Regular posting will resume when I finish reading Pullman's THE GOLDEN COMPASS unless I begin the second book of the trilogy which will delay bloggage further. Please direct all correspondence to Whistle or Fish, the kittens.

2 Months Tomorrow

* When I stood outside in the early morning light this morning, I looked at the sky and thought "how beautiful". I did not see a tree-less backyard. I saw a beautiful sky.

*The grocery stores down here get their supplies from the big city of New Orleans. Many stores seem empty, with a few items on the shelves. I went to a clothing store late this afternoon. The racks were empty. I asked a sales person why there were so few things for sale. She said, "We load the racks at night. People buy everything in the mornings and we don't have enough employees to keep the racks filled all day long." I'll be glad when things look normal again.

*A gracious Presbytery, north of here, offered to pay the difference between our insurance check and the costs of re-building the church. They want to paint the interior of our building AND provide two Sundays of supply preachers for my Fall Pilgrimage to NYC and Thanksgiving Weekend with LD home. I am doing the happy dance!
We will be able to do things at the church that we dreamed of doing.

*The LH is off to see LD. I miss him but am delighted he's gone to the Aunts Spa Respite House for a break. He'll enjoy being with his LD and seeing Assumpta and Dibley.

*I expect a house full of relief workers from the Carolinas and three Missionaries from Brazil this weekend. I like this.

*I am eating dark chocolate Hershey's kisses to celebrate the help of the Presbytery for my congregation AND to comfort my loneliness with LH away. (Note to Self: everyone sees through your rationalizations. Everyone)

St. C

RevGalBlogPals Advent Devotions

I am so proud of all of you!

A Light Blazes in the Darkness:Advent Devotionals from An Intentional Online Community

On Sale now for $9.99! down from retail price of $12.99.

Guest Blogger Whistle the Kitten

Hey!

I'm a kitten and my brother, Fish, is a kitten and we are kittens.

We were born on August 28, 2005 which everyone knows was the day before Katrina the hurricane. We were born in Picayune, Mississippi which we thought was a big city until we came South to live here.

We are ginger cats and both of us are orange. I am better looking than my brother but he disagrees. I am bigger, which is true, and I make noises like growls, hisses and meows. Fish is quiet but he purrs. Go figure.

Our new human is nice to us. You'd think she'd name us something like, "John" or "Matthew" but she said she was getting a bit tired of dealing with Matthew each week. What does that mean? When Mr. C. suggested "Mark", she said she had recovered from dealing with him last year.

Mr. C named us after a John Prine song. We have no clue what that sentence means. Not. A. Clue. We are kittens whose world view is Mrs. C's study where we keep our litter box, food dishes and furry mice toys.

Mrs. C told someone on the phone (we hear lots because there is a phone on her study desk) that this was the year that Rusty the Greatest Ginger Cat in the World Died and then Assumpta and Dibley (cousins in NC with LD now) came, a dog named "Governor" then the two of us. She said she is running a boarding house for Hurricane Animals. Assumpta and Dibley were from the Humane Society right before Hurricane Dennis.

Anyway, we like it here and Mrs. C gets all sappy and kissy with us. She must like cats. As my brother and I say, "if you don't like cats, what's with you???"

We have to go sit on her lap. She says we are a "comfort" to her and that means we have to pay attention to her. Fine with us. The food is good here and we each have a fur mouse toy.

Gotta go. We have a new cardboard box to jump in and out of. Really.

Regards,
Whistle

Biloxi and Gulfport Before and After Katrina

This is the site for WLOX news in Biloxi. Look for the Biloxi Before and After along with Gulfport Before and After videos.

WLOX-TV - The News for South Mississippi: Katrina Video Coverage

Into your good care, O Lord, we commend our lives and futures. Amen.

Why pay insurance premiums if the insurance industry ducks it's policy holders on a quibble? I was told that I didn't need flood insurance by my agent. What's going on here? Why isn't there an outcry over the insurance industry's lack of fairness?

Send Out Some Love

This guy needs some comments to keep him going. Could you stop by his blog and say something encouraging? Thanks.

