Rebuild Lakeshore

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated our gulf coast community in Hancock County Mississippi. With five years of relief, recovery, and rebuilding, many still struggle to get back on their feet. Now, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has left even the most sure footed on slippery ground. Many fear that the long term economic effects of the oil spill could prove more damaging than Katrina for our area.

Here on the gulf coast our entire culture and economy is tied to the water. Commercial, charter, and leisure fisherman; ancillary businesses like, ice houses, bait shops, and fueling stations, boat repair, seafood restaurants, tourism, and on and on. The anxiety level runs high, and folks fear their way of life will never be the same.

After Katrina, most on the Mississippi gulf coast immediately rolled up their sleeves and got to work in the rebuilding of their homes and community. The oil spill brings a completely different dynamic. The nature of this disaster leaves most people helpless without any hope of concrete action towards recovery. As one local resident put it, “its one thing to loose your house. You can rebuild that. But when your source of lively hood is gone, what do you do? I feel helpless.”

In the wake of hurricane Katrina, Lakeshore Baptist Church launched a massive mercy ministry. To date, we have hosted literally hundreds of volunteer mission teams involved with storm clean-up, rebuilding, and relief efforts of various sorts.

Now, with the oil spill challenge, we have a strong desire to continue ministering to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of local residence. This commitment will require a sustained effort and prolonged partnerships.

In an effort to minister to the long term needs of our community we have begun building a facility, affectionally known as “The Mercy House.” This permanent structure will replace the aging makeshift collection of storage sheds and quonset huts our ministry has been operating out of for the last 5 years as we continue providing food, clothing, household items, and encouragement to those in need.

Located just one mile from the beach on our major road leading to the waters edge, the Mercy House will serve as a community hub of hope providing a wide range of services

Currently we touch the lives of approximately 300 families a month through our food distribution and other benevolence ministries. The Mercy House will allow us to expand the ministry with regular educational opportunities, like our recent “How to Stretch Your Grocery Budget” seminar, encouragement events, and other resources aimed to aid families going through difficulty and uncertainty.

To help build this new facility send your tax deductible donation to:

Lakeshore Baptist church
PO Box 293
Lakeshore MS 39558

(make sure to put “Mercy House” in the memo line)

Thank you so much for being a part of the work God continues to accomplish on the gulf coast to the praise of his name.

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A few weeks ago a group from Missouri built the forms and last week a team from Oklahoma poured the concrete footers for a 1200 square foot storage building that will serve our mercy ministry. A 30 X 40 metal quonset hut, similar to the church, will sit about 20 feet out the back door of the Mercy House. We have poured the footers, now we need crews capable of pouring the slab and erecting the building. If you would like to help with this project, contact us to schedule your mission trip to Lakeshore.

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We had a great day yesterday. Here is the press release announcing the event:

Lakeshore Baptist Church will host a free seminar on “How To Stretch Your Grocery Budget” March 18 th from 10:00 am- 12:00 noon. In these tough economic times families find themselves struggling to make ends meet. A few simple to implement strategies can help your meal plans cost less. Courtney Elbourne and Juanita Shiyou will demonstrate how to make great tasting meals on a limited budget and have fun doing it.

The seminar will include special music by local vocal artist Britney Bostic and door prizes will be awarded. Pre- registration for the seminar is required and limited to 100 people. Pre-regestration forms are available in the church’s distribution center quonset hut on the church property from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Wednesday-Friday March 10-12. Event attendees to the seminar will receive approximately 50 lbs of free groceries. Child care will be provided. Lakeshore Baptist Church is located at 6028 Lakeshore Road in Lakeshore MS. For more information call the church office at (228) 469-0110.

As you can tell my the news video above, the community received the event well. About 80 families attended and seemed very engaged by the seminar. btw, yes that is my lovely wife, Courtney, doing the teaching in the video.

The newscaster, Jeff Lawson, summed up our desire well when he quoted, “Give a man a fish and he eats today - Teach a man to fish and he eats the rest of his life.” This seminar is the first event of its kind as we strive to enhance our mercy ministry with education. As we help families become more self sustainable we want to combat poverty in our storm ravaged community. We look to host events like this in the Mercy House on a regular basis.

Thank you for remembering us in prayer and supporting the ministry God continues here on the gulf coast.

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As you can see, the Mercy House looks great! This past week our friends from Central Baptist Church of Corbin KY built back steps to the rear entry landing. Friends from South Jersey mudded and sanded the sheet rock in the lower level. If we can find someone this week to texture the walls, local teenagers will paint the interior walls next weekend.

Next on the list; we need to stucco the main house, lay pavers for the 32 X 16 front entry, and brick the 10 X 10 pump house. I do not have anyone on the volunteer list for the foreseeable future who have listed these skill sets. If you have experience in stucco or brick, please consider making a special trip to Lakeshore to help with this project. Contact us and let us know you can come. We will put you up in the newly built bunkhouse and I’ll personally prepare an authentic Creole / Cajun meal for your crew.

