those of us who flew are home. haven't heard from the driving team yet

hi everybody,

it was with heavy hearts that we left our friends in new orleans.  we always wish we could do more but we also know we did a lot.  no matter how many nails were pounded or walls were painted or drywall hung and taped we made a difference.  everyone you talk to thanks you so much for the contribution you make to getting new orleans back.  as so many have said - if they had waited for the government to do any of what we do, they would be no where near moving home.  that is what keeps me coming back and i bet that is a pretty common feeling among all of the team members.

we are all very tired and sore but uplifted.  i tell people these mission trips have been life changing for me and i truly mean it.  i get way more than i give.

friday was a half day for us and a wrap up on many projects.  i personally went with my original team and finished up a few things on malcom's house and said good bye.  that is so hard for us since we come to think of these people as our family.  working on someone's home is so personal.  after a few tears and a good luck prayer we left to join the team at trinity church where we had our candle light service.  there was a team there  all week working on the roof and we joined in doing some caulking and priming.  i got to clean upstairs of the church where there were 3 rooms each with 3 foot piles of demolition leftovers.  i admit i only got one one room done but that was a dent in the junk piles.  we finished our work week at 12 noon and went back to camp restore for a pizza party, our final bible study, and showers!  then we were on our own.  we had to pack up and clean up and get to bed early the next day.  we were on our own for dinner and many went to the quarter.  we chose to go to magazine street - the artsy area of new orleans.  we had dinner on the patio of "catch" a fairly new and wonderful restaurant.  we got quite a kick of eating outside on january 22.  most teams were back very early because we needed to be up by 4 am to pack the truck and on the road by 5ish.  we were all anxious to get on the road or on the airplane to get back to our families.

i drove down but flew back.  i was home by 11:30 this morning and while i missed m driving team i was glad i had flown because along with tee shirts and saints hats, i brought back a nasty cold as a reminder of my trip.  i feel kinda yucky and i need sleep!!!!  in my own bed

there is so much left to do down in new orleans.  there are so many homes that haven't been touched but we did notice so much progress since last year.  the lower 9th that was so bad is bustling with building and revitalization.  many homes are in the process of being built and many are occupied.  we all remarked how wonderful that was.  what a treat it has for us to be a very small part of the rebuilding efforts.  we are blessed.  many of the homes that are not touched are at the point that they may have to be pulled down and demolished.  the rot and neglect has made them very unsafe to work in much less live in ever again.  how sad.

i am ready to start planning my trip for next year (after i rest up and get over this cold).  i can't not go back.  i  love the homeowners we have worked for.  what wonderful people they are.  they are just like you and me.  they had homes and families.  jobs and cars.  kids and grandkids.  moms and dads.  brothers and sisters.  grocery stores, hospitals, churches.  in a matter of minutes that was all taken away from them.  remember - and this is a major thing to remember - it wasn't the hurricane that caused this trouble but the levees that broke and flooded over 80% of the city.  yes - they maybe should have evacuated but how could they predict the levees wouldn't hold the storm surge.  again - it wasn't the hurricane but the aftermath.  i've spent a lot of time studying the storms and the levees and the people of new orleans.  i have read almost everything i can get my hands on.  i have read the minute by minute weather alerts and warnings.  i have studied their mayor and the government in that city.  i have talked to people who lived through the storm and the surge.  i read the new orleans paper almost daily.  i have no idea how to fix new orleans, the levees, or the government, but i know that i can do something for one person at a time.  i can paint one room or clean one church room.

my homeowner is probably sleeping in his house tonight for the first time in 4 1/2 years.  yes, i think it is inadvisable to be back there. yes, i know it is no where ready for someone to move back in, but yes - i know that he probably moved his bed into one of the bedrooms before our car turned the corner on the way to trinity church.  he just wanted to "go home".  he is out of money so his house is at a stand still.  he has enough to have the plumber in to put in a toilet and a kitchen sink, probably balanced on a couple of orange crates and a sheet of plywood, but he will be "home". maybe someday he will get it all done but right now the smallest step home is the most important thing in their lives.

