First Presbyterian Short Term Mission Blog

Day Seven - Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2010-04-29T23:52:00.021-04:00

We are done. What a fantastic week God provided for us! Thirteen guys who worked as a team and had fun at the same time. Helpful homeowners who really worked hard to prepare their lots and make our job easier. Very moderate weather that was very cool for this time of year. Our prayer is that in all we did we glorified God and showed his love to these families and this community. Once again the blog author is too tired to write a long description, but these pictures should give a good idea of our last day. We worked at the Casa Samuel project and just about finished putting on the siding. We are confident that their volunteers finished that by the end of the day. Then we visited each site and took pictures with the family (one family was not there). Check out the smiles on the faces of the families.

We finished the day with a visit to the Grutas de Garcia (caves of Garcia) which is an amazing cave about 12 kilometers from Renacimiento.

We fly home tomorrow morning with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

Buenas Noches from Monterrey.

Day 5 and Day 6 - Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2010-04-29T01:31:00.002-04:00

The last two days have been very busy so no blog post yesterday.

Our usual routine is to get up about 5:30am, eat breakfast outside Rem's room on the second floor balcony and be on the road by 6:45 am. It takes about an hour to get to Renacimiento, so we usually get to the job site about 8am and have our morning devotion. The weather this week has been fantastic for our work. Tuesday was overcast with a cool breeze most of the day and Wednesday started out with a light drizzle and slowly cleared as the day went on. Most years it is much hotter than this year and obviously the weather makes a huge difference in our productivity and our good humor.

On Tuesday, we poured the slabs one at a time. The concrete trucks came at about 45 minute intervals which gave us time to work without feeling rushed. Pulling concrete with a come-along is tiring work,so we took turns working in the concrete. Here are some pictures of the pour process.

On Wednesday we laid the first row of blocks with openings for the doors where the homeowners indicated. Getting the first row of blocks 'square' takes some skill, but we have some very experienced guys, so once we got going it went well. Still it takes a while to do seven slabs so we didn't finish till about 4 pm.

Tomorrow we will be at Casa Samuel to work on their food distribution hut. We will post some pictures of the completed slabs and families tomorrow night.

We are all well and happy that the work went so well. The old timers are unanimous in their opinion that these are the best slabs we have ever poured. Tonight we ate at a resturant owned by Marcos' and Jorge's nephew. Very good Italian food and a lot of laughs made for a very pleasant and enjoyable meal.

Buenas Noches from Monterrey

Day Four - Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2010-04-27T00:10:00.015-04:00

The blog author is pretty tired, so instead of a lot of words, here are some pictures of the day. It was a long day at the job site( 8am to almost 6pm), but it was ultimately very successful. Actually a pretty comfortable weather day and everyone held up well. Tomorrow we pour concrete and if things go well, we may start on our project at Casa Samuel.

Morning Devotion John Chapter 15

Rookie Initiation

Getting Started

Construction Boss

Unexpected Demolition Project

Up On The Roof

Tailgater

Very Interested Observers

Erroll Starts His Own Soccer Camp

Almost Done

Buenas Noches from Monterrey

Day Three - Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2010-04-26T00:26:00.007-04:00

Sunday is our day of worship,rest and preparation. We all attended church today at Camino, Verdad y Vida Presbyterian Church.

As is always the case, we were warmly welcomed and greeted by the congregation. Their service lasts about two hours and today we sang about twelve hymns and it was very much like our 4th service at FPC. Pedro Diaz, Marcos' and Jorge's dad preached today. He is 87 or 88 and very sharp. He lost his eyesight about three years ago, but that hasn't seemed to slow him down. His sermon was based on The Great Commission (Matthew 28: 16-20) and although we didn't understand his words, we understood his message.

After church, off to Chili's for lunch. After lunch, one crew went to the grocery store to buy breakfast and lunch foods and lots of drinks and another crew made a Lowes/Home Depot run for last minute tool purchases. You would think we were in the U.S. rather than Mexico.

Domino's pizza in the parking lot and a short meeting about tomorrow's schedule completed the day.

In the morning we plan to be on the road to the job site at 6:45 am to avoid the traffic and get an early start to beat the heat as much as possible. Tomorrow's task are to construct the forms for the slabs and hopefully start enclosing the food service hut for Casa Samuel. We hope that all the homeowners got their preparation work finished!

The guys on our team this year are Reagan Dean, Duncan McNeel, Phil Brand, Rem Bennett, Allen Hirons, Matthew Simonian, Alex Bretch, Gene Patterson, Erroll Eckford, Tony Harris, Mark Thompson, Howard Swinford and Brian Wright. Your prayers for us are greatly appreciated.

Buenas Noches from Monterrey.

Day Two - Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2010-04-25T01:18:00.003-04:00

Day two started early for Howard and Brian (well, early by our standards).

Our first task was to retrieve our tools from the storage compartment under the front steps at Camino, Verdad y Vida Church (The Way, The Truth, and The Life). Both our tools and the tools that the Senior Highs use are stored in this space and it is full and pretty akward to get into! We decided to pull out everything and do an inventory of all the tools. This turned into about a three hour project with lots of dirt and dust. It is a mundane but very necessary task. We verified that all the power tools were functional and then made an equal distribution of tools back into the storage boxes. Here are some pictures of the 'cave' and the tools being sorted.

Then we loaded Pepe (our truck) with all the tools we will need this week.

While we were working, we were listening to the radio in the truck and managed to run down the battery. Fortunately, Marcos' sister Lali was home and graciously gave us a jump start from her car. After a delicious Big Mac lunch from McDonalds we made our daily trip to Renacimiento. Our framing lumber was being delivered just as we got there,so were able to get it and our tools stored in Casa Samuel's building and locked up. This is a young man from the community that helped us load the lumber into the building for safe storage. We were very grateful for the help!

Our next task was to select a family to replace the family that had moved away. Pastor Eva from Casa Samuel gave Marcos a list of seven or eight families that were eligible and identified which families had the greatest need. We visited the first family's home, but no one was home. Fortunately,the second family was home and eagerly agreed to let us build a house for them. Of course they only have about a day to clear the site and move the bano (bathroom), but they agreed they could get it done. This is a picture of Beatrice.

After a quick shopping trip to Walmart to buy a coffee maker (an extremely important piece of equipment!), we were off to the airport to pickup the rest of the team. The severe thunderstorms in Atlanta delayed their takeoff for about an hour and a half, but they arrived safely and in good spirits. Thankfully, we can all sleep in a little tomorrow before heading off to church.

Buenas Noches from Monterrey!

Day One - Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2010-04-24T00:48:00.011-04:00

After breakfast, we drove out to Renacimiento to meet with Marcos and visit each of our building sites. Most of the families understandably wait until the last minute to tear down any structures that are where we need to pour the slab. Sometimes it is their living quarters and sometimes their outhouse. So, it is important that we go out to assess their progress and make sure the build site will be clear and ready for us on Monday morning.

For the first time in our memory, one of the families has moved away since our last trip in February when we confirmed that they would be receiving a house. We don't know the situation, but their neighbors said they moved quite a distance away. We are now faced with the dilemma of choosing a replacement family. With the help of the ladies of Casa Samuel and prayer, we are confident we will be directed to the family with the most need. The selected family will only have Saturday and Sunday to prepare their lot, but where there is a will there is a way. Here are pictures of the other families we will be building for.

This year we are undertaking an extra project above and beyond just pouring the slabs. Casa Samuel is building a new food distribution hut next to their main building (for which FPC helped provide funding). Last year we placed time capsules in the foundation of the main building in loving memory of Dan McIntosh and Jerry Silvers. Both of them made numerous trips to Mexico in service to others and we miss them very much. Our project this year is to put siding and two serving windows on the structure which has been built. Here is a photo of community families waiting for food distribution in this hut.

Our next stop was the lumber yard to order framing lumber for the slab forms.This is the same company we used last year because they provided good lumber and good service. Very much a mom and pop sort of place.

Our last stop was the concrete company to order and pay for 7 loads of concrete in cash. That is a lot of pesos. Of course, none of these places are close to one another so we did a good bit of driving which is always exciting in Monterrey. Successful driving in Mexico requires assertiveness that takes some readjustment in driving style. Thankfully, we made it through unscathed.

Tomorrow, we will go to pick up our tools from the storage bin at the church. This is the Presbyterian church that has been our our partner in this mission work for over twenty years. Marcos and Jorge worship there and their father Pedro was pastor there for many years. After we assess the tool situation, we will probably make a trip to Home Depot for any replacement tools we may need. Then we will drive out to Renacimiento to store the tools at Casa Samuel and make the selection for family to receive the seventh home. Hopefully our framing lumber will also be delivered while we are there.

The final task of the day will be to get our rental 15 passenger van and go to the airport to pickup the rest of our team on Saturday night.

We ask for your continued prayers that in everything we do we will glorify God.

Buenas Noches from Monterrey

Mexico Mission 2010

2010-04-23T10:01:00.003-04:00

The advance team (Howard and Brian) of this year's Mens Mexico Mission has arrived in Monterrey and is staying at the luxurious Hotel 88 Inn. For those of you not familiar with this mission effort, the men of the church pour the slabs for the houses (seven this year) that will be built by the Senior High Youth in June. We have thirteen guys on our team, most of whom will be arriving on Saturday.

Our plan for today is to go to Renacimiento and to go to each of the seven house sites to make sure that the homeowners have completed the necessary cleanup so that we may start work on Monday morning. Then we are going to the lumber yard to order the lumber we need to build the forms for the slabs and for the extra project we are doing for Casa Samuel. Our final stop for the day is the concrete company to order and pay for the seven or so loads of concrete we need.

It is time for our morning siesta, so check back later for more updates and pictures. (Depending on our internet connection, which is sometimes iffy)

Why Cherokee Retreat Center?

2009-04-12T14:04:00.005-04:00

It occurs to me, as I finish these blogs, that some of you may be wondering: why, when there is so much need in the world, are they focusing on making our own PCUSA retreat center nicer? Why aren't those people out clothing the naked or feeding the hungry? (Go ahead: admit it!)

So I thought I'd take a few minutes to brief you on recent events at Cherokee Retreat Center (CRC).

This facility was - and still is - designed to provide both a summer camp experience and a retreat for all members of the Cherokee Presbytery (which includes FPC and about 39 other churches). In addition, it's also there for those outside the Presbytery who are seeking a faith-based Christian camp or retreat experience. Currently, CRC provides summer camp for over 500 children aged 2nd grade through college. It also currently serves as a facility for several small and large groups. This summer CRC will provide a day camp for families who need childcare during the summer months.

In the past, the government of our church has financially supported CRC with over $100,000 as part of the Presbytery's annual budget. The camp has been responsible for the remaining 80% of it's own operating budget and has annually met that responsibility. This year (2009), the Presbytery has had to cut it's financial support of CRC by almost 70% and is only able to provide $50K to the center leaving more than a $50K gap in income.

Obviously, CRC will not be able to continue in operation, until that gap is closed. In order to close that gap, they must increase revenue. In order to increase revenue, they must be more competitive in the camp and facility rental business. In order to be more competitive, their site, buildings, programs and activities must be improved.

After nearly 50 years of barely scraping by - with little or no support for it's staff of TWO - CRC has to get themselves operating without our Presbytery's long-term financial support.

The folks at CRC say it best: CRC’s unique purpose is to provide an environment where people of all ages can retreat from the secular world, grow in authentic Christian faith, be transformed by the Spirit and return to transform the world of their daily lives."

In essence, without places like CRC, there might not be Mexico Missions - because CRC is where those who lead the Mexico Mission go to take refuge, to dream, to strengthen themselves to lead.

Without CRC, there could be kids who NEVER get to go to camp. Because of the support of our Presbytery, Camp Cherokee (a division of CRC) has been able to keep its camp costs to nearly 1/3 of the price of most sleep away camps.

Without places like CRC, there might not be youth who grow up to travel to Russia - because without a Christian camping experience, they might never have learned that they could bond with strangers over a common cause.

Without places like CRC, would there be a place that families could commit to mission work together? Where kids, as young as 6 can learn how to contribute and how to serve.

Maybe the question, instead of "why Cherokee Retreat Center," might be "why NOT Cherokee Retreat Center?"

Read the posts below to learn more about our most recent mission week at CRC.

Posted by Becky Jordan

God's Great Surprises (Monday)

2009-04-12T07:00:00.003-04:00

I knew it might not be the best of starts when I arrived at Camp Cherokee already close to "really, really tired." It had been quite a long week involving big projects at work and at home and, to be honest, I was wishing that our Suburban were headed for Disney World or the Grand Canyon.

It's never been my nature to be excited about work. Spa days? Absolutely! Ladies Night Out? Uh-huh. Movie Night with my family in my pjs? I am ALL ABOUT IT. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't get all that excited about work.

Our God knows this about me. The beautiful thing is that HE changes my ho-hum-it-sounded-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time attitude as soon as we arrive! Suddenly, as we round the corner of camp, dipping into another pot hole and spot the crew that's been expecting us, my spirit is lifted. And no matter how many times I've done this "mission thing," I am still surprised by the way that the Holy Spirit prepares my heart.

Last night, I was tucking two of our little ones into bed. As usual, I helped them with their nighttime routines - including nighttime prayers. As an afterthought, I offered to pray with two others who eagerly accepted the invitation to praise God for our first day. Quietly. Just the two of us. As I closed their bedroom door, one of those precious children jumped out of bed, hugged my neck, wept tears of appreciation and said: "no one's ever prayed with us before." And I am surprised by the Holy Spirit. Again.

I have discovered that this is the beauty of mission work, for me. In a world that is so predictable... work, soccer, homework, work, laundry, pets, mail, work, cutting grass, work... there are few surprises anymore.

But not this week. Not at Cherokee Retreat Center. Not with snow on the way. Or the amazing Joe Garrett, roofer, who's here to help. The expert carpenter father/son - Max and Jeff Vanderlip - team who have decided to take on every transition/threshold issue in the lodge! Or three teenagers (Jessica Gamble, Gino Arocena, Andrew from Heritage) who are learning how to lay ceramic tile, as I write. Or the fantastic team of Lily-Kate and Kelly - 10 and 13 year olds - who have literally scrubbed every piece of trim in Parker until it looks like it's all been freshly painted! Or even six year old James MacPherson who surprises me constantly with his passion (and precision) for paint. Or Richard "Rooster" Hunter who is now on his eighth hour of pressure washing even as the temperature drops steadily.

We are out here with our palm branches, FPC. We hope you will join us this week. You won't want to miss (I know I don't) what awesome surprises God has in store for tomorrow!

Posted by Becky Jordan

Soul Train (Tuesday)

2009-04-11T11:52:00.003-04:00

Today we had some new folks show up for their day of work and nearly all of them asked me the same question: "did y'all get a lot done yesterday?"

I had to pause and ask myself... did we? It seemed that we were a bit, shall I say, sluggish. Slow moving. Compared to our list of projects, my honest answer really was: "no, I don't think we got very much done yesterday."

Working on a mission trip is comparable to driving a steam train. If I took all these folks and turned them into train cars, I'd have to shovel in a lot of coal to get the fire started. And then someone would have to come along beside me, take that throttle by both hands, push it forward with some serious effort and eventually, our train cars might lurch forward. Once. Or twice. Or four times. Until our momentum began to move our wheels forward.

Even after we got ourselves going at a decent pace - because we are sooooooo long, and hauling sooooo much weight - it could take a full day before we were able to look backward and see some good distance travelled. It might take a few days before we could say, "hey! we've gone over 100 miles!"

On the up side, have you ever seen a "full steam ahead" steam train? They FLY! Their wheels click and clack with a fast rhythm that sounds like the beat of a great song. The wind blowing around those train cars whip the surrounding leaves about in a near frenzy. If you happen to be standing along side of the tracks, that same wind can take your breath away and ignite a sense of adventure in your soul. (I happen to think long haul trains running at full speed are really cool.)

Mission work at Cherokee Retreat Center is heading toward that click/clack rhythm. The leaves about our "soul train" are starting to rustle and we're just now getting into our groove. I can tell that our hearts are stirring toward a common objective and our group is bonding. Slowly, we are beginning to see the distance we have travelled in our ever shrinking list of things to do.

I think God promises us those same mission/soul train perks. Sometimes it's hard to get our selves motivated to do what's right. Or moving in a direction that feels like we're connected - as a people with a purpose. Or going far enough along the journey that we can see where we've been as compared to where we are today.

But isn't it exciting when our spirits, our souls, our minds and our bodies really get going? Find a mission train and hop on! It's quite a ride!!!

Posted by Becky Jordan

Action Jesus (Wednesday)

2009-04-09T05:00:00.003-04:00

This morning I did our devotional. I was following Judie Ebert's AWESOME Easter egg devotional so I must say, I was a little intimidated.

I told our group that I had discovered two very important things late last night: 1) that my midnight hour study skills were not quite what they used to be and 2) that the words "Jesus went" or "He went" were repeated over 99 times in the New Testament Gospels ALONE. The significance being that even though Jesus travelled a mere 30 or so miles from his home, he was not a "home body." He did not sit around on the sofa waiting for someone to say: "Yo, Jesus. Could you think about going with me?" Nope! He lept up off that proverbial sofa and led the way.

Several years ago, when I was ordained as a Deacon at FPC, my sweet friend Beth Crary gave me an action figure Jesus. And while it may seem a bit disrespectful, to me it only represented the idea that our Savior was a Man of Action. He went... and went... and went some more. And ultimately, over his 33 year life, he ended up travelling (according to some scholars) well over 25,000 miles.

I brought Action Jesus with me to CRC. And I shared him with our crew. Ultimately, we are all called to be Action figures for Jesus. I am so proud of those who are here being just that.

Posted by Becky Jordan

A Long Day's Journey Into Night (Thursday)

2009-04-08T04:00:00.006-04:00

Today was a great day despite the growing exhustion of our group. Tonight our eyes got a little bigger than our hands, so to speak, and we took on a few more projects than were originally schedued.

Isn't that so human? Instead of pausing, instead of taking a step back to reflect, we saw ourselves as running ahead of schedule and decided: hey! we can tear out (not one, but) two bathrooms, tile them, drywall them, purchase and put together new cabinetry, install sinks AND add trim in - oh, little less than 1/2 day! (What were we thinking?!)

When it was time to stop for dinner, I confess: I did not want to disuade any of our workers. I mean, after all, our "train" has hit full stride. There's no reason to stop? Do you know how long it might take us to get going again?

But then I entered the dining room and saw the banquet set before us.

Carol McBride had taken some of her afternoon to prepare a Seder Meal. For 25 people. Complete with all the necessary dishes, responsive readings, "wine," etc. Suddenly, I realized it was Maundy Thursday - an evening that our Lord spent with his friends.

For the next hour, I watched while the children poured "wine" for one another, while they helped wash each others' hands (instead of feet), while we all tried "bitter herbs" and horseradish, while we chuckled at the silly side comments, while we passed around our special colored eggs. Did it matter that the trim wasn't getting painted?

Aren't we humans funny. We get so busy DOING that we fail to PAUSE. I know I am guilty of this sin on a weekly basis.

Thanks to Carol, we paused for a few hours tonight.

Then

we got back to work...

and some of us never went to bed.

Posted by Becky Jordan

Thursday Post Update

2009-04-08T00:25:00.003-04:00

I confess: I panicked last night. I lost faith. I got worried.

I sent an email to everyone I could think of to say: HELP! We need you. I posted a message on Facebook. I asked FPC to send an email to the congregation. Literally probably 500 folks could have received my desperate plea. I was afraid that we were going to be leaving our sweet friends at Camp Cherokee in worse shape than when we arrived. I was afraid we wouldn't get it ALL done.

But that was before Joe Garrett arrived. And Richard Hunter started putting together cabinetry. And Gracie McBride started making labels. And Kathleen McBride delivered toilet paper. And Jessica Gamble decided to finish the tile. And Joe Jordan, John Nunez, Anna Gamble and Sidney Hunter put all the picnic tables back in place.

That was before I got the email at 2:15am that said: the bathrooms are DONE.

That was before Good Friday.

It's All Good (Friday)

2009-04-07T13:21:00.004-04:00

We woke this morning to more impending rain.

And our smallest crew of the week

After my desperate email to the "outside world," I wondered whether there might be a bus of folks arriving to help. I hurriedly dressed, brushed my teeth and stepped lightly to the Lodge worrying not about how the list would get accomplished (I was so sure the Calvary was on it's way), but more about how to open the morning devotional.

I thought about the fact that it was Good Friday and what that meant to us, as Christians. That Jesus died on the cross; that he died to who He was - as a human - in order to save those He loved - us. I thought about what it meant to die to who WE are. And posed that question to the group.

"How did YOU die to who YOU are and/or what YOU wanted this week? How did YOU die to serve someone else?"

Anna said: "I really wanted to go somewhere fun for Spring Break. But I came here instead."

