The Trip Remembered

The things I learned while in New Orleans!!!
1 - Bandana's are a lifesaver, not only do you not have to worry about the state of your hair, but they also keep the sweat out of your eyes.
2 - Barney time is the best kinds of time; it last as long as you need it to. Example, if you ask someone to do a job for you and say it will only take 3 seconds, no matter how long the job takes when all is said and done it's only taken 3 seconds!
3- Despite "popular" belief there are wild crocks in the United State, though they were in fact "brought" in.
4 - People actually do jog/run in New Orleans; again despite "popular" belief.
5- When in doubt, drink Powerade!
6- If you need something to do at night to keep your sanity, a trip to K-Mart is always a good choice, though after about the 4th trip it's recommended to switch to Wal-Mart, which is just right up the street, though you won't figure that out until after your 4th trip to K-Mart!

It was a very fun, hard and rewarding trip. Here are all the picture's I've got, enjoy!

Friday Morning Part 6

Friday Morning Quite Time:
It's the last morning and I'm pretty much out of energy. We have street clean up again today, I hope I have the strength and energy to work hard today. I know I was disappointed in my efforts yesterday. We did street cleaning yesterday just till noon and than we had the rest of the day to do whatever. The 4 of us went on an airboat ride and than ate at Two Sisters.

The airboat adventure was so fun, we saw probably about 8 gators, and I got to hold a baby gator!! At one point a huge carp jumped in the boat and almost hit David, it was pretty wild. Apparently marshmallows are gator crack! After that we went to a place called Two Sisters where we had real down home cooking. I had smothered chicken, red beans and rice and cornbread, man it was good!

Me holding a baby gator, well he's probably about 2 or 3 years old!

This was MJ
Today is yet another adventure and the opportunity to serve the Lord and the people here.

"Motivation doesn't last, but neither does bathing, that's why we recommend it daily" - Zig Zigler

Friday Evening Journal:
"It's amazing what a group can accomplish when no one gets the credit"

I saw Jesus this week in all the people who have come here not knowing who they could help or where they could fit in. And now it's the end of the week and everyone's walking away feeling like they have found their place in this "family" and they feel that their efforts were well worth the trip.

The 4 of us at the end of a long week's work!! Me, Jim, Beverly, and David

Thursday Morning Part 5

Thursday Morning Quite Time:
It was very hard to get up this morning and I can tell I lost my morning peppyness today! I'm so glad for half day, I wish it was noon already, though this afternoon while we're out we won't be working hard so perhaps that will help me gather energy for tomorrow. I can't believe its' already Thursday, a week seems to fly when it's not a "normal" routine week!

Col 2: 6-10


Street Cleaning Crew!

Wednesday Evening Part 4

Wednesday Evening Journal:
Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking. - Rom 12:1-2 (from The Message Version)
If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, than it's wrong. - Rom 14 (from The Message Version)

Today was yet another adventure. We were assigned to stay on campus today to do "house keeping." The other lady traveling with us got sick after breakfast and ended up resting in our room all day. Jim had to leave early to go with the other group leaders to a cafe meeting, so that left David and I doing most of the cleaning.

Jim and David


We worked well together, as David said "it's nice to work with someone who works hard," we both pulled equal weight. We decided to work through lunch and get off early, so we finished up at about 1 and headed out to McDonald's for lunch. We had kitchen duty at 3 and made dinner, goulash, something neither Jim, David, or I wanted to eat!! After the devo the three of us headed out to Kmart (the second trip of the week!) for shoes for Jim. We ended up having Sonic for dinner, the whole evening was quite an adventure! So much fun! Now we're back for another hot and sticky night! Tomorrow we are assigned street cleaning, I'm not looking forward to that job, but we have a short day tomorrow so it won't be too bad. We're going on an airboat tomorrow afternoon, I'm hoping to get to hold a baby gator!

Tuesday Evening/Wednesday Morning Part 3

Tuesday Morning Quite Time:
It's the morning of day two and everyone's already moving slower than yesterday. I woke up 5 minutes later today and when I went in the bathroom no one was in there, what a difference a day makes! They said it's going to get up to about 105 today :/. I'm moving a little slower, but it could be because I can already feel that it's hotter out, and I'm still adjusting to the time difference. We are going back to the same house today, and I'm excited about that because I want to finish what I started!!


Phil 3-4

"The secret of success in this life is to realize that the crisis on our planet is much larger than just deciding what to do with your own life. The only work that will ultimately bring good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world." - Marianne Williams


Wednesday Morning Quite Time:
Yesterday we went back to the same house and continued painting, had to finnish all the cutting in (painting above the base boards and below the crown molding). It was hard and tedious work, but I made it through, though we still didn't finish. For lunch 5 ladies who run a mobile Loaves and Fishes came and provided lunch, it was so neat and fun, typical brown bag stuff! (It was a sandwich, chips, cookies, a piece of fruit, a hard boiled egg, and a bottle of water)
Last night after dinner we (our group) went down to New Orleans in the French Quarter and had Beignets at Cafe Du Monde, they were tasty and it was a fun powdered experience!