please keep them in your prayers.  please think about coming with us next year.  you have about 12 months to plan.

also - we give all of you a big thank you for keeping the home fires burning while we are gone.  we thank you for your prayers and encouragement.  we thank you for the warm welcomes we got when we got back.  we do love each and every one of you.

if you want some dynamite insight into our week away log on to gulfcoastmissiontrip.com and view the videos.  they are outstanding.  we thank our leader dave moll for that. also, thank you for your comments on the blog, too.  i really appreciate it.  i think the blog was my way of decompressing  at the end of the day as much as it was a way to give you a little taste of that was going on while we were gone.

we love you all.

where has this week gone?????

here we are on thursday night.  it is amazing how this week has flown by.  i hope all of you have gotten a chance to see the website that has been following us on our jobs.  to remind you it's gulfcoastmissiontrip.com.  there are some great video's posted there.

today was so productive for our team.  we have named ourselves the "no faux" team.  that comes from a conversation between jen and steve about the colors that malcom has chosen for his rooms.  jen suggested that if malcom didn't like the brightness of the colors we could tone it down with some faux painting.  steve said "steve no faux" and there the name was born.  i guess you had to be there but we thought it was pretty good.

we have the house painted and tomorrow we will go back and do some touch up's and then we are off to trinity church in the lower 9th across the street from the brad pitt houses to help them do some cleanup's from their week of work.  we will stop at noon and the rest of the day is ours.  since we went to the french quarter last night for our annual hurricane (one) and dueling pianos we are going to go to magazine street tomorrow where all (or many) of the artsy stores are.  i don't know where we will go for dinner but it should be somewhere fun.

then - those that are driving home will be up and out by about 4:30 - 5:00 am and we flyers will be out by 6. it is always bittersweet for us to be leaving when there is so much still to do but so good to get back to our families.  we miss you all.

tonight we took our team pictures and the group picture and then we went out and blessed lark's new car - purchased down here after his went kaplooie!!  one mighty expensive take home gifts i would say.  i just got tee shirts for my take home gifts - oh and hats too.  hey - they are saints hats and you can't get those in illinois.

today was close to 80 at our job site.  it was beautiful.  it is going to be hard to leave this wonderful weather behind.  i don't look forward to your 30's.

it is time for me to take my own advice and look at the web site.  i love the video's

we will see you in a couple of days.  we love you all and miss you.  pray for our safe travels home.

we are family!!!

Shhhh don't tell my team tht I am sitting here on the porch blogging this morning but I couldn't wait to tell you all the good news! We have all become families. Somewhere during each trip the teams go from a bunch of people from different churches and this trip different states to a family. It is like magic and you can't pinpoint exactly when it happens but it does. You have your inside jokes, your nicknames. You know about their families, what they do for a living, and even what they like to eat. You watch out for each other, not just because that is what you do for people but because they are your family. I love that magic! Ok I better get back to work but I just couldn't wait to tell you that the magic has happened. Please know that our newly formed "families" will care for amd protect your family. We send our love to all of you! Now we just need your christmas lists!

hooo boy!

the day is done and i am very glad.  we were back at malcon's.he asked us to retexturize some of the walls we had done yesterday so we did.  then we installed a pull down attic stairway and primed 3 rooms.  steve deAtley wins the A++ superman award for our team but the rest of us get the A+ supermen/women awards.  i always love to see how a team meshes and becomes one.  each of us seems to find a job that fits our abilities or our capabilities.  it becomes like a ballet.  each person learns where to be and when to be so as not to disturb the works of the others on the team.  Steve and jen put in an attic pull down staircase.  the kind that many of us have in our homes and garages.  the notion of someone actually having tears in their eyes because of an attic staircase is hard to believe but there were tears in malcom's eyes today. he told us a few times that he would pay us back for all we have spent on his house.  we told him that this was our privledge and that if he ever has any spare money, donate it to camp restore or to some other worthy charity that does God's work. that is how to pay us back.  and to think of us and the teams before and after with love and prayers.