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Four weeks ago I announced that the Hancock County Planning and Zoning Board approved the site plan for the “Mercy House.” Day before yesterday I posted pictures of the beginning of the new construction. Lord willing, the building will take shape next week. The above drawing renders our idea of what the finished facility might look like. We still need to decide on the color, but Mrs. Bea and I both like the color shown. What do you think?

The Lakeshore Mercy House will host our expanding mercy ministry which includes all the efforts currently taking place out of the “Distribution Center” quonset hut on our church property. If you have been following us since the storm, you know that thousands of folks have received assistance through our benevolence efforts. Food, clothing, household items, and other things donated to the church get distributed out to the community from here. This important ministry will continue through the permanent facility.

The location has also morphed into a sort of “third place” where locals congregate in a casual environment to gain support and encouragement from our volunteer staff and each other. While many come in looking for hard tangible assistance, like food for the night, others will often stop by just to say hi and continue relationships forged in the immediate crisis aftermath of Katrina. Daily fare often includes impromptu counseling sessions, prayer meetings, words of encouragement, evangelistic encounters, etc. We pray that this this ministry that God has graciously established will continue, flourish, and expand in the new facility as we point people to the mercy of Christ through the gospel of grace.

The Lakeshore Mercy House will also enable us to add new components to our mercy ministry. Please join Lakeshore Baptist Church in prayer as we seek God’s will in future direction and opportunity. Possibilities on our heart include financial management seminars, drug and alcohol addiction intervention and mitigation, biblical counseling, various food assistance programs, tutoring, and other things.

If you would like to contribute financially to this project, you can send donations to Lakeshore Baptist Church PO Box 293 Lakeshore MS 39558 designated for “The Lakeshore Mercy House.” Don’t forget, the ministry continues to depend on donations of food, clothing, and household items for distribution. Please see our “needs page” for a list of suggested items if you can help in this way. Thank you so much for standing along side of us as we continue to minister help and hope in the name of Jesus Christ to our community.

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As the Christmas season approaches many of you have asked about our plans to bless those in Lakeshore still going through a very difficult time. Our church has begun compiling a list of families in our community who we can touch with Christmas gifts for their children. On our end Mrs. Bea and the ladies in the distribution center maintain the list of recipients and our good friend Pam Lackey will serve again this year as the contact person for churches and individuals from across the country wanting to help meet specific needs, adopt families, and provide Christmas gifts. You can contact Pam at 678-860-0448 or by email plackey@alltel.net. Thank you so much.

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I posted pictures of our destroyed camp kitchen after Gustav. Many of you have called and emailed about reconstructing a more permanent kitchen. I’m listening; and that’s exactly what we plan to do. I created a Facebook cause, “Rebuild Lakeshore’s Kitchen” where we can accept online donations and spread the word for that purpose. I also emailed a letter out to our Rebuild Lakeshore google group. In case you have not added your email address to our list, I’ll copy the letter below:

Dear friends of Lakeshore,

For the past three years you have faithfully, generously, and selflessly come to the assistance of those in our community as we rebuild in the catastrophic wake of Hurricane Katrina. By God’s grace you have assisted in making huge strides toward recovery. With your help we have been a part of rehabbing a few hundred homes. In the last couple of weeks we began constructing our 31st house from the ground up. The distribution center has ministered to literally thousands of residence with necessary food, clothing, and household items as locals put their lives back together. Roughly 450 churches have partnered with us in mission trips to our area and we can not thank God enough for your contribution to the efforts. While we have seen so much progress, we see a long road ahead with several thousand residence still living in temporary housing. We plan to continue the Rebuild Lakeshore efforts for the for seeable future.

The three year anniversary of Katrina had us evacuating the gulf coast once again. In the providence of God, Hurricane Gustav left little damage to our area compared to Katrina’s monster foot print. All the homes that volunteers have constructed held up without damage, however many campers, trailers and cottages took on water.

On our church property, the metal church building and the office escaped unscathed by Gustav. Even most of our small sheds held up under the strong winds. The big white storage tent did not fair as well and we lost some of our building supplies. A few trees fell and limbs littered the property. The camp kitchen suffered the most damage. In our evacuation efforts we were able to pull most of the kitchen equipment out and bring it to higher ground, however the dining hall structure completely collapsed. This loss leaves us nowhere to feed the flood of volunteers needed to continue the recovery efforts.

We need to reconstruct a kitchen facility as soon as possible. Our post-katrina Kitchen went up out of necessity without regard to long term durability. This time we want to build a more stable structure that can survive strong winds and light flooding. We already have plans on the drawing board, but we need your help to fund this special project. We have set up a Facebook cause, “Rebuild Lakeshore’s Kitchen,” where we can accept online donations. If you prefer to use traditional mail, make checks payable to “Lakeshore Baptist Church” with “Camp Kitchen” in the memo line. Mail to: Lakeshore Baptist Church PO Box 293 Lakeshore MS 39558. Your tax deductible donations will enable us to host mission teams and minister the love of Christ to our community for years to come. We can not thank you enough.

