Friday, March 23, 2007

Today, up early to finish our platform extension. AND, we did it. We finished around 4pm and it turned out good. It took a lot of help from two of our volunteers, Peggy and her son Arron. See Sunday's blog to see Pastors use of the platform.

Barbara again worked in the tent. The teams did awesome and we set a new record. We served more people today than anytime since we moved the tent to the church. They served 585 St. Bernard families. Not only did the team do a good job in the tent but they also came into the sanctuary after the tent closed and cleaned up all the mess we made making the platform. Friday was a great day.

Saturday.....We lost all the teams as they left this morning. Last night, Julie, a friend from last summer, returned to work a few days..It was good to see her.

Barbara was invited to a Pampered Chef party at Jan Marr, Jill's sister. She went with Jill and Julie, one of the volunteers from GodChasers. They all had a good time.

Pastor invited me to go with he and his boys, along with Jesse, on a swamp tour. We went across the bridge to the west bank and to the bayou swamp. We boarded an air boat and went all over the swamp....seeing alligators, beautiful cypress trees and even a bald eagle. We had a good time and loved riding on the air boat.

Saturday night, we went to Sweet Fire and Ice, a restaurant owed by the creator of Popeye's. This was to celebrate our time with Jesse. A team of 6 men from the Cumberland, Maryland area arrived very late.

Sunday.....today was a good day.......the Pastor loved the new platform extension, using the steps all morning....the sermon was good and worship is getting better every Sunday. After church, Pastor, Jill, Barbara and I went to a local Isaleno Festival. The Isaleno people came from the Canary Islands and settled in St. Bernard Parish. We sampled a lot of the Isaleno foods.......grits and shrimp...rice with chicken...empanata....croquatas. It was all good. Jill Millet is a Isaleno descendant. They had dances, singing and a museum. We had a great time.....but I forgot my camera.

We had another team, one couple and one family arrived today. One team of 4 women and 5 men from Virginia, the couple is a airman from Florida and his girlfriend from Pennsylvania, the family of Father, son and daughter from Colorado (He works for Focus On The Family).

Monday......our last full week.....I worked on my RV, getting the oil changed, before we leave. I also worked on a flyer for the Friday night concert and 50s cafe event. Barbara worked in the tent where again they served more than 400 families. The teams are doing a great job in the tent, carrying groceries, interacting with the community and serving the people. The teams were mudding drywall at the duplex; installing insulation and hanging drywall at the church, installing lights in the ceiling, repairing walls, etc. We have some good workers.

Tuesday.....Barbara and I took a day off to see some of the sights......We went to the Chalmette Battleground Memorial where the Battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815/1816. The US was lead by Andrew Jackson against the British finest. The battle lasted two months and the US prevailed with Briton's recognition of the Louisiana purchase. The battleground is only a mile away from the Church. Next to the battleground is a US Military cemetery where more than 15,000 soldiers from the Spanish American War, WWI, WWII and Vietnam are buried. Afterwards, we had lunch at Sonics and then went to the IMAX theater to see the Hurricane on the Bayou film....it was very good and had a lot of good footage on Katrina. We finished the rest of the day by getting flyers printed for Friday's concert and pictures of the August 29^th Memorial framed.

More later.....Love

Love and Blessings
DAD and MOM
(Jerry and Barbara)

Tuesday, March 20, 207

Today is another work day for both of us. Barbara will be doing laundry and cleaning the RV. She will also do a little grocery shopping with Tami, the cook. She intends to go to the post office to mail a few things.

I will be working on the platform extension with the Kansas team. We are extending the platform about 10 feet and adding steps around the extension. This is a major task as the floor is very uneven and in order to keep the platform level, each support is custom built and cut separately. We got all of the floor joists done and leveled. Also, we got a couple of the ¾ plywood put on top.

I stopped early to get ready to go with Pastor Randy to a St. Bernard Parish council meeting. The council is having the final vote on the “lease” for the park that Operation Blessing is restoring. The president of Operation Blessing attended the meeting along with Jodi, the head of field operations. Most of the audience was there to support Pastor Randy. After discussion and some speakers, the council voted for the “lease” to be signed. This lease, I believe, is for 10 or 20 years for $1 a year. The Parish President office had a problem with some of the language changes to the lease and wanted to run the changes by the city attorney before the President would sign. There was some heated discussion concerning the separation of church and state.

