New Orleans Mission Trip

The New Orleans Mission Team-consisting of Barb and Tom Steele, Vela Ryle, Alyce Golowash, Debbie Peterson, Patsy Carlton, and Mac McIntyre-has made it. We actually made it last night at about 6 PM but we couldn't find the blog password information. So for the past two days, this is what we have done: We left the Marietta 1st Presbyterian Church at about 10:30 AM on Sunday 11/19/06. We made a few rest stops along the way for gas, food, and beef jerky. We ate about 3 meals each the entire day-with Mac eating 5-so we were all full. We got to the New Orleans 1st Presbyterian Church at about 7:30 New Orleans time and we met up with a pastor from Cleveland, Ohio named Dean Myers. After getting to the church, we unloaded ALL of the contents of the truck and the van and we left to get something to eat again. We went to the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood restaurant and it was very good,(even though they were out of baked potatoes and BBQ shrimp.) After stuffing ourselves once again, we went back to the church to blow up the air mattresses. Seeing how some of us needed new air mattresses, we used the pre-blown up ones from the church instead. Everyone was quiet at about 11:30.

Today-Monday-we woke up at 6:30 AM and met up with Joel La Croix-a missionary here from Canada to help with us. After breakfast and a very good devotional by Debbie, we all climbed into the van and left for our first task-the Joseph home. We loved Mrs. Estelle Joseph and her daughter Liz and Liz's husband, Ceasar. Patsy, Mac, Debbie, and Vela went to Home Depot and Walgreens to get screwdrivers, pansies, and sweaters(because of the cold)while Tom, Joel, Alyce, and Barb put in new doors to the house. Afterwards, Mac, Patsy, and Vela all did yard work while the others worked on putting in doors, caulking, and painting. It was very rewarding to do this for this family, and we will continue it tomorrow. After the house was done for the day, we went to see Lake Ponchatrain and went back to the church to eat Jambalya with Cliff Nunn-the pastor of the church-and his wife, Nieta Nunn. It was a delicious and filling meal, especially after trying so hard to get the stove to work. There will be more of God's work tomorrow.