Hurricane Katrina - Mississippi Response

Setting the Mood

Fish And Whistle
©John Prine

I been thinking lately about the people I meet
The carwash on the corner and the hole in the street
The way my ankles hurt with shoes on my feet
And I'm wondering if I'm gonna see tomorrow.

Father forgive us for what we must do
You forgive us we'll forgive you
We'll forgive each other till we both turn blue
Then we'll whistle and go fishing in heaven.

I was in the army but I never dug a trench
I used to bust my knuckles on a monkey wrench
Then I'd go to town and drink and give the girls a pinch
But I don't think they ever even noticed me.

Fish and whistle, whistle and fish
Eat everything that they put on your dish
And when we get through we'll make a big wish
That we never have to do this again again? again????

On my very first job I said thank you and please
They made me scrub a parking lot down on my knees
Then I got fired for being scared of bees
And they only give me fifty cents an hour.

A Shirt for Mr. C

Wireless Catalog - I'm Sick Of Being My Wife's Arm Candy Shirts

At this moment

At this moment, the National Weather Service shows Wilma pounding elsewhere.
Our local NOAA hazardous weather bulletin concerns the drought. Fire ban. No burning.
No rain.

Here in the Backwater, October is a dry month. How weird that the Largest National Disaster in the U.S.A where wind driven rain damaged just about everything that the flooding didn't ruint (please pronounce "ruin" with a "t" at the end. Gutteral grunt in a half-hearted fashion as you pronounce, y'all).

Dry here. Very dry. Hair does better with humidity as we have learned to look great in 95 % humidity. However, the World's Greatest Hairdresser tried out "a new color line" (hairdresserese for "new chemicals") on somebody around here. That somebody has nutmeg brown hair. She has taken to wearing her "Life is Good" cap pulled down to her ears. Brown hair? I doubt she'll adjust. She's a durn red-head.

Life is just tough here. You think you are working on your attitude and learning, as St. Paul urged, to be happy whatever because of who God is for us. Does that include the worst coloring fiasco one has ever seen?

(note to self: I thought you weren't going to blog about your hair. Isn't this blog supposed to be about uplifting numinous spiritual issues? Please go back and review your blog Mission Statement and Visioning Goals.---Ed.)

Busy Looking for Mission Statement...,

St. Casserole

A Light Blazes in the Darkness

A Light Blazes in the Darkness

Shout Outs!

*Love and sloppy kisses to the Angel up East who is sending boxes of books for our pastors!

*A big Quizzical Arched Eyebrow to the debris removal people WHO ARE BURNING THE DEBRIS SO THE AIR IS FILLED WITH SMOKE ALL DAY LONG as if we didn't have to cope with mold infested/rotting pork bellies, chicken parts and sewage odors while we clean-up. We are under a burn ban because Katrina was followed by a drought but the EPA is allowing debris burning.

*A big Shout Out to Aunts who understand the Power of Tinkerbell Costumes!

*Loud applause to the dreamers and visonaries who plan to start new congregations amidst the rubble on the Coast!

*Thanks be to God for the friendships Mr.C and I have with UMCOR workers!

*Growls and Hisses to the phone company who won't move their wires so our debris can be taken away AND to the debris removal people who won't pick up the debris because the phone wires aren't removed. Great tenacity of spirit thrives in this stand-off.

*The Get Out Your Cattle Prods and Find An Adjuster's Butt to all the insurance adjuters who are causing more damage by taking so durn long to get to homeowners and businesses. Take your vitamins! Get Moving!

*Shout Out to all those I love and all those who love me.

Love,
St. Casserole, More Herself Than She Was Last Week

I wrote the post below after I got a phone call from a pastor who introduced himself, said his board asked him to make contact with a person down here then said, "I have one question for you. Is it good stewardship for us to give you money?"

Hurt my feelings. I know how it feels to be a poor Southern slob who has to justify why my people need help.

Thanks, I wasn't completely sure how it felt to be humbled by someone offering a stingy gift.

Ministry Down Here: Not for the Faint-Hearted

Churches around the US are pouring love, people, stuff and money into our area. I've gotten calls from several churches asking if they may adopt or partner with us as we rebuild. All of the distressed area churches have received calls offering help and money. Day after day, I get calls asking if we need help.

The answer is "yes".

