Day 1: Safe arrival

2006-04-26: 6:30am
Well, it turns out that we can't check in like normal airline passengers. We have to go through the "group check-in" process. As it turns out, Dulles is pretty busy on a Wednesday morning and its probably a good thing that we have our own dedicated counter to check everybody in at. A bit late, but I realize that I should probably have everybody's mobile phone number - something I'll have to do as soon as I can. We all make it (Michele has the "honor" of being last), but we all make it through security without incident and are all on the flight.

7:30am and later
Everybody is in pretty good spirits and Pastor Barry says a quick prayer in the waiting area for the group. We have a couple of nervous flyers - so I think this was very much appreciated. So after fueling up on some Starbucks - we all tumble on to United flight 431. Its the "bus" of the skies that will be taking us to New Orleans - a Boeing 737. A full flight with not a single empty seat, I'm forced to sit 5 rows away from my wife

The flight itself is pretty boring (the way they all should be), with only a modest amount of turbulence. A quick moment and I've firmed up the ride assignments for our rental cars. We had some last minute cancellations for the trip, including two people who were planning on renting cars. What could have been a bit of a disaster, looks like it will turn out OK. Four of us have rented minivans (they were the cheapest vehicle at the cheapest agency - Thrifty) so we have some flexibility. Hopefully all of our luggage fits and Thrifty has all of the vehicles that we have reserved.

Now, I'm just hopefully that we have all the tools either with us or on our shopping list from Lowe's. The current plan is to hit some fast food, get to Lowe's in Biloxi and pick up the tools (should be waiting for us) and then head to Lakeshore Baptist Church and get settled. Its doubtful that we'll be involved in any construction projects today, but very likely could help out around the church itself (the storehouse, etc.). We'll see how it goes. We aren't responsible for putting the meals together until tomorrow breakfast, so we expect to have some time to survey the kitchen facilities and finalize our meal plans. Breakfast is scheduled for 7am, so for those of us cooking, it will probably a pretty early morning.

From what I hear (Lisa checked right before she headed out to the airport), the weather is supposed to be clear until Sunday evening. We are expecting 80s during the days and low of only 60 at night. Sounds like an ideal weather outlook for what we are trying to get done. Some bug repellent and sunscreen and we should be set!

Pray for safety during the construction work and the "gelling" of our various teams -- that they would work together well and have a good time. Christa is heading up our kitchen crew - for which I'm the primary gofer. Pray that we would be able to efficiently feed the expected crew of 100 people some good food and let them stay focused on the rebuilding efforts. We have a draft menu right now, but don't really know how it will square with what food they already have or how well-equiped the kitchen really is.

I've convinced Pastor Barry to record a "moblog" and you can listen to it here.



For the uninitiated, a moblog ( pronounced mo' - blog ) is short for a mobile blog. Our podcast provider (audioblog.com) allows you to simply call a phone number, type in your PIN and record a segment that will immediately get published to current PodCast subscribers, but is also available to anybody else interested in hearing. I'll encourage Pastor Barry to record everyday, so you'll have a couple of sources of "live" reporting from all of us in MS.

We are landing soon and the flight is getting a bit rougher. I think I'm done typing - it seems to be adding to my quesiness - and that would be a bad way to start a trip. Tune in tomorrow for a further update.

We're Here:
We arrived. Pics to be added soon. Air-conditioned accomodations - not too bad :)