105 heat index in early June is NOT a good sign for things to come. Please pray the tropics behave like they did last year! PLEASE
We are moving along with our property closing, site master plan, and decisions about our first building. We should close within 30 days! WOOHOO! We will throw a PARTY! You are all invited.
Our site master plan looks good – click here for our church website and you can see some pics and info. We are holding discussion groups for the various components of the multi-purpose building – kitchen, nursery, worship, education, etc. Preliminary estimates have us about one million short to build it. I will be hitting the road for some more fund raising – so if you are in a church that wants to help and can help, let me know, I’d love to visit and share our story.
It looks like we will make Camp Coast Care our home until we are in the new building (probably late 2008). The new building there is much better, air conditioned baby! We are also taking over a classroom trailer that the school no longer needs, and will move our office trailer next to it this summer. So all our St Pats stuff will be in one area – that will be nice. The classroom trailer will serve as a Sunday morning nursery, meeting area, chapel space, etc. It will be real nice to have one thing to call ours! I hate spending money moving the office trailer, but it really needs to be done, plus we need the bathroom in it for the nursery (the trailers will be adjacent).
Church tonight, then speaking to the group from the Beatitudes Society that is spending a week on the Coast. Check them out – it’s an amazing group.

May has been another month with much travel in it. I spent the 1st 7 days at CREDO – which, for you clergy folks checking in, if you get an invite – GO.
CREDO is sponsored by the Church Pension Fund, with a focus on clergy wellness in 4 areas – health, spirituality, vocation, and finances. I found the time to be very well spent and found help in all 4 areas. You end up with a “CREDO plan”, with 3 objectives and perhaps a BHAG too. I have already made some positive changes in all 4 of the above areas and anticipate continuing to do so.
Last week I spent 3 days in Detroit at a Gathering of Leaders, a very exciting time. Retired Bishop Claude Payne of Texas had the vision for this group, and along with my Bishop, Duncan Gray, and others, put together these semi-annual meetings of folks who are fired up about mission. All attendees need to have at least 15 years of ministry left before retirement. It was a thrill to be with a group of Priests who are focused on the mission of the Gospel, and not over anxious or overly redirected to dealing with the “issues” of the day. Make the main thing the main thing, folks. The networking part is the real vital part of GoL, and I look forward to continuing in this group.
I spent one day back home, then drove to Atlanta for a family thing, back the next day for church. Our architects presented the final master site plan to us on Sunday, and it looks awesome. I need to find another million bucks somewhere, so pray for us, if you don’t mind. We hope to close on the property soon!
Next week – another trip, but a fun one as I will accompany my wife for HER job to NYC. We have built in several fun days, a mini vacation for the two of us. Can’t wait!

As I travel this country, trying to raise both money for our rebuilding, and awareness of the continued struggle we endure, I am often asked about the government’s response to Katrina. I try to stay out of that debate, focusing instead on the amazing work the church in America, and even globally, has done to respond.
However, the editorial below in our local paper, the Sun Herald, speaks to an incredibly poor decision by FEMA. It is my understanding that there are sufficient funds to continue Project Recovery, which has provided much, much needed mental health services since the storm. As I reported in my last post, PTSS is an ongoing and increasing problem. Pulling Project Recovery now is a severe blow to an area in desperate need for INCREASED mental health assistance.
The editorial is below, from the Sun Herald…

Editorial

Posted on Tue, Apr. 24, 2007

Project Recovery deserves a reprieve

We wholeheartedly endorse the sentiments of Dr. Robert Titzler, medical director of Bethel Free Medical Clinic in Biloxi, as expressed in a letter published on Friday:

“April 27 will be a sad and disappointing day for hundreds of residents of South Mississippi. On that day FEMA will defund Project Recovery, and this valuable and effective program will be forced to shut down. Project Recovery has been helping people find ways to cope with the stress caused by Katrina. It has done so in an effective and efficient manner by providing free crisis counseling services… at sites other than the mental health clinics.

“For the past year, I have been working at the free medical clinic located in the Bethel Lutheran Church … . Over 80 percent of the persons who seek help here are suffering the effects of profound personal losses, sleeplessness, homelessness, anxiety about what the future holds for them, and domestic strife. While these are common issues in all communities and families, they are not usually complicated and exacerbated by the worst natural disaster in American history and in the face of a serious deficiency of readily available help in coping. Our coastal communities are, in my view, facing an epidemic of post-traumatic stress syndrome, the dimensions of which are only now, 19 months after Katrina’s visit, beginning to be appreciated. In no way is this aspect of the ‘crisis’ over. The federal government, through FEMA, appears to have decided that it is over, and that Project Recovery is no longer necessary or effective. I want to bear witness and testimony to the contrary.”

Project Recovery should be granted a reprieve.

Here on the Coast PTSS is a real, live, ongoing issue. It impacts young and old, rich and poor, slabbed or not. Last summer when Tropical Storm Ernesto popped up many many many miles away, folks around here got very anxious. Being spared any hurricanes last year was life saving in more than one way, and I mean that with all seriousness.
This Wednesday night at our healing service in the “new” quarters at Camp Coast Care, we talked about the Virginia Tech tragedy, and looking for God in these difficult events. I tried to show the BIG difference between and act of nature (Katrina) and an act of evil (Cho). Surely this man was ill and very dark, and I did not feel it my place to judge him or the system or gun control or whatever the secular world needs to discuss around this horrible event. Instead I looked at a group of people who were, literally, scared and confused and very, very anxious.
Their world has been upside down for 20 months now. This news just confirms it for them.
We talked about Jesus emptying himself, becoming a slave, going forward to death, even death on a cross for us. That God knows suffering and it is in that place we can find our own Lord.
Mostly, though, just talking about our fears and anxieties seemed somewhat cathartic for some. As I’ve said before, the mental health issues down here are enormous, please keep the prayers coming.

I write this from a hotel room in Jacksonville, FL. Came here yesterday to do a talk at a Lenten gathering at a fabulous church here. This Diocese is raising 250K to be matched from a fund with another 250K, all for the rebuilding of our church! I have been now on 4 trips here and preached or talked at 5 or 6 churches. I have really enjoyed their support and prayers and of course this wonderful gift they are raising for us.
I leave tomorrow for Arlington, Virginia to visit two more adopting churches, preaching on Sunday morning, etc. These are two great supporters as well.
The truth is I have been on the road an AWFUL lot since Katrina. Raising money and awareness of our ongoing situation has been very important. But it is so tiresome. I am tired of being gone, sick of airports and air travel, miss my family and have too much work to do back home. But it is necessary. There is no way to ask our folks for any kind of capital campaign to build our church. Insurance from the destroyed property will not even pay half of the 1st building to be constructed (our plan is to build a multi-purpose building that will be worship and fellowship space for us, along with education and nursery) until we can figure out how to build the church proper. We need a lot more money to get this done. Construction costs on the Coast have risen around 80% post storm.
So I hit the road, often. This is it until Easter, then a couple of more trips planned before mid-summer. Everywhere I go I am received so warmly and people are shocked to learn how much more must be done, many assume we are “all back to normal” at the 18 month mark. No, not even close. And the mental health issues, for adults and children, are actually increasing.
Please keep praying for us and please don’t forget us.