Joe said: "I really, really didn't want to move the picnic tables at 10:00pm last night. But we did it together."

Carol said: "I really wanted to be a the lake yesterday afternoon during our free time. I've never seen the lake from here. But I needed to prepare our Seder meal. And I didn't have time."

Trevor said: "I HATE painting. And I painted for three straight days."

Jessica said: "At one point, I really wanted to THROW AWAY ALL the ceramic tile. But I knew that we needed to get that project done. I died to the ceramic tile."

I was so proud that they got it. That nearly everyone mentioned how they had chosen to die to their own desire(s) in order to accommodate the greater good.

Then, as if on cue, Mickey Gamble showed up. "Here they are," I thought, "The Calvary!" And not one other person arrived. Mickey Gamble, "I don't even know if he's a member of our church," was the only one who came.

Suddenly, I had to die - right there - to all my expectations. Man, that is so hard for me. Because I have pretty high expectations. And letting them go is my absolute most difficult growth area. Here was our LORD stretching ME right where I needed it.

My friends, by 1:00PM (two hours ahead of schedule), we were DONE! I could not believe it. This tiny, exhausted team was sitting down to lunch and the ONLY thing we had left to do was load the trailer with our supplies. I tell you: I wept.

I could not stop the tears from stinging my eyes. I told them all how worried I had been about our abilities... but that clearly, God knew (even though I had insisted otherwise) that all we needed... was Mickey Gamble. A Calvary of One. Our encouragement for the day.

God knew that we had already been covered in prayer by our faithful family and friends at home. We had been covered in blessings by those who's faithful work had put us into much better position than I originally realized. And today - on Good Friday - we were covered by the blood of the Lamb, by HIS energy, by HIS strength, by HIS abilities according to HIS expectations.

It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was done. Over 60 projects, 250 man hours plus, a year's worth of work completed in five days.

I laughed as I climbed into our car, ready to head home. It's all good, I thought.

It's ALL Good Friday.

Posted by Becky Jordan

Cristo es el cimiento (Christ is the Foundation)

2008-05-01T09:03:00.052-04:00

This is the report on the Men's Mexico Mission trip to Monterrey Mexico in April 2008. Each year the Senior High Youth go to Mexico to build houses in some very poor sections of Monterrey. In April, a mens team goes and pours the slabs and lays the first row of blocks in preparation for the Senior High trip.

Every trip to Monterrey for the mens team is its own unique adventure. This year we were building in a new location for the first time in 9 years, so we knew from the beginning that it would be challenging. Our trust, however, is in God to lead us through the trials and difficulties that we knew we would face.

Our team of 12 (Rem Bennett, Erroll Eckford, Sam Henderson, Allen Hirons, Bryan Musolf, Rolando Perez, Bob Petersen, Bob Sabin, Tom Steele, Howard Swinford, Mark Thompson, and Brian Wright)was all set to go. Mostly hardened veterans of many trips to pour slabs, but with two rookies to initiate(Sam and Bryan). We had our tools, our work clothes, our passports, our Spanish/English dictionaries, and our sunscreen.

As always, our good friend of many years and many mission trips, Marcos Diaz was there to help us in ways too numerous to mention and to be our guardian angel in Monterrey. We literally could not do this trip without him.

The first challenge was that two of our men discovered at the last minute that their passports had expired. If we had been driving across the border we think they could have gone with just a birth certificate, but if you are flying you can't even board the airplane unless you have a passport that is valid for six months beyond your trip. So. our team of 12 suddenly became a team of 10.

Howard and Brian left on Friday morning to get a head start. Saturday morning they went out to Garcia and located a lumber yard to buy the lumber for the forms. Once it was delivered, they needed a safe place to store it until Monday. We ended up storing it on the roof of Veronica's store. She is our contact in Garcia and helped us select the families we are building for. Once the the lumber was stored, they went by each site to see the progress in tearing down and moving the existing structures. Although some were ready, others still needed a little help in getting ready.

The weather was a very nice 100 degrees ( or in that vicinity). April in Monterrey can be very changeable. Some years it is very pleasant and some years it is downright hot. Dry heat or not, 100 is brutal. We know that when the kids go in June it is just as hot or hotter, but they are a lot younger than we are!

The location where we were pouring the six slabs is on the outskirts of Garcia, which is northwest of Monterrey. It takes about an hour to drive from the Hotel 88, but the traffic is not too bad if you go early enough so the drive is not too stressful.

Each morning we have a devotion at the job site before we start to work.

Errol Eckford did Monday's devotion and he chose the story of Gideon defeating the Midianites from Judges Chapter 7. Basically, God tells Gideon that he has too many men ( 'In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength saved her') and to send some home. Well, Gideon goes from 32,000 down to 300. We didn't have that big a reduction in numbers, but we certainly understood the message that it is through God's power that we accomplish his purpose, not through our own.

Before we started work, there was one more task to accomplish. One of our rookies forgot to bring his work gloves, so we had bought some very attractive pink gloves at Home Depot on Sunday and we made the presentation to him.

We split into two teams and started the work of preparing the form boards for the slabs.

Sometimes we get some help from the homeowners!

In the past, we have built on lots that were considerably wider than the 6 meter width of these ( 19' 6" or so). We had resized the house size to fit on the narrower lots, but because we were building right up to the lot lines ( and in most cases right up to existing walls), the job was definitely more difficult. Also, several of the lots had considerable slope to them which makes for a much deeper slab on one side than the approximate 4" depth we like. We solved that by buying several loads of gravel/sand mix. It is much cheaper that concrete and allowed us to even out the slabs.

Another problem that we have not encountered before was that several of the homeowners wanted indoor toilets so plumbing drain lines had to put in before the slab was poured. Installing these pipes is the responsibility of the homeowner and some of them put them too high which would have made the slab even deeper. So, we had to get them to lower the pipe.

We actually only worked a half day on Monday. Of course, a half day is from 7:30 in the morning till 7:30 in the evening! We were beat, but everybody worked hard and had a great attitude and the forms were ready. We usually go out for dinner, but since we didn't even get back to the hotel until 8:30 we opted for pizza delivery from Domino's. Actually, pretty good and we saved the leftovers for lunch on Tuesday.

Mark Thompson did Tuesday morning's devotion. He based it on the idea that when life is hectic and full of monumental challenges ( like,how are we going to get these slabs poured with only 10 men?) that we should 'simply' lean on God. These are the simplicities of God that Mark shared with us. I believe in God. I believe He loves me. I believe He has a perfect plan. I believe He is righteous, pure, and good. I believe that I have no clue what tomorrow will bring, but thank goodness I believe in a God that does. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in Heaven. I believe in God's angels. I believe in the Bible. I believe in prayer. and I believe, at times, that is all God wants us to do -- simply believe. It was a great reminder of what our faith should be.

Tuesday is concrete day and the question of the day is whether the concrete trucks will show up on time. Although they were supposed to start at 8:00 am and they didn't start arriving until 9:00 am (this is Mexico after all) nobody complained.

They came pretty regularly for the first five trucks (about 1 truck per slab), but there was about a two hour break between trucks 5 and 6.

We took this opportunity to rest and to play.

Since we had started the sixth slab with truck 5, we had a real problem. We normally pour the back of the slab first and get it up to its finished height and then move forward. If the next truck comes within 20 minutes of so, it is no problem to merge the old pour and the new pour, but in two hours concrete has pretty much set and pouring fresh concrete next to two hour old concrete doesn't work very well. So, before the first concrete set, the guys pulled all the concrete down to about 2" and then we poured the fresh stuff on top of the old stuff.

One of the difficulties that the new lots presented was in finishing the concrete. We used a combination of a screed board and bull float to get the slabs as smooth as possible. Because most of the lots had one or two existing walls bounding them, we were not able to work from the sides and this makes it hard to get smooth slabs.

Tuesday was a short day. We only worked till about 4:30 pm.

Tom Steele did Wednesday's devotion based on two elements of the Lord's prayer. The first is the petition to '.. give us this day our daily bread'. In our affluence we don't often think of this, but for these people living in the dust with a packing box as a roof, give us this day our daily bread is deeply significant. Look at this picture and think about living there.

The second element is ' ..thy will be done' a reminder to us to do the will of God, to feed the sheep. By providing basic, yet suitable, shelter we are vastly improving the lives of those we touch, not for our own sake but to glorify God. A copy of the Spanish language Lord's prayer was given to each team to place in the foundation blocks of each home to symbolize that we are doing this work to fulfill the will of God.

Wednesday is block day. We lay the first row of blocks for the house so that when the Senior Highs come in June, they are ready to start building walls. The challenge of the day is getting the block lines square and level. Although it sounds easy, it always seems to take longer than we expect. Since none of us are professional masons, we have to be retrained each year to understand the difference between 'perfect' and 'good enough' when it comes to block walls.

During the course of the day we got two loads of block delivered which had to be unloaded by hand at each job site.

We laid the last blocks about 5:30 PM. A great feeling to be finished!

This year we had our own T-shirts for the team and we brought extras to give to the homeowners. The T-shirt design (which was wonderfully done by Jason Laiche who is on staff with the Youth Ministry) was based on the concept that Christ is the foundation of our lives and that we were building foundations for these homes. We each signed each shirt and presented it to the homeowner and took a bunch of pictures. As you can see, a lot of smiling faces!

We flew home on Thursday with a great feeling of accomplishment and a renewed understanding of the fact that God is with us at all times and it is through His power that we are able to glorify Him in all that we do.

2008-04-13T14:32:00.003-04:00

Unlike other blogs, the next several postings are done in sequential order. Start here and read down for subsequent days and postings.

Mission AnyWHERE?

2008-04-12T17:00:00.000-04:00

Three church vans, two trailers, 2 mini vans, 15 cases of water, six jars of peanut butter, eight bags of salad, 24 loaves of bread, three laptops, 37 sleeping bags, four weeks of preparation, three meetings, two notebooks filled with menus, medical releases forms, insurance information and much, a Commissioning, a load-up and (finally) departure.

For mission work.

In Cartersville.

It didn't seem quite right to me as we loaded our car yesterday. I was grumpy and whiny and a general grouch to my beloved family. It took me most of the morning to realize that my poor attitude was due to one thing: there would be no road trip to New Orleans. Instead, there would be a "short jaunt" to Cartersville. Camp Cherokee, to be exact. It hardly felt like a "real mission trip."

I was frustrated that things had not gone smoothly for our group in our Mission Trip pre-planning. I was angry that God had closed the doors for us to go to New Orleans. Our family had already missed one trip to New Orleans (at Thanksgiving) and now, we were having to change our plans again! Even though I whole heartedly voted for this change - at the time, thinking how nice it would be to save all that gas money and potentially avoid the pitfalls of eight hours in a car with my children - the reality of the disappointment hit me as we loaded the car. All this work, all this effort for (seemingly) very little payoff.

But then I heard myself -- as I would imagine God hears me. Whine, whine, whine. Complain. Moan. Hurrumph. And I started thinking about the Howington family. The folks who live and maintain Camp Cherokee, with their two kids, and all the needs that they must have. I tried to imagine what they were thinking when Dan Valentine (Captain, My Captain) called to say: "hey, I got thirty seven people who wanna come up there and help you for a week. What d'ya say?" I tried to imagine how - in that moment - they must have felt their prayers were answered. I tried to imagine the joy that must have surrounded their dinner table as they began to believe that Help was coming.

What does it matter where we go? Does God care that we aren't in New Orleans?

The call is to "Go." To "feed my lambs." To "shine the light."

God says nothing about where. He expects us just to Go.

So, here we are:

Camp Cherokee/Cherokee Retreat Center.

In Cartersville.

Becky Jordan
Blogging for CRCSBFPCMT
(Cherokee Retreat Center Spring Break First Presbyterian Church Mission Trip).

Lessons Learned

2008-04-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

Officially Day One of our Mission trip began with a task that set my heart a-twitter (organizing a walk-in pantry) and ended with little ones barely able to climb into bed. In the middle, we had more fun than anyone can predict when you're trying to figure out what it means to be a "Missionary."

This (see photos right) is an example of a team building exercise. The Floor Crew was tasked to climb aboard a 2 foot square platform and sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat before falling. Creatively, they decided to put our two Kitchen Crew Standbys (Miss. Ann and Miss. Judy) in the center with their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Then, Trevor and Joe lifted Katie and Dria to their shoulders and darn, if they didn't actually do it! Of course, it was the fastest Row, Row, Row Your Boat rendition in the history of the song, but that's not really the point, now is it?

And this (see photo below) is an example of what happens when the bossy ones don't shut up!
The day was full of team building and learning to listen. We learned the value of planning and then the necessity of re-evaluating those plans.

We learned how to make beignets for 50 and that 70 cups of flour can make a real, real thick batter. Lily-Kate and Jessica learned how much fun it was to get their hands dirty (literally).

In the end, we learned that best laid plans tend to go astray ;

that God's plan is always better (and sometimes more fun) than what we can think up on our own ;

And that the seeds we plant this week will be harvested for many, many months to come. We hope that our love spread here will resound in the hearts of all that come to visit and that more than just carrots (being planted by Judy at right) get tilled up on this soil.

Tomorrow, we work.

Becky Jordan
Blogging for CRCSBFPCMT
(Cherokee Retreat Center Spring Break First Presbyterian Church Mission Trip).

On Our Way to Completion

2008-04-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Official business starts today. And our fearless leaders met to decide project assignment and teams. You can see that the list is quite long! Our Cherokee Retreat Center Director (Kelly) and Site Guy (Andy) say they "have thrown in a lot and are hoping for some."

Teams are divided almost right off the bat and quickly begin... except there are snags. And they hit us right between the thumbs.

Trevor Jordan, Debbie Peterson and Richard Hunter have the enormous task of learning how to install Pergo flooring across the ancient Retreat Center carpet. Learning - in Mission work - is frequently done by doing. And un-doing, re-doing and even sometimes un-doing AGAIN! (Remember last year's fence project?) It takes this terrific trio nearly half a day to discover, perfect and commence to flooring. Hammers swing high in the air, thigh muscles are worked over and over, knees begin to beg for relief and by the end of the day this group has only covered about 50 SF. In addition, our youth on this project are waning. It's hard to wait for inclusion as the adults try to ascertain the challenges. Jessica Gamble presses through the frustration, learns how to operate a Table Saw and earns the first Outstanding Worker (OW) Award.

Meanwhile, our Landscape Lads have taken on a mammoth yet critical project. In order to prevent further erosion of the pathways around the camp, we need to install about a hundred landscape timbers (rebar-red into the ground, levelled and filled with mulch. Nate Shelton and Chris Nix lead the youth on this team with pick ax thrown into solid red clay. Dave Griffith directs, shovels, digs, saws and drives the team who work quietly and well. We are thankful for the cool breezes under the big pine trees as the pollen count and progress soar!

Then the Paint Team decides all the Parker lodge trim has to go (which was not on the first task list). A committee of two is called from the Presbytery, color samples arrive at camp and a decision has to be made about whether to go with Vanillan or Napery. It seems ridiculous, I know, but trust me: it will make a difference!

Our Kitchen is full of two teams - both the ReModel team and the Food Team - covering 900 SF of space as meals are planned, snacks are served, strawberries are sliced, coffee is made, appliances are removed, pans are scattered, a dishwasher is dismantled and a stove is discovered to be less than efficient. Dinner is 45 minutes late.

Worn and weary bodies emerge from the cocoons of their projects and we gather in partially floored great room for reflection. Many are too exhausted to speak out but Dan Valentine reminds us why we're here: to shine God's light for all those who will pass through the Retreat Center entrance, to work together as teams out in this place by God.

There is an ire of frustration that more hasn't been accomplished on this first day and yet, when Debbie Peterson looks down at the floor that has stumped she and her team for the last ten hours, she realizes that the nicks and cracks and smudges of imperfection have disappeared across the area of the floor. "Do you think that's how God sees us?" she asks me. "I think that it's just us who see the mistakes. I think God sees the whole floor - and how beautiful it looks...even on it's way to completion."

Becky Jordan

Blogging for CRCSBFPCMT(Cherokee Retreat Center Spring Break First Presbyterian Church Mission Trip).

Re-Encouragements

2008-04-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

Nate Shelton said just this morning, during our Devotion, that we were all there for a purpose. That our Floor Crew was laying "a foundation for God," that our Paint Team was "covering light across the dark walls," that our Landscapers were "spreading seeds of beauty" in God's world.

But in my head, I am thinking Praise God that more people will arrive today... and where is the trim paint? Once the decision is made (we went with Napery, for those who were wondering), we are anxious to take over the transformation of the current Mocha Trim. Andy (our Site Guy) explains that this Mocha trim has been in place for many generations. I agree it does add a certain "institutional" affect to the place.

Change is coming, and we are determined to bring this retreat center into a place nearing the current century. But where, oh where, is the paint? How much more time do we have? Now we're adding landscaping? Rachel, Judy and Ann are running out of food! We start flooring on the second room and are - way off schedule. Work is hard and the pollen count continues to rise. I am worried. Dan keeps smiling.

Flooring gets in the groove (no pun intended); Tom Rocca, Mission First-Timer, takes Mac, Dria, Jackson and Katie to Lydia Cottage where a mean and high pressure Ceiling Fan Assembly Competition is put in place. Losing team has to put together the last one on their own... no one wants to lose.

Andy (Site Guy Extraordinnaire) brings us a 5 gallon can of Primer and "un-intended task item number 6" finally gets going. I do not know if we can make it around this trim three times (1 primer, two coats of paint). Quietly, I count the number of doors that have to be removed, the number of windows that have to be scraped and the number of 2" brushes on site. I will confess, I am not encouraged. It feels a gigantic task, our bodies are exhausted and it is only Day Two.

Then I look around and find that Joe, Mason, Jessica and Tyler are the ones slamming hammers while Trevor, Debbie and Richard stand teaching. I think of Tom as he reminds the fan competitors to "read through the directions carefully." (What a Renaissance Man Tom is!) Rose(from our former New Orleans team), Karen, Abigail, Mason & Logan have brought fresh energy with their additions to our teams; Keith Thomas has a relatively large group of kids who are working - as one - in the Kitchen Re-Model; Jim Miller is coming to help Debbie lay down the corner round; Dave, Nate and Chris continue to drive the path through the woods and hard soil; the Gambles arrive with a smoking grill and dogs, burgers, beans and salad for everyone; Andy (Super Site Guy) arrives with the Trim Paint; Kelly's family comes by for dinner. I know that the MacPherson Paint Crew, Loyce (aka: Nanna), the Landscaper, and the Humphreys (Mission Experts) are coming tomorrow. Rumor has it that even Sam Henderson may be headed our way to also lend a hand. Suddenly, our little group is adding to its numbers.

Some would call these folks re-inforcements.

I call them re-encouragement.

We are getting things done.

Becky Jordan
Blogging for CRCSBFPCMT(Cherokee Retreat Center Spring Break First Presbyterian Church Mission Trip).

It All Comes Down to Jesus

2008-04-12T08:00:00.001-04:00

I have to add one more post today.

After the kids' swim in the lake, we made our way to the Large Field for a campfire. While most of us (all but three to be exact) sat about the fire, singing to Dave Griffith and Andy (Site Guy Wonderful)'s guitars, Richard, Trevor and Debbie remained behind. They were determined to finish the Great Room flooring.
Long after dark, the fire was doused and the kids were rounded up for bed.
Tom Rocca, Rachel Hunter and I wandered back to Parker Lodge to check on our crew. We found them all ... in the corner.

Over the past two hours, this team had completed 99% of the remaining floor. What remained was one small board - which would have to be cut on two different angles - and laid to fit the two side trim pieces. It would not be easy and, as the materials dwindled, they feared there would be more waste.

I came upon them sitting in the corner in deep discussion about how to best approach the final piece. I glanced at my watch. It was well past 10pm and they, with their teammates, had been at this project since 8am. I could not fathom their exhaustion.

Suddenly, they heard my arrival and smiled broadly at some secret humor they had obviously all shared. "Look," Trevor said as he pointed to a painting over his head that I had not noticed before. He spread his arms in a sweeping gesture across the finished floor and then brought them back to the painting - hung over the final six inches of nasty carpet to be covered. "It all comes down to Jesus."

Debbie and Richard laughed at the irony of this project which had stumped them all for the better part of two days. I could tell they were punchy and finding almost anything hilarious and yet, it was absolutely true. Tom cracked up, I cracked up, Rachel cracked up.

It. All. Comes. Down. to. Jesus.

Becky Jordan
Blogging for CRCSBFPCMT(Cherokee Retreat Center Spring Break First Presbyterian Church Mission Trip).

This Ain't Yo Mama's Mission Trip

2008-04-12T04:00:00.000-04:00

Let it never be said that Mission work isn't for everyone...

Contributing on this trip, one would think that we had all burly, muscled men

laying hardwood floor like pros. Or that we had workers with thighs of steel due to all the up and down paint work. Or that we had young folks decked out in hiking/mountain boots with degrees in Civil Engineering.

