Dear Friends,

It has been a great day. Every day things are improving in Gautier and at Gautier Presbyterian Church. I found sheet rockers at the church today, helping make our Fellowship Hall more welcoming. By the time I left the church this morning to go visit, there must have been 40-60 volunteers gathering/preparing to go out into the community.

As I witnessed my elders leading around the church this morning, taking care of all the things that need tending to, I was reminded of how great a blessing it is to be among such a faithful group of believers. This afternoon I visited. Everyone is still weary and wanting to "get things done," but their spirits are already mending. Smiles are returning, there is new life in people's eyes. It is good to be here.

Tonight we held our first "Monday Night Study Group" meeting since the Hurricane. It was a blessing. Already the women's bible study is meeting and, as I left church tonight, I noticed that a small group of AA folks were in the sanctuary. I said hello and noted that I was excited to be able to offer them our Fellowship Hall starting next week. We have worked to get the Fellowship Hall operational so all of these groups like AA can operate, because we know how important such groups are in such stressful times.

Tomorrow, we sit down to strategize about the Food Pantry, for we are planning for what we believe will be a level of poverty in our area for the foreseeable future. I will be sharing more about the food pantry in the next few days.

A few notes:

At present our focus at the church is:

1. Getting the church fixed up
2. Taking care of folks in our community (anything frodebris removal to plumbing work to sheet rocking)
3. Making plans for the future of our church facilities, which includes our very real intention to build a new sanctuary and redevelop those spaces we had that weren't too badly damaged by the storm.

Folks, I can't tell you how much we feel blessed by your prayers/thoughts and generosity.

Blessings upon you.