Wednesday, December 31st

Homeowner George, daughter Geovanna and Mindy.

Working on windows at George's house.

Sue cutting drywall.

Boss man Tom ciphering again.

Audra trimming out a doorway at George's house.

Cindy & Lori buying the groceries for the day. Shopping takes place everyday as there isn't much storage space for more than a day's worth of food.

The roof is finished! Sam, Kevin, Tim & Bradley

The moral of this picture is

-- don't get in the way of Tim when he is making a sandwich. Plastic knives aren't as safe as they seem to be.

Tuesday, January 30th

Tonight's a quiet, relaxing night back here at the ranch. A few people went to the laundromat to wash the fiberglass out of their clothes. Others went to Lowe's to buy a screen door for the porch here at the church. And a couple of others went after a computer I left at the other church.

Here are a few pictures from our day today.

Our drywall crew.

Everett slapping drywall

Nathan, Rachel & "all sorts of angry" Jake



Rockin'

John & Bill "looking busy"


I think we're working John too hard!

We caught the team at the other house having lunch and enjoying the great weather outside. Mid sixties and beautiful blue sunny skies today. Just a tad warmer than back home.

Monday, December 29th

Brad & Kevin on the roof at St. Luke's Church. Isn't this where every mother wants to see her son? 2-1/2 stories in the air? They had safety harnesses on Mom really they did!

Tim running ground crew with his feet firmly planted on the ground. He got real good at ducking from the falling debris by the end of the day.

Sunday, Dec 28th

We attended an awesome church service at St Luke's church this morning, had lunch with the congregation after church and looked at projects.

These are two of the houses we will be working on this week.

This house needs alot of finish work, such as installing kitchen cabinets, flooring and trimwork.




This one is gutted and cleaned, wired, plumbed and partially insulated so a group will start "rockin" drywall tomorrow.


We come down here for construction projects but the time spent with the homeowners and their families is worth way than the project itself.









We also managed to fit in a little sightseeing for the team. We drove down scenic St Charles Avenue and looked at all the beautiful old homes.
After which we attempted to drive to the French Quarter but missed a turn. The moral of the story is...don't get anywhere near the Superdome on a Saints game day!

We did make it to the Quarter late this afternoon for supper and a walkabout.
This is the Holocaust Memorial along the riverwalk.


Time to get some sleep as tomorrow morning we hit the ground running.

I apologize if some of this is not lined up quite right. Blogger is not cooperating! Argh!

We're here!

We woke up to freezing rain Friday morning, loaded and took off by 7:15 am. We drove out of the ice completely after the first 80 miles and just had wet roads. We spent Friday night in Hernando, MS at the Hernando United Methodist Church. What a great stay! The accommodations were deluxe and the food phenomenal.

A little road weary,

we arrived here to New Orleans about 4pm yesterday to a beautiful sunset over Lake Pontchartrain.

We settled in and are up and ready to go have breakfast, church and a day of orientation, and checking out the downtown area. Have a great Sunday!

PRAYER REQUEST

Please pray for good traveling weather this Friday & Saturday, December 26 & 27th. The forecast sounds like it could be nasty. We are praying for no precipitation or only rain and no more ice or snow as is forecasted.

1 week 2 go!

One week from Saturday we will be arriving sunny and warm(hopefully) New Orleans! After hearing our forecast here in Northern Illinois for the next few days. A warmer, less snowy climate will be very welcome for us.

Please pray for good weather & safe travel for our team as our van and truck caravan heads south on December 26th & 27th. Traveling in the winter can be somewhat adventurous to say the least. We are praying for dry roads and no breakdowns between here and Louisiana!

Check back after the 27th for updates on what our teams are up to.

December 2008/January 2009

Our team meeting is coming up in a week and we are excited about the people God put together to serve in New Orleans, Louisiana. We have skilled and unskilled people and God will use everyone in a way that brings joy to Him. We don't know our specific projects yet. We usually get the breakdown about one week prior to leaving.
There are so many houses yet to be rebuilt and finished. A person would think 3+ years after Hurricane Katrina that everything would be back to business as usual but it still is not. There is much work left to do.

This blog will serve as a communication tool with family, friends and fellow "Crossroadians" who are interested in what's going on while we are in New Orleans. We hope you find this fun and informative. With the help of fellow team members, we'll attempt to post daily entries providing we have good Internet connections.