It's HOT.

It's HOT. I mean REALLY HOT !

All my Airstream friends are at the International Rally in Perry, GA. Through Feb, Mar and Apr I kept telling them, over and over that the main reason I would not be attending was because, "Why would ANYONE be stupid enough to go to mid-GA in JULY ?"

I'm hearing from some of them. "Is it hot in MS ?" But so far, the temperatures have been about the same here as they are in Perry. 90 or 92 during the day and 70 at night.

I took a short walk on the beach Saturday with a new friend. The "ocean breeze" that everyone here tells us makes all the difference only seemed to be coming from a small blast furnace. But coming home on the bike last night was chilly. Almost.

I'm up and out early this morning to make a Sam's run. Then I'm going to Ocean Springs to work with Camp Noah It's a faith based week long day camp for Katrina survivors K-6th grade sponsored by the Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response Team. It's about 45 minutes on the bike but next week it'll be in Long Beach which is only about 10 minutes away.

So it seems I'll be working with little ones again. I've come to realize how spoiled I am. The volunteers here get true joy from having helped rebuild someone's house. But, just as I don't think they really LOVE hanging dry wall, I don't LOVE shopping at Sam's or preparing vegetables in a hot kitchen. The joy is in having done it, not in the doing. But I get SO MUCH just being with these kids.

I'm reading "Ordinary Saints", "An Introduction to the Christian Life." by Dr. Robert Benne, from Salem's Roanoke College. He quotes Frederick Bueckner, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

Here I am, serving by helping these kids work through their losses and fears. And I can see that I am making a difference. But as a friend who hadn't read the blog for a while said last week after catching up, "That man is having WAY TOO MUCH FUN."

Yup. Sure am.