A new year, new faces.... Kinship so much you can see it.

At our best we hope to come close to the words that Father Boyle delivered to the students of Notre Dame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eQsHEjfRrY Our Shirts which I will pick up in an hour say this on the back. Kinship:/kin Ship/ noun – Seeking and Living the Compassion to obliterate the margins between us and them. Serving and Loving until there is Just Us. A Simple goal, we will strive to find that compassion. Keep us in your prayers. John Magee

Porter: Day 4

Today was my first time working at the house on Porter. We started out by sanding the bathroom ceiling which was very difficult but I had a lot of fun doing it with everyone. Next we put sliding doors on the closest in the bedroom which took a while but turned out great once it was completed. We all felt so accomplished. The people who we were building for were extremely kind and made us mango lemonade. It was delicious and refreshing! After that we started to paint and put boarders on the bathroom walls. That was probably my favorite part of the day and we all got really messy with the paint. It was so much fun! I am really enjoying my time in Biloxi. The people are absolutely fabulous and i am constantly surrounded by a indescribable atmosphere. Hopefully I will see this place again! I am sad this week is almost over but I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store. :) -Shortcake

Wednesday Baptist Service

After a long day of hard work at many different locations, the Back Bay Crew gathered together to eat a huge dinner, consisting of shrimp, crayfish, corn, potatoes, and watermelon. After everyone was full, we piled into cars and headed to a Baptist Service at a church down the road. This was a really unique experience for all of the rookies, and something we won't forget anytime soon. We found the faith of the people of the church inspiring. The positive attitude they bring to each church service is so unique and we loved their hospitality. We continued the night by singing with our new friends and hearing about how we should be whoever God made us to be. We hung around with our new friends for a little while longer before we climbed into the cars again, off on another adventure. We took a drive down Beach Road and grabbed some McDonald's along the way. When we were close to the beach, someone started shooting off fireworks! So (of course) we stopped to watch the display. We concluded the night with singing and dancing back at the mission. The day taught us the importance of teamwork, as well as how to be confident with ourselves and use the talents to our best ability. ~Battle Rancher

Homeport 2: Tuesday

After working at the house on Nichols Street until lunch, five volunteers headed to Walmart to gather home supplies for a homeless veteran household called Homeport 2. Homeport is an apartment complex used to house homeless veterans so that they can move out of poverty. All of the apartments contain a washer/dryer, refrigerator, water utilities, electricity, and other basic commodities for living. We learned that there is a large population of homeless veterans in Biloxi. The apartment that we are furnishing has a German roach infestation which is currently being handled. We were given a budget of $175 to purchase a wide variety of items including towels, a bath rug, a shower curtain, pots and pans, and bedding, to name a few. We also purchased flowers, a balloon, a candle, and supplies to make a poster to make the house feel more welcome for the veteran. We plan to return tomorrow to clean out the house and set up all of our purchases before the veteran moves in. It is our hope that he feels welcomed in his new home. Breakin' Glass and Guerriere

271 Nichols: Day 2

Today was our second day serving at the Nichols household. We finished taking down the paneling on the sides of the house, and we began to put up plywood boards as a start to our new paneling. We had to work together to hold up and nail in the plywood. Measuring each board and nail placement was a tedious task, but we felt a sense of accomplishment when we were able to nail the boards into place. Learning to use the nail gun was another fun and challenging task because many of the girls on our team have never seen or used this tool before. The son living in the household helped us with the demolition and paneling, and we were able to talk to him and his mother throughout the day. After our lunch break, we regrouped and continued working. Moving the scaffolding to the front of the house, we continued to put up plywood on the sides of the roof. We learned to use circular saws to cut pieces to fit into smaller and differently shaped spaces on the walls. This was a challenge because none of the new volunteers had used this tool before; however, we had fun working together and learning this new skill. Today was another fun and productive day, and we hope to continue our hard work in the days to come. Breakin' Glass and Guerriere

344 Porter

This is Yea! B! (Tessa) and Small Boat (Liza). We had an awesome day today, filled with many new, great experiences. We started the day off with a construction meeting and then went straight to work. We both got to work on a very nice and welcoming couple's house. It was so great seeing how appreciative the couple was and how happy they were to have people there to help them out. We were able to completely fill in a hole that used to be used for heating before they got a central air system. We also got to put dry wall up on a ceiling in one of their bathrooms. Although there were some challenges throughout the day, we really enjoyed getting to have such a fun experience that truly impacted these peoples' lives. The couple told us their story and how they have suffered through many different obstacles, such as Hurricane Katrina, but ultimately fought hard to work through these things together. It was really inspirational to hear how this couple was able to fight through these situations, and we were really happy to be able to make their lives a little easier by helping out around their house. They were so grateful that they even offered us lots of food, such as hard boiled eggs and potato salad. The lady talked a lot about how she truly believes that the Lord has been watching over her and believes this is the reason they have survived through such tough times. It was really inspirational hearing her say this, and really encouraged us to work as hard as possible throughout the day. In the end, we were able to cover the hole and get most of the dry wall up in the bathroom. We are very excited to continue this process in their house to be able to see the final result. We are very proud of what we accomplished today and can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

271 Nichols: Day 1

The day started at 6:30 AM with a safety talk and ended at 5:00 PM, by which time we had gained so many new experiences. By 5, we had done much more hands-on construction than I had ever thought I was capable of. The entire group was split into teams. The team I went with was at a house where we took down damaged siding to be replaced with newer supplies. We used scaffolding to get to different parts of the house, and I was not expecting to conquer my fear of heights when using the scaffolds. We built the scaffolds up layer by layer in order to get to the higher parts of the house, and it was scary yet rewarding to have so much trust and responsibility placed on me. The son who lived in the house came out and started helping us remove siding, and it was awesome to see him get involved. It also helped us gain a better perspective about our work, because we finally saw and interacted with someone who we were helping. At the end of the day while we were cleaning up, the juniors performed their Junior Ring dance that we had learned and performed at our school, Cor Jesu, which was super fun. To say the very least, it was a productive day, and although my arms ache from tearing off stubborn siding, I am so excited to get back out there tomorrow and continue our mission. Ah Sure! and Someday Somewhere