After most of a week, the ground is finally draining. There are a few puddles, but mostly you can walk through the grass without feeling like you are about to sink into a swamp.

Progress continues on the houses. Charlotte contributed most of the pictures of the work today. She also contributed this lovely picture of the mural outside Ground Zero.

We have one house that we hope will be completed in a couple weeks.

Here is our team finishing up some of those final details.

The kitchen is looking pretty good.

The front railing has been completed.

Even little details make a difference.

Meanwhile next door, the crew has gotten down to mudding. Charlotte is doing the bathroom.

There are only a few more hours to get done whatever we can.

We finished a few more details before the end of the day.

Andy finishes a spot on the siding while Jon and Dino finish up the kitchen cabinets.

Those louvered doors are finished with little help from me, and this one is now covering a completed closet.

I am not certain, but I think this is the same closet where the team posed for our end of the week picture in 2022. Most of us are back this year.

I think it is also the house from where JD demonstrated how his nail gun worked by firing a nail out the window and into the side of the house next door.

Anyway, here is our picture for this year.

I could tell you why my eyes are closed in this picture, but I don’t want to.

A tour of the clinic

All the social progress down here began when Sr. Anne Brooks, SNJM graduated from medical school and needed a place to practice. Since the government had paid her tuition, she was obligated to spend several years in an underserved community. That is a challenge for a newly minted doctor, but less so for a nun. She wound up in Tutwiler, which just happened to have a (non-functioning) clinic. She used to say, “They didn’t tell me they had a clinic and I didn’t tell them I was a nun.”

She arrived in 1983 and stayed until someone else finally took over the clinic. Cindy has provided us with a fair number of tours over the years, as well as endless stories. Last year she told us how the clinic started as one room and was used for adult literacy classes at night. The building expanded bit by bit and one day the 60 Minutes news crew came to town. After the story of the clinic appeared on 60 Minutes, donations flowed in.

Several other sisters followed Sr. Anne to town. Sr. Maureen took charge of the community center and began the Habitat for Humanity program that we now take part in. She stayed until she was elected as the head of her order. Sr. Anne worked for years constantly looking for someone willing to take over the clinic. It took over thirty years. Finally Tallahatchie County Hospital bought it out, took it over, and set it up as a non-profit entity, so still provides medical care to those who cannot afford it. They immediately started making improvements, like up to date computer systems. “For a nun, if it’s free and it works, why replace it?,” Cindy said.

Sr. Anne stayed long enough for someone to replace her, retired to her order’s retirement home in upstate New York, and immediately fell into severe mental decline. It was as if she had finished her task and could now let everything go.

Cindy seems to have endless energy, looks far younger than her years, and never runs out of stories.

Not far away, the town library remains closed. I have personally sent thousands of dollars of books and materials and many hours working there during our trips. But the books are still there, and it could reopen.

Today in his morning devotion, Mike quoted from Galatians 6: 9-10.

Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up.  So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, but especially to those who belong to the family of the faith.

So we continue on. We come down and do what we do. We accomplish something. It often seems that not much changes, some progress is reversed. There are plenty of unmet needs. But there is a new clinic in Tutwiler, fifty houses either built or soon to be finished, many of them that bear evidence of our efforts (and hopefully where are mistakes ae well concealed.) And we keep coming back.

Friday Dinner

This event has evolved over the years. It used to be held at the community center with any homeowners invited to attend. It often drew a fairly big crowd. In more recent years, it has been a simpler affair. This year it took place at the dorm with most of the food provided by Sheri. The new homeowner and a few family members and supporters attended.

Here is our small but content group after dinner.