Trust me, friends.

It's not like that.

Mission work - while formerly believed to only be

performed by extraordinary men and women of stature, strength, build and character... wait a minute...

These are people of extraordiantory stature, strength, builld and character.

Don't be fooled by age. We are all called to mission. It's a verb, folks. It requires doing.

This particular Mission was performed not only by "yo mama" but also "by yo grandparents" and "yo kids."

Think about it.

Everyone can do some

thing.

A Day in the Life

2008-04-08T14:59:00.001-04:00

6:00am My alarm sounds. My first thought is about the ache still lingering in my feet. There is very little time for sitting during the day... unless you are a trim painter. I wonder how Katie will feel this morning. She has injured herself and we've got to ice down her foot. That should be fun (NOT). She doesn't want to go home. I have to get up. Everyone likes to have the coffee ready when they arrive. I wonder whether we're out of bagels and think that next year, it would be nice to have a hot breakfast for one morning. I shuffle out of bed while all else are still asleep. I like being in the kitchen by myself. Still in my pjs.

7:30am. Most everyone is here. Devotional starts. Some of us are massaging our muscles into shape. Our kitchen crew still needs to be in the kitchen. I think we can get the BBQ cooked today but not so sure. There seems to be endless miles of trim.

8:00am. Clean up. Rachel, Ann and Judy start to remove the breakfast stuff. Team 2 heads for the front beds with Landscaper Loyce. There's massive clearing to do. Someone needs Ibuprofen from me. Kelly arrives. Sick with exhaustion, pollen and fever. Debbie Peterson can hardly talk. Patsy starts to cough. Still in my pjs. The Trim Crew needs to be rotated and start painting the doors. Keith has Rose back for ceiling trim. Kelly thinks he can take six youth and lay the floor down in Lydia. He wants me to find the best 6 for him in about an hour. It's a secret. I'm not to tell anyone. I must get dressed.

10:30am Everyone wants snack. The Lunch Wagon crew begins their snack rounds with drinks. This is the time I can escape to put on some jeans! YAY! Our sick/sore people need more water. I go to the Walk In Refrigerator and find... Nate Shelton. Cooling off. In. the. Walk-in. Refrigerator.

I start a new Grocery/Home Depot/WalMart list. We need soaker hoses with timers, 45 bags of mulch, 27 bags of garden soil, more cereal, etc. Jessica is wearing my shoes (because all she brought were flip-flops). If I can, I'll pick up some tennis shoes for her. Katie's foot is better. Debbie needs more Tylenol. Trevor's having a low blood sugar. We need more trim paint. Keith is starting to put the kitchen back together. The meat is needing to be chopped. Patsy almost has the while media center catalogued, organized, labelled, shelved and usable!

Does anyone know which hardware matches which door? Four ceiling fans are up.

12:30pm. Kelly and his new Floor Crew are making great headway as they pass the halfway point in Lydia. Loyce, Dave, Chris, Nate and Dria have transformed the back of the cottage from an overgrown after-thought to a beautiful ornamental garden with flowers, trees and juniper (oh my!). The Parker Lodge crew begins putting the floor down in the final room. It's not going well.

3:00pm I hide out in the Retreat Center office to work on the slide show. (Talent night is tomorrow!) I check the church site for the other mission trip. WOW! They are having some God filled adventures!!! It's inspirational to read how far their journeys have taken them.

Judy brings down loads of old laundry that has been found on the floor. The machines are cranked up. Music blasts from the lodge as the kids paint, paint, paint. Tyler appears with hair covered in paint... but he is laughing (sigh). Someone asks for more snack. I decide to run errands and collect final lists from all crews.

3:10pm. A Starbucks run is suggested.

3:15pm. 20 people have given me Starbucks' orders!

6:00pm The dinner bell rings. Patsy and the Kitchen crew bring out massive BBQ, Corn on the cob, Coleslaw, Baked beans... everything is so yummy and we are all starving. Sam leads the Reflection and talks about the hope that we are bringing to this retreat. The place is literally lighter... floors and new trim reflecting God's sunlight. We sing Our God is an Awesome God. I look around and wonder how in the world we, as a Presbytery, have let this place go so far. I imagine what could be, if all of the churches in this group sent one Mission Crew here. I am so thankful that we are not in New Orleans.

7:00pm. Dinner break is over. The youth want to watch I Am Legend in the basement of Lydia. We move the younger kids to the Great Room, set up a DVD for them. Tom Rocca agrees to chaperone the Youth. I start moving furniture out of the fireplace room. Debbie sets up the massive outdoor light so we can all see. More painting gets done.

10:00pm Lights out. One by one the cabins and cottages go dark. I am not fooled, though. I know those kids are still texting each other. Dan shuts them down. Threatens to take all the cell phones. The littlest kids say their prayers with Karen.

11:00pm. Trevor and I go into the office again. I download the photos of the day. I work on the movie finalizing song selections, adding text slides, trying to choose and remember all the best points of the day. I make a list for the things that must get addressed tomorrow.

12:35am We say goodnight to Andy (Site Guy Magnificent) and head to bed.

12:45am Cherokee Retreat Center is silent and dark. It feels great to be so tired.

Unfinished Business

2008-04-08T05:11:00.001-04:00

The title of this blog should have been "We're DONE!"

But it's not.

We didn't finish.

Dan told us all we'd cut off on Friday at 2 so that we could start to pack and load the vans. But at 2, only four or five of our crew stopped.

We had decided to add flooring and paint to the Lydia Cottage at the last minute! And those two crews were slammin' and slappin' like crazy people.

The doors which had been removed - each weighing a little under 200 pounds each - took nearly all day to re-install... with teens standing at the ready to begin painting as soon as the door crew (Richard, Trevor, Andy and Tom) gave them permission. Except missing hardware and painted over labels gave these guys fits and what seemed to be another two hour job turned into six and 1/2 hours.

The fireplace room ran out of wood and a quick design change was made but there just weren't enough hours is Friday to make it happen.

I have to tell you that a gloom came over me. In case you didn't know, I am Martha. I'm not like Martha. I'm don't have Martha characteristics. It's quite possible that my personal lineage descends from Martha and that I embody everything about her. On a good day, I can get a taste of Mary... but it's Martha all the way for me, friend. Leaving with unfinished business just rubbed me every which way. It physically hurt.

Even as I watched us desperately trying to finish, I heard Patsy say to Kelly H. (Super Program Director) "It seems like we got a lot of stuff started but not very much done, Kelly. I'm sorry."

And you know what he said? I didn't hear it at the time because my Martha brain was only focused on what we had not gotten accomplished that week. But Patsy came and told me later.

He smiled and said: "Good. Because that means you'll have to come back."

Finally at ten after 5, Dan says we must stop. Andy (Site Guy Marvelous) pulled out that white board that he'd shown our leaders when we first arrived. You remember? The one upon which he and Kelly had literally thrown everything they had "hoped" for? As we sat exhausted on the Parker porch (which still needs work, I might add) Andy showed us that board. He'd been marking things off as we'd accomplished them. There were only six things (of perhaps 40) that were not marked off. A cheer went through the crowd. Andy got choked up.

The thing is, Cherokee Retreat Center and Camp has largely been unsupported for many years. Sure we donate our cast-offs, we send a check, we have a few committees that do a weekend here and there. But that's like sitting in the ocean and seeing if you can raise the water level! It takes an oil tanker to do that!

We left CRC with unfinished business. So some of us are going back. But I can guarantee you that we'll leave again with unfinished business. Because there is so much that needs to be done.

Our greatest commandment is to love our neighbor. For many of us, that means a passport, an international flight, disease fighting shots, foreign soil and lots of money. But here's our neighbor: CRC, Kelly, Jean and the kids, Andy, your children who will go to camp, my children who will go to camp, church staff who use this place for retreat, God-seekers who will come to learn what it means to be in relationship with Jesus, wives who will tear away for a scrapbooking weekend, husbands who will continue to grow in faith. And making a trip to Cartersville is an easy thing to do.

We are a large and wealthy Presbytery and we do many great and good things. Next time you think about ways that you can help, think about CRC and whether or not you have loved this neighbor well.

Shortly, I'll post a slide show somewhere and try to remember to let everyone know where. You can also get to a link with multiple photos by visiting CRC's website. (Click here.)

Becky Jordan (aka: Martha)

Blogging for the FPCSBCRCM08

(First Presbyterian Church Spring Break Cherokee Retreat Center Mission 08)

New Orleans - January 2008

2008-02-06T15:41:00.000-05:00

SUNDAY, JAN 27
After being commissioned at the 0830 service, we left FPC at 1000 hours. Our team members are: Doug Allen, John Bretch, John Brookes, George Buller, Bill Callaway, Jerry Silvers and Harrison Williams. After an easy trip to New Orleans (hereinafter written as NO) we arrived at FPCNO and unpacked. Since we were the only mission group there this week, we were able to bunk in three different rooms (we have level 1, 2 and 3 snorers). We had a nice meal at the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood Place. We thanked God for a safe journey and asked for his blessing on our work this week. After dinner we met Leroy Harbauer, the construction coordinator at FPCNO. He filled us in on the work we would be doing at a house in Old Gentilly on N. Tonti St. The house is owned by Dora Peters. It was built in the 1920’s and is a classic ‘double shotgun’ house. The house is gutted, but is needing a lot of internal shoring to stabilize it prior to putting in new floor joists. Leroy will provide supplies and enough direction to get us started tomorrow.

MONDAY, JAN 28
We arrived at 2451 N. Tonti at 0830 and began assessing the work to be done. Leroy had previously shored up part of the roof rafters and installed a load bearing shear wall down the middle of the house. We began nesting new studs and headers in the outside walls, and started putting in new floor joist support beams. By day’s end we had the floor supports installed on one side, ready for floor joist installation. The house is in a very depressed and distressed part of old Gentilly, and not much work has been done on most of the houses in the area. There is no power or water, so we have to use a generator and provide our own necessities. We cannot lock up the house, so we have to remove all tools and equipment at the end of each day. We board up the doors and windows before we leave.

TUESDAY, JAN 29
John Bretch cooked pancakes for breakfast. We were all a bit sore and stiff, but after the devotional we were energized and on our way. We are fortunate to have enough skill sets to help us do our work as efficiently as possible. We have two pairs of carpenters and three jacks of all trades. We got the floor joists installed on one side of the front of the house, and built another nested stud wall on the opposite side. It was warm this morning, and the 3 jacks spent some time clearing away a pile of debris that had accumulated in front of the house. As we secured the site for the night, we all felt good about our progress. After dinner we reflected on our day, and thanked God for keeping us healthy and safe.

WEDNESDAY, JAN 30
Doug cooked Cajun grits for breakfast, with enough left over for the next 2 days. It had rained during the night, which settled some of the dust at the house. Work continued on installing support beams for more floor joists, and by days end we had installed floor joists across the entire front end of the house. There is strong comradere’ amongst the group as we help each other with varied tasks. We had jambalaya, salad, rolls and king cake for dinner, prepared by FPCNO members Henry Kleinfeldt and his wife and sister. Rev. Cliff Nunn and his wife also had dinner with us. Dora Peters, owner of the N. Tonti house, had planned to dine with us. Sadly, she was comforting her sister, whose son had been killed the previous day. We said a prayer for Dora and her family. After dinner, we presented Rev. Cliff Nunn with a check for $8,200.00 for the final installment of the 2007 Mission Benevolence for FPCNO Katrina Aid.
A total of $31,200.00 was given to FPCNO in 2007. Leroy noted that about one-third of the $8200 would be used on the N. Tonti house.

THURSDAY, JAN 31
The team got into high gear this morning, and finished stabilizing the roof trusses to allow further work on floor support beams. Although this stabilization work took some time, it allows follow-on groups to continue with floor joists and stud walls in a safe manner. At the end of the day, about 60% of the floor area had joists installed. The next group will be able to complete the floor joists and stud walls on the front and back of the house. After dinner, we reflected on the amount of work that had been done at the N. Tonti house, and once again thanked God for keeping us safe and healthy throughout the week.

FRIDAY, FEB 1
We got up early, loaded the vehicles, and went to Café’ du Monde for coffee and benets.
We arrived safely at FPC Marietta at about 2030 hours. We hope others who read this blog will consider joining a mission team to NO in the future. There are a lot of people in NO who are still grieving, still discouraged, still needing our help. We guarantee that if you do go, you will be changed and you will want to get others to go with you the next time.

Building the Kingdom one block at a time

2007-04-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

Our last day began with a devotion by Brian on one of our newly poured slabs that focused on the question "Why are we here?" using selected passages from Romans. It is easy for us to fall back into thinking that our good works are the basis of our salvation and that if we just go on enough mission trips and help enough people that God will surely see us as good people. Of course, Paul's letter to the Romans makes it very clear that that is not the case at all. So, if we are not saved by our works, why do we go and help these people? Paul's answer is that in response to God's love for us, we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices and that we are under a constant obligation to love our neighbors. Our prayer is that through our work we have shown God's love to the people of Escobedo in a very tangible way.

The last day of work is to lay the first row of blocks on each foundation with input from the homeowner about the placement of the doors. A simple task if you have concrete blocks. Since construction materials have a way of sometimes disappearing from the job sites (just like in the U.S.), we don't have them delivered in advance. The plant that makes the block we use is not very close to the job site so it takes a while for the delivery truck to get to us. So we waited. And we waited.

Unlike Tuesday, Wednesday was a very clear day and getting hotter by the minute. Providentially we had some blocks left over from last year's construction that were stored at the site of one of this year's houses. So, we put the pickup truck to good use and started moving block to the other sites so the teams could get started. Our theory was that once we started to actually move the block that our block delivery truck would show up. Well, it did, but not till after we had moved enough blocks to get started on two sites. These are heavy blocks and it takes about sixty to do each house. That doesn't sound like many unless you are the one actually moving them.

It takes two trips for the delivery truck to bring us all the blocks for the seven houses. We urged the driver to hurry back with the second load and he said he could be back in about two hours. Of course, that turned into about three hours and we ended up moving block for the last two slabs with the pickup truck. It didn't appear that it was the driver's fault for the delay and we gave him a tip that was graciously received. None of us who moved the block will need to do any bicep curls at the gym for a while. :)

By about 3:30 PM we had finished all seven houses and started cleaning up to go home. We took pictures with the future homeowners. There were many heartfelt expressions of gratitude from them, and some tears of happiness as they realized that their promised house was one step closer to becoming a reality. The father of Alberto ( who has MS and is in the wheelchair in the photo) was particularly expressive in his gratitude for our work. We now understand better the message of Genesis 12:2 where God tells Abram that he will be blessed and that he is to be a blessing. It was a very humbling and spiritual experience.

Well, we packed up all the tools ( or most of them anyway - a few got left behind) and loaded up into the van and pickup truck and headed back to our home away from home, Hotel 88. Everybody was in good spirits, hot and tired, but with a great sense of satisfaction. Twelve of the guys were in the van, and Brian and Howard in the pickup truck. Brian had just turned on the main road back to town ( a four lane affair) when one of the local transito policmen waved Brian over. Despite Brian's and Howard's excellent command of Spanish ( in other words almost none) and the policeman's excellent command of English ( in other words none) it quickly became apparent that Brian had been going too fast through a school zone. The policeman didn't have a radar gun, he just judged that Brian was over the speed limit. Now understand that Brian has driven that road a lot of times and never noticed it was a school zone much less ever seen a school anywhere in the surrounding area.

After Brian gave the policeman his drivers license (wondering if he would ever see it again), the policeman proceeded to explain that the fine for speeding in a school zone is $ 70 USD. Brian quickly considered his options. 1. make a run for it and get out of the country as quickly as possible, 2. pay the $ 70 fine, 3. try bribing the policeman - when in Rome do as the Romans do, or 4. call his lifeline Marcos. Just as Brian was frantically dialing Marcos' number and the policeman was preparing to write the ticket, Brian's phone rang. It was the rest of the guys in the van. They had stopped in a nearby service station to buy gas and witnessed the pullover. Brian quickly hung up on them so he could call Marcos.

Thankfully Marcos answered his phone and Brian handed the phone to the policeman and said to the policeman ' Mi amigo' while pointing at the phone. After what seemed like an eternity, the policeman closed the phone, handed Brian his license back and said he could go. Marcos had explained to the policeman that we were doing social work and told the policeman that we were probably dressed in dirty work clothes and had a truck full of construction tools. That description fit us to a 'T'. Marcos is definitely our guardian angel.

Meanwhile the guys in the van had been trying to decide what to do. Apparently there was some division as to whether to stop and offer help or to get as far away as fast as possible. Reports have it that six wanted to stop and help and six wanted to flee the scene. Since they quickly left Brian and Howard to fend for themselves, is is obvious who yelled the loudest. So, after the policeman let Brian go, Howard called the guys in the van and told them that Brian had been handcuffed and taken to jail. They actually seemed to believe it for a while. Later interviews with the twelve in the van revealed that each claimed to have been one of the ones that wanted to stop and offer assistance and that none would admit to abandoning Brian and Howard. :)
It was very funny. (at least after it was over)

We had a fun dinner at Chili's on Wedneday night and all flew home on Thursday.

We appreciate your prayers for our work. Please support the Mexico Mission in any way that you can and buy as many blocks ($ 10 each) as you can. Keep the Senior High Youth and their advisors in your prayers as they prepare to finish the work that we have begun.

The Mens Monterrey Mexico Mission team: Rolando Perez, Howard Swinford, Allen Hirons, Mark Thompson, Bill Claxton, Tom Steele, Bob Petersen, Bob Sabin, Rem Bennett, Jan Milligan, Phil Brand, George Childress, John Wells and Brian Wright

Concrete Assurance

2007-04-24T23:54:00.000-04:00

Today's devotional, "Born Again", was inspirational in that we all could connect with the message that Jan Milligan was making about the desire we have from within to be live out our lives for Him. To love and assist those less fortunate, to stand up for the rights of those that are different and to help others by introducing them to scripture for special circumstances. We are all here with special talents that only we possess. It is like Christ is painting a masterpiece and each of us is a shade or color. When we interact appropriately with others the vision is clear and magnificent. It feels good to be here doing what the Lord has placed before us to complete.

Today was a perfect day to pour concrete. Overcast and no wind. The first truck was supposed to be at the job site by 8 am, but it finally arrived about 9 am.
After that the trucks came pretty regularly except for one break in the early afternoon. We worked today as one team and moved from site to site.

When the trucks arrived, everyone was anxious to put on their rubber boots and get in the 'mud' (concrete). Most of the time, the truck could get close enough to drop the concrete at least close to all four corners. On one lot, however, the truck could only get to the front of the slab, so we had to 'pull' the concrete to the back of the form. Very tiring work, but with fourteen guys it makes it much easier because we can take turns.

We started using a new method for finishing the slabs. In the past we have used bull floats, which work fine, but leave some small ridges in the slab. This year we used a screed board (a long board that stretches across the entire width of the slab) to level and smooth the slab. It worked very well and our slabs were the best we have ever poured (at least in our humble opinion).

Another first for this trip was that Rem Bennett actually convinced a couple of the concrete truck drivers to let him drive the truck. Fortunately he didn't run into any walls, cars or power lines!

It is very rewarding to see the smiles on the faces of the future homeowners. For some of them, I think that up until the slab is poured, they are really not sure that they are getting a house. When they see the concrete being poured, they really begin to believe. We had a lot of smiling faces today and when they smile, it makes us smile. It makes all the planning, expense and hard work worthwhile. From our perspective, what we are giving them seems so much less than our standard of living, but from their perspective a home like this is a huge improvement in their standard of living and will have impacts beyond what we can imagine.

We finished about 2 pm and everybody was hot and tired, but very satisfied with the work we had accomplished. Back to the hotel for a hot shower, a little rest and then dinner. We ate at El Papalote and everyone seemed to enjoy another dinner of Mexican cuisine. Allen, the designated 15-passenger van driver, has really taken to the local driving protocols. If we didn't know better we would think he spent all his vacations here.

Tomorrow will be our last day. We will lay the first row of block on each house and that will be the end of our part of the construction process. In just about six weeks, the Senior High youth and advisers will be here to build these homes.

Foundations

2007-04-24T00:08:00.000-04:00

We began Monday with a devotion by Howard Swinford based on scripture from Matthew and emphasizing the spiritual foundations we are building through this mission trip. These foundations are for the people who will live in the houses that we are helping to build, for the Senior High youth and advisors that will come in June and for ourselves. These spiritual foundations are just as important (and actually are more important than the physical foundations we are building out of concrete).

Rem Bennett, our lead construction guy, split us into four teams and we started work. Since most of us only do this work once a year, we need some retraining to get back up to speed and to remember the little things about building the forms. Although it is not rocket surgery as the saying goes, it is still important that we build a good foundation. After a somewhat slow start, we got rolling and by lunchtime we had finished four of the seven sites. Having the pickup truck to deliver materials and tools to the teams worked very well. Here are some pictures which illustrate the work being done. Fortunately, although it was hot, it was also overcast most of the day which helped keep it bearable.