i just talked to pastor baerwolf and he said his day went well.  he is a crew leader and the group he has is doing insulation.  i also just talked to ted meyers.  he is on a demolition team and he said he was dead tired.  that is not easy work.  we forget that so many of us sit at desks for much of the day or ride in a car for our jobs so when we call upon our bodies to do  this kind of work we get real tired and sore real easily.  but - we all have a clear idea of why we are here and what we have to do.  it gets very addictive - you want to do just one more thing to get those people home.  to have them settled in their home.  i thought that after 4 1/2 years the need would diminish - it hasn't.  our malcom lives in a fema trailer and has for 4 years.  he said he will move in as soon as he has running water.  he is our of money like most of the people here and will do without cabinets or flooring or the other things that we all take for granted just to GET HOME!  just think of living in a trailer for that length of time.  and let me tell you - they "ain't" pretty or spacious, or comfortable.  malcom has let us use the bathroom in his trailer and jen and i have encouraged the guys in the group - all newbies - to go in to use the bathroom just to see what a fema trailer looks like,  it is hard to describe.  i have always wanted to post a picture of the inside of one of them but i don't want to intrude on their privacy by showing the inside of their "home".

ok - i'm gonna post some pictures of the crew and get ready for dinner.

those of you who have sent us cards in the mail - thank you so much.  i received one today and it touched me so much.  to know that we are thought of and remembered is so wonderful.  thank you!!!

we love you all

ok - i admit it - i'm tired

day one and we survived.  i see most of the teams are back and many of us have taken our showers and look and smell a whole lot better.

my house was a 5 room house.  we patched and sanded drywall and then we textured the walls and ceiling.  i have never done that before and i must admit i have still not "done" it but i helped keeping the air compressor hose out of the way, filling the hopper with more of the texturizing stuff, and scraped the "goobers" off of the floor.  i have to give the A++  superman award to our guy Steve DeAtley.  he did all the work - holding that heavy hopper and spraying the walls.  now - there were two people who followed after him and "knocked down" the spray stuff to actually make the walls look like an orange peel, hence the name "an orange peel finish".  we also had one person working a room ahead of us doing almost all of the drywall patching and sanding.  it was work.

they told us that our homeowner was a cranky guy but i didn't find that at all.  malcom is a really nice man.  he is 61 and has been living in a FEMA trailer for 4 1/2 years now.  he is so anxious to just get back into his house.  he told me that he spent 4 days in the convention center and saw all types of ugliness.  he had tears in his eyes when he was talking even this far out.  how sad.

the weather here is beautiful.  probably in the mid-sixties.  sorry to tell you that but it sure felt good.  we sat outside in the sun for lunch in tee-shirts.  you really have to take advantage of the good weather while you are here.

we are going to eat in a few minutes and i want to upload some pictures so i will sign off  now.

please pray for us.  tomorrow will be a very tough day for most of us because we have disturbed muscles that have laid dormant for years.  we will be a limping, hurting bunch.

we love you all

good morning

Hi ho hi ho it's ofdf to work we go!!! Pray for us as we start our first workday! We love you

it's bed time for ginny

got our work teams, have had several meetings, 2 church services and on and on and on!!!  whoo.!!

so far we have had good luck with everything except for one ticket for improper use (was NOT the baerwolf car) and one blown transmission.  hopefully that is the end of the problems.

my team is going to be working on a house that the homeowner is still lliving in.  i heard he is a bit cranky.  this should be an experience!  we have to patch some drywall, texturize some surfaces and - ta da - what else PAINT!  what would a new orleans mission trip be if i didn't paint!  it can't be much because it is a very small team - 2 girls and 3 boys.  i am excited to get going.

the church services tonight were great.   the first was at gloria dei a freshly restored church that had water damage probably in the 5 foot area inside of the church.  it has been restored.  some of our people will be working therre tomorrow doing a bible study for some of the kids.  then we had a candle light service at trinity.  a church that was almost completely destroyed.  it is gutted and there will be a crew there tomorrow working hard to get it on the