Rebuild Lakeshore

We build most of the houses in Lakeshore on 8X8 piers. We have been renting a 24″ auger to dig the holes to set the pilings. Owning our own auger would make better use of our financial resources. We have a John Deer 250 Skid Steer that can accept an auger attachment. If anyone could locate and purchase an attachment to fit the Skid Steer for our rebuilding, we will put it to good use.

We also could use a trailer, with ramps, to haul the Skid Steer and our Tractor from job site to job site. Right now we have been driving the tractor around town, which is slow going, or rigging precarious make shift ramps to load the equipment onto our trailers that are not designed for that sort of thing.

Update: We have purchased an auger attachment. We could still use a equipment trailer with ramps.

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Some of our generous friends from Louisianna donated a camper to the relief effort. We can use it for housing volunteers, however we need to get it to the church property somehow. Its in good condition for sleeping, but doesn’t run. If anyone has the capability of towing a 31′ RV please let us know by calling the church office at (228) 469-0110. Its currently located in Denham Springs LA, about 90 miles from Lakeshore.

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Lakeshore Baptist Church needs energetic college or seminary students willing to spend their Spring or Summer (2008) semester working in the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts on the gulf coast. In partnership with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, qualified and approved semester missionaries will receive travel, insurance and an honorarium ($75 per week of service) from NAMB. The church will take care of housing, food, and local travel expenses.

NAMB Ministry description:

The community of Lakeshore Mississippi took the brunt of hurricane Katrina. Two years later the area still suffers from the massive devastation left in the storms wake. Lakeshore Baptist Church continues to host, house, and direct volunteers from across the country as she ministers to gulf coast residence through running a food distribution center, cleaning property, rehabbing houses, constructing new homes, encouraging the distressed, proclaiming the gospel, holding church services, and bathing the community in prayer.

The student missionaries will benefit from serving with us by utilizing and stretching their gifts and talents through participating in an incarnational ministry of making a tangible difference in the life of storm victims and hurting people. They will work along side volunteers from across the country making valuable ministry contacts as they develop relational and leadership skills. Students will enhance the ministry capacity of a missional church desiring to see God glorified at every level of their communities life.

We would love to see energetic passionate students come work with us this as we weld the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts to a Christ-centered, God-exalting, Bible-saturated, confessionally rich, gospel driven ministry of hope.

If interested, visit NAMB’s Answer the Call web site, fill out an online application, and email me about your desire to come help Rebuild Lakeshore to the glory of God.

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People often ask us to publish our most pressing needs. Since the storm destroyed all our buildings, the most urgent need has always been storage space for contributions, building materials, and other things to fuel the ongoing relief effort. Now that we have a new warehouse, and a forklift, we could use pallet racks to make best use of the vertical space. The 12 foot ceilings will allow us to stack pallet several high and double or almost triple the usable storage in the 30X60 building. We think that three 30′ rows would serve to ideally expand the maximum capacity. If you would like to adopt this need, please contact us.

UPDATE: A big thank-you goes out to Jim and Nancy Staeck for donating the needed racks.

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Shortly after the storm we acquired use of the flooded local elementary school gym to use as a warehouse for collecting and staging contributions and building materials for our ongoing projects and very active distribution center. The gym gave us about 8,000 square feet of storage space and we usually have it packed to capacity with goods coming in and out. We can’t thank enough the school board and the county supervisors who made these facilities possible for the good of the community. Literally thousands of people received aid and resources because we were able to utilize the building.

The school board recently informed us that we need to vacate the premises for a June 1 schedule demolition to make way for the school’s reconstruction.. This news sent us scrambling for alternative storage options. Providentially, a local resident offered a parcel of land for our use, and we have begun making a transition. We plan to replace the gym with three smaller shelters, a stick built structure, a metal Quonset hut, and a big tent.

Stick Built Warehouse:

Our friends from Trinity Lutheran Church in Japa Maryland planned and collected materials for a 30X60 building on the donated property. (See artist rendering above.) This 1,800 square feet of storage space will tremendously help with our warehouse needs. The Maryland team will construct the building on their June 11th trip.

Metal Quonset Warehouse:

Last year a generous man in Georgia donated a 30X40 metal Quonset hut, similar to the one we use as our church facilities. We plan to erect this building adjacent to the stick built warehouse to provide an additional 1,200 square feet of space. We need to pour a slab for this building. We estimate about $2,500 for the foundation. Please contact us if you would like to contribute toward this project.

Big Tent Warehouse:

Some of our good friends from Virginia donated a 40X60 tent to the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts in Lakeshore.. We plan to incorporate the tent into the warehouse complex to give us another 2,400 square feet under roof. Not ideal for long term use, this tent will give us breathing room while we make plans for a more permanent solution. We need to pour an asphalt pad for the tent to sit on and keep the stuff off of the wet soggy ground. If you would like to help with the asphalt for this project, please contact us.

Forklift needed

When we loose the gymnasium, we will also loose the forklift used to unload trucks and move pallets. We need a replacement. We think an all terrain forklift would work best. We would love for someone to donate or indefinitely lend some equipment for this purpose.

Bigger Warehouse plans

The three planned structures, the stick built warehouse, the metal Quonset hut, and the big tent, will give us approximately 5,400 square feet to replace the 8,000 we will loose when the gymnasium comes down. Since we look to have the ongoing relief, recovery, and rebuilding in Lakeshore continue for several more years, we find ourselves praying toward a much larger building that can serve as a warehouse for the foreseeable future to meet our long term needs. The generous family providing the land for those three buildings has graciously offered enough space to rebuild a gym sized structure as well. A building that size would pose a considerable investment. Please join us as we seek god’s will in this matter.

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Getting water into a house and then back out again requires plumbing skills. Seven of our projects need this kind of work done in order to move them forward to completion.

Three new pier construction homes have the rough-in plumbing in place and we need someone to tie them into the sewage systems, hook them to the wells, and set the sinks and tubs. We built another new home on the old slab of a destroyed house. We chiseled the concrete out to make way for the new plumbing. The job awaits a skilled plumber. Mr. George’s rehabbed trailer needs all the plumbing redone. We plan to begin another slab foundation house soon. We have a team building the forms, but we we need to run all the lines before pouring the concrete.

We wanted to post this plea, especially for all the teams making plans to be here in the next several weeks. You still have time to try to recruit a plumber to accompany your trip. Or if a plumber reading this would like to make a special trip, we certainly could use you. Contact us so that we can put you on the calendar. Your God-given expertise would serve as a tremendous blessing to these families and individuals trying to get back into their homes.

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