One of the houses we are building is for a grandmother who is raising her two grandchildren who were apparently abandoned by their mother. Her new house will be at the back of her lot. To get the concrete truck to the back of the lot required that her existing outhouse be demolished. To call it an outhouse is actually a stretch, because it was merely some old pallets that had been nailed together. The walls were covered with various pieces of cloth and it had a flimsy tin roof. Although we thought we had explained that it had to be demolished on Friday night, apparently she had not understood it like we thought. After some careful measurements and explanation of the situation, she accepted the fact that it had to be done, smiled and proceeded to start tearing it down by herself. We tried several times to get her to let us do it, but each time she would come back and join in the demolition. She is a woman of small stature, but her determination was amazing. It was readily apparent that getting a new house was very important for her. Although we were hot and tired by this time of the day, her spirit lifted ours and her lot is now ready.

It was a great day of construction. Everyone pitched in to get the work done and everyone had a well earned sense of satisfaction with what we had done.

Ready to do God's Work in Monterrey, Mexico

2007-04-23T00:26:00.000-04:00

It is Sunday night and our mission team is in hot and sunny Monterrey, Mexico. The 14 guys on the team are here to pour the foundations for seven houses that the Senior High Youth will build in June. For some of us this a new experience while others of us have been here many times and have poured more slabs than we can remember. Regardless of how many times we have come on this trip, we are all here in response to God's call on our lives. Our purpose is to glorify God and to show his love to some of the poor people who live on the outskirts of greater Monterrey.

Three of us arrived on Friday afternoon and began finalizing preparations for the work ahead. In past years, most of us have flown to Monterrey while 3 to 6 of us would drive the church van and trailer full of tools from Marietta to Monterrey. That is a hard two day trip, but not without its rewards. Over the years we had identified our favorite restaurants along the way, and we would look forward to each of them like visiting an old and dear friend. Last year we and the Senior High team left all of our tools here in Monterrey. So this year we all flew and rented a 15 passenger van and pickup truck here in Monterrey. So far it has seemed to work well.

Late Friday afternoon and evening, we went out to the sites where we will be building. In February a small team came to Monterrey to identify the sites and to make other preparations. The prospective homeowners were told what needed to be done to prepare their lots for our construction. We were anxious to see if that work had been accomplished. Thankfully almost all the sites were either ready for construction or the homeowners committed to have it done by Monday morning when we begin work. Here is what one site looked like in February and what it looks like now. The homeowner has done a very nice job of preparing the site and getting everything cleaned up. It makes our work much easier.

Saturday was spent buying lumber for the concrete forms, transporting that lumber to the job site, cutting about 200 stakes that are used to hold the forms in place, going to Home Depot for some tools we needed to buy and then off to Walmart after dinner to start buying supplies we need for our breakfasts and lunches. Here is a picture of our rather sizable load of lumber.

Needless to say we drove very carefully from the lumber yard to the construction site ( probably about 12 miles). Here we are unloading and storing the lumber at Carlos' house.

We built a house for Carlos and his family in 2002 and ever since then he and his wife have been a big help to us in storing materials and tools and in helping to identify the families that need homes.

On Sunday, some of us went to church while others went to the airport to pickup the rest of the team that was flying in. During the service, we were introduced and we were thankful to have Rolando Perez with us who speaks fluent Spanish. He was able to explain to the congregation that the foundations we are constructing are not only physical, but spiritual as well.

After the rest of the team arrived ( 2-1/2 hours late thanks to Delta) we all went out to visit the building sites so that everyone would have a good idea of the challenges to be faced on Monday morning.

Tomorrow morning, we will rise early, eat breakfast on the balcony of our hotel and head for the building sites. The first order of business when we arrive is the morning devotion led by one of the team members. These devotions are an important part of our day and help us to keep focused on our real work here, that is to glorify God in all that we do.

Sorry this post is actually being published on Monday night, but a very intermittent internet connection at our hotel caused the delay. Thanks for reading and please keep us in your prayers.

Committed

2007-04-06T18:06:00.000-04:00

On this, our last work day, we began with a devotion by two amazing young women. Katherine Reed and Melanie Valentine shared with us the importance of making a daily commitment in our sacrifices to God. Their honest stories of their own journeys were exactly what we needed... though we did not realize it at the time.

Things did not start well at the "fence" sight. The early morning hours revealed that adjustments to the fence foundation were required. In about ten minutes, that crew destroyed the work they had done in the previous three days. Everything fell to the wayside and with little more than 12 hours of daylight they were beginning again. You can imagine what that crew must have been feeling. Barry Christensen, Mark Humphrey, Nate Shelton, Alex Christensen, David Johnson, Drew Anderson and Alex Ball had devoted their entire mission trip to the building of a fence. And on our last day, it looked as though their efforts would be for naught.

Over at the Williams Street house, Team Leader Debbie Petersen consulted with Homeowner, Royland, and decided to take things one step further. Armed with an FPC trailer, she purchased new windows for the Peabody family. 13 windows. None of which actually fit into the window frames. All that would require custom trim installation. An enormous job all on its own. She looked about her motley crew; then handed Jan Coots and Susan Christensen (our Siding Sisters) another box of nails; Susan Merrick and Karen Humphrey a crow bar for Window removal; left Trevor Jordan and Jeremy Jackson alone as they continued to level the bathroom floor and distributed paint brushes to everyone within reach. This job, that wasn't finished yet, got bigger with every passing hour.

At some point during the day, both teams decided to forgo our afternoon and evening activities. Our goal: to complete all project lists... even those newly generated just that morning. Neither team was willing to break more than a few minutes. The Lunch Wagon (Abby Christensen, Isabelle Jordan, Allison Humphrey and Lily-Kate Jordan) delivered the lunch to the Fence crew while the Williams Street house was treated to a low country boil by our thankful homeowners. Lunch & Production (Joe Jordan, Mac McIntyre, Katie Stegal, Jessica and Anna Gamble, Holly Howren, Katherine Reed and Leah Valentine) crews drove between sites, delivered, snacks, ice, drinks, drill bits and hurricane straps and filmed more volunteer and victim interviews. Driving and negotiating, Patsy (aka: Nonna), and Sarah (aka: Gram), kept us all on the road and on schedule.

It was, my friends, an enormously huge group effort.

Dusk brought the arrival of an exuberant fence crew who had victoriously overcome their many obstacles. Within 15 hours they had re-installed every post, every side rail and every slat! We celebrated their arrival with 14 pizzas, more cases of drinks, cold veggies and an old-fashioned-but-all-together-new-sort-of-church ice cream social. Night fell on us. We sent several "home" to church for showers while a small crew stayed behind to hammer in the 13th window. With the window install trio of Rose (aka "Tiffany"), Trevor (aka "Frank") and Jan (aka "Lisa") standing by, Susan Christensen nailed the final piece of siding under the final window by flashlight.

There was tremendous union in our prayer circle as we took Lina, Roy, Roydie, Brian and Santi in our arms to ask God's blessing on this family and to thank Him for his providence in every aspect of their recovery.

So... as our littlest volunteers fell asleep upon the church pews... as we listened to an inspiring evening devotional... I was reminded of the words we had all heard just that morning. That our sacrifices for our God come in all forms and have to be renewed moment by moment. The dedication of our crews as they exemplified the meaning of commitment was inspirational. The message that I think I will take with me tomorrow when we leave? That we have nothing to give that is any more worthy than a daily commitment of our lives. No matter where we are or what we're doing.

What an awesome day!

Thank you for your prayers during this week. Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for allowing us to have this opportunity. Thank you for your commitment to God and for the example that you are to all of us.

Please stay tuned for a future video production, a slideshow and lots of smiles and stories as we rejoin you this weekend in celebration of our Savior's resurrection. I can think of no greater way to express your appreciation of His sacrifice than to consider serving Him and the Katrina Mission recovery effort.

Details for our next great adventure to come.

-----
Becky Jordan
Blogging the FPCMTTASBNOMT
(FPC Marietta Spring Break New Orleans Mission Trip)

The List

2007-04-05T10:11:00.000-04:00

I am a person who likes lists. I have lists in a notebook I keep for work. I have lists in a calendar I keep for home. I have folders with lists in them for the various projects in which I am involved. I have lists in my head all the time. It's like a data ticker wherever I go. People talk, I hear them in list form.

At first blush, it would seem that Mission work is also about lists. Dan Valentine has a whole entire notebook of lists that gets scratched out, re-ordered and listed again. Debbie Peterson has lists that seem to be growing with every minute that she is on the site. Our faithful BM Team has the shortest list... I think it probably says "Finish."

While our lists are important, coming to New Orleans is not about what we get to mark off our lists. It's about the lives that God is touching through our lists. We won't even come close to accomplishing all that is on our hearts to do this week. But as our Devotional Leaders (Beth Williams, Alex Ball, Drew Anderson, David Johnson) told us last night... there will be more crews to come behind us. We are a small link in the chain that God is using to haul New Orleans out of their despair.

Sometimes it's hard to imagine that our little tasks will amount to anything when we look at the great need. But in an exercise of believing that no task, no contribution, no effort is too little ... yes, you guessed it ... I went back to my old habits and made a list.

List number 1: our people. Paralegals, corporate executives, stay at home moms, stay at home grandmas, teachers, administrators, secretaries, students, children under 10, 4 adult men, 13 middle schoolers, some wild assortment of crazy, fun women and only a handful of folks who have ever done anything like this before. We are ust 39 normal folks.

List number 2: our accomplishments, to date. Repair exit signs, weed a children's garden, cut grass, remove 13 old and install new windows, move 50 boxes of tee shirts, apply two coats of paint to 15 doors, scrape & re-paint trim, order, dig 15 3' holes, purchase and install 15 galvanized steel fence posts, replace facia and angle trim on house exterior, install 45 fence rails, apply 2 coats of primer paint and 2 coats of exterior paint (by hand) on an entire house, remove two walls, install over 60 pieces of siding (of various sizes), clean church pews, paint 2 coats of ceiling paint on a new tutorial room in the church, touch up trim across the church, clean and prepare a conference room and office for the new Presbyterian Disaster Assistance central office, destroy two pads of concrete, remove stand alone concrete stairs, paint furniture, record three hours of disaster area video, conduct 7 volunteer interviews, record 8 testimonies, conduct 3 victim interviews, install 150 fence boards, etcetera!

Hmm... maybe a list is not such a bad thing from time to time. :)

____
Becky Jordan
Blogging the FPCMTTANOSBM, 2007

Home

2007-04-03T23:53:00.000-04:00

We hear it all our lives, don't we? "Home is where the heart is." Such a nice platitude for those of us who know that home is at the end of the cul de sac. For many of you, home is the place to which you will return from your vacation. Or, maybe home is back in the Midwest where Mom and Dad await your return - with or without the grandchildren.

If you live in New Orleans, it's possible that your home looks like this... a 165 square foot trailer parked in your tiny front yard. A trailer, ladies and gentlemen.

We met the couple who's house many of our volunteers are working hard to solidify. They are Lena and Royland. She teaches pre-school at the First Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. He builds boats. They are beautiful people. Young. Strong. Appreciative.

They invited us into their home this morning for coffee and donuts. I thought it would probably stink, to be honest. I thought it would be messy and unkempt. I thought, and I am ashamed to say it, that I didn't even want to step inside. But curiosity took the best of me and I carefully opened their aluminum door.

This, is the first thing I saw. Just like your house, just like mine... there are still rules. Then, I turned to the left and saw the children's room. Two platform beds in which three little kids (all under the age of 6) sleep every night. Neatly hung clothes hang from a makeshift rod on one top bunk. Storage for dry goods, Mac & Cheese, Cheerios is used on the other. The shower is 2'x2'. The master contains one bed with 12 inches on either side for standing.

This family of 5 has lived in this trailer for two years. Not two weeks. Not two months. Two years. Over 700 days. It is absolutely unfathomable.

The thing is, it's not just Roy and Lena who need help. It's every single one of their neighbors... most of whom also live in trailers on the front lawn. It's thousands upon thousands of homes.

We sat around the dinner tables tonight laughing about the funniest moments of our day, laughing about the Barry & Mark fencing team (whom we now lovingly refer to as the BM Movement) and their 40 hours in the "dessert" (an area of town that is desolate and sandy with no running water or electricity.) We laughed about the ridiculousness of getting stuck in a 2'x2'' trailer bathroom. We laughed about getting lost and the moment at which I realized I had really and truly "driven my chevy to the levy."

The fellowship hall of FPC New Orleans felt like home. In the midst of the laughing, a hush came over our table and I wondered whether Roy and Lena were tucking their little kids into their "room." We shook our heads in disbelief at the stamina they maintain to endure, persevere and cling steadfastedly to their home.

For so many of us, home is really about our belongings...our couches, our dishes, our CDs, our closets, our shoes, our tools, our checkbooks, etc. What if your home (and I do mean all of it) were literally gone. I would challenge each of you to take a roll of masking tape and measure off 165 square feet of your home. Spend a day in that space with your family. Just one day. And try to determine exactly what your home is. Is it all of the things in your house that make it your home? Or is it what you might have left...what you carry within your heart (or on your back) if everything disappeared in one horrible, horrible night?

Discovery

2007-04-02T23:22:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Day 1 of an FPC Katrina Mission is about Discovery.

Our self proclaimed Lunch Wagon members (Allison Humphrey, Abby Christensen, Lily-Kate, Isabelle and I) discover how many sandwiches it takes to feed lunch to 40 people.

Beth Williams and Susan Merrick discover how quickly a garden (and maybe even sometimes our hearts) can be overcome by weeds and thorns.

Our construction team number 1 (ably led by Debbie Peterson, muscled around by Nate Shelton, Alex Ball, Trevor & Joe Jordan, Jan & Audrey Coots, Drew Anderson, David Johnson, Jeremy Jackson & Rose) discovered how how many gallons of paint it takes to prime the outside of a house.
They also discover how to catch a cat nap.

Barry Christensen and Dan Valentine discover the joys of New Orleans traffic and the absolutelymostridiculous excuse for a street grid.

We spend a lot of time on Day 1 discovering what our roles will be during this trip, who we will be helping and what needs to be changed for Day 2. We discover that we can rise at dawn to shower outside. And we discover how much we need each other as cell phones jingle constantly with requests for more water, more ice, power post hole diggers and even a helium, heart shaped balloon.

Debbie did our reflection tonight and she asked us to consider what "treasures" we had discovered during our day. Katie Stegall seems to have discovered a knack for smashing concrete. Sarah H. says she's discovered that she rather likes all of us Presbyterians, even though she's Baptist. Melanie Valentine discovered that the obedience of four little girls in a garden can be just as inspiring as painting over water stain marks on old, warped doors. Isabelle Jordan discovered that when she shares a scary story of getting separated from the group that she is braver than her nine years would warrant.

In the end, none of it is really new. These traits, these discoveries, have been there all along... planted, watered, fed by our God who has simply waiting for us... to discover.

-----
Becky Jordan
Blogging the FPCMTTANOSBM, 2007

Ready, Set, Go!

2007-04-02T14:50:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning brought mixed emotions in our house. The bags were packed, the lists were crossed off. With the usual last minute panic well under way (did we get everything we need? did we remember our toothbrushes?), we loaded into the car and took off for church.

It was so exciting to finally be there, actually leaving, beginning our journey! When we stood together for Spencer's blessing, I was shocked at our sheer numbers. Standing shoulder to shoulder, we really were quite a group. How in the world, I wondered, had God been at work in each of our separate, hectic, stressful lives to somehow bring us all together? And what would He teach us?

One of the things we all learned together was how valuable it is to check, double check and even, triple check. Before we ever got onto 285, the Jordans broke from the group. Dan Valentine, our fearless leader, had left his laptop in the parking lot and our first Mission was established. Recon, for you Military type. Two quick phone calls to the lead vehicles and a sharp turn right as we looped back around on Atlanta Road and the North FPC Parking Lot.

Catching up to the other vehicles in Montgomery, we did a quick lunch, reloaded and returned to the highway whereupon it proceeded to pour down rain for nearly thirty miles. And I do mean pour.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful... which is how you like a road trip to go. The miles were long, but the kids were great. The teenagers were loud but their exuberance was encouraging. And just about dusk, we came into the city of New Orleans.

This morning, in church, we sang Hossannah and waved palms to recreate the images that greeted our Lord Jesus as he arrived into town for Passover. Throngs of worshippers greeted Him with praise and joyful singing.

I could not help but think of the contrast to what we were doing today on Palm Sunday. Even though we arrived at our destination as a motley crew, spread thin between SUVs and church vans... even though we came as a source of light and hope... even though we came to use our hands for His glory... there was nothing that could have prepared us for our arrival into our town.

Desolate is the word I would use to describe it. Silent. Messy. Broken.

Miles and miles and miles of destruction that seems infinite. HELP scrawled across someone's roof. A street corner indiscriminate because of all the debris and garbage piled upon it. Empty baseball fields, empty schools, empty homes.

Funnily, I heard that old scripture, repeated so many times in so many Sunday School lessons... this time with a whole, new, different meaning.

"Let my people...GO!"

We have much to do.

Set?

2007-03-31T22:42:00.000-04:00

We met up at church this afternoon... some of us laying eyes on each other for the first time. I stood to the corner with the worker sheet in my hand, trying to learn new names.

Beth Bailey tried hard to pass out First Aid kits and be sure everyone had turned in their insurance forms.

Dan Valentine, clipboard in hand, marched between vans and cars and trucks (oh my!) and proceeded to declare us worthy of two FPC vans!

39 people carry a lotta stuff, I guess. Plus tools, plus air mattresses, plus snacks, plus anything else that seemed necessary.

Debbie Petersen took the label maker in hand and virtually forced customized labels out of it. We each get these nifty lanyards with laminated, labelled cards with everyone's name and cell phone number.

We are so thankful for Mark & Karen Humphrey and all those folks who have gone down before. They know all the details. Even right down to the lanyard.

We all had questions we'd all been wanting to ask: "How is the church there set up?" "Where will we sleep?" "Did you check the weather?" "Can we stop often?" "How fast do you drive?" "Are there any grocery stores down there?" "Can we bring our skateboards?" "What am I forgetting?" "You sure you don't wanna go to the beach?" "Did I say that outloud?"

Then, our hard hat crew showed up.
I saw this shot from across the parking lot and nearly fell down trying to get close enough. I don't know all these kids' names yet... but I am sure, as Katherine Stegall said smiling, I will "know their life stories before the end" of it.

I am looking forward to that.

We would ask three things of you, friends who share our God.

Prayer for safe and uneventful travels. Prayer for us to sing songs of praise to our God. Prayer for the families we leave and the ones we will serve.

Yes. I think we're set.

-----

Becky Jordan
FPC Marietta New Orleans Spring Break Mission Trip
(FPCMTTANOSBMT)
2007

Ready?

2007-03-30T19:49:00.000-04:00

Two summers ago, I got this crazy idea about taking my family on a cross-country vacation. Some of you may have heard a thing or two about the 10-days we came to know as The Great American Adventure. 4,500 miles, six states, three kids, two adults, ten hundred thousand videos, several maps and one car.

I planned our trip to the most minute detail. I had files with sub folders and printouts of every Starbucks between here and the Michigan Upper Peninsula. I had time charts and hotel reservations and planned educational field trips. I had worked out every possible scenario in what I envisioned to be our finest family moment.

I did not plan to break down. For four days. And be stuck in Bowling Green, Kentucky. With no car. And virtually nothing - except free Tuesday bowling and the highly impressive Chevy Corvette museum - to do.

I will confess, in the beginning, I was mad. As a hatter.

Why couldn't the car dealership fix our car? Why was the Warranty company delaying our approval? Why didn't the entire state of Kentucky have at least one MPV (of any sort) that we could rent to move along on our "adventure?"

By day three, I realized that my kids were having a blast. The entire hotel staff had become our greatest champions. The front desk clerk even babysat the kids one night so Trevor and I could go - in the hotel shuttle - out for dinner. Everyone we came into contact with quickly knew of our dilemma; by the time we left Kentucky, we had a bunch of new friends and a bunch of funny memories.

I have to say I'm a little hesitant about this Mission trip. I have no idea what to expect. I have never even been to New Orleans for any reason. I know there will be painting, construction, gardening and (to Joe, Alex, Michael and Mac's great delight) demolition. But I don't know anything else.

I have planned hardly a thing. In fact, it's Friday night and I haven't even started packing. Just an hour ago, Barry Christensen called to ask if I was ready or getting ready. Truthfully, I said: Neither.

The thing I learned on our last Great Adventure... the thing I am reminded over and over again... is that God's plan is so much more wonderful for me than anything I can imagine. His plan overcame the lost transmission. His plan will sustain us through any place that we get stuck. His expectations for us are far more fantastic than any internet research can provide.

