Gustav

Hello All,
So we survived Fay, she turned out to only be a lot of rain. Great news right? Well, today is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Weather forecasts predict that Gustav will hit us on Monday or Tuesday. It could be a catergory 3 (which was what Katrina was) and on the hills of Gustav is Hurriane Hannah!

At school, we prepared the building for if we are hit. We also went through our evacuation plan. The base is evacuation planning as well. We will make a decision on Sunday after church as to what we will need to do.

Speaking of Church, it went really well last weekend. We were down a bit due to the weather. We had 300 in Main Service and 80 in Mo Kids. I am attaching pictures of the Kids service and Main service. Check it out!

Shaun will be going on full time in 2 weeks. It is very good news, and we are amazed that it has already happened! It has been quite the roller coaster this church planting adventure.. Shaun is still a little sad because he will miss his new friends from the Base and all the fun times bowling and working out! He loses his base priveledges when he gives his notice, so that means no joining the Squadron bowling team!

Thank you guys for your concern and support... maybe we'll be in Texas soon!!
Love,
Jessica

Go Away Fay!

Welcome back to adventures on the MS Gulfcoast..... today's headline: Tropical Storm Fay to hit around 6 in the morning tomorrow!

Now, I have to admit, I am a little nervous about this. Everyone around here is buying water by the gallon, candles, and everything else. The news keeps doing updates every hour and you can see it coming in.

We on the other hand, are planning on unloading the truck at 7 in the morning in time to have church at 11. I am betting that attendance will be down tomorrow. So we are praying for protection!

This week has been busy, as usual. I spent my first week in the schools. I have old classrooms for offices, so the challenge has been to make the big space seem more comfortable and conducive for counseling. Of course, there was nothing in the classrooms, so that means spending money out of our pocket. I even have to buy my own stapler and paper. I spent the first two days establishing the office as well as attending meetings. The rest of the week, I have been inundated with children! It has been very rewarding, but frustrating because I don't have the supplies I need to help them and really do sessions. It is coming though.... slowly but surely, just like everything else here. :-)

Below are a few pictures of my "offices".

Last weekend was our first in the new building. It was AMAZING! We had 370 in main service and 85 in Mosaic Kids, 22 of those kids all under 4! There are some great pictures of the main service on the Church website: http://www.mosaicchurchgulfcoast.com/. Check it out.





Here are few of the kids area without the kids. I have someone taking pictures this week with the kids. Hopefully they will be there despite the storm!



Quite the improvement!!! We have room now to grow and spread out and the area is totally kid friendly! How awesome is that?!? We are hoping that Shaun will be able to give his two week notice on Monday to the Base and go on full time with the church, we are waiting to see how this weekend goes.

Thank you for your continued encouragement and support!

Love,

Jessica

Taco Casa!!!

I forgot to share our Taca Casa story!

Rick and the family back home have been collecting Taco Casa supplies for the last month. Rick even got the guy from there to give him enough meat seasoning to cook 20 POUNDS worth of meat!

So, the plan was for Rick to ship it here. I would cook the Taco Casa and surprise Shaun with his favorite food ever! Rick even got the sauce, taco wrapping papers, and the newspaper that the Taco Casa has. It was to be the best surprise EVER!!!

Well,,,, as usual: Shaun ruined the surprise! In 7 years, I have not once been able to surprise Shaun. He figures out his birthday gifts, Christmas presents, and even ruined my anniversary surprise for him! I was so excited that this was going to be THE one surprise that would work!

The package arrived a day early when Shaun was off from work and he opened it! He then cooked his own Taco Casa dinner so when I got home from work, I smelled it as I walked up to the front door! So, good news is we now have enough taco casa seasoning and sauce to last at least until Thanksgiving when we can gt the real thing. Bad news is that we couldn't surprise Shaun with it!

Update

Hello All,

I am once again late in posting... sorry to my loyal readers.. all 2 of you!


This weekend was our last weekend in the Mirrored Hall. We held two services and the 11:00 service ran out of space both in the main service and in Mo Kids! Technically, I had over 50 kids in the 11:00. I thought that it would be good to show some before pictures of Mo Kids and after.


I posted these before pictures a while back, but here they are again.

Here are the after pictures from last weekend....

We are looking forward to only having 1 service at 11 this weekend. Shaun's youth ministry is going really well too. Last weekend was the last weekend that we held it in our home. This weekend it will move to In the Zone. Last weekend we had over 20 teens! Shaun is doing a series called Poser. This is the logo that he is using. The teens loved it!

