New Orleans - Wednesday, July 11

Chris did an excellent job leading worship last night at our debrief. Our discussion time focused on ways we can love God (from Joshua 22:5) and why we would want to serve God. Our AT (Accountability Team) discussion time centered on answering the question, "Where are you in your relationship with Jesus Christ?"

Our devotion theme for this morning was, "Talk is not enough. It's showtime." Our scripture reading was from Matthew 25:31-46 ("The Sheep and the Goats"). We also referred to Ephesians 2:8-10 as we were going through our devotions.

Our usual morning schedule is:
6:15 a.m. - Breakfast crew up cooking breakfast. (This rotates through all the ATs.)
7:00 a.m. - Breakfast and packing lunches
7:30 a.m. - Individual Devotion Time
8:00 a.m. - Breakfast and lunch clean-up (Once again an AT rotation.)
8:30 a.m. - Begin our workday

This morning we were treated with Swanie's famous french toast casserole which was very yummy! We only worked half a day today because we were doing some touristy stuff in the afternoon and evening.

Part of Swanie and Jake’s team (Lauren L, Lizzie, Stevie, both Nates, Dave) went to Greg and Sarah’s home (members of Canal Street Presbyterian) where they tore down a brick wall that had been damaged during Katrina. They separated the good bricks from the bad (kind of the like the “sheep and the goats” from our morning devotion), so the family could use them later for a patio. The team moved at least 1000 bricks today. They also demolished the only remaining wall from a shed that used to be in the yard BK (before Katrina).

The other part of this team (Sarah A, Debbie, Lauren S) helped Mary, an elderly woman, pack up some of her belongings. The first floor of her house was flooded by Katrina, so had already been gutted. The second floor had been looted in the aftermath of Katrina, so things were pretty much a mess. Mary was packing so she could move in with her son whose home was in better shape than her own.

Jim and Natalie’s team canvassed neighborhoods around the church delivering flyers announcing an upcoming dance camp for kids being held at the church – hosted by a team from Philadelphia coming in August. Part of this team (Andrew, Chris, Mike, Christine, Laura, Lizzie) also went to a partially gutted house to remove ceiling tiles and grids from the kitchen area.

All teams finished their work by noon, so we could shower early and head down to the French Quarter. Some of the guys ate alligator and gumbo while they girls shopped and tried on dresses. I promised not to tell who spent money on clothing! For supper we ate shrimp and catfish at a local hang-out in a swamp area west of New Orleans. (Okay, not all the kids ate shrimp and catfish...some had hamburgers and chicken fingers.) The food was good and the eatery was pretty much a shack up on stilts, so that made the dining interesting. After eating our guide told us some ghost stories...which were pretty lame...then we headed out on our swamp tour in a flat bottomed boat. We used flashlights to look for the red eyes of the alligators, then our guide would throw marshmallows into the water to try to attract them to the boat. He would also go out on a platform attached to the boat and hand feed the alligators chicken necks. It was pretty cool! We also went through an area of roosting egrets (large white birds) which was beautiful to see.

We got back to the church shortly before 11:00 p.m. and everyone literally fell into bed.