In two days, I'll be getting into a car with my 4 family members, 36 of my church family, and our God.

I can hardly imagine what He will have in store for us.

I can hardly wait to share it with you.

-----

Becky Jordan
Blogging the NO Spring Break Mission trip, 2007

New Orleans Mission Trip, Thursday January 25, 2007

2007-01-25T21:45:00.000-05:00

We had a fantastic day today! We began the day with a wonderful breakfast prepared by Tom Adams and Bill Callaway, followed by a thoughful devotional by Harrison. Then we took off for a very fulfilling day at Erma's and Estelle's. Kelly, Bill and Doug Ivester returned to Erma's to finish up some painting and redoing of outlets and light switches, while Harrison, Tom, Vicki, Debbie, Joel, Doug Allen, and John Bretch trimmed out Estelle's house. We put down all of the baseboard trim and trimmed around all of the windows and doors and the house looks fantastic! We worked until 6:00 and got it all done! We are all exhausted but very happy with our day's work. Tonight for dinner, Henry Kleinfeldt, his wife Diane and his sister Joyce brought our dinner--Jambalaya, Salad and King Cake! Erma came too with her two granddaughters, and Estelle also came for dinner with Liz, her daughter and Damon, her grandson. Estelle brought a wonderful homemade lemon pound cake which was wonderful! Both Erma and Estelle expressed their appreciation for the help that we have given them on their houses. Both hope to be back in their houses within the next three months! By the way, the pansies that Mac MacIntire planted when he was here in November are still blooming in front of Estelle's house! Tomorrow morning we will pack up and go to the Cafe Du Monde for beignets, stop at Erma's house for one last look and to see what Bea's house looks like without the trailer in front of it. The trailer got picked up today! There is progress in New Orleans!

January 25, 2007 New Orleans Mission Trip

2007-01-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

So sorry for lack of blot on Wednesday. It was a cold, rainy day and we felt that we didn't accomplish as much as we wanted to. It seems as though Home Depot took too much time. It was frustrating, but we realized today that we were only experiencing a small taste of what these folks here have had to deal with when everything takes so much longer that you think it is going to and nothing seems to go right. We did do some work at Estelle's house and Erma's house in the morning, then Bea and Erma hosted a lunch for us of Jambalaya, salad and King Cake. It was delicious and Doug Allen got the baby from the King Cake which meant that he had to buy the next King Cake! Most of the team took Cliff's New Orleans Tour in the afternoon. In the evening we went to Franky and Johnny's for dinner and turned in early so that we could get an early start on Thursday.

New Orleans Mission Trip January 23, 2007

2007-01-24T08:58:00.000-05:00

We began this morning with a devotional by Bill who read from Psalm 27. Bill had noticed this Psalm written on the garage door of a home on Sandpiper Street where we are working. Verse 1 starts "The Lord is my light and my salvation. I will fear no one. The Lord protects me from all danger. I will never be afraid." These are powerful words of faith to have written on your door when you have been through what these people have.

We worked all day on Erma's house, painting her walls with the color that she had chosen. Harrison, Vicki, Kelly, the Dougs, Tom, John and Bill are painting machines! With the exception of a small bathroom off of the bedroom, which will be finished on Wednesday, Erma's walls are complete. We also purchased doors and a small trim board to put up around the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling and we painted those too. On the way home, Doug Allen took those of us in the van on a tour of some streets in the Uptown area and Audubon Park where architecturally beautiful houses escaped the floodwaters. We returned to the church for dinner, weary and satisfied with our day of labor.

Tonight we stayed in for dinner of lasagna, fresh French bread and salad, and were joined by Cliff and his wife Nieta, Joel the Canadian and Debbie and Eric, the New York couple, who are giving much help to Cliff with organizing the accounting for this ministry as well as overseeing the building projects. We presented the check from FPCMARIETTA for $13,840, which is from our Mission Outreach from 2006. Bill reported to Cliff that his Katrina Relief efforts were part of our Mission Outreach for 2007 as well. Cliff was grateful for the contribution and we assured him that First Pres Marietta was firmly behind him in helping rebuild homes of those who desperately needed his and our help. When Cliff prayed to bless our food for dinner, he gave thanks for our group of missionaries, calling us a group form "afar," but we assured him that Marietta, Georgia was right around the corner and we were really neighbors!

After dinner, John Bretch led a reflection based on a word "enough" that he had seen on a house. Doug Ivester reminded us that even when we think we have had "enough" of helping rebuild people's lives, that we are really doing what we are doing for Christ, and there will never be enough. Christ never says that he has had "enough" with us and never gives up on us. This writer feels blessed to be on this trip, to be part of this group of Godly men and women who have hearts for Christ.

New Orleans Mission Team

2007-01-22T19:25:00.000-05:00

We spent a long successful day at Erma's house, texturing all of the walls in her downstair's rooms. Tomorrow we will paint! This writer was most impressed with the skills, ability and hard work of the team! However the most notable memories were the fashion statements made by Bill Callaway with his high water camouflage outfit and John Bretch with his overall look. Tonight we are going to the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood Restaurant, but most of us are almost too tired to care about eating....can you imagine??? We stopped by Estelle's house on the way back to the church from Erma's house to evaluate what we could do there. We will try to go there to work on Wednesday and Thursday.

New Orleans Mission Trip January 21,2007

2007-01-21T22:08:00.000-05:00

Doug Allen and his team of Tom Adams, John Bretch, Bill Callaway, Doug Ivester, Kelly Lohman, Debbie Peterson, Vicki Robinson, and Harrison Williams arrived safely in New Orleans at 6:00pm, after an uneventful trip. Those who had never been here before were incredulous about the destruction that is still visible from I-10. The weather is rainy and cool and we had dinner "in"--leftovers from the Officer's Dinner on Friday night! We plan to start early tomorrow by picking up a few supplies at Home Depot before we meet Erma at her house at 8:30 am. Cliff was not here to meet us because his mother-in-law passed away and he had to take Nieta to Texas to meet other relatives who will go to Oklahoma for the funeral. We heard that Cliff is supposed to be back here tomorrow. We were greeted here by Joel (our Canadian friend) and Eric and Debbie, a couple from New York who are staying here at the church for a couple of months while they work on building projects. Eric is a retired Pres. Minister.

Day 7: New Orleans Mission Trip

2006-11-26T07:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Saturday was a busy day. It was the day for team 2 to go home. We had to do alot of jobs. We pulled the weeds out of the garden, deliever a table to Austell's house, clean the church, and pack up to go home. It was go go go. Everyone was rushing everywhere to do something for someone. After Noon is when we decided to go. Team 2-Beth, Alex, Nate, Randy, Mark, Karen, Allison, Michael left while the Knox family-John, Eleanor, Johnny, Margaret Rose, and Graham went to a little vacation down in New Orleans. We had an exhausting drive back and got back near midnight. On the way home though almost everyone had a sad face on like they didn't want to go back home but wants to stay down in New Orleans.

If anyone would like to view the video/slideshow of the trip, please go to google.com, go to video, and search for Mac McIntyre. The 'New Orleans' video should appear in the search results. Thanks for your time!

Day 6: New Orleans Mission Trip

2006-11-25T09:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Friday, Team 1-Mac,Patssy, Susan, Tom, Barb, Alyce, and Vela are leaving today and we will miss them. Before they left, we go to our traditional good-bye restaurants Cafe du Monde. Team 1 left and Team 2-Nate, Michael, Allison, Johnny, Graham, Margaret Rose, Alex, Mark, Karen, Eleanor, John, Leader Beth, and Randy Sherman. We left for Erma's house and went to sand, mud, put of sheet rock, and put in the fireplace. The Californians were there and they had to contractors, so they worked on the fireplace. When it was getting late, we headed home and the Knox family went to E Palvilion. We decided to go to the Gumbo Shop and we found out about it by Cliff. On the way down there we were stuck in traffic. Going down Canal with almost every traffic light red was a mess. It took us 45 minutes to go 10 miles. We didn't find a parking spot because of what was going on. It was worth the drive because the food was delious. We found out that the "Battle of the Bands" was going on. The Knoxs walked from their hotel and that was a good decision. On the way back home Co-Pilot "Randy" took us around the same block about three times. Nate, we found out should a comedian and was making us laugh all the way home. The way back took 60 minutes for 10 miles. Pilot "Mark" 'there is more police on this street than there is in Atlanta all together.'

Day 5 New Orleans Mission Trip

2006-11-23T22:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to y'all! Today has been pretty laid back compared to the other days, but we got alot done in the time we had. Most everyone went to Irma's house to finish up and we did drywall and sheetrock in 2 rooms-including closets. At noon, we went back to the church and Alex, Beth, Tom, Patsy, and a few hungry others started on Thanksgiving dinner while the rest of the team took the New Orleans tour. It was really sad, but it made us glad that we could help these people out the best we could. After the tour, we packed the vans and went to the Nunns' house for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Peihen-a girl from the L.A. team-taught us a traditional Taiwan dance after dinner, and the whole group joined in. It was really fun. After finishing our delicious meals, the Knox's went to a hotel to stay the rest of the vacation and everyone else went back to the church to go to sleep and get ready for another big day tomorrow. Team 1-Mac, Patsy, Alyce, Tom, Vela, and Barb-are leaving tomorrow after breakfast. It will be sad with them gone, but God's work still needs to be done, so all the teams will meet back up Sunday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 4 New Orleans Mission Trip

2006-11-22T19:37:00.000-05:00

Another amazing day has gone by. We woke up at 6 again, but jumped right up, ate breakfast, and went to work. Mac, Patsy, Susan, the Knox's, and the Californian team stayed at the church to drive up the rotten concrete while everyone else went to Estelle and Irma's house to work. After the concrete was dug up, the team met up at Irma's house to put up sheetrock and drywall. It was very fun and messy. After about 6 hrs. of work-and half of the team getting lost in Lowes-we went back to the church and ate jambalya.(The Knox's and the Humphries went out to eat.)So today was pretty basic, but we got alot done and we hope tomorrow will be another successful day.

Day 3 New Orleans Mission Trip

2006-11-22T09:07:00.000-05:00

Another awesome day has gone by in New Orleans. We woke up at 6 and got to work on Estelle's house as soon as we could. We finished the doors, the yard, and alot of sweeping. We still need to do drywall and the floors. We really got through alot, though, in the little time and with the few people we had. Speaking of people, the people from California and the rest of FPC arrived. FPC consisted of Nate Shelton, Alex Ball, Beth Bailey, Randy Sherman, Susan Holland, Allison Humphries, Michael Humphries, Mark Humphries, Karen Humphries, Graham Knox, Johnny Knox, Margaret Rose Knox, John Knox, and Eleanor Knox. As for the Californians, we have hardly spoken to them so we have yet to find out their names. We left our jobs at about 5:15 and we headed back to the church just in time to meet up with the other FPC group. Mainly, we just hung out a while and unloaded the new van while waiting on cliff and our dinner. Soon enough, they both came and we had a delicious dinner of gumbo and salad. It was a very relaxing evening, and we can't wait to get the new groups with us to start on the new project.

New Orleans Mission Trip

2006-11-20T20:28:00.000-05:00

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.

Day Two and Three In Mississippi

2006-09-20T21:11:00.000-04:00

It is now Wednesday evening and we are finishing dinner with our new friends from Spokane Washington. Until today we had the whole site to ourselves. A group of fourteen arrived for the next seven days. The amount of volunteers has been slim late this summer. I guess word got out about hot humid days on the coast.

There is obvious signs of progress but the area still has a long way to go. I took a side trip to New Orleans as it is my birthplace. Very sad to see less progress there versus Mississippi. I found my grandmother's home and discovered that it is about to be demolished. So many homes are abandoned and will be gone very soon. I went by Peace Presbyterian Church. Very sad to see no life there. That whole area of New Orleans looks like a ghost town.

Our small group has been working on Betty Smith's home finishing it up so she can move out of her FEMA trailer. Believe me she is ready. Ceilings were completed, closets were built, leaky sinks fixed, walls re-inforced, and a kitchen exhaust fan was wired and installed.

We have also made some new friends at Lowes. We have visited there many times getting supplies.

Some of us return back to Atlanta tomorrow, Richard Terrell, my father-in-law, and I will return. We all have learned some new skills that we prefer to leave on the gulf coast. Mark Rittenhour, David Mahan, and Paul Cobb will return Friday.

Please continue to pray for this area. The Lord is doing great work here as the spirit is great in Mississippi.

Mississippi Re-Visit

2006-09-19T22:53:00.000-04:00

We arrived safely in Mississippi.

Long days and short nights! I will update our progress with pictures and an update Wednesday pm.

Gene and the guys.

Photos

2006-07-09T15:37:00.000-04:00

Reflection of the Week in New Orleans

2006-07-09T15:18:00.000-04:00

After having coffee and beignets at Cafe DeMonde, we fueled the tanks and headed home. It was a worthwhile week of great fellowship and labor. Each of us are so very thankful for being able to give, and of what we have. Cliff Nunn knows many people with needs, spread the word and encourage others to participate with a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance team.

Thursday, July 6th

2006-07-06T23:52:00.000-04:00

Awesome day!! Most of us returned to Bea's house, and we finished installing the sheetrock!. Some sanding and mudding still needs to be done, but her walls are complete. She is jubilant, and as we walked thru her house with her at the end of the day Bea whirled around and shouted 'Halleluah!' She now has a huge smile, and is filled with hope. Bea's worry level has been lifted somewhat, she can see the light at the end of the tunnel. On our way home from Bea's we saw a rainbow - God's blessing to us.
The others stayed at Cliff's church and cleaned, built shelves in the storage building and did some yard work. Cliff and Neita are so appreciative that groups are coming into their community to help. Others in this church are appreciative as well. So much so, that a cajun dinner was prepared for us tonight. Absolutely delicious!! Quite a gathering.
At reflection tonight we all shared something we learned: how to do corner taping, using a drill, being patient with others, and that we really like our day jobs.
This trip has been another step in each our lives as we grow in faith with God, doing his will.

July 5th

2006-07-05T22:35:00.000-04:00

Big day today. Debbie's devotion started us out with 1 Corinthians 15: 50-58; "...because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." We all went to Bea's house to hang sheetrock. After lunch a few people went back to Gentilly Presbyterian Ch. to finish painting, and the rest of us continued to hang sheetrock. Bea is a widow, and her whole house has had to have sheetrock replaced on the bottom half. As reflected tonight, this has been a task that most of us knew nothing about before now. We have stepped out of our boat for Jesus. Yard work was done as well (before the rain came). The Lord has blessed us with an over cast sky and tolerable temperatures.
Dinner tonight at the New Orleans Burger and Seafood restaurant was delicious!! We all will rest well tonight.

July 4th

2006-07-05T22:07:00.000-04:00

Started the day with a devotion about "America Resolution, Louisiana Rebirth, & Individual's Restore with the help of the Holy Spirit." We split shift into two teams again, part at Gentilly Pres. Church and Bea's house. The team at Bea's house continued to hang sheetrock, while the team at the church finished up some tasks that the minister had on her list to get her church ready for
a special healing service which will take place in early August. We finished working at noon today so that Cliff could take our group on a tour of the Katrina damaged areas.
After the tour, Cliff and his wife Neita, joined us for hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill, corn on the cob, and watermelon. Cliff took the group to the riverpark to watch the 4th of July fireworks. We feel so blessed to be here and to live in this country that allows us so many freedoms.

Monday July 3rd

2006-07-03T20:30:00.000-04:00

Doug Allen started our work day out with a devotion from Psalms. We then went to Gentilly Presbyterian Church where Pastor Shirley Frazier had a list of things for us to do. Mid morning part of the group went to Bea's house to continue the work from last week's group on the sheetrock. Sh
Shrimp Poboys were provided by George from Gentilly Pres for lunch and then it was back to work! Pastor Shirley's congregation has dwindle down to about 20 elderly people. They started worshiping together in Nov. Shirley had to multi-task as the minister and pianist. In May they have moved back into the sanctuary and now have a permanent organist. Neighborhood task force meetings will begin this fall meeting at her church as well. Since most families with children have left the congregation, she only has one elementary age child for her children's service.
Bea assisted with the mudding and taping of the drywall. Tomorrow hopefully we will finish this part and be ready to paint on Wed.
Beth raps up us today with a reflection using a verse from Genesis, no small task goes unnoticed. We will rest well tonight!

First Presbyterian Short Term Mission Blog: New Orleans Mission Trip June 2006

2006-07-02T23:33:00.000-04:00

First Presbyterian Short Term Mission Blog: New Orleans Mission Trip July 2006

Arrived safely. The drive across Lake Pontchartrain was during a rain storm, kind of freaky when some of the guard rail is already missing. Amazing that nearly one year later, some places don't have any reconstruction going on at all. We had a wonderful dinner at Picadilly's, then met Cliff at the church. Beds are made, plans for tomorrow being discussed, and what's for lunch & dinner to think about. The Big Easy likes to eat!

7/2/06

New Orleans Mission Trip June 2006

2006-06-26T22:10:00.000-04:00

We arrived in New Orleans safely after an uneventful trip. Unsure how to active the classic stove, and unwilling to go down in history as the first to burn down First Pres of New Orleans, we went out for dinner. After dinner we drove by Robert’s house and looked at the project. We got a chance to meet Robert and learn some of his experiences.
We came back, set up housekeeping and met two former Atlantans and adopted them as part of our group. The resident rat, Carlos, ate our bagels and bananas during the night so we had to make due with the leftovers for breakfast. We drove off to Robert’s house feeling energized and motivated.

One crew went to get lumber (read air conditioning) while the others started bleaching mole, replacing studs, and drinking lots of water. We went of to eat lunch in two groups one group at Robert’s house and one group at First Pres. N.O. eating sandwiches. At the end of a looong hot day we dined on Val Vanderlip’s homemade lasagna and garlic bread. Yum. You haven’t been to New Orleans until you have tasted ice cream from The Creole Creamery which was our after dinner excursion. Imagine Fig with Honey and Pecans, Lemon Poppyseed, or Chockwork Orange…

Pictures to follow.

Spring Break 2006 - We return home

2006-06-10T22:04:00.000-04:00

The devotional on our final morning was done by Bill Zercher. Afterward we packed up and cleaned up the areas of the church that we have lived in all week to prepare for the long drive back to Marietta. We said our good-byes to Cliff and Nieta and heard from Cliff that he was planning to visit us in Marietta in late summer. As we departed, we took a long, last look at a city that was so devastated by Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed, knowing that the small contribution we had made had indeed been honored by God and would enable Christ’s light to shine just a little bit brighter in the city of New Orleans. We also told ourselves that FPC Marietta would be back…
FPC New Orleans with the banner we sent welcoming people to Easter Service

Spring Break 2006 Work Day 4

2006-05-21T23:09:00.000-04:00

Work day 4 began with breakfast and a devotional by David Geiger. Then one work crew of five folks went to finish cleaning up Robert’s house and everyone else went to work on the sanctuary of the church.

When we first arrived in New Orleans on Sunday evening, Cliff shared that he was thinking about having his Sunday service in the sanctuary on Easter Sunday, but he was undecided due to the amount of work that still needed to be done. Therefore, we determined to that we would do whatever we had to in order that the sanctuary was ready.

We divided the sanctuary work between three work crews:

One to focus on the chancel – putting down a new sub-floor, replacing the steps and cleaning the pulpit.

FPCNO Chancel gets a new sub-floor and a clean pulpit.

One to the main sanctuary to clean the floor and columns.

Cleaning the floor of the sanctuary was hard work.

One to the Narthex to restoring the wood to its natural color, some painting and cleaning the marble floors.

When we finished around 7 PM on Thursday, there was still work to be done but the sanctuary was looking much, much better and Cliff had definitely decided by then that Easter services would be held there. We had dinner Thursday evening with several members of FPCNO, who told us their Katrina stories. Robert joined us for dinner as well and he was a different person than the man we met on Monday morning. He was smiling and enjoying himself. We presented him with a FPC Marietta T-shirt and told him he didn’t have to become a Presbyterian but we that we wanted him to come to Cliff’s Easter service. After dinner, the church members wanted to see the sanctuary and were very excited about the progress we had made.

That’s when the hand of God reached out and touched the FPC mission team to let us know He was in our midst. Thursday night was Wendy Trippe’s turn to lead the Reflection and she had decided that as a closing to her Reflection, we should all go down to the freshly cleaned up sanctuary and pray as a group for God’s blessing as FPCNO opened its doors to the public on Easter Sunday.

Dr. Nunn and his wife Nieta chose to join us for our final reflection and we all walked down to the sanctuary, formed a circle, joined hands and prayed around the circle, our individual prayers of thankfulness, for Cliff, for our projects and for blessings on their sanctuary. At the conclusion of the prayer, David Griffith, our guitar man for the trip, appropriately began playing, and we began singing, “Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary”.

