What an incredible time we've been having here in Louisiana! At all levels these first few weeks have been an exciting time of seeing the church go out into the community and really connect with folks in need, sharing the love of Christ. Praise God we've been priveledged with serving Him here as a family.
We're all settled in at our rental house in Abita Springs, across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. The place is great, a new house with two acres of wooded land in the back (a real change from our life in the city back in California), and close to Trinity Church, the response center we are working out of. Our landlords, an extremely nice Jewish man and his wife living in New Orleans, recently bought the place as a future retirement home and christened it Zoar (from Genesis 19 where Lot fled to with his daughters during the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah) giving you an idea of how he feels about the situation in New Orleans.
Everyone has adjusted well... James (5 1/2) is having a great time with his new friends (Caleb, Adam, Ethan, and Conner). They love riding bikes in the church parking lot, exploring the woods and playing pirates together. James has been to the job sites with me several times helping out, and I am really hoping he will glean an appreciation for volunteering, working with others/adults as a team, and learning patience as he hangs out with his dad a few hours every other day. He has also joined AWANA as a skipper, and is memorizing scripture faster than I am (incentive for dad to get caught up and learn with him). I love having him with me and he really has opened up many ministry opportunities by innocently (and directly) asking folks such things as where they go to church, etc. The other day he asked me why there were only black people in one of the neighborhoods we were serving in (back in Long Beach CA our neighborhood is quite mixed)... he made me really think about it! He is truly a blessing, even though he can get grumpy and impatient once in a while.
Emily and Mary have come with me a few times to the city as well to work with teams. Em has been connecting with Chris, Denise and Mandy (all wives of other long term volunteers), and has enjoyed participating in some of the homeschooling activities happening locally and with other volunteer's kids. She got to go yard sailing yesterday at the annual Abita community yard sale with some of the other volunteers, and has been enjoying the rich culture and people here. Mary we are hoping to enroll in a kid's ballet class and maybe have a 4 year old ballerina birthday for her the end of next month.
Myself, I am finally getting the rhythm down of a week in the life of a volunteer with Crisis Response Ministries, with my week starting Sunday nights as teams come in from around the country to serve, and ending Thursday night or Friday around noon. Each of the last three weeks I have been assigned to accompany an incredible team of people with a heart of compassion for serving others and ability not only to do a great job but truly connect with the people whose homes we are working on and hear their story and let them know that we are here because Christ loves them.
This last week it was a team from Liberty Bible Church in Indiana working on Lacher's home in East New Orleans (or Gentilly if I have it right). Joe one of the team members is a contractor with his own custom home building business and Tom, another team member, is an architect who used to design residential homes. They drafted up a layout for Lacher's house, which was gutted and only bare studs when they started, and gave her a great layout for the rebuilding of her home (they came at just the right time in the project - praise God) and they and the rest of the team (about a dozen folks men and women) jumped right on moving walls, scraping and painting the exterior of the house, clearing the yard, and plumbing the house... all in the four days they had, whata team!
The team the week before was a group of college students from Blackhawk Church in Madison WI (cool name for a church eh?!). They helped secure the house after it had been gutted by installing windows and doors and did a real quality job. They really connected with Lacher as well, hearing her testimonies and partaking in 10 pounds of crawfish she brought for them.
We're all settled in at our rental house in Abita Springs, across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. The place is great, a new house with two acres of wooded land in the back (a real change from our life in the city back in California), and close to Trinity Church, the response center we are working out of. Our landlords, an extremely nice Jewish man and his wife living in New Orleans, recently bought the place as a future retirement home and christened it Zoar (from Genesis 19 where Lot fled to with his daughters during the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah) giving you an idea of how he feels about the situation in New Orleans.
Everyone has adjusted well... James (5 1/2) is having a great time with his new friends (Caleb, Adam, Ethan, and Conner). They love riding bikes in the church parking lot, exploring the woods and playing pirates together. James has been to the job sites with me several times helping out, and I am really hoping he will glean an appreciation for volunteering, working with others/adults as a team, and learning patience as he hangs out with his dad a few hours every other day. He has also joined AWANA as a skipper, and is memorizing scripture faster than I am (incentive for dad to get caught up and learn with him). I love having him with me and he really has opened up many ministry opportunities by innocently (and directly) asking folks such things as where they go to church, etc. The other day he asked me why there were only black people in one of the neighborhoods we were serving in (back in Long Beach CA our neighborhood is quite mixed)... he made me really think about it! He is truly a blessing, even though he can get grumpy and impatient once in a while.Emily and Mary have come with me a few times to the city as well to work with teams. Em has been connecting with Chris, Denise and Mandy (all wives of other long term volunteers), and has enjoyed participating in some of the homeschooling activities happening locally and with other volunteer's kids. She got to go yard sailing yesterday at the annual Abita community yard sale with some of the other volunteers, and has been enjoying the rich culture and people here. Mary we are hoping to enroll in a kid's ballet class and maybe have a 4 year old ballerina birthday for her the end of next month.
Myself, I am finally getting the rhythm down of a week in the life of a volunteer with Crisis Response Ministries, with my week starting Sunday nights as teams come in from around the country to serve, and ending Thursday night or Friday around noon. Each of the last three weeks I have been assigned to accompany an incredible team of people with a heart of compassion for serving others and ability not only to do a great job but truly connect with the people whose homes we are working on and hear their story and let them know that we are here because Christ loves them.
This last week it was a team from Liberty Bible Church in Indiana working on Lacher's home in East New Orleans (or Gentilly if I have it right). Joe one of the team members is a contractor with his own custom home building business and Tom, another team member, is an architect who used to design residential homes. They drafted up a layout for Lacher's house, which was gutted and only bare studs when they started, and gave her a great layout for the rebuilding of her home (they came at just the right time in the project - praise God) and they and the rest of the team (about a dozen folks men and women) jumped right on moving walls, scraping and painting the exterior of the house, clearing the yard, and plumbing the house... all in the four days they had, whata team!
The team the week before was a group of college students from Blackhawk Church in Madison WI (cool name for a church eh?!). They helped secure the house after it had been gutted by installing windows and doors and did a real quality job. They really connected with Lacher as well, hearing her testimonies and partaking in 10 pounds of crawfish she brought for them.Emily and I are looking forward to getting out and traveling around southern LA a bit in the near future... we did just go to the Lake Ponchartrain Maritime Museum and had a great time there discovering some of the local history. We picked up a community calendar and are planning to attend some of the local music events and the airshow in Slidell with other volunteers and their kids.
We are also slowly/steadily getting connected at Trinity Church and have very much appreciated the messages and ABF discussions from pastors Michael Sprague and Stephen Lay.
Keep us in your prayers for continued safety and provision and know that we feel truly blessed to be here and are really enjoying this time as a family growing in Christ.
We are also slowly/steadily getting connected at Trinity Church and have very much appreciated the messages and ABF discussions from pastors Michael Sprague and Stephen Lay.
Keep us in your prayers for continued safety and provision and know that we feel truly blessed to be here and are really enjoying this time as a family growing in Christ.