Wednesday......Again, another work day. Barbara spent the day in the tent and they had close to 500 people go through the tent for groceries and food. I again worked with the Kansas team on the platform extension. I did all the cutting as the team put together all of the step stringers. As I stated earlier, the floor varies quite a bit and each step stringer had to be custom made. They got almost all the stringers finished with only a couple left. The Kansas team leaves tomorrow morning so they will not get to see the finished product.

Thursday.......We saw the Kansas team off and got back to work. Barbara finished up the laundry did a little running around and rested some. I checked out the step stringers and found a lot of them was not level and I spent the day leveling all of the stringers. One of the ladies and her son from the Missouri team helped me. We got all the stringers leveled and a third of the step treads. Here is a picture of the where we stand after Thursday.

Barbara and I went out to eat and had a great dish of redfish with a crab and onion sauce on top.....It was delicious.

Tomorrow, we hope to finish the platform extension.

More later.....Love

Love and Blessings

DAD and MOM
(Jerry and Barbara)

Friday, March 16, 2007

Today is a the final workday this week. Barbara is in the tent and they were busy all day......in fact, they gave food to and fed a little under 500 families (492). It was a busy day for her. I was still working with the Orlando team to finish up on the bunk beds. We work all day and finally finished at 3:45pm, completing all 15 bunk beds! It was a long day but satisfying. At the beginning of the week, Paul Remick had stated that he didn't think we could get it done.........The Orlando team took this as a challenge.....and WE DID IT!

Randy and Jill invited us to go to dinner at a REAL Cajun place.... Mulates in Breaux Bridge, LA......about 2+hours drive, however, counting the Friday night traffice, it took us over 3 hours to get there. We had a good Cajun meal and live Cajun music. It was fun. We didn't get back until after midnight!

Saturday.......Got up early to send off the Orlando team. It was a pleasure to work with them......Good Team. Barbara and I went looking for the Convoy of Hope group to visit with Matt Wilke. We found it and the event was interesting. They had food, kids programs, giveaways, prayer tent, clothing and many other things. We had a great visit with Matt.....it was good seeing him. We left and returned to the RV for lunch. Then, we went and met the Millet family to go watch Colin play soccer. We traveled about an hour and Colin had two games and won them both. The team played well. Afterwards, we went to an Italian restaurant...good food. After dinner, we went and had a little desert.....canole and spumoni ice cream....Yum. A team of 33 from Wichita, KS came in around one o'clock Sunday morning. We were NOT up when they came in. The group is led by Beth, one of the people that was here last year when we were here. It was great seeing her.

Sunday......a good day. We had a good crowd at church. We had a large group from Service International plus the teams and a good local crowd. Pastor Randy reached a good sermon about the cost of freedom. After church, we went with Pastor, his family, Joey, the worship leader and his family and Jesse. We ate at Zea, one of our favorite in town. After dinner, we headed to WalMart to get a few things. We returned to the RV and a group of 44 from Missouri had arrived. We have not gotten mattresses so the bunk beds are not too useful. So, into the sanctuary with the cot....it seems like old times.

Monday......started early with an orientation and assignments. Keeping 77 volunteers busy and working effectively is a big job and Randy does it well. I was assigned to work on the platform. Randy wanted a little more room in front to allow for more area for choir, worship team, etc. We took most of the morning figuring how we would do to meet Pastor's desires, then we ordered the materials and it took awhile for the lumber to arrive. By the end of the day, we got the studs leveled and ready for the top plates.

Barbara worked in the tent and they gave to 430 families. It is amazing that even though there are grocery stores are opened, we still have a large number of people still coming through the line. Barbara fixed a good meal and we settled in for the night.

As I had indicated before, here are a few pictures for you to see how the work is coming along....before is last summer....now is ...now! Remember, you can click on the pictures for a bigger view....enjoy..

