BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Like many pastors, Joey Gilbert felt called to serve.

The thing is, Gilbert doesn't live in Bay St. Louis or Waveland, Miss. He doesn't even live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, or anywhere in Mississippi or nearby Louisiana.

About three weekends each month, Gilbert drives from Carnesville, Ga., to Bayside Baptist Church — a 1,000-mile round-trip journey. That's in addition to doing his weekday job as a land surveyor for a company called Landtech.

Yet Gilbert, often joined by wife, Julie, who is a teacher, and friends Joyce and Kim Reed, sees it as a regular mission trip to people who captured his heart after Hurricane Katrina.

Like much of Hancock County, the Bayside community was hit hard by the storm. Katrina cottages dot the streets. Several struggling families now call the development area home, with a few original residents.

One of those original residents is Suzy Medrano, a retired nurse who has made her daughter's empty house available to the Gilberts and the Reeds as a sort of free bed-and-breakfast. It's her donation to the cause. "That's OK," she said. "The Lord has delivered me through many things."

Another is Vicky Wesner, who has been a member of the church "33 or 34 years." "I love this church," she said. "If I have trouble in my mind, I might just sit in the parking lot, and my anxiety is relieved."

She's seen 13 pastors serve at Bayside.

Gilbert first came to the neighborhood a few years ago when he and other volunteers arrived to help after Katrina. "Last June, the pastor called and said he was leaving the church in the hands of another gentleman," Gilbert said. When they returned a few weeks later, he was amazed to find that attendance had dropped dramatically — to as few as three adults.

"They asked if I could help them," said Gilbert, 46.

What had been an annual trip became an almost-weekly trip. The Gilberts and the Reeds absorb most of the travel expenses themselves.

How does Gilbert do it? "With the Lord's help, and a lot of prayer, and a lot of determination," he said, then added, "If you came on a Sunday, and met the members and the kids, you'd understand."