Jim, David, Me and Beverly at Cafe Du Monde
Then we walked the streets, saw the Mississippi up close, went to a few shops, down Bourbon St and then came back.

A view of the Street

The Mississippi

Bourbon St, not really a place you wanna be!
Each group did the prayer walk, which is 7 station that we went to, read some scriptures, talked and than prayed; it was an awesome thing to do, got me thinking about different aspects of my daily walk and how I serve the Lord. How do I show my love for God?

Start of the Week Part 2

Every morning after breakfast and our morning devo we were given about 40 minutes of quite time where we were encouraged to pray, read, and reflect with God. I think this was one of the most important things I got out of the week, because I know I don't spend enough time thinking about God, or talking to him in prayer. I really enjoyed this time and came to look forward to it. I hope that now that I'm home I'll continue to do this in the morning; before the day gets away from me. Most mornings during our quite time I would pray, do some reading out of the bible, and do some journaling. I also took the opportunity to write down a quick prayer, I figured it would help me when I look back at the experience to see what I was praying about.

Monday Morning Quite Time:
This morning consisted of getting up at 6am, and taking a pleasantly warm shower (the bathrooms were located inside the building by our rooms, but the showers were outside in two trailers, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I went for the first time.) though a bit of joy is taking out of showering when you have to do it with shoes on! Breakfast wast at 6:30, I got some good visiting in, the devo and personal time is 7:30-8:30. Then we'll be off to our site; today we are working on a new construction site, I'm very excited and ready to go. Right now I'm feeling pretty good and awake!

1 Cor 12:21-14:1; Phil 4:12-13, 2:3-4, 2:14-16; Phil 1 and 2

Monday Night Journal:
"The only solution is making the conclusion that it's just another lesson in life." - Big and Rich

As I spend time here, the topic of conversation turns, every now and again, to the what if's. Things that might have prevented what happened to have happened. But the reality is, it did happen. There's no point in wasting time pointing fingers, and no point pondering on the if's. It's time to just make it better.

Today I worked on a new house, sanded and painted pretty much all day. Me and the roller are pretty much bests now!!! I enjoyed doing it, though I don't think I've ever been so sweaty before in my life! (The AC in the house was broken and by the end of the day it was much hotter in the house than outside, and it was already way too hot outside!!!)

The house before we painted it!

New Orleans Part 1

*Click on the title of the blog to go to the Crossroads website*

I'm going to attempt to share my experiences and journal with you guys so you can know what I did and how I felt while I was working in New Orleans. I'm so glad I took the opportunity to go, I know it changed my life and I feel very satisfied with the work that I accomplished while I was there, even if it was a drop in the bucket. They say it will be about 20 years before they have New Orleans Back to normal. I'm going to break this up into a few blogs, because I know they will become very long, I've got a week's worth of experiences to try to share with you!!!

First off We flew out of Sac at 8:30 Sunday Morning, so I had to be up by 5 and to meet the my group at the building at 6:15, I pulled in right on time!! We got into New Orleans (NO) at about 4 in the afternoon. David who was on another flight picked us up because he's already gotten the car. We drove over to the place we were staying, checked in real quick and went over to Ihop for dinner, it was either that or McDonald's, they were the only two places open, despite the fact that there were tuns of restaurants and shops around, nothing has been opened back up. We had our evening Devo and checkin at 8, and we kind of got a rundown of the week. The walls everywhere aren't finished, so people have taken to writing fun things on them, and in our room the schedule was written up on the wall for us!!!


Sunday Night Journal:
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." - Mother Teresa

I'm so excited to be here, just a few hours in and I feel like the experience is already affecting me. From bonding with the people I came with, to realizing where I am, and the things in the week to come; it's all so new and exciting. I know it's going to be a long, hot, sticky, hard week, but I also know it will be something to remember forever, and something to change my way of life, leading me in the direction I want to go. I already encountered my first roach on the way out of the bathroom tonight, he was about an inch, inch and a half long!!!
It's 10:30 and we have to be in our rooms, lights out at 11, but despite the fact that I got up at 5, I'm not tired, perhaps because it's only 8:30 at home! The place we are staying will be an experience to say the least, I'm on a cot at the moment. There's probably tuns I could write about, but I'm still getting situated, though I know I'll have plenty to report on tomorrow.

Headed Out

Thought I'd post this little note to say I'm on my way to New Orleans in the morning to spend a week working hard to make it a better place. I'm totally excited that I have this opportunity to go and help complete strangers get their lives back on track!! Please keep me and the work that is being done there in your prayers.

This is a picture that was taken by a friend of mine who went on the last trip.