Back from Mississippi / Louisiana

Here is a link to the places we went last week/weekend.
LA/MS map - on the left, click "5" and then click the "S" marker 1 time - this will orient you to where we were better (you'll see more).

We started on Wednesday afternoon, getting our bus assignments and getting on the road. I was in the "old school" bus called, "Possum Eight" and it was VERY fun. We organized three committees of students: entertainment (goal: to make us laugh), get acquainted (goal: to get to know each other better), game (goal: to involve everyone in one activity). The skit was killer and mocked all of us leaders mercilessly. When the person playing me spoke up, I immediately cringed - because it was just like me! (I recognized myself before they even said my name!)

We got to Picayune about 7:30 the next morning; having slept little bits, and then for one long stretch of 3 hours...... but ready for work. :)

We spent the nights in Picayune Mississippi, (middle of 'adjusted' map) working with Ressurection Life Worship Center.

On the first day the group I was in went to McNeill, MS (north of Picayune - the eye of the storm went directly though their town - sustained winds for 14 hours). We cleared debris from the yards of 3 houses. We worked until dusk and wow, the difference was really satisfying. On the third house they were still displaced and power had not been restored, I was thinking about how neat it would be for them to come home and their backyard is back! No more giant tree and about 1.8 million leaves and branches to be cleared! Its neat to be an answer to prayer that way.
The second day 1/2 of us went to Slidell, LA (south of Picayune, near the north side of Lake Ponchartrain. We had been subcontracted by Res.Life to work with a church in Slidell - called Harvest Ministries. They lost their ENTIRE church facility in the storm, and they had just finished remodeling their entire childrens areas. We worked all day doing demolition (tearing down drywall, pulling up carpet, removing fixtures) - the house I worked in was big, moldy and muddy. And like a bunch of other homes, almost beyond repair. The fridge and freezer had been sitting there, without power, for 2 months.... full. yuk. There were frogs everywhere and the mold was shocking to see (both inside and outside the drywall). We pulled out soaking wet insulation and the carpets and pads were soaked, too. We piled all of this debris outside the house on the street and ended with a pile of trash (that included ruined belongings, clothes, etc) that was 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet tall.... the family was great and worked along side us. We had the chance to pray with them and talk to them about God. It was a good day. That night we got showers, provided by another church in the Picayune area. We went to bed for the second night, exhausted. But each night we went to bed later than the previous, as we had more and more evening activities. (10pm on night one.... 11:30 on night two... 12:40 on night three....)

Day 3, EVERYONE headed into Louisiana, and a small group of faculty/staff leaders went into St. Bernard Parish (nearer New Orleans) to demo the inside of a home - worse even than the one we had worked on on day 2. My group went to a house that had been started the day before and worked to complete it. It was neat to find out that it was the house of the granddaughter of the man whose how I had worked on the day before. I got to tell the daughter (mom of the homeowner, and a member of the church we were working with these two days.) that we had prayed with her mom and talked with her family and their friend Joe about Jesus. That was a pretty neat thing, very emotional for both of us.
After working on that house a couple hours we were finished and headed back to the house from Friday (above) to give it some final attention. We didn't get it completed, but did a lot more work in that final 90 minutes.

That evening we showered at a local church (quite an experience in itself - three tarped shower areas complete with gnats and mosquitos and a concrete pad on which to change!) and ate pizza. We worshipped that night with the Harvest Ministries crew at their temporary location (this church) and went back home joyful. We stayed up late, eating ice cream sandwiches, fellowshipping and playing a game of "Big Booty" (if you haven't ever played, you should - its really fun and the people I played with made it hysterical).

Day 4, we cleaned up our place and got our busses packed. We headed to Resurrection Life to worship with them - and one of our team members got to provide "special music" that day. Neat! (go Katie K!) We finished the big group portion of the trip with lunch at Ryan's which our leader (John) had gotten at a discount for us - what a blessing!! We ate well the entire trip, but this brunch was FANTASTIC - I will remember the steak and rolls forever, and will endeavor to return to one of the locations the next time I have a chance!

We loaded back up the busses (which we had set up partially for sleeping) and some of us took naps and read and others talked quietly. Later we set back up for talking and had some fun conversations and some game playing. Before bed the entertainment committee regaled us with a song summarizing everything that had happened this week in 4 verses. Very funny. Our ride home was not as comfortable sleep-wise - LOTS of bumps and things falling off bunks or the top shelf.... including my friend Amber. We arrived home on Monday morning at 5am, tired, and glad to be home, but also sad to have left.

I think all of us are going to go through some adjustment - though it was a short trip, it was an intense one and the things we learned will be a long time in coming potentially. I'm looking forward to it though.

Pictures to come (I only have a few) here.

Prayers for you and your walk with Jesus. I hope that this encourages you to figure out your calling and if its in missions somehow, and if you have questions about Jesus, please let me know.

Love, Tiffani