New Orleans - Friday, July 13

Every morning it seems harder and harder to get up! Between the heat and the work, it is physically exhausting to be in New Orleans. Our devotion theme for the day was "I will view others with the eyes of Christ" and our scriptures for today were John 15:12-13 and Romans 12:10-13. Tonight at debrief the students will give gifts to our volunteer leaders (Swanie, Jim, Jake, Natalie, Nancy, Carol) and the leaders will give commemorative "Renew New Orleans/We Will Rebuild" bracelets (a fundraiser for New Orleans charities/Salvation Army) to each student. We will also celebrate communion together.

Our work projects were pretty big today. Jim and Natalie's group went back to the house Swanie's group had been at on Tuesday to finish gutting the house. Swanie also went with them to teach them how to do it. (Swanie became a house gutting "expert" on last year's New Orleans trip.) After lunch Dave switched from Jake's team to join in the gutting efforts on this team. After they finished the gutting job, they moved scrap metal for the man who owns the home from a junk pile in the back to a place where he can actually load it up and take it somewhere to sell.

Jake's team (with Nancy and Suzan) spent their morning at Sylvia's home. Sylvia lives near the church and is 85 years old. They weeded and mulched her flower beds and planted some new flowering plants for her. After they finished the work, Sylvia told them about her experience with Katrina. Her children evacuated her before the storm hit and her home was flooded. She didn't get to come back to her house until December and didn't move back in until the following April. She had to throw out some furniture, but not everything. Sylvia broke down crying talking about her experience. It was very touching for the students to hear her story.

In the afternoon Jake's team went to a home in the Upper Ninth Ward where they primed all the new walls and ceilings that had been put in this older home and started painting the various rooms. It was a small house - a living room, 2nd living room/bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and mud room. Gary, the owner, was there and he cleaned out the paint brushes and rollers all afternoon. He had purchased primer and was going to use his outdoor paint (forest green) to paint the inside of the house. Of course, that didn't seem like a good idea to the team, so Suzan went out and bought paint for the all the rooms of the house ( muffin brown for the front two rooms and the mudroom, yellow for the kitchen, and a lime green for the bathroom...don't worry, he loved it!). They stayed at extra 1 1/2 hours so they could get more done. When the team left, the entire house had been primed, all the ceilings were painted, the mudroom was done, the kitchen was done and the front two rooms had all the edges cut and just needed to have the paint rolled on. Next week's team will go back to finish the job.

Tomorrow morning the students have to have their bags packed and in the vans by 6:45 a.m. We'll have breakfast, clean the church where we're staying and head to the airport by 8:15 a.m. We arrive back in Boston late tomorrow afternoon...I hope all the parents remember to come pick up their teenagers!

It has been a great week! Thank you for all your prayers over the past few months and especially this week. They were definitely needed and appreciated! See you on Mission Sunday, August 12!