Several of our churches won't get enough insurance money to repair their buildings. They'll be indebted for years unless they get help. Several of our pastors are traumatized to the point of being walking dead. Pastors are homeless. Furniture, books, electronics, household goods are gone along with their homes. Their families are split up so that children can go to school elsewhere. Their spouses may or may not have jobs.

Pastors are trying to figure out how to do ministry with congregations traumatized, exhausted and broke. Many churches have lost 20% or more of their people. Church records are destroyed. Buildings aren't useable.

Whatever we planned for Fall of 2005 is shelved because their aren't enough church school teachers, youth programs are messed up and no one has energy for much of anything.

I'm doing ok. Our church can re-roof and make the necessary repairs. None of our members are bolting from the area. All of my people survived the storm.

I'm doing ok but my colleagues are suffering. In pain. Exhausted. Stressed trying to meet the needs of their people.

If you want to do exciting ministry, come on down. Give one of our pastors a break by offering to preach for a Sunday or two. Come down and start congregational redevelopment in one of our congregations where members left for new lives elsewhere. Come hold our hands, listen and offer the Hope you have.

I'm trying to do this, I really am.

We need more help. We aren't giving up. We are thinking of new ways to do ministry. We are praying for guidance as we use the gifts we've received so that we strengthen congregations for future mission. We are doing what we can with what we have.

Thank you to whoever popped me into 15K visits. Perhaps my own visits to see if anyone is reading my Tale 'O Woe did the trick. Anyway, I'd send a pound of Community Dark Roast Coffee to "Visitor 15,000" if I knew you. Thanks for coming.

St. C

Hurricane Katrina Images from Duke University

Hurricane Katrina Images

Worth a look to see the devastation of Katrina. Thanks, Duke University, for helping me understand the extent of the storm.

St. Casserole

Bittersweet

Every Fall, or what passes for Fall in the Deep South, we pick up beautiful pinecones from the yard.


When the children were little, we practiced serving pinecones with a tennis raquet into the giant azalea bushes. If golf was the sport of the moment, we drove the pinecones with a nine iron. The azalea bushes never seemed to mind being the dump for dozens of large pinecones.

Today I picked up the last crop of pinecones. I used the old lady grabbing tool sold by my neighborhood hardware store. The grabber is the tool of choice of all my antique neighbors for picking up anything they don't want to bend over to grasp. It's fun to use.

My trees are gone with a few scrawny exceptions whose pine cone producing days may never come.

Arrgghhhhhhhhhh All I ever blog about is loss! Oh, rats and double rats! Oh, my dear messy pinetrees gone to the street for the debris trucks!

Gulfport Storm Surge Video

Thanks to Seawitch for this link:
Ultimate Chase - Windows Media Streaming Video Library

The guys filming this are nuts.

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss

Bill introduced to help homeowners - The Clarion-Ledger

Movie Review, Sunday Preview and Harborview

The LH and I drove to another city to the movies this afternoon. We saw "Wallace and Grommet" and loved it. Except....the cleric in the movie is useless, superstitious and silly. All characters are silly but I sting when I see clergy portrayed as useless. We are not useless! I ate popcorn and contemplated sending LH down for chocolate to calm my pastoral nerves but controlled my emotions instead.

Tomorrow's Gospel lection is Matthew 22:15-22, the "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" passage. Besides telling people that the State is to be given it's due (taxes, etc.) as much as a Christian in conscience can, the text demands attention to be paid to God's authority in our lives as first, with all other loyaties a far second. I don't use this as a stewardship season text to raise money. Been there, done that and I don't think it is a fair reading of the text.

Harbor views are difficult as Highway 90 is closed except to licensed contractors with ID and residents with ID. We don't see the Gulf waters anymore. So disconcerting to lose the view of the beautiful Gulf. When the highway is repaired, the residents property secured and when the governments feel darn ready, we will be allowed to see the water.

Everything is a mess here. Debris piles, plastic bags hanging from tree branches, trash on the highways and roads, businesses looking torn up and blue tarps on too many roofs.

Oh, by the way, I spent Wednesday night on Highway 61 going toward the Delta. For you Blues enthusiasts, this makes my blues creds top notch. Just call me "Blind Lemon Casserole."

Love,
Blueswoman St. Casserole Herself