As we were singing, Cliff’s wife, Nieta, all of a sudden left the group and practically ran through the front door. We weren’t sure what to think, but several seconds later, she appeared in the loft over the chancel and was furiously tugging at a large piece of plastic that was covering…. an organ. As she was rapidly flipping switches, Bill Zercher astutely told Dave to play one more verse of "Sanctuary" and as soon as we finished, Nieta began playing, “Joyful, Joyful, We adore thee”. Never did it sound so good and spontaneous cheers erupted from the group on the floor.

Tears welled up in many team members’ eyes and we knew at that moment that the words Jesus said to Peter – “Upon this rock I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” – were never more true.

We knew that Cliff would open the doors of that sanctuary on Easter Sunday morning and the light of the resurrected Christ would shine brightly into the darkened city of New Orleans.

Finally, we knew God was there with us and honoring the work we did in His name.

Spring Break 2006 Work Day 3

2006-05-20T23:10:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, April 5th, was a little different schedule-wise. We started our day with a devotional by Susan Merrick where she shared that, just as we find God in the rebirth of Spring, we can also find God in the rebirth of New Orleans. Then we all went down to cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter for some of their world-famous beignets and coffee.

Waiting for Beignets at Cafe Du Monde

Afterward, we set out for a day committed to completing most of the projects we were working on because we had decided as a team that we wanted to devote Thursday to insuring that the sanctuary of FPCNO was in good enough shape to for Cliff to conduct his service there on Easter Sunday. So that morning we completed our work on Elaine's house, the yard at FPCNO, and Peace Presbyterian Church and all returned to FPCNO for lunch and showers since Cliff was taking us on a tour of the damage done to New Orleans that afternoon. We were all encouraged to see that Robert was starting to loosen up and become attached to us. He joined us on the tour.

Dr. Cliff Nunn provides us with an in-depth tour of what happened in New Orleans

The tour impacted all of us. The amount of damage done to New Orleans cannot be adequately told by CNN. We took a tour around the entire city of New Orleans making stops at four different Presbyterians churches - each in different states of repair and clean up, and the Ninth Ward. While many areas of town sustained significant damage, nothing else compared to the utter destruction we witnessed in the Ninth Ward. It is lowland with many houses that were already aging near where a couple of the levee breaks occurred. Virtually every structure in the area is irreparable, dozens of cars were turned over, debris is everywhere and the area is desolate. It is hard to believe that lots of people lived here less than a year ago.

The extent of the devastation in the 9th Ward was unbelievable

Once we completed this very sobering tour, we returned to the church. Immediately after eating our pizza dinner Wednesday evening, we started working on preparing the FPCNO sanctuary for Easter Sunday service.

Realizing the extent of the damage to this great city, many of us wondered how the little bit that our group would accomplish in one week could make any difference at all. However, our evening ended with David Griffith leading our reflection by singing a number of songs that reminded us that God is greater than all the devastation we had seen and that He uses all of our work in His name - however little it might be - to serve His purposes.

Sunday - Homeward Bound

2006-05-01T11:51:00.000-04:00

We made it through the night just fine. We are very grateful that the storm either missed us or wasn't as bad as forecast. We went back to the PDA camp for a quick breakfast and discovered that the storm had moved one of the pods that they had not been able to secure before the storm.

The drive home was uneventful and we got back about 5:30 pm to discover that the City of Marietta had thrown a welcome home party for us. (the annual 'Taste of Marietta' ). Well, it seemed that way to us anyway.

Our prayer is that we have demonstrated God's love throughout this trip. We encourage each of you to find a way to serve wherever you can. You will be rewarded in ways beyond your imagination. Praise God!

Saturday - Pearlington

2006-05-01T11:34:00.000-04:00

Our final work day of this mission trip.
Many of the groups that were in camp when we got here on Thursday night left yesterday or today,so we were the only group out working today. We went back to the same house that we started yesterday and continued hanging sheetrock. We made more progess today than yesterday and by the end of the day we had finished the kitchen, the pantry, a small closet, one low wall in the entry hallway and one wall in the great room. All in all we think we did a pretty good job. It certainly looks different than when we started on Friday morning.

We got Pat and Jamie to tell us their story of the hurricane. When the water started rising and coming in the house, they thought it might only get a couple of feet deep. As the water continued to rise, they moved to the upper level. They have a beautiful german shepherd named Zeke who was about one year old at the time.

As the water rose, he was sitting on the sofa as it started to float around the living room. Since he had never been taught to climb the stairs, they had to carry him upstairs. As the water continued to rise, they made their way onto the roof over the garage and from there to the second story roof. They were on the roof for about an hour, when a neighbor who had a boat picked them up and carried them to a house in the neighborhood that is on stilts. It is also on a slight rise, so it was higher than their house.The house had been for sale for four years and was vacant so they broke a window to get in. About 35 people, 15 dogs and 1 cat spent the next three days in the house before the National Guard brought them meals ready to eat (MRE) and
drinking water. (The flood waters had receded in about eight hours.) When the police showed up in five days, they told them that there was food,water and ice in Waveland which is about 15 miles from Pearlington. The survivors explained to the police that no one had a working vehicle. The police took their two cars to Waveland and loaded them to the top with food, water, and ice and brought it back to the residents. Makes our day to day problems seem kind of insignificant.

Pat and Jamie have been 'recovering' for the last eight months. Jamie admitted that it was often discouraging to see the slow pace of recovery, but that the only way to make things better is to just keep working and to not feel sorry for yourself. They were very appreciative of the work that we did for them and even offered us the use of their trailer to take showers or to sleep if we were uncomfortable at the PDA camp.

When we got back to camp, a group of eight ladies from New York city had arrived to work for a week, so we had company for dinner (hamburgers on the grill). As this is being written (about 8:45 pm local time), we are under a severe thunderstorm/tornado watch and may have to evacuate to the local elementary school which is about three miles away. It appears that the storm may be going north of us, but we will just have to wait and see. Most of us are sitting in the main food tent waiting for storm updates. We have already had one short but very intense rain storm.

Now at 9:30 pm we are told we are being evacuated to the school so we pack up all our stuff and drive to the school. It was converted to a relief center after the storm and is still functioning as that today.

We are sleeping in the auditorium on cots and it is actually pretty comfortable. The gym was converted into a distribution center for free food and clothing and other supplies. They named it 'Pearl Mart'. One of the signs in Pearl Mart said 'We will not be undersold'.

You just never know what adventures await you on a mission trip!

Check out tomorrow's posting to see how we did.

Good night from Pearlington!

Friday - Pearlington

2006-05-01T10:10:00.000-04:00

Up at 6:30 for breakfast. The funny thing about breakfast was that they had breakfast burritos. We thought were back in Mexico!. They have a well stocked pantry that is open 24/7 if you get hungry.

After breakfast, we got our work assignment for the day, which was hanging sheetrock. We got this job because we are 'skilled' laborers. At least that is what we told the camp director. Anyway, this is a much better job than 'mucking out' a house which is the process of removing all the moldy, smelly sheetrock or other wall covering and insulation and in general cleaning up. It is hard to believe (unless you have been here) that 8 months after the storm there are still homes that need to have this done. Although many houses have been done and reconstruction has started on some, there are still those where almost nothing has been done. Of course, some of the houses are so badly damaged that they cannot be salvaged and are just waiting to be demolished.

We are working for a family that lives about two miles from the camp. Wheb the storm hit, they had just celebrated their one year anniversary of owning their home.

They have FEMA trailer to live in while the house is being repaired and while the trailer is nice enough, it is pretty cramped for long term living.

We started hanging sheetrock in the kitchen. From this picture you can see that the water level got to the second level of their home (notice where the sheetrock has been removed on the upper wall).

They have done a lot to repair their home so far, but like many people here they have limited resources. We are the first outside help that they have had. Fortunately, between our tools, those of the PDA camp and the homeowner and their neighbors, we had everything we needed for sheetrock work. They even had borrowed a device to lift and hold up the sheetrock. Makes it much easier to do the ceiling!

We knocked off at 11:30 for lunch at the First Missionary Baptist Church.

This is their pastor, Reverend Rawls and Brian.

These fine Christian brothers and sisters are feeding lunch to 100-300 people Monday through Friday using voluntary contributions of food, money and cooking.

Here are the two ladies who prepare the food.

What a wonderful example of Christian service! And when we say lunch, we are not talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a glass of milk. Here is a picture of one of our plates.

They had fruit salad, potato salad, biscuits, fried catfish, boiled crawfish, red beans and rice, pork and beans and peach cobbler. Talk about Southern hospitality.

Here is a picture of the inside of their church.

As you can see, it needs a lot of work. They are raising money to rebuild, but it is not a large congregation. If you can, please send them a contribution to help with rebuilding their church. First Missionary Baptist Church, Pearlington, MS 39572 should be enough address (Pearlington is not very big).

After lunch, we continued hanging sheetrock and made good progress. We will go back on Saturday and should be able to complete a significant portion of the downstairs.

Before dinner, we rode over to Waveland, MS. Along the beach, there was complete destruction. Check out the October entries in this blog to see some pictures. Just like in Pearlington, not much has changed since October. Some houses are being rebuilt, but most are not. Christ Episcopal church now has a quonset hut type structure to worship in.

Here is the link to another blog about the work in Pearlington

http://www.pearlington.blogspot.com

Tomorrow (Saturday) is our last day here at Pearlington, and then we will be headed home.

Thursday - On the road again

2006-05-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

Having finished our work in Monterrey, we headed for home early Thursday morning leaving the hotel at 4:30 am. We dropped off two of the team at the Monterrey airport and then headed for the border which is about a 2 hour drive. There is always some anxiety about the trip out of Mexico, since we have to pass 'Check point Charlie' just as we did on the way in. This is the interior border and is about 12 miles from the actual border. Here they often check us out and look in the trailer for who knows what. Fortunately, this year we got the green light and drove through. Next stop is the vehicle registration bureau where we turn in our vehicle permit. One more toll bridge and then the entry into the US where we also sometimes get searched. This year they looked in the trailer but did not make us take anything out.

We were back in the good ole USA by about 8:30 am so we celebrated by going to McDonalds for juice and coffee. (Of course we could have gone to McDonalds in Monterrey because they have plenty of them). Our first real stop in Texas is our favorite barbeque restaurant, Cowpokes in Pearsall for an early lunch. Then on to the San Antonio airport where we dropped off two more members of the team. The remaining five of us then headed east to try and get through Houston before rush hour. There seems to be a continuous work project on I-10 in downtown Houston and maybe they will actually finish it one of these years. Anyway, we made pretty good time and arrived in Lake Charles, LA for our favorite seafood restaurant, Steamboat Bill's. Great fried shrimp and boiled crawfish. If it is true that an army travels on its stomach, then so does a mission team! Then back in the van to try to make it to Pearlington, MS.
Before we left home, we had arranged to stop in Pearlington at the Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance (PDA) Katrina work camp and work on Friday and Saturday. We arrived right on time at 10:30 pm after riding in the van for 18 hours. This is one of the newer PDA camps having only been setup in January. Pealington is right on the Mississippi Louisiana border and was 'wiped off the map' according to the news folks. Well, it is still there, but there is plenty of devastation and plenty of work to be done in helping these people get their lives back to some sense of normal. The camp director was up waiting for us and promptly got us settled in our pods (shelters) for some much needed rest.

Wednesday in Monterrey

2006-04-26T23:21:00.000-04:00

Well, it wasn't so hot today. Finally!
We got up even earlier and we left the hotel at 6:30 am and got to the job site about 7 am.

Jan concluded his devotion series about being mission oriented every day with readings from Matthew. We greatly appreciate Jan's willingness to lead these devotions. Each of them has given us a wonderful start to the day's work.

Today's job consisted of laying the first row of blocks on all seven slabs. The first task is to remove the form boards from the slabs.

Then we lay out the four walls and snap chalk lines for reference. We mix the mortar and start laying the blocks.

Each house has two openings for doors and we try to get them where the homeowner wants them if at all possible. Today's work went very well once we got going. We had three teams laying block simultaneousy, so the work was done by noon! Some of us even got to take a watermelon break at the fruit stand in front of one of the slabs.

Here are some pictures of the proud workers and even prouder home owners.

Hermando and his wife were especially grateful and a couple of our guys saw tears in Hermando's eyes as we were leaving. He gave each of us a bear hug that let us know how much he appreciated what we had done.

Moments like that make this trip so satisfying that it is hard to describe. From our affluent perspective what we are giving them seems like so little, but it is obviously a tremendous gift from their perspective.

We have been blessed to have this opportunity to serve God and to witness to these people. Our prayer is that what we have done has glorified God and that the homes we have started may make a real and lasting change in the lives of these people. We give praise to God for his goodness and for his guidance on this trip.

Each of us takes home something different from these trips. Please ask us to tell you our story the next time you see one of us.

Buenas noches de Monterrey

Tuesday in Monterrey

2006-04-25T22:59:00.000-04:00

Well, it was hot again today. Same routine as yesterday only earlier since the first concrete truck was supposed to be at the job site at 8 am.

Jan's morning devotion was based on Matthew 2: 1-6 and James 1:22 with the theme that we must be doers of the Word and not just listeners and that means every day not just when we are in Monterrey. We closed with the Lord's prayer.

While waiting for the concrete trucks to show up, we reinforced some of the forms to make sure they would not move due to the weight of the concrete. As is often the case, the first truck did not show up when we expected it, but about 9:30 am, three trucks arrived at the same time. We began pouring the site where three houses are close together.

The trucks do not have chutes long enough to place the concrete in all areas of the slab, so we use 'come alongs' to move the concrete. That is seriously hard work!

Once there is enough concrete in the form, we start smoothing the slab using a bull float. This usually takes about 20 minutes per slab.

The final step is to install a piece of vertical rebar in the corner of each slab. This is used to provide stability for the concrete block wall. It takes about one truck per slab depending on the depth of the slab. Once the trucks started arriving, they came at good intervals with only a couple of twenty minute breaks. We finished at about 1 pm and headed back to the Granada. A very good day's work. Ty's lunch blessing gave thanks to God for the sucess of today's work. He reminded us that when things go well, we often take credit for it and forget to give God the credit and the glory. In previous years we have had days that did not go so well, but we remember that God is with us in both the good days and the 'hard' days.

After we returned to the hotel, some of went to the local Home Depot to buy mortar mix to lay the first row of blocks tomorrow. We lay the first row of block using mortar. All the rows above that are dry laid by the Senior Highs and then a stucco type cement is applied to both the interior and exterior walls. It makes for a very strong wall.

A few more local school children showed up with their notebooks to ask us questions for their assignment.

Everyone is in good spirits, feeling well and working together as a team.
Praise God!

Buenas noches de Monterrey.

Monday in Monterrey

2006-04-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Well, it was hot! We were up at 6 am or so, had breakfast on the hotel balcony and then left for the work site about 7 am. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the job site from our hotel. We are working in Escobedo, which is on the northwest side of Monterrey. The last couple of miles takes us through an industrial area and then a 'housing' area that is even poorer than the area where we are working. As we passed one of the elementary schools many of the children were walking to school with their mom or dad. They wear white uniforms that look spotless. It always amazes us that in the midst of all the dust, their uniforms are so clean.

Once we got to the job site, Jan Milligan led us in the morning devotion based on Matthew 25:32-40 which is the story of the sheep and goats. Verse 40 is : "The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers, you did for me."

Jan reminded us that while it is good to come on these mission trips and serve the 'least of these', we should do it every day of the year, not just on mission trips. A very appropriate thought to start the day.

The first construction task was to start framing the forms for the concrete slabs. Each slab is 21' 6" on a side, so we have to splice a 10' piece and a 12' piece for each side of the form. After nailing the four sides together, we adjust it to make it square.

Then we shoot each corner with a transit to get the form level.

Then we put stakes all along each side of the slab to hold it in place when the concrete is poured. The next step is to dig footers along each of the four edges of the slab.

The final step is to install grade stakes in the middle of the slab. These are used when we are pouring the slab to get in level all across its surface. All of this sounds simple, but it always seems to take longer than we expect. With seven slabs this year, we really have a lot to do. We made great progress up until about 11:30 am when we had lunch. After lunch, the heat began to take its toll on all of us and progress slowed considerably. However, by about 2:30 pm we had all the sites ready or almost ready to pour. The first concrete truck is scheduled for 8:00 am on Tuesday and then every 30 minutes after that. Promises to be a busy morning!

There is not much shade on the build sites, but Erroll found it.

He deserved a break. He, along with everyone else, worked very hard today!

The only problem of the day ( and even it wasn't major) was that we misunderstood where on of the slabs was supposed to go and ended having to move it about 17 inches to get it over the property line.

While we were working today, we were approached by some of the school children who obviously had an assigment to come talk to us. Each had their notebook with written questions to ask us and for us to write the answer in their notebook. The questions were 1) When were we going back to the USA?, 2) Where were we from?, 3) What was our name?. Some had a fourth question which was how old we were.

It was amusing because some of the kids (they were about 12 years old) were too shy to ask us directly. They would hand their notebook to one of the other kids who would bring it to us. They were all very polite and thanked us for helping them with their assignment.

Tonight we were guests for dinner at the church.

Some of the ladies of the church prepare an authentic meal for us every year. This year there were two beef dishes and one pork dish. All were served with tortillas.

Muy delicioso!

Buenos noches de Monterrey.

Men's Monterrey Mexico Mission

2006-04-23T23:55:00.000-04:00

It is Sunday night and we are anxious to get to work tomorrow morning. Four members of our team left Marietta on Friday morning at about 6 am in the church van. We spent the first night in Houston and then arrived in Monterrey, Mexico on Saturday afternoon. The trip was thankfully uneventful. The rest of our team flew in on Saturday or Sunday and we have one coming in on Monday.

This morning we worshipped at the Presbyterian church in Monterrey that is our partner in this mission effort.

The name of the church is Camino, Verdad y Vida ( The Way, the Truth and the Life). Pedro Diaz, the pastor, is also the father of Marcos and Jorge who many of you know. Marcos and Jorge are a wonderful help to us and without them this mission trip would be almost impossible.
Their worship service lasts about 2 hours and includes at least 12 -15 hymns. It is a stimulating and joyous worship experience even if you don't understand the language! They gave us a warm welcome as always. Allen Hirons is the bravest of our group. He prepared and delivered in Spanish a welcome from our church to our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ in Monterrey.

Our task is to pour seven concrete slabs for houses that the Senior High youth will build in June.
This is the most slabs we have ever poured and so we praying that everything will go smoothly so that we may finish our work. With the heat and dust it can be quite exhausting for those of us who are used to working inside all day.

This afternoon we went out to visit the job site. Although some of the build sites had changed since our pretrip visit in January, we were very pleased to find very level sites that had been cleared and are ready for us to begin.

On Monday, we will build and install the forms for the slabs and get everything ready to pour the concrete on Tuesday. Each slab is 21' x 21'. Not a large house by our standards, but definitely a step up for the families who live in them. The weather forecast is for hot days with significant cloud cover.

Please check in again to see pictures of the construction and check on our progress.
Also, please keep us in your prayers!

Our team consists of Erroll Eckford, Mark Thompson, Rem Bennett, Ty Hunter, Dean Sutherland, Phil Brand, Bill Claxton, Allen Hirons, George Childress, Jan Milligan and Brian Wright.

Muchias gracias

Spring Break 2006 Work Day 2

2006-04-13T22:01:00.000-04:00

We continued our efforts on Tuesday by starting off with breakfast and a devotional by Dan Valentine about how real servants act. After that everyone moved to their work sites to continue the work started the previous day.

Our tremendous teen crew sets off to work

Robert continues to have a difficult time letting us tear damaged parts of his house out. He appears to be trying to hold on to the little bit that he still has and the team is being understanding but firm with Robert that he has to let go so the house can be repaired. One funny incident occurred when Robert indicated that he wanted to leave something in place for the contractors to look at. Mike Beasley responded that "we are the contractors, we're just free." It appeared to work as Robert allowed us to continue to gut his house.

Elaine's House

Robert's House (note his FEMA trailer to the left side of the house)

FPC team members gutting the inside of a house

Some members of our team had mixed feeling about why we were continuing to work on Peace Presbyterian since we had learned that their Session had voted to dissolve the church but while they were working on it, a pastor that had lost his church in the storm visited and indicated that he had a congregation of 300 and this church building would be perfect. Where this goes is in God's hands but we were reminded that nothing done on God's behalf is ever wasted. We were asked to remove the beautiful 100 year old stained glass windows in the front of Peace and store them but we respectfully declined not wanting to hazard the possibility of breaking them.