This is my second week at work. It is going really well. Everyone is very friendly and I think that it will be a very good opportunity. There seems to be a huge need for counselors in the schools. I will actually be in my school starting on Monday.

Jan and Gary and the Boys came to visit this week. Shaun got to go with them on an airboat ride and a gator adventure. Gary has officially eaten way too much cajun food! I think that the final count was that he ate 5 oyster poorboys! The boys went fishing and it rained all day on them! We were so glad that they came and got to see everything. Gary and the boys even helped as we took down the church. I am so lucky to have such an awesome family!

Danielle and her mom came to visit this weekend too. It was great to get to meet her sister. I hope to get to spend some time with her soon. Danielle's mom is Preston's original mommy, so it was good to let her see the pup!

Thank you for the prayer! Please continue to pray for us and for Mosaic!
Love,
Jessica

Grand Opening Update

Hello Amigos y Familia!

I got totally wrapped up with everything this past weekend and I didn't get any cool photos! No worries... we will be making a video this weekend to promote Mosaic Kids (aka Mo Kids) and recruit volunteers.

So, here is the amazing story about the Grand Opening. We were up and at the church by 5 for set up. People started arriving by 8:45! We had 350 in the Main services between the 9:30 and the 11:00 services. And in Mo Kids, we have 35 and 39. In the Little Mosaics (birth-3), we had 8 and 10. Crazy good times!

The local news even came out and did a remote during the services. To check out Pastor Dustin's spot on the news, go to www. wlox.com. Search for Mosaic Church. Dustin also got to do a radio spot this week to promote this weekend.

Now the big news. We had 12 salvations that we know of this weekend! We also have now outgrown our current space and as of next week, will be meeting at In the Zone. This location is cheaper, bigger, and is a daycare/ skating rink so it is safer and we get the place all day!!

Shaun kicked off his student ministry(Cross Culture) Sunday night. We had 20 kids, not to shabby! The kids all seemed to like it and were very accepting of each other, that is huge! We also have some rock solid leaders to help with Cross Culture.

I started my paying gig on Monday with Biloxi schools. Yes, school started today here and teachers returned to school last week. We start earlier than in Texas, but we get off earlier. Did I mention that we get the week off for Mardi Gras as well as a week in April for Spring break.... and are off last of May.... sweet!!!

I am REALLY excited about this job. I will be housed at an elementary school and will service another elementary on Tuesday and Thursdays. This position is brand new and there are 3 others hired just like me. We are Elementary Mental Health Counselors. This week we are designing the protocols and procedures and next week, I will be placed in the school. I will work 8-4. Yeah, no early morning!!!

The Biloxi school district is one of the best districts in the state of Mississippi. They also are considered fairly progressive. I actually got to sit down and talk with the Superintendent and several other top administrators yesterday. I just can not get over how personable and down to earth they are, unlike most of the districts in which I have been involved with! Some districts, I never even got to meet the school Principals, much less the Superintendent!

Interesting thing about the schools here too is that they do not have guidance counselors or social workers in the elementary schools. So, the teachers have had to deal with extremely hurting children all on their own. They are so grateful to have us and I am glad to help! My Principals seem to be really sweet too. I can't wait to get started. As part of my benefits, I get a blackberry and a laptop. Fancy Fancy!!

Did I mention that I got an iphone last week? So now I have two fancy phones, neither of which I know how to operate fully! The only reason that I got the iphone was because the motorola razor finally died.. I am sorry to say that she died a long, slow painful death.

Shaun is still working at the base and enjoying it. Several people out there have recognized him from the flyer and He is forming some pretty cool friendships. His job ends in January, but we have hopes that he will go on full time at Mosaic by then.

Shaun and I are both trying to finish up our summer classes in school. This is the area that has been the hardest to balance. I just can't seem to keep caught up! And fall classes start the 18th...yuck! But we are both nearing the finish line, so it will be worth it!

I will send picts of this weekend next week. Danielle and her family are coming to visit this weekend and she is bringing me shoes!! Love her! My family is also coming to visit. I can't wait or them to see the Church and eat at Phoenicia! Lucky Shaun gets to hang out with them all day on Monday.. I'm so jealous!

I also am getting ready to teach the Women's Bible Study tomorrow on Joy.. boy is that a tough crowd! And we are doing our home group and Cross Culture this weekend.

Please continue to pray for the people of the Coast and for our staff here at Mosaic. Seems like each of us is being attacked in some way shape or form!

We love you guys!

Jessica