Today, I, Chimpf Chompf (Emily Kempf) worked with Mr. James at the food pantry. The food pantry is set up to provide the homeless and impoverished in the Biloxi area with food bags containing food that will last a substantial amount of time. Mr. James is a previously homeless man who was given an apartment through the Back Bay Mission "Home At Last" program. I helped Mr. James organize and rearrange the food pantry. Throughout the morning, we assembled food bags and gave them to people who came in. Mr. James was quiet at first, but soon enough, I started to hear a lot of his story. Mr. James worked at a shipyard as a welder for twenty years before unexpectedly losing his job. After performing odd jobs here and there, Mr. James found himself in over his head and unable to make rent payments. As a result, Mr. James was homeless for three months. After using the Micah Center, Mr. James learned about the "Home At Last" program. He was given an apartment with financial assistance. Mr. James was so grateful for all of the work Back Bay had done for him that he decided to give back. Since November, Mr. James has been in charge of the food pantry program at Back Bay. Although I could not fully understand how much of a difference I was making in these people's lives, I felt humbled by Mr. James' story. After going through much hardship, he was so grateful for everything that was given to him. He told me that he could never thank Back Bay enough and not even ten years in the food pantry could equal the amount of help they provided him with. I feel blessed to have been able to have worked with Mr. James. We are all having a great time and have plenty of stories to tell you when we return, -Chimpf Chompf