by grace alone,

Pastor Don A. Elbourne Jr.
Lakeshore Baptist Church

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It is always amazing what God uses to bring glory to Himself and this Christmas in Lakeshore was no less amazing. By man’s standards, God makes the impossible; possible. Let me set the stage for you: two weeks before Christmas, over 500 children in need, one Sunday for churches to get the word out, at least three days of shipping time, seemingly limited funds by God’s people this close to Christmas and the need for people to act immediately. Impossible for the need to be met in a seven day time span by human efforts, yes, but not impossible when God is about the business of bringing glory to Himself. The SOS went out by word of mouth, e-mails, many, many phone calls and the internet blogs. Immediately, the body of Christ responded as the Holy Spirit prompted their hearts. Churches, individuals and groups went shopping, bought gifts, wrapped and packed them for shipment and shipped or drove them to Lakeshore by Friday, Dec. 22. After all the families were adopted, the phone calls and e-mails did not stop. People sent in money, more toys and gift cards for anyone that came in at the very last moment in need. One of the most precious aspects about the gift -giving came in the form of those who work at the distribution center everyday since Katrina got to be the very ones to pass out the gifts. Those sweet folks that have been the sounding boards, shoulder to cry on and the ones to pour out your troubles to got to be the ones to pass out a little hope in the form of Christmas gifts from so many of you.

Thank you to all of you who participated in this display of God’s glory. It is important to note that not one of the people who gave wanted to have their names on the cards to the families or wanted to receive credit in any way. God received all the glory. The many families that were blessed by the gifts asked that we tell you all how much they appreciated your love toward them. More than one family said it was the best Christmas that they had ever had in their whole lives.

Somehow saying “Merry Christmas” at the end of this post doesn’t seem to fit; maybe a more fitting close would be to say “Happy Extravagant Grace of our Loving Lord.”

One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. Psalm 145:4-6

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Christmas in Lakeshore may not be what it was in the past, but it resembles the standard of Christ more and more. The picture of Christ’s giving to His creation is without the expectation that we can ever come close to giving back to Him in kind. Yet, we are called to be like Him in all things. How do we do this at Christmas?

There is a need for Christmas presents (toys) for 300 kids in the Lakeshore community. You get the chance to give to kids you may never see but they will see Christ-like giving through your gifts. We wanted to open up this opportunity as another avenue of giving to Lakeshore at Christmas.

If you’d like more specific information: the children’s age groups, requested toys and the estimated children in need please contact: Pam Lackey at Plackey@alltel.net or by phone at (678)880-0157 or her cell at (678) 860-0448

We will take gifts up to Friday, December 22. We are requesting the toys be shipped directly to Lakeshore Baptist Church and labeled “Penguin Supplies.” It would be very helpful to send a hard copy of the gifts to Pam before you send them so she can check them off the list.

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Last year, we celebrated Christmas in ways that none of us could have even imagined just weeks before the event. As a result of God’s power, lives were forever altered and conformed more to His likeness than ever before. The body of Christ came together to bind up the wounds of the hurting and in doing so, became stronger through sacrifice for the suffering. Our providential God used all of us to provide the tangible for Lakeshore and its surrounding communities through Christmas dinner boxes, gift cards, toys, wreaths, trees, crock pots, CD players, Christmas CDs, stockings, children’s Christmas parties, small hand tools, small appliances and countless other gifts. Christ was demonstrated in the large and small tokens of love by His body. Confidently, we celebrate the greatness of our God and His mighty power not only by causing a hurricane to devastate the coast but more significantly, by changing human hearts.

Where do we go from here? What will the Christmas of 2006 look like? Many of you that participated in helping Lakeshore last year have been calling, e-mailing and blogging about wanting to help again this year. Still more of you have played an active role in the past year in assisting the community through rebuilding and you also have expressed a desire to help. The one resounding note that comes up in almost every volunteer conversation sounds something like this. “What can I do that will make an impact for the kingdom of God?” We have a practical, tangible way for you to help right now. Pastor Don Elbourne has answered that question with an “Adopt a Class” project. He is asking you as an individual, Sunday School class, church or club to invest in the “children of Lakeshore.” Providing space for the children to hear and appropriate the Word of God has got to be the best Christmas present that you could give them. This would be a gift that would truly make an impact for the Kingdom of God. The current plan is to build 2000 square feet of classroom space for the “Next Generation.” Here are the numbers for the Sunday School classrooms we need. We estimate construction cost to be about $100 per square foot.

• Nursery - 490 square feet needed
• Preschool - 490 square feet needed
• Grades 1-3 - 315 square feet needed
• Grades 4-6 - 315 square feet needed
• Grades 7-9 - 195 square feet needed
• Grades 10-12 - 195 square feet needed

You may choose which class or classes you will support.

For example, you may choose to support the Grades 1-3 by funding 2 square feet and your donation would then total $200.00.

We will keep a running total of the support as it comes in or is pledged.

You may make checks payable to Lakeshore Baptist Church and send them to:

Lakeshore Baptist Church
P.O. Box 293
Lakeshore, MS 39558

Please contact Pam Lackey directly via email at plackey@alltel.net or call her cell (678) 860-0448 or home (678) 880-0157. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail or call.

Thank you for being a part of rebuilding Lakeshore to the glory of God.

Merry Christmas!!

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