Peace Presbyterian's Stained Glass Windows

Back at FPCNO, Tami Martin devoted her efforts to cleaning handbells that had been tarnished by the flooding and Will and Michelle Goodman, with Salli Beasley's help, put their professional expertise in landscaping and plants to good use, transforming a garden in the yard of FPCNO into an area that has gained compliments of many of the nursery school parents and even a couple from the pre-schoolers themselves! There is much excitement on the part of the nursery school about the upcoming Easter egg hunt in their new garden.

The kids love the new garden we put into FPCNO's church yard

At the end of the day, we all cleaned up, ate at Piccadilly's and came back to reflect on the day's event. Debbie Peterson lead the reflection by talking about how, as Christ's servants, we needed extend an "Arm of Love" and literally passed around an arm (no, it wasn't real, it was off a dummy). The holder of the arm would share his or her reflection of how we saw an arm of love extended to someone today.

We also met as a team Tuesday night and decided that we would finish up at Peace Presbyterian, at Elaine's house and in the new garden in FPCNO's yard on Wednesday and devote most of our team on Thursday to working on FPCNO's sanctuary to insure that it would be ready for a worship service on Easter Sunday less than two weeks away. With our last two days planned out, we all headed for a much desired night of rest...

Spring Break 2006 Katrina Mission

2006-04-03T23:34:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, April 2nd, 32 men, women and teen-age missionaries departed from First Presbyterian Church Marietta and traveled to New Orleans to continue this church’s effort to support those whose lives were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The team was made up of:

Andrew Nelson, Beth Bailey, Bill Zercher, Celine Thomas, Dan Valentine, David Geiger, David Griffith, David Hartin, David McPherson, Debbie Peterson, Doug Allen, Jeff Hartin, Karen Humphrey, Keith Thomas, Kelly Lohman, Matthew Geiger, Melanie Valentine, Melissa Merrick, Michelle Goodman, Mike Beasley, Mikhail Thomas, Natalie Thomas, Nate Shelton, Nathan Boatwright, Perry Beasley, Richard Blake, Salli Beasley, Susan Merrick, Tami Martin, Wendy Trippe, Will Goodman, Will Goodman Jr.

We arrived at First Presbyterian Church New Orleans where we would be staying until April 7th at 7 PM Sunday and were greeted by Dr. Cliff Nunn, FPCNO’s pastor. He gave us a tour of the church which is still undergoing repairs from damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina. The sanctuary is without its pews which were out being refurbished but they are intent upon conducting an Easter service here in 2 weeks. After the tour, we enjoyed a lasagna dinner and were in-briefed on the current situation in New Orleans and the projects that we would be working on. After that we all got situated in our respective sleeping areas and rested for our first day of work.

Monday morning, April 3rd started with breakfast and a devotional by Dan Valentine sharing that our lives are not intended to be our own but rather surrendered to God in order to that we can serve Him by serving others. After that we broke into four teams to take on our different assignments.

Teams 1 and 2 were each assigned a house about 2 blocks from the church that had sustained serious damage and were in need of cleaning out and gutting for two people – Robert and Elaine - who, while owning the houses, did not have the ability to get them repaired.

Team 3 went back to Peace Presbyterian Church and continued the process that a prior mission team from FPC Marietta began last Thanksgiving. The team began the process of tearing down the drywall which had flood damage.

Team 4 stayed at the church and did several things to help prepare the church for Easter Sunday including landscaping work and cleaning the handbells tarnished by the flooding.

It was a hot day and most of the work was dirty but an amazing amount of work was done. The teams will all be returning tomorrow to continue their respective projects.

After enjoying a dinner at New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood, a restaurant that featured some of the local flavor, we had a Reflection that was lead by Mike Beasley. Mike asked us to reflect on the funny events of the day and some of the things we felt were more serious. A lot of our discussion centered on Robert, whose house we are cleaning out. We talked about how Robert – who is currently living in a FEMA trailer - had such a hard time letting go of things that were damaged and how depressed he was. We prayed that God would help Robert - and the many others in his situation - through this tough time and that we might shine some light into his life. With this, David Griffith led us in a song and we went to get a good night’s sleep so that we could continue God’s work tomorrow.

Thursday In Mississippi

2006-02-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

Good evening to our friends and family. Our focus today continued at the Ladniers home. Roofing, flooring, and cleaning continued to be our priorities.

Our friends from Virginia continued to help us.

There were many tough decisions to make. How do we cut this board and who is going to cut it?

That's easy to answer because Paul "I'll cut anything" Cobb is here!

Our long day included some rain showers, blustering winds, and cold temperatures. As the end of the day approached we were getting close to closure on the roof.

The last shingle

The last nail put in by homeowner Will Ladnier. They now have a home with a roof. Their journey home has just begun.

Our last day will focus on finishing up our work for this wonderful family. We have been invited back to see the finished product.

Thank you God for allowing us this opportunity and please help us have a safe trip back home to our families. Amen!

Phil, Paul, David and Gene

Wednesday in Mississippi

2006-02-22T22:16:00.000-05:00

Our morning started out with waking up to a dense fog. We had a wonderful breakfast at Hardee's. It was over 85 degrees inside Hardees. They could not figure out how to turn off the heat. Our day could only improve.

We had another group from Virginia (Richmond area) assist us today at the Ladnier's home. The entire exterior siding was cleaned, windows washed, soffit replaced or re-installed, and more roofing and flooring installed.

At lunch time we had a devotion with our group
to reflect on why we were here. We read from the book of Romans.

At the end of our wonderful day we went down to look at the Ladniers family homes. The pictures can only tell you what we saw. They lost almost everything. Just a slab remains.

The following are pictures of what is left of the Ladniers old neighborhood.

The evening sunset was unbelievable. What an end of a wonderful fulfilling day. The Lord continues to bless us and look over us on our journey in Mississippi. Good night from Paul, Phil, David and Gene.

Tuesday In MIssissippi

2006-02-21T22:13:00.000-05:00

Today was our first full day working in the field. Our assignment was working with a young family getting there newly purchased home back in order. Imagine buying this home after the hurricane with an eighteen month old baby.

The Ladnier family, Will, Kerry, and Juliana are looking forward to moving into their home. They have several generations of family on the gulf coast and plan to stay. The gulf coast is HOME and they are here to stay!

Our jobs included finishing the roof and replacing the flooring in part of the home. This home is well above ground but still had over three feet of water in it on the living level.

The water line reached to the door knob in the picture below. The water remained at this level for several hours before receding. Note the river in the background.

Another crew gutted the home prior to our visit. David and Phil worked on the roof and Paul and I (Gene) worked inside. Following a full day the back side of the home's roof was completed and the flooring inside was making progress.

After a long day at the Ladnier home our team was famished. We dined at the local buffet diner Barnhills. Back to camp and lights out. The Lord has blessed us today helping this wonderful young family starting a home that survived a disaster. Please pray for this family and many others that need so much!

Good Night!

Gene, Phil, David, and Paul

Monday In Mississippi

2006-02-20T18:03:00.000-05:00

Our day started with a sumptous breakfast of oatmeal, sweet rolls, fruit, orange juice and lots of coffee.

We spent most of the day assessing five homes and what needed to be done and what was a priority. We were able to meet most of the homeowners. These people were all very thankful for all the volunteers down here.

This afternoon we drove down to the coast for a view of the worst devastation. I can tell you Mississippi needs us just as New Orleans does. There are some areas that appear untouched.

First Presbyterian Church- on the coast

This afternoon we had our first meeting of all the volunteers at Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). We are about 100 strong now. The camp here is continuing to expand and improve the facilities for the volunteers. Hot showers! The camp plans on being operational for three to five years. Yes years! You just can't believe how much work there is to be done.

We are blessed that so many people are assisting with the relief efforts here. Please continue to pray for these people.

Arrival In Mississippi

2006-02-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

We arrived at the Orange Grove Presbyterian Disaster Relief Center late this afternoon. Our first priority was to secure our PODs and set up our living arrangements for the week.

Tomorrow we will be finishing roofing a home then performing some assessments prior to the a large arrival of volunteers.

Dinner at Cracker Barrel was exceptional.

It is evident that many areas still need assistance!

Good night from David, Phil, Paul, and Gene

2006-02-16T17:42:00.000-05:00

Our next trip begins this Sunday. A team of David Mahan, Paul Cobb, Phil Brandt, and Gene Patterson will head down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We will be concentrating on the town of Burlington Mississippi. There is a focus on 2500 homes of which we will tackle a few of them.

Pray for us and I will update you as much as possible.

Gene

Day Five: The Last Day / The Trip Home

2005-11-25T19:30:00.000-05:00

After working on Thanksgiving our last evening on Thursday was highlighted with a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner at John Calvin and a presentation of a Check from John Sorensen to Jim McLain from FWFriends.

As planned, on Friday we all loaded up early and, even though we were all anxious to return home to our families, we reluctantly said good bye to Jim McLain and headed east towards Montgomery, Alabama and eventually to Atlanta.

On the way out of town we reluctantly (not really) donated 5 cases of MREs to the clinic that took care of the cut on Alex Ball’s head. They were very happy to receive them. After a 10 hour trip we arrived in Marietta at 6:00 PM.

Alex Ball's Clinic

After we arrived home this final Reflection was sent by Dan Valentine:

We all knew before this trip started that the future of the area that Peace Presbyterian and Eastminster Nursery were in was and still is uncertain. However, God has already honored the work we did there in several ways:

We have given Jim McLain (minister of Peace Presbyterian) a renewed spirit to minister to those in the area
We have reached several members of the congregation who were clearly encouraged by our willingness to fix up the church and nursery
The Redondo Presbyterian crew changed their plans and spent a day and a half working on Jim‘s house after working with us (clearly a task unthinkable before we arrived)
There appears to be a strong consensus among the team that Peace Presbyterian can be a beacon of hope in a gloomy area

Specific to the last point – we all heard that there is a lot of hand-wringing and indecisiveness about the future direction of New Orleans. Because of this, folks from this area of town are living in uncertainly and are certainly frustrated – and all this on top of having their home and lives turned upside down by the hurricane. Many of these folks are despairing and teetering on hopelessness. Is this not the exact place Christ’s light needs to shine?

Regardless of what ultimately happens in this area, the love of Christ needs to be very present now. With continued help and support, Peace Presbyterian can be that beacon of hope. When I heard Dan Roberts tell of how Minnie (one of Peace’s members) lit up when she found out we were cleaning up the church rather than preparing to tear it down, it spoke volumes about the impact an active church in this community could have. We can’t be sure how God will ultimately use our efforts but as the Bible passage below promises, those efforts will NOT be wasted. I believe that we need to do what we can to cause Christ’s light to shine brightly in this area of New Orleans even as others try to decide what is going to happen there.

Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time and effort. I Corinthians 15:58

To view many more photos of the Mission please visit: http://community.webshots.com/album/511521739OgeMqT

And from our California Team members:http://community.webshots.com/album/512574725SQqrIo/0

Day Four: A Day of Thanksgiving / Mission Accomplished

2005-11-24T23:43:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving Day - our Fourth and last work day arrived early for the First Presbyterian Marietta Mission team. We wanted to start the day early so we could finish the trip accomplishing what we came here to do. Like our other days we started with a devotional from Dan Valentine. The message today was ‘’A Place to Belong’’, which referred to the church and the fact that, as Christians, we are the body of Christ working together and that being a Christian is all about relationships with others. A fitting message as we left as a united and focused team for our last day in New Orleans

We left on time and had absolutely no traffic driving to Peace Presbyterian. We immediately started the day with Dan setting up teams to hit the specific areas we needed to finish up with. Again we had 2 energetic volunteers – one from Renando Beach, California and one local volunteer
What we focused on today and accomplished included:

Totally removing everything from the kitchen area including counters and cabinets

Finishing cleaning out the offices and closets of debris, counters, furniture, tiles and carpet.

Removing all interior doors (around 20 doors) including Narthex, office, hallway doors

Clearing the nursery area of all debris and furniture

While it was difficult for us all to leave our families during Thanksgiving we all ended our fourth day feeling so Thankful for our own personal blessings and a sense of Mission Accomplished.

Each team member shared some specific and meaningful memories of this Mission.
Some of them include:

Cleaning up the debris in the flooded kitchen – including the Punch bowl and cups and remembering all of the happy wedding receptions which must have been held there at the Church

The Free Wednesday Night Dinner at John Calvin Presbyterian open to the community which we attended

How John Calvin Presbyterian freely opened their doors to us and their wonderful hot showers each evening

Seeing all the Church Vans on Mission trips on the way down heading to New Orleans

The Red Cross Volunteers offering us Turkey meals and cold drinks while we were working at Peace.

How the emotionally draining all the devastation is while working here (and we don’t live here)

Watching the positive uplifting changes in certain people around us as the days went by and as we made progress in the clean up

The gratitude of everyone in New Orleans we met

The sense of a Mission Accomplished as we drove away from the Peace parking lot the last time seeing the piles of debris 4-5 feet high all along the street surrounding the Church.

Going back with the feeling that we need more people to help on the next trip

How so many of the New Orleans residents we met have a great sense of humor, find the time to laugh and enjoy life despite their loss of homes and property

How it’s hard to imagine our homes like the ones we have seen

Finding numerous American Flags and taking them back to California and Marietta scout troops to take care of properly

Throwing away so many beautiful Bibles, books, and so many children’s books including all Dr Seuss books

The perfect beautiful weather conditions we had – being thankful that we are not doing this is 85+ degree temperatures

Because of the flood and the area we were in how Peaceful and quiet (other than a few sirens) it was to work at Peace (Presbyterian).

Getting an encouraging thumbs up from the National Guard and local authorities as they drive by

Meeting the amazing New Orleans people, hearing their courageous stories and their warm hospitality with all they have going on

Finding Christmas ornaments covered in muck – to take back and hang on our trees to remember to be thankful

Getting a lump in your throat or a tear in your eye over and over through the day while you are working; but carrying on with your work

Finally the day ended with a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner of Turkey, ham, sweet potatoes provided by Captain Jim Umberger and his wife and Reflections of the day by Beth and Alex. The message was very fitting about the difficulty of giving thanks in the face of difficulty. Alex read many great reasons for all of us to be Thankful. We are all Thankful for the great success and we are looking forward to a early departure on Friday to Marietta and seeing our families again.

Day Three: "A Day of Service - A Life of Service"

2005-11-23T23:44:00.000-05:00

Our third day in New Orleans began with a simple breakfast and a Devotional led by Dan Valentine. Today’s subject was serving God and being a willing servant in times of need but with humility – a perfect message for our long day ahead of us back at Peace Presbyterian.

After a drive through light rush hour traffic we arrived at Peace Presbyterian ready to continue the process we began yesterday of clearing out the debris in the church. With a full team of 14 today we were able to accomplish a lot. While the task at hand seemed tremendous we were all eager to see how much we could accomplish in one morning with this large team.

Unfortunately, 4 of our team members (John Chen and Will Howard from LaJolla and Claire Dunaway and David Mahan from Marietta) needed to return home after lunch because of other commitments.

With this energetic team so much was accomplished today including:

All pews and linolium removed from the Sanctuary

All furniture, books, and other destroyed materials as well as linoleum removed from Fellowship hall, Offices, Narthex, and Supply room

Moving of very heavy objects like a refrigerator full of contaminated food, Coke Machine and fire proof file cabinet - all requiring not only muscle; but quite a bit of creative and sometimes conflicting opinions on the best methods of moving them from point A to point B.

General clean up of a massive amount of clutter and trash caused by the flood

Before

After

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment today was not the work done at the Church building, but a by-product of that work. The team saw a clear uplift in the attitudes and energy levels of those associated with Peace Presbyterian Church who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina and the flood - and this meant more to us than all the work we accomplished so far.

Fortunately the only accident incident so far has been with Alex Ball our youngest team member. With a small cut to his head from a door he had to visit a local clinic to be patched up.

After lunch we saw the departure of our four key hard working team members. One other highlight was the visit of a displaced member of the Peace Presbyterian who happened to stop by. Mini was her name and she was in the neighborhood visiting her destroyed home. She initially though the church was being gutted to be torn down. Then we saw her light up when we explained that we were there to help re-open this church and smile when she was told that her minister, Jim McLain, was in the church. This was a clear example to us, that we were indeed making a difference.

The rest of the team worked several more hours after lunch and then we stopped work in order to get cleaned up for a Wednesday night Church dinner of delicious Louisiana-style Turkey Gumbo back at our base camp, John Calvin Presbyterian. The dinner lived up to our expectations (Gumbo, Potato Salad, Pecan and Pumpkin Pies) and all we had excellent fellowship with families in the area and members of the church as we all sat at separate tables to get to know more folks and exchange stories. As we tried to express our gratitude to them for sharing their facilities (so we had a place to stay), they instead thanked us for spending our Thanksgiving week helping out in New Orleans.

The evening ended with a Reflection by Earl Stine where he commented that today was not as emotional as yesterday; but he echoed the excitement felt by all the team by seeing the impact our efforts are having on those close to Peace Presbyterian Church.

``…I will build my church, and all the power of hell will not conquer it,`` Matthew 16:18

Day Two: "Transformed by Trouble"

2005-11-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was a day of highs and lows for the team. It started with a hearty hot breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and grits and a Devotional which was a continuation of the Purpose Driven Life message by Dan Valentine.

“Transformed by Trouble” was the message Dan presented and it was fitting for what we experienced today.

The high point of the day was seeing the amazing progress we made at Eastminster Presbyterian in the Nursery and on the grounds. Large trees were finally cleared, the upper level Nursery rooms mopped and sanitized (after being cleared of debris from Monday’s efforts). The Sanctuary looked useable again as did many other rooms.

Another high point was being joined by 3 members of Redondo Beach Presbyterian Church – David Sergeant, Mike Chen, and Laura Krauss. We also had two local individuals from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (Elizabeth and Kurt) assist us. With this large team we were able to accomplish all of the final clean up effort before lunch.

After another enjoyable MRE lunch under the trees we headed out for a brief tour of other severely devastated areas including Jim McLain’s home. To most everyone in the group this was the low point of the day. While it was very important for the team to see this, it was a heartbreaking experience. Some things we saw:

All of Jim’s many personal books he had collected over many years

His pipe collection of over 100 pipes he had been collecting for over 20 years

Large oak trees completely blown over on portions of his yard and roof

The whole neighborhood of attractive middle income homes completely destroyed

This poignant visit was followed by an afternoon of work at Peace Presbyterian. This situation was also initially very difficult for the team to take in. Initially some of the team felt somewhat overwhelmed at the task, but in two short hours significant progress was made. The church was and to some degree is still a beautiful church. It has stain glass windows over 103 years old ordered from Germany by the church founders as well as a 83 year old pipe organ – all valuable and worth preserving. Progress today included

Cutting up all the pews and hauling most of them out

Removing many of the doors stuck shut because of the flood

Clearing out much of the destroyed furniture and books in the Fellowship hall

After our time at Peace we left to get cleaned up for an amazing dinner of Grilled Oysters and Seafood at a famous local Metairie Restaurant called Dragos. Jim Umburger, Peace Presbyterian’s Clerk of Session and a retired Coast Guard Captain treated the group.

Afterwards the evening’s Reflection was presented by John Chen who spoke about his Grandfather who survived a Typhoon as an infant in Taiwan and all the trials and tribulations he endured through his life under the Japanese and World War II.

During our reflection, we discussed how we were moved by the day’s mixture of high and low experiences – the high being the accomplishments we made at both Eastminster and Peace and the low being seeing the destruction to Jim’s house, the community in general and Peace Presbyterian. However, the overriding feeling coming out of today was that even with the little bit we have done, the change in appearance of the building we have worked on offers hope to those who are feeling a sense of hopelessness over the Katrina’s destruction.

Day One: "It's Not About Us"

2005-11-21T23:21:00.000-05:00

After a good night's sleep and breakfast our first day of work in New Orleans was started by a morning devotional by Team Leader Dan Valentine. His message was “It’s Not About Us” from Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. It was a fitting and meaningful message for us to remember while we worked today.

The day started with a rush hour drive from John Calvin Presbyterian to East New Orleans and Eastminster Presbyterian Nursery School. Flooding and destruction were apparent and grew worse as we drove. When we arrived we scoped out the work to be done. The initial impression was that everything inside the church had been turned upside down and nothing was where it should have been.

Respirators (for Mildew abatement) for all workers working indoors were an absolute necessity. Fortunately we were blessed with a beautiful cool sunny day with a steady breeze. This helped air out the buildings and made our work easier.

In the building we found running water but no power. The tasks we faced and eventually accomplished included:

Tree cutting

Haul all branches and logs to the street

Clean out sanctuary, disinfect and separate usable from non-usable pews and other worship related items

Pull up all carpeting from all rooms (Sanctuary, Offices, Nursery)

Haul all unusable items (most of what was in the church) out to the street

Clean up areas in Nursery which several people fleeing the flood lived in for quite a few days

The team had a lunch break with “gourmet” MRE’s served. After a long afternoon of more work we stopped at around 4:30 to load up in order to leave the area by curfew time and be on our way by dark at 5:08.

