Prayer Request

Codey’s back went out on him on the way down to New Orleans.  He was able to work the first couple of days but is on light duty now and in a considerable amount of pain.  Please pray for him and relief from the pain.

Also, a few of the team have had a nasty stomach bug of some kind.  Please pray that the “bug” flies away and no one else is affected by it. 

Thanks so much for supporting us in prayer.

More random pictures

Rainy Day in New Orleans

We’ve had rain all day here today which means projects had to be adjusted. 

 

Interior work continued in the trailers and Brian’s house

A house was gutted and a pantry started at Pastor’s house.

Heading south

We’re backtracking a few days and sharing pictures of our trek to New Orleans.

Two trucks, two vans and a trailer

 

Packed in vehicles

 

Playing around at Hernando United Methodist Church in Mississippi where we spent the night.

 

Codey being punished for not eating his supper.

 

Part of the team segment that decided to drive the 1000 mile trip straight through.  Left at 5am Saturday morning, arriving New Orleans 10pm.

Power out :(

As we were finishing up supper tonight at St Luke’s we received information that the power was out at the church we stay at.  Groan!

A couple of years back we had this same issue but at that time, the sewer was backed up as well (remember that night 2007 team?) so tonight was a walk in the park.  The power is now back on.  At least the outage was brief.

Projects progressed nicely today. 

Two new windows are in at Brian’s, the backyard pile is picked up, the house is completely cleaned out and should be ready for sheetrock and more windows tomorrow.

A retaining wall was built at a site in Chalmette. 

Half of the windows at St Luke’s have been painted and the others ones are caulked and primed to hopefully paint tomorrow, weather permitting.  The entry doors have been refinished and the lettering re-painted above them.

The trailers at the East church have been completely cleaned inside and out. 

The roof at the East church has been patched and tarred by Bill & Kerry.

Past homeowner relationships were renewed.

And more groceries purchased…

First day

Our first work day was cold this morning. 

40 degrees at 7 am and in the 50’s the rest of the day, which isn’t really cold by Northern Illinois standards but cold for New Orleans.

We had team members scattered between three worksites today.

We worked at Brian Berteaux’s home.  Lots of clean-up was needed including under the house itself.  Once all the cleanup is finished, drywall will be started.

Nikki spelunking under the house.

Windows were caulked and painted at St Luke’s church.

Dave working on windows.

Paul working on the entry doors.

FEMA trailers were cleaned and repaired at the East church(where we stay) so they can also house teams in the future.

Wava scrubbing floors.

Kerry, Bill & Everett planning their attack.

…and help is always needed on the cooking front.  We are not only cooking for our team this week but also a team of 15 from Indiana.

Camri making an awesome chocolate dessert for everyone.

Mondays tend to be pretty chaotic until everyone is placed at a job but the comment was made that today was one of the most smooth productive first days we’ve ever had.  All the glory goes to God who put this team together.  What an incredible group of servants we have along and a whole lotta fun to boot!

 

 

Safe & Sound

Two groups of our team have arrived in New Orleans safe and sound. The first six of us mid-afternoon yesterday and another five at 10pm last night. The other two car loads will be here today. They made it through the ice and snow in Illinois but stayed in northern Mississippi last night.

The temps are a little cooler than we’ve experienced in the past; 50’s during the day and 30’s at night. We’re happy as at least there’s no white stuff on the ground.

Last night we had supper at the Parkway Bakery and breakfast this morning is at the Panola Café, then off to church. Honestly, we do other things than eat!

We’re anxious for our other team members to arrive this afternoon and get started on our projects in the morning.

Four days and counting...

The first members of our group leave for New Orleans in four days!

We're so pumped about this trip!

For some of us, it seems like the devil has been working overtime with his jabs so we just know it's going to be a wonderful trip or why else would he even bother, right?

We'll start regularly posting on Monday, December 28th so please stop back and follow along.

NEW TRIP IN THE WORKS!

Plans are coming together for two more trips back to back to New Orleans, Louisiana from December 26, 2009 - January 10th, 2010.

We've once again been blessed with many willing servants. We're really excited about the team that God has put together. See their names on the side bar. Keep checking back for updates as we prepare for the trip.

A huge THANK YOU to all!

We want to send along a huge THANK YOU to all who supported this team in any way prayerfully, financially and by holding down the fort at home.

We had two wonderful weeks ministering with and to the people of New Orleans. There is so much yet to be done in this city physically & spiritually.
Please partner with us in prayer for the people of New Orleans and the city itself.

If you would like more information about our time in New Orleans, feel free to ask any of us. We would love to talk with you about it.

Heading home

We left a warm, muggy New Orleans morning for home about 8am Saturday.

Jan, Lori & Liz

We ran into a few rain showers and realized the drastic temperature change when we got out to stretch our legs at Lake Enid in Northern Mississippi.
The temperature had dropped about 30 degrees from when we left New Orleans which sent us all scrambling for our coats.


We stayed at the Drury Inn at Sikeston, Missouri Saturday night. This was our 5th stay at this hotel. Let me say, these folks know how to do customer service right! They always provide us a meeting room and even moved up the breakfast time to accomodate us so we could get on the road heading home a little earlier.



And of course, no trip to Sikeston, Missouri is complete without dinner at Lamberts, home of the throwed rolls.

Now that's a chunk of ham!

If you leave Lamberts hungry it's no one's fault but your own!

We safely arrived home at 4pm Sunday afternoon.

Some of us were in huge denial of the snow and temperature, weren't we Everett?



This was a wonderful 2 weeks with great projects and people. If you would like to hear more about this trip, we will be having a presentation at the Wednesday evening service at Crossroads Freeport campus on February 18th at 6:30.

Thanks for following along with us.

Friday, January 9th

A glimpse at a few of the Friday's projects...

Christy & Liz gardening at St Luke's church

Joe & Merlyn laying carpet and tile in George's home.

Spraying texture on the ceiling and walls at Dale's house. (from left, Ron, Everett, Joe, Sue, Floyd & Dale)

Rick cutting off a stump


Dan, Rick & Susanne enjoying a newly organized tool shed.

New curtains for Fellowship Hall at St Luke's designed and sewn by Linda

Dana creating a new much needed ladder storage rack for the side of the tool shed.

Painting Pastor Teresa's house.

Floyd, Sandy, Jennifer, Kevin & Steve

Josh & Rod priming the storm shutters

Rod(above right) & Darrell (below) are two men who have joined us the last three years from the First Congregational Church in Reidsville, North Carolina. Mark Tolodziecki who used to pastor in Seward, IL but now is pastor at the church in North Carolina was the connecting factor in getting to know these two gentlemen. A trip to New Orleans wouldn't be complete without their servant hearts, talents and great senses of humor.

And last but certainly not least, the ever elusive Darrell. When Darrell wasn't working on a project he was running after supplies for someone else. He was an extremely hard guy to catch up to.