Before Now

Sanctuary before Sanctuacy now

Operation Blessing Office

Dorm Bathroom

Two of the three Dorm Rooms

Hallway

50's Cafe

Area where offices will be One of the three offices

Volunteer Lounge Area (where cleaners front counters were)

Nursery

OK, now you have seen some great pictures BUT there is a lot yet to be done........the kitchen, classrooms, the youth room, the church bathrooms, the book store (where the new bunk beds currently reside), the office work room, the ushers room, finalizing the air conditioners, the electrical, finishing the sheetrocking, doing ALL the painting and carpeting, the baptistry, the baptistry change rooms......on and on it goes....I know that I have missed some areas. However, things are getting done and it looks good.

All right, this has been a long update and I will try to keep the updated photos coming when there is a major change.

More later,

Love and Blessings
DAD and MOM
(Jerry and Barbara)

Monday, March 11, 2007......OK, a new week. We have three teams here now, one from Orlando, FL area; one team from Waco, TX; and, a group from Seattle, WA area. Barbara is helping out at the tent giving out food and meals. We fed over 380 people. We went to Home Depot and picked up supplies to build four more 3-bed bunk beds to go with the one we have as a pattern. I am helping the team from Orlando, FL build these. We did about half of the work by the end of the day. I was so sore from bending over and getting up and down. We went to the bed tired but feeling good.

Tuesday.......Barbara went with Tami to do some shopping for the church and for us. I continued helping the Orlando team on the bunk beds. We finished with the bunk beds.....now we have beds for 15. All of these beds will go into the area that will eventually be the bookstore. Paul has been busy doing the mudding to get the room ready. The electricians are busy getting the plugs and lights working in the room. Tuesday evening, we went to Randy and Jill's home for dinner. Good dinner and good fellowship.

Wednesday.......Barbara worked in the tent today helping and they fed over 400 people. The Orlando team donated enough funds to buy more materials for beds.....another donation allowed us to get enough materials for the remaining beds to bring the total to 16 bunk beds which will sleep 48 people. It took most of the morning to get the materials and we started on the making and assembling of the beds.....the Orlando team is committed to finishing all the bunk beds before they leave on Saturday morning.

I found out today that one of the guys (Matt Wilke) that led our team in Peru on our Book Of Hope trip now works for the Convoy of Hope is in the New Orleans area this week. Convoy of Hope is an organization that helps people all over the world by giving them food, medical help, counseling, spiritual guidance and other things as required. He is here for a week setting up a big Convoy of Hope event on Saturday. We hope to see him.

Tonight is the women's Bible study and Jill Millet is the teacher. However, the team from Seattle, an all-women team, wanted to bless the church with a tea for the women. They did all the work of the event, including the food. Jill asked Barbara to share a little of the our trip to Africa. She shared and showed a few of our pictures while she was sharing. They also had several women from the church share their stories from Katrina. As always, there wasn't a dry eye in the house as they shared their stories. [I still believe that someone needs to document their stories in a book.] It was a good night.

Thursday......I continued to work with the Orlando team on the bunk beds. Barbara did our laundry and cleaned the RV. The bunk beds are coming along and I really think we will be finished by Friday evening.

Matt Wilke came by today and we had a good visit. We hope to connect with him again on Saturday at their big event.

A little of TV tonight and early to bed.

NOTE...I will try to get some photos of the progress of the church and will include them in the next blog.

More later,

Love and Blessings
DAD and MOM
(Jerry and Barbara)

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Up early and had our breakfast. Today, we went to a couple of soccer games. Pastor's son, Colin, plays in a city park league. Jill and Randy rode with us to the game. The first game was an exciting game and it ended tied at 1. The second game was also good but they lost 2-0. Randy's son, Randy coached the team since the main coach was out of town. The second game, Randy, senior, helped a little. Afterwards, we went to a local place for lunch. Then back to the church. Randy and Jill took us around the area and showed us how things were progressing. And especially on the park which Randy is heading up. A team of 8 arrived from Orlando, FL and will be here for a week. Early to bed since the DST happens tonight.

Sunday......A good day. Today, Adullam's own live worship band, since the storm, played and it was great. The people really responded. And Randy's sermon on keeping your Heart right was very good. A couple of women arrived as the forerunners of a team of 10 ladies. After church, we went to lunch with Randy and his family plus another young church (Adam and Melissa) couple and Jesse and his friend. Back to the RV to relax and do a little repair work on a computer. An evening of “just doing nothing” and resting to gear up for a new week.

