories. Up to this point we have built around eighty sheds and we have a seemingly endless list of names that we are currently working through.

SHEDS OF HOPE PROJECT

 

On a slightly larger scale, we took on the project of building four houses from the ground up. Unfortunately we can’t have house kits delivered from Home Depot to these families property, but God graciously sent us incredibly skilled and hard working teams like the one from Orangeburg, South Carolina who were dedicated to getting these houses up and completed. Aside from shed building and house building, we also have drywall, electrical, demolition, and roofing teams serving out in the Bay. 

Pansy Brown beside her home built by Lagniappe Church

LPC Chapel (note light from hole in original roof)

LPC Sunday Morning Chapel

 

Pastor's Note: Sarah Denton is a co-ed from Furman University and has served with our intern staff this summer. Of all the 'great' things that God has done at Lagniappe this summer, the one thing Sarah didn't mention were the people just like herself who have tirelessly served the Kingdom as interns. We have had an unbelievable staff of interns who have loved residents, led teams, built this church and grown together in Grace in remarkable ways. There are days coming when people will take these formative months for granted- a/c will be expected to stay at 72 degrees, food will be expected to be 'hot' and roofs that leak will be exceptions and not the 'norm.' The blessing that the Lagniappe interns have been to this church will always be remembered. Soli Deo Gloria.