While getting some coffee, the second banker returned my call and he said that he would try to find some people for us to talk with. He knew of one family from New Orleans and would call us later.

On the top of our bus in large letters is painted "FUMA." This morning a gentleman waited for us to come out of the coffee shop hoping that we were with "FEMA." Steve has said several times he wished we were so that we could give out financial aid.

We went back to Comfort Inn so that we could access our email and I could send off a journal entry. While there, a retired 57-year-old man came in to use the free Internet service as well. I was walking to the restroom when he asked if we were aid volunteers, in which I responded yes and told him what we were doing. He quickly began showing me pictures of his home. It was a large middle class home that had been flooded and many of his possessions destroyed. In addition to his home he lost his new motor home. He went on showing me pictures and telling me about his loss. His family was safe though. His eyes spoke weariness and wonder about the future. Many of those we have spoken with whether volunteers or victims are overwhelmed by their experience. They want someone to sit and listen to their story.

He mentioned that he wanted some Gatorade. We had some that we had been sent with, so we gave him a few bottles. Our conversation steered toward the many volunteers down here. I mentioned that our school was affiliated with the Baptist church. He responded by calling the Baptists, "The Salt of the Earth" for their efforts here. I have seen a lot of relief aid, but the largest majority of them are Baptist.

We had previously decided to go to Biloxi to speak with the pastors and Chaplains at the relief efforts there. Before starting our trek there we stopped by Nicholson to find the pastor. We did not find him but left a message. The pastor called us while we were on the road. He said that a local principal was a member of his church and would inform her of our offer, but did not know of anyone else at that time.

In Biloxi, we met with two pastors who greeted us warmly and took our information. We drove through a residential area where house after house had blue or clear tarps covering damaged roofs. Fences where torn down and trash was littered about. The McDonalds there was serving a limited menu and canned drinks. That area was still using boiled water.

On our way back through Gulfport, we passed over two bridges where boats littered embankments on either side. It was so incredible that we pulled over to take pictures. I will post them on the photos section of our website soon.

We next went in search of internet access, so that I might be able to upload some pictures to our website and send off a journal entry. Comfort Inn was advertising free Internet access, so we asked if we could use it. They invited us to sit in their lobby while we worked. Steve and I both have laptops, so we were able to catch up on some email as well.

We were then back on the road to Bay St. Louis. All the businesses there had debris piled in front of their stores, waiting for it to be taken away. Some places had homemade signs on them saying they were open or were opening soon. We met with our new FUMA cadet who enrolled this week and came back down to help us. He made several calls to friends that had been affected by the hurricane. One of them agreed to meet with us, so we went to meet with him and his mother. They watched parts of the admissions video and we answered questions. She said she would speak with her husband and let us know.

One of the members of the board of trustees for the FUMA gave us some phone numbers of bankers in the area that might be able to help. I called both and left messages. We then headed back to Picayune.

We headed out Monday morning to go to WRJW AM 1320. The church had told us that they would be willing to broadcast an announcement. The radio station was more than happy to help. While Steve penned the announcement, I talked with one of their DJ's. He told me how their quiet little town went from 15,000 to 33,000 inhabitants during the past two weeks. We asked them to run the radio spot until Thursday. The office at First Baptist agreed to take all calls from listeners and forward those on to us.

A former parent of a student from FUMA called us and gave us the number for a school official in nearby Slidell. We attempted to call him many times and finally got a hold of him after an hour and a half. Cell phones do work down here, but it is sporadic. On my cell phone, some calls have gone straight to voicemail and some have gotten through. The further south we travel the worse it gets. The gentleman agreed to meet us a little later that morning once we got a hold of him.

We jumped in our bus and headed to Slidell. The directions given to us were simple but we had a very difficult time finding his house. Street signs are missing in places or the pole in which they are attached are bent and hidden from view. The sign announcing his housing subdivision was completely covered with various other signs stapled to it. We finally found it and I was shocked by what we saw in his neighborhood. In front of almost every house were piles of trees and debris. Upon arrival, the man invited us into his living room and was excited about our offer. He told us how his school district was considering scrapping the football season for this year. His thought was that he might find some football players who might want to relocate. He took our contact information and said that he would tell the school board about what we were doing and call with any possibilities. We talked with him some about his experience after Katrina. His was the only house that survived among his extended relatives. They were now all coming to live with him now in his home. He had two cars, one was destroyed by the hurricane. My heart went out to him. This hurricane struck so suddenly and with much greater force than people here expected.

The next place on our list was Pass Road Baptist Church in Gulf Port. We saw the same scene of destruction there as in Slidell. The town was much bigger and we got lost once again. Thankfully, we found the church located in a strip mall. Baptist relief workers were busy milling about and one of them directed us toward the pastor's office. To get there we had to walk through the very nice, spacious sanctuary. It now had cots and suitcase strewn all about as a makeshift lodging to a plethora of volunteers. Every church we have gone to thus far was host to relief efforts. The volunteers have captivated my respect. They travel at their own expense a great distance, sleep in church pews or on the floor, work in 100 degree plus heat for hours on end and from what I have witnessed with very positive attitudes. Please keep them in your prayers as well.

After finding the pastor, he invited us into his office. We told him about what we were doing and thought he thought that what we were doing was a good thing. He took our card and told us that he would contact us if anything came up. As we were leaving, we asked a volunteer for directions to the interstate. He piped up telling us not to go in a certain direction, because there were still bodies down that way.

We next went to the town of Bay St.Louis to find a church there. The best way I can describe this town is like a war zone. I do not mean in the attitudes of the people, but in the sheer amount of destruction. Cars were thrown in to ditches, houses torn apart and buildings with sections of them broken off. The church we were looking for was located about three blocks from Lake Pontchartrain. The steeple of the church was lying on its side in front of the church parking lot. A nearby car was on its side thrown up against a building with a pile of debris. The pastor and assistant pastor with their wives were busily working on clean up. They openly received us and were excited about our offer. Of their congregation, they had seen maybe a quarter of them since the hurricane. They said they would be in contact if they found anyone we could help.

Before I got on the bus to come down here, I told General Jackson a story about a missionary that has deeply touched my life. His name was George Muller and he lived in Europe in the nineteenth century. He was a man that believed God. One time, the Lord had told him to build an orphanage. Everything fell into place and the orphanage was built and stocked. Excitement built for the opening day. The day came, but there were no orphans. Mr. Muller asked God about this and the Lord told him you forgot to ask Him for the orphans. At FUMA, we have a good school and people willing to financially cover the costs, now all we need are the students. Please pray that God would bring the students. So many people have lost everything and I mean everything materially they owned. However, we have not yet found the students. Thank you for your prayers.

WRJW, known as the "Pic" of Picayune, is a 5000-watt station serving the area of Picayune, Pearl River County, Hancock County, and several Louisiana Parishes.

We next attended the church service where the pastor spoke on Overcoming Doubt. After the service, we had a table set up in the lobby to speak with people about the school and our relief effort. Unfortunately, no one had any information that led to finding any displaced families with children in 6th-12th grade.

After lunch a local volunteer gave us a list of numbers to call for contacts in the local board of education. Among the 70+ volunteers at the church, we had one phone line in which to access the internet and then only if you had a dial-up account. Neither of us had one, so that was a hurdle we would face later on.

We hopped in Spirit One and headed to Grace Memorial Baptist in Slidell based on a recommendation we had received. We had been warned that the devastation was much worse than what we had previously seen. Slidell had been hit by a 30ft swell from Lake Ponchatraine during the hurricane. Grace Memorial was one of the few, if not only church, that had not been affected. Upon arriving, we saw a flurry of activity by the volunteers. We located the youth pastor who directed us to his office through a fellowship hall that had been converted into a warehouse of supplies. My heart went out to the tired looking pastor as I saw the condition of what a few weeks before had been his nice office. It too now held supplies and was in disarray. We told him about our mission and asked if he knew of anyone that we might contact. He had none at the time other than recommending that we head over to 1st Baptist of Slidell. It had been flooded by 4ft of water, but was also a relief station for victims. We gave him our card and he said he would call us if he had anyone that we could speak with. Before we left, we asked the pastor where he had been during the storm. He said that the church had brought some of those in hospice care from the congregation to the church. Grace Memorial Baptist was built to resist up to 200mph winds. So he rode out the storm there with them. He also mentioned that he did not know what would happen to their town. Economically, they were dependent upon New Orleans. If people did not return there to work, he did not know what would happen.

We said our goodbyes and headed to 1st Baptist. Our directions did not seem that difficult, but we got very lost. We stopped and asked for directions at a gas station and became more lost. Then all of a sudden, we looked to our left and there was the church. Divine Guidance. The church was very large and had two mammoth tents set up on the front lawn. Under them were clothing supplies for all ages and supplies of food. We found one of the pastors, covered in sweat, busily working with the boxes of supplies. He asked if we were volunteers, stating that he had work to be done. We told him we were from FUMA and that we were looking for families that we might help. He sent us to find the head pastor. We found another church employee that said that the head pastor was not on site then, but directed us to the youth pastor. Steve and he immediately hit it off. The pastor was impressed by our offer, but also did not know of anyone. However, he took our card and said that he had a meeting with the head pastor in the morning and would give us a call if anything came up. As we were leaving we smelled a strong stench. Steve looked down and noticed the ground was covered with dead fish.

We headed back to 1st Baptist of Picayune for the night. I really wanted to get out my first two journal entries, but did not have access to the Internet. My laptop has a nice Wi-fi Internet finder on it, so I activated it as soon as we drove into Picayune. We quickly got a hit and drove closer to the signal, which was coming from a business RV that was set-up to help the victims. I quickly jumped on the signal and sent out the email. Then we headed back to the church for dinner and rest. Tomorrow we would head to Gulfport and Bay St. Louis.