[Side note] There will not be as many pictures on this trip as our Africa trip unless you want to see pictures of the church.....respond and let me know!

More later,

Love and Blessings

DAD and MOM

(Jerry and Barbara)

Monday, March 4, 2007

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

We are off to New Orleans (well, really Arabi where Pastor Randy and Jill's Church, Adullam Christian Fellowship, is located). We left today (Monday) at 3pm. We had gotten packed in the RV and decided to get an early start.

So, we ended up just west of Phoenix at a RV park at around 8pm and spent the night. Next morning, I (Jerry) had left all my personal toiletries at home so we had to do a little shopping before we left. We got started around 10:30am and drove all day and ended up around 8pm at Van Horn, Texas (this is where we stayed last year). Next morning, we left at 7am and headed east across Texas and ended up in Iowa, LA (again as last year). Next morning, we slept in and left at 9am and finally arrived in Arabi, at the church, at around 1pm on Thursday, March 8th.

When we drove in, we saw a some of the changes, most of the traffic signals worked (and we hit most of the red ones) and a lot of the debris had been cleaned up. After we arrived, we found Tami and Kevin with Steve and did a lot of hugging and catching up. We then saw Kenny, Randy's brother-in-law. We then toured the church and saw a lot of changes........the 50s Cafe......the new nursery....the offices....the finished Operations Blessings Office....the volunteer lounge room....the dorms and bathrooms...the new doors on the back allowing the building to be secure...the fellowship hall.....all the tile in the hallways, fellowship hall, 50s cafe and most of the sheet rock in the sanctuary is nearly done. Paul and Jesse have been very busy. Jesse is a young man that was here last summer from Ventura, CA that decided to return for six months of help and he is completely supported by his church. A lot of changes. Then we saw Paul Remick, Jill and Randy....it was good to see all. We moved our RV into the place where we were last year and hooked everything up. Randy called and wanted up to go to a local eating place (Italian) with their family. There are a couple of teams here, one from Georgia and one from North Carolina (some were here last year when we were). The NC team joined us at the restaurant. After dinner, we went back to the Church where the NEW church worship team met for the first time since the storm. A minister, named Joey and originally from New Orleans, came back and got with Randy and Jill and offered to help where he could. He plays the guitar and leads worship. They got Cheryl to play the piano, Greg to play the bass guitar, Randy, Jr to play the drums and some worship singers. This is the NEW worship team. The practice went well and Randy was in heaven as worship is his love and joy. They did a great job. Sunday will be the first live Adullam Christian Fellowship's own praise and worship team since the storm....Things are moving along.

Friday......Up early to start working. Randy had shared with us the things that are happening here. Randy leads a group of five other Pastors and they work as a committee to select the people to get new homes. Tina, the wife of the owner of the electrical company that is rewiring the church, has volunteered to help Randy organize this project. Habitat for Humanity, along with other organizations, has asked these men to come up with a list of people for new homes. Randy is also working on a park project that the city will donate land and buildings for the community to have a place for soccer, flag football, running track, karate and boxing. All of this is in addition to the Church still feeding the community and giving out food 3 days a week. They are feeding between 400-550 people 3 days a week. The church and teams continue to gut homes and clean up debris for the community. Randy invited Barbara and I to set in on the meeting with the Pastors for the selection of the first 19 families for new homes. Each family is selected based upon their own circumstances, handicaps and needs. He wants us to help him while we are here to work with him on these homes. Also, Paul is working feverishly on the room that will eventually be used as the bookstore. However, the teams will be increasing as summer gets here and this room will be used as another dorm room. A team built a triple bunk bed and Randy has asked me to look into replicating this design with another 15 bunk beds. However, the money is a little tight at the moment as Randy is believing for the funds for them. Barbara helped Randy and Tina as they finished the list. I got prices on the material for the bunk beds so Randy can make a decision. Barbara fixed a nice dinner and then we took Cuddles for a walk and run. She loves to run around the sanctuary chasing me. We settled in for the evening.

More later,

Love and Blessings

DAD and MOM

(Jerry and Barbara)