Jayson & Carrie Whelpley

As of Friday at 6PM we will be on our trip to the Gulf Coast to help with the recovery effort for the victims of hurricaines Katrina and Rita.

Up until Tuesday we were planning on heading to Pass Christian, Mississippi; because there were about 500 too many students signed up for help there so we were asked to redirect to New Orleans. We will be headed down with the Michael and Dave (from our staff team) as well as 45 students/volunteers on a bus. Each person has given up their own money and 9 days of vacation time to serve the residents of the previously flooded areas.

We will spend our days cleaning up debris, running day camps for children, providing food and helping do some demolition work (as well as whatever they ask of us); we will spend our nights with about 3,000 other volunteers in a huge warehouse that was just cleaned out/hosed down this week.

Please pray for the trip, safety and good attitudes for the trip; we will try to share some stories and pictures when we get back.

The February newsletter is up and ready to read as well as a quote from Bono (of U2) to go with it.

Keep us and the team in prayer as we prepare to take about 50 students down to Pass Christian, Mississippi to help with the rebuilding efforts from Katrina and Rita back in August. To see some pictures of what the area looked like just 4 weeks ago, head over to the gallery at WesternPACru.com. It is linked from the photo at the left.