After showers and a dinner of Barbeque and Ribs, Claire Dunaway did our evening of reflection on today’s accomplishments and how our lives are being changed by serving God. Claire referred back to Dan’s message of “It’s Not About Us” and how Christ said God’s purpose for us is our spiritual “Food” (4th Chapter of John).
This was a near perfect end to our day and we all went off for a much needed night’s rest.

Team Arrives Safely in New Orleans

2005-11-20T23:57:00.000-05:00

After nearly an 11 hour trip (with the mandatory lunch, gas and rest stops) the team arrived safely in New Orleans around 7:00 Local Time. We immediately saw signs that life was not normal and recovery to this area was slow, even 3 months after Katrina hit. Piles of trash in front of homes and other volunteer teams from other regions were evident. After quickly unloading, we set out for food because many resturants in the area all close by 8:00 because of lack of workers or limited supplies. John Chen and Will Howard from LaJolla Presbyterian, a happy addition to the team, had already arrived and joined us. After dinner Jim McLean Minister of Peace Presbyterian gave the team a very interesting, sometimes sad / sometines shocking overview of the situation facing the people in this area. After going over basic safety and team assignments for Monday, we set off to get a good nights rest before a long day of work on Monday.

Ready To Leave for New Orleans

2005-11-19T15:45:00.000-05:00

In order to get an early Sunday start the team took some time Saturday to load the van and trailer. Items loaded included tools, food, lots of coffee, water, gatorade, MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), donated Build-A-Bears (please see story below), and luggage. We are all eager to hit the road and start on our Mission to New Orleans.

Clint's Build-A-Bear Party

Clint Davenport has a new friend named Nicholas. Nicholas, his four brothers and sisters, his mother and grandparents were all displaced by hurricane Katrina. Nicholas and two of his siblings have begun attending The Walker School, which is how Clint got to know Nicholas.

When he realized that the children in the Gulf Coast area lost everything, Clint decided to have his party at Build a Bear. Each of the fifteen children who attended made a bear to be taken to the Gulf Coast Area (each made a bear to take home too).

Nicholas attended the party, which made the gift bears even more special. Build a Bear gave us a 20% discount on the gift bears.

November 20 Trip to New Orleans

2005-11-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

November 20 – Trip to New Orleans
The New Orleans Trip team is a team of 10 brave but willing souls. This trip consists of Dan Valentine (Team Leader), David Mahan, Earl Stine, Paul Cobb, John Ficken, John, Sorensen, Alex Ball, Beth Bailey, Claire Dunaway and Dan Roberts. Jane Cofer has graciously agreed to be the teams Home Based team member to coordinate and assist with our needs back home. We will be commissioned at the 8:30 service on Nov. 20 and leave immediately after that.

So far, we are off to a great start under Dan Valentine’s leadership and guidance. We are also fortunate to have the expertise of Paul Cobb and David Mahan who have been on previous missions. They have already giving the rookie team members some invaluable advice on what to wear, what tools we need and what to buy.

Earl Stine and John Ficken have volunteered to be our Van drivers for the 8 hour drive to New Orleans. The week of November 13 started with a meeting to meet and plan. The week has been full of emails, suggestions and preparations.

We are making room for 15 donated Build a Bears (donated by Clint Davenport) to travel with us. We will make sure they make it safely to their new home (more to come on this topic later).

John Calvin Presbyterian in Metairie – where we are staying

Our Mission / Our Goals / Our Plans:

Four days stabilizing and/or rehabilitating the Nursery School property and Church property at Eastminster and Peace Presbyterian Churches in New Orleans

Arrangements have been made to stay at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Metairie (Transcontinental Drive).

We will spend all day Monday and Tuesday morning at Eastminster Nursery School (Read Blvd. New Orleans) working and trying to make the building usable again.

We plan to take a short tour of New Orleans in the early afternoon on Tuesday to get a better understanding of what the community is facing.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be at Peace Presbyterian (Morrison Road) cleaning out church property, disposing of debris from the interior of the building.

On Thursday at 3:00 p.m., work will stop for the celebration of Thanksgiving. Then on Friday morning, we will depart for Home sweet Home

Plans are to update this posting every evening as long as we can get reliable internet service (and we are not too tired!).
We also hope to include pictures of our progress, where we are working, and people we befriend.

Please keep us in your daily prayers:

for us to make a difference in the lives of these families in New Orleans
for our safety and
that we will have the energy each day to do God’s Will.

Next post should be Sunday November 20th / Monday November 21st

Wrapping up

2005-10-14T23:47:00.000-04:00

These beautiful days are getting monotonous (just kidding). More pancakes and bacon for breakfast and back to Ms. Mann's house to work on the roof.

While we were gutting the house we had noticed one hole in the roof where a furnance vent had been, so we decided it needed to be patched. David is quite the craftsman.

When we arrived at the house and actually got up on the roof we discovered that the roof on the addition at the back of the house was missing almost all of the shingles. Since it may be a while before her house gets worked on, we went back to Lowe's and got a tarp to cover the entire roof on the addition.

As usual, things like this take longer than expected, so by the time we finished it was lunchtime. One final time at Compassion Center for some more chicken and green beans and potatoes.

We noticed that a new tent had been erected since yesterday and that a clothing boutique ( that is what the sign said ) had been set up for the residents. There were a good number of people in the store or waiting outside.

Since we had finished our house and didn't have time to start another one, we decided to ride over to Waveland, MS. The destruction there is beyond what pictures can convey. These homes were right across the road from the gulf and took the full force of the storm. There is not much wooden debris on these sites. It was apparently taken further inland by the storm.

In the midst of all this destruction, we found a sign that amused us (being the old guys that we are!).

Our final place to vist in Waveland was Christ Episcopal Church.

Like the homes, it was just across the road from the gulf. Only the steeple remains. It was not on a building, but was anchored in the concrete. In the background you can see the tent where they hold Sunday services.

I believe that this picture says it all. It has been our privilege to come in service to the people of the gulf coast. Our prayer is that we have helped them to see (and to remind ourselves) that our hope is in Christ and Christ alone.

We are anxious to return to our families and to share the story of this trip with all of you. See ya'll on Sunday.

More of the same

2005-10-14T00:16:00.000-04:00

Yet another beautiful day in Biloxi. Fixed breakfast for 5 new people that just came in from New Jersey (french toast and bacon - thanks to our trusty Coleman camp stoves)

We returned to the home that we started gutting yesterday but first made a trip to Home Depot to buy two stepladders and a wheelbarrow that we will be donating to the camp when we leave.

There is not much new to say about the work today. It is hot, dusty, and tiring. We take frequent breaks to get a breath of fresh air and some water. Fortunately there is not much mold in this house since Ms. Watts had already cleaned it out and sprayed it with bleach.

Lunch at Compassion Center (hot dogs with chili, corn and apples). Always good to get out of the sun and sit down and eat a meal that someone else has prepared.

After lunch Ms. Watts came by to see the progress and we think she was impressed with how much we had gotten done. She definitely seemed pleased.

We finished about 4:30. Please don't tell our wives that we can work this hard!

Here are the piles of debris that we removed from the house. All the streets in our area look like this. Huge piles of debris waiting at the curb for pickup.

Had a nice dinner at Westminister Presbyterian Church. There are 150 young people from University of Tennessee who just came in tonight and will be staying at that church.

Don't know yet what our assignment for tomorrow will be. We may go back and put a blue tarp on Ms. Watt's roof and cut some limbs that are resting on the roof.

Hard to believe our time is up tomorrow. There is so much work to be done and so many people who need help. Please pray for them as they work to put their lives back together one day at a time.

Destruction is our game, Demolition is our name

2005-10-12T23:41:00.000-04:00

Another beautiful day on the Mississippi coast. Sunny and warm (almost too warm, but we are not complaining).

This morning we had some training on our new task of assessing homes. We were cautioned to be very careful in talking to the homeowners and to be sensitive to their situation. If a home needs to be condemned in our opinion, we are to be very cautious and to say something like 'I think that someone with more experience needs to come look at your home' rather than saying flat out 'I think your home needs to be condemned'. Again, if you try to put yourself in this situation and some volunteer told you that your home needed to be condemned, how would you react?

We went back to the same general area of Biloxi to the grid that PDA has been assigned. It is about five to six streets with maybe 30 homes on each street. That is a rough estimate. Anyway, we split into ten teams with people from different groups on each team. The idea was to make sure each team had someone with some experience in this work so that a reasonable assessment could be made. We went door to door and spoke to homeowners that were there. By lunch time we had assessed about 50 homes which gives a good backlog of homes to work on. Here is a picture looking through the front door of one of the homes we assesed. Without the smell, it probably doesn't have the same impact that it had on those of us that were there.

One of the teams had an interesting experience with a lady and her boyfriend who have already started rehabbing her home and are making excellent progress. While our assessment team and the homeowner were talking, another woman and man in a car with Oregon license plates came up. The lady from Oregon wanted to paint the home, but told the homeowner she would have to pay $1800 in advance to buy the paint. Well, if you know anything about the cost of paint, you know that $1800 worth of paint would be enough for probably 5 or 6 good size homes. Our team advised the homeowner to definitely not do business with someone like that. It was obviously a scam. It is so disheartening to see people try to take advantage of these people who have already suffered so much.

Back to lunch at Compassion Center. The menu today was fried chicken, black eyed peas, fruit cocktail, and cookies. We spoke to Carl Keyes from New York city who is in charge of Urban Life Ministries that is running the Compassion Center. He said that he had a friend that had already donated $300,00 in meat to the center and that the friend said he would provide support for up to six months. What a friend and what a commitment! When we thanked Carl for all he is doing for the volunteers, he just thanked us for the work we are doing for the people of Biloxi.

After lunch we did two more assessments and then went to cut some trees at a homeowners house. However, when we got there we realized that the trees had already been cut down and partially cut up and that they were at the very back end of the property and were not really causing any problem or danger. We requested to be reassigned to a homeowner who was in more urgent need of help. We got assigned to Mrs. Watts.

Hers was one of the houses we had assessed after lunch. We called her and she was able to come meet us at the house and confirm what needed to be done. She is a widow of about 13 years and had bought this house after her husband died. She has one son in the Marines in Iraq. The house had already been cleaned out and now needed to have the walls stripped. We are now pros at that work! We attacked the house with a furious determination. About 2 hours later it looked like this. We are really very good at making a mess!

We will be going back in the morning to finish and it may take us most of the day. It is an older home with no insulation in the walls and some termite damage, but overall it seems structurally sound. After we strip the walls, she will begin the process of spraying the structure with bleach. The recommended procedure is to spray, wait seven days, spray again, wait three days and then spray a final time. It takes a lot to kill the mold and mildew.

Since it was hump day we knocked off at four, got back to camp, took our showers

and went out for nice relaxing dinner at Logan's Roadhouse.

We got back just in time for the evening devotion/meeting. Our team had volunteered to do the devotion and Phil, Leonel and David Mahan did a great job. Phil read from Matthew and David read Psalm 121. Leonel, with the help of an interpeter from the California kids, told his story about coming to the US and why he wanted to come on this mission trip to help victims of the storm. It is very inspiring and deserves to be told. Tune in tomorrow for the complete story.

Here is the interesting picture of the day. This is a slab of concrete beside one of the houses in our grid. It floated here from one of the refrigerated storage facilities on the bay (which is couple of blocks from where is now rests). Anyway, concrete does not normally float very well so we were puzzled as to how it got there in one piece. Closer inspection revealed a layer of foam insulation (maybe 8" thick) on the underside. Our theory is that the foam provided a measure of flotation and the flood waters did the rest.

Our team (with the addition of Susan and Lon) continues to work very well together. It is tough work but very rewarding in that we know we are making a real difference in these peoples lives. And they are making a real difference in our lives as well. None of us will come home the same person that left last Sunday. None of us will ever look at coverage of a hurricane on tv and not understand what the survivors are going through. Truly amazing. Praise God!

The Muck

2005-10-12T00:31:00.000-04:00

The day started well. A beautiful fall morning and a good pancake and scrambled egg breakfast and everybody eager to get to work.

After the morning devotion, we loaded up the van and headed for the work site. Well, we almost headed for the work site. First you need to understand that we are camping in a grassy field on the church property. Last night we parked the van and trailer at the top of the hill near our tents. (Hey, we are lazy and didn't want to walk all the way to the parking area - a distance of about 200 feet). So, with Brian driving, we headed down the hill and Brian decided to take the short cut. Big mistake. Soon the rear wheels of the van were in mud up to the hubs and we were stuck.

Fortunately, there were plenty of people still in camp and the California kids quickly came over to help us. With a little digging and a lot of pushing we got the van out of the mud and were on our way. By the way, the kids from California are high school students. They range in age from 15 to 18 and are full of energy!

For the past two days we have been joined by two great people from Connecticut. Susan Pfeil is the interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Ossining, New York. Lon England is a member of First Presbyterian Church, New Canaan, Connecticut. They are tireless workers and a lot of fun to be around. They even laugh at our jokes!

For the morning, we worked on finishing the cleanup of Gloria Kemp's house. Here is Susan hard at work.

It took a little longer than we anticipated, but we still finished by about 12:30 pm. We removed all the sheetrock and associated nails on the walls and moved it to the street.

From our perspective, the house looks good and should be repaired without much trouble. It does have some isolated termite damage that shouln't be too hard to fix.

Lunch again at Compassion Center. Hot ham and cheese or turkey and cheese sandwiches, fruit, chips, water and cookies.

After lunch we traveled to the Long Beach area to work on the home of the pastor of Longbeach Presbyterian Church. George and his wife were planning on staying in their home during the storm, but finally changed their mind about six hours before the storm hit. It is a good thing they changed their mind. The highest water level was two feet above the floor in the UPSTAIRS level of their home.

Nothing had been removed from the home before we started.

Imagine a home that has been flooded and then remained closed for about six weeks. Mild/mold everywhere. The smell was much worse than anything we had experienced yet. As we were shoveling the debris out the windows to the wheelbarrows so it could be hauled to the street, we tried to imagine if it was our home and our stuff that was being removed. George had a grand piano that he had spent four years restoring. It was ruined. He had items that his mom had given him just before she died. He saved them, but they were damaged. He had a beautiful grandfather clock that came apart we tried to pick it up. It was hard walking because of the mixture of mud and sheetrock residue that covered the floor. We made the mistake of opening their freezer door. Think about a freezer that has not been opened in six weeks. The smell was beyond description. If you are ever in that situation, resist the temptation to open the freezer door!

After we got back to camp, we helped put up an additional tent to be used for meetings when the camp population grows. The youth from Davidson and UNC Charlotte left for home early this morning. A new group from New Jersey came in about 10:30 am and spent the day working on projects around camp.

Tomorrow we start a new phase. Our camp has been assigned a specific grid area in Biloxi. We will be responsible for going door to door and doing assessments of the damage and what work needs to be done. As we understand it we will even have the authority to recommend whether a house is condemned or not. That is a lot of responibility for a volunteer to shoulder. It also means that we must be very sensitive in working with the homeowners. We are being trained in the morning and we are sure there will be a lot of questions and a lot of on the job training. After we get a good backlog of work to do, we will start work on these houses.

We have been blessed by God with this opportunity to minister to the people of Biloxi through service. Many of them have told us how grateful they are that we are here and that we are helping.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for praying for the people of Biloxi and for us.

The Work

2005-10-11T00:06:00.000-04:00

A wonderful day.
Last night was a little cooler than we expected and some of us and some of the people on the other teams were a little chilly sleeping. Up at about 6:30 to breakfast of oatmeal,orange juice and coffee. (Tomorrow we are getting up earlier so we can fix pancakes). Morning devotion at 7:30 am led by the youth. We even did an energizer and a team building exercise! As we mentioned yesterday, the great majority of the people here are youth and their leaders. Here is picture of some of the youth from Carmel Presbyterian Church of Carmel, California eating breakfast.

All the youth here are fantastic. Very energetic and very thoughtful and very caring. If you ever have any doubts about the younger generation, these kids (along with the our youth from First Presbyterian) will dispel any doubt you might have. They are wonderful.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to the area of Biloxi where we are working. The destruction is just overwhelming and we haven't even been to the hardest hit area yet. There is debris piled up along all the streets and trees down everywhere. The smell in certain areas is just awful.

Our first house belongs to Henry Jones. He is 75 years old and apparently lives by himself. Looking at the exterior of his house, it really doesn't seem damaged very much.

This picture of the inside shows a different story.

You can see the water line on the walls about 1 foot or less from the ceiling. Mr. Jones spent about 4 hours by himself in his attic with the water just about a foot or so below him. Think about that for a minute and reflect on what thoughts would be going through your mind if you were in that situation.

We worked for about 3 hours in his yard cutting down a large branch, picking up trash, reinforcing his fence and in general just cleaning up.

For lunch we went to Compassion Center which is set up in a nearby city park. It is being run by Urban Life Ministries of New York. They offer hot meals for the volunteers and a food distribution point for residents. Hundreds of volunteers were having lunch and relaxing under the big tents.

After lunch we went to the home of Gloria Kemp. Here is a house we passed on the way.

Ms. Kemp's house had already been cleaned out by some of the youth from our camp. In this picture of the front yard, it is hard to see but there is debris all along the street in front of her house up to the height of the chain link fence.

All her belongings were ruined. How would you feel if everything you owned was sitting on the street waiting to be picked up and sent to a landfill? It is hard to think about being in that situation. The youth did salvage a water damaged family picture album. It is very touching to look at it.

Our task was to remove the sheetrock and insulation. Here are some pictures of what it looked like when we started.

You can just barely see the high water mark just below the top of the window.

And here is what it looked like at 5 pm. It is very nasty work. Damp to wet sheetrock covered in mold and mildew. The kitchen cabinets were ruined and had to be removed.

We were all pretty tired by 5 pm, but had that very satisfying feeling that comes from having done a good day's work for a good cause. We got back to camp and enjoyed a cold shower to clean off all the filth, dust and grime we accumulated during the day. Needless to say, when you are taking a cold shower in an outside shower stall, you don't dawdle in the shower! Anyway, we felt great afterwards. Back to our buffet for dinner and then yet another trip to Wal-Mart. Evening devotion at 8:30 pm and a leaders meeting about 9:30pm.

Tomorrow we plan on finishing Ms. Kemp's house and then going to work at the house of the pastor of Orange Grove Presbyterian. We will be removing furniture and appliances.

We look forward to tomorrow and the opportunity to serve the people of this community.

We have arrived

2005-10-09T23:35:00.000-04:00

We left about 10:45 am from Marietta and after an easy drive,arrived about 5:30 pm local time at the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camp located on the grounds of Orange Grove Presbyterian Chuurch in Gulfport, MS.

As we got closer to Gulfport, we saw more and more downed trees and houses and commercial buildings with blue tarps on their roofs. Where we are camping, however, the damage does not seem extensive. We went out to dinner and then to Wal-Mart for more boots and Vicks Vapor rub. The Vicks is to spread on the inside of your dust mask to help with the smell of mold and mildew which is apparently quite strong in the houses where we will be working.

Every evening in camp at 8:30 pm there is a devotional meeting and recap of the day's work. Right now there are about 5 different groups in camp for a total of about 50 people. There are three college age groups from California, a college age group from UNC Charlotte, and a college age group from Davidson. With all these young people, this is definitely a high energy camp to say the least. Two people from Connecticut came tonight also.

In the morning there will be a devotion at 7:30 am and we will leave for the work sites about 8:30 am and should return about 5:00 pm. The house where we have been assigned to for tomorrow has a number of downed trees so we can put our chain saws to good use. Another big task is helping to carry furniture and appliances out of the houses and out to curbside.

I am sure that by tomorrow night we will be veterans at this so we should have a more interesting post for you to read.

We are all in good spirits and eager to get to work. Please pray for us that we may show God's love in everything we do.

October 9th team to Gulfport

2005-10-07T14:47:00.000-04:00

The team leaving on October 9th consists of David Mahan, Phil Brand, Leonel Perez, David Corson, Paul Cobb, Kelly Lohman and Brian Wright. We will be commissioned at the 8:30 service and leave immediately after that.

We will working in a camp run by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Gulfport, Mississippi. The camp is located on the grounds of the Orange Grove Presbyterian Church. We will be living in tents with cots. We will be responsible for preparing our own food and are taking a supply of Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) and bottled water. There are also restaurants open in the area and Home Depot and Lowes are nearby and open.

As we understand it, our primary work will be doing debris removal including cutting up trees, hauling furniture out of houses and the like. The area where we will be working is supposed to be about 20 minutes away from the camp.

We plan on returning on Saturday October 15th.

We are grateful to all the people in the church who have helped us so much in preparing for this trip. Thanks!

If we can get reliable internet service ( and we are not too tired!) we will be posting every day including pictures of where we are working.

Please pray for us that we may be instruments of God's love to the people affected by the storm.