Next, we stopped for a quick breakfast at Waffle House and hit the road close to 6:00am. Our first task of the day was to find a Wal-Mart to pick up a few needed supplies. We quickly found one. Unfortunately, it did not open until 7:00am, so we had to wait awhile.

On our first pit stop, we met a small caravan from West Virginia made up of of pick-up trucks pulling large trailers packed to the brim with supplies. They had been driving for 20 hours straight, but one of their vehicles broke down and they stopped to make repairs. One of the volunteers from the group said that this was his third trip down. He was with an organization that was trying to reunite families that had been separated after the hurricane and to bring some much needed relief.

After Tuscaloosa, we noticed more and more of the physical destruction in the wake of Katrina, which only got worse the closer we came to our destination. However, I was encouraged by the multitude of vehicles either bringing relief to the victims or returning from it. We passed several out of state volunteer firefighters, Semis with signs stating that they were carrying relief items, a fleet of utility trucks, scores of military cargo trucks and church vans with volunteers.

A surprise to both of us was the huge infestation of bugs. I spoke with one of the locals that said that they had arrived right after the hurricane. They were everywhere and on everything. We stopped several times, as did many others, to clean off the windshield.

A couple of people we talked to thought that we were FEMA. One man asked how he could get assistance.

We arrived at the First Baptist Church in Picayune, Ms. around 3:00pm in the afternoon.I was very impressed by the organization of the Va. Baptist Disaster Relief that was headquartered there and with whom we would be working. Most of the volunteers were from Va. Eleanor and her husband had been here two weeks and were planning on staying another one. They both seemed to work tirelessly and without complaint. They also celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary this past year.

The church generously gave us a good size Sunday School room to use as our base of operations and sleeping quarters. They have a four person shower truck that is shared by the Red Cross, Va. Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers and ourselves. We all eat together and the meals have been very good.

Once we arrived, we quickly learned that are search would not be easy. Many of the displaced families have already moved out of the shelters and are staying with friends or families. Our task now was how to find our 10 new students. We spoke with several of the people from Va. Baptist Disaster Relief looking for possible leads. We also spoke with the pastor of the church we were staying at. He told us that he would announce our plans to the congregation in the morning seeing if any of them or anyone they knew might benefit from the school's offer.

Please pray for the following:
Please pray that the Lord would provide the students.
Pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Pray for our safety
Pray for Steve's family as he is away from them.

CPT Brian Garriss

They hope to return with young men in search of a safe learning environment in which to continue their college prep education.

As stated in a recent letter to FUMA's Board of Trustees, General John E. Jackson, Jr. noted, "There was great excitement and compassion in the voices of the Executive Committee, who feel led of the Lord to do this work." A copy of the General's letter to the Board is as follows:

Dear FUMA Board Member

Two weeks ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I called Dr. John Upton, Executive Director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) to ascertain what the Virginia Baptists were doing in the efforts to help the survivors of the storm. He told me that they had four teams on the ground. I told him that on behalf of FUMA, if the team chief could find families who had lost everything, (not a tall order, given the circumstances), with sons eligible to enroll in grades 6-12, that we would offer to fully fund the enrollment of 2 boys- going so far as traveling to pick the boys up. One of our current parents, from Gulfport MS, lost everything in the storm. Although he's still recovering himself, he called this morning to inform us of a friend of his family- a single mom who works as a nurse. She and her son will arrive on our campus this coming Monday, and we're praying that this boy will stay.

We had previously notified the National Association of Independent Schools, informing them that we had space for up to 12- 6th graders, 12- 7th graders, 6- 8th graders, and 25 upper schoolers (grades 9-12), and would be willing to offer substantial financial aid to help with tuition costs. We have yet to receive any queries regarding that offer.

I stand in awe of what the Executive Committee of FUMA's Board decided to do today. I am very much pleased to report to you that the Executive Committee authorized me to send two Admissions Officers to drive to the disaster area- to the center of destruction to join up with the Virginia Baptist team in Picayune, MS. They leave tomorrow morning with the hopes of collecting as many as 10 young men with which to return to FUMA. There was great excitement and compassion in the voices of the Executive Committee, who feel led of the Lord to do this work. We have space for up to 50 more, over and above the original 10, and I have asked my Admissions guys to see how much interest there would be in filling those slots. If necessary, we'll go and get them too.

The program would be for this school year, and we want to raise $8,000 to cover room, board, and uniforms for each of the boys, so for the first 10, we desire to raise $80,000 to help cover expenses. As only the Lord can do, we already have $50,000 committed from 3 board members and 1 business partner of a board member, so we have $30,000 to go for the first 10. If we can get the whole 60, we would need to have $480,000 in hand to help with expenses. Always dealing in round numbers, (you know me!), if we could make it $500,000 that would be perfect.

Here's the question. Do you want to be a part of it? We all feel led of the Lord to do this thing. I'll keep you posted on our progress. Please give prayerful consideration to what part you may play in this great work.

In His Service,

Lt. General John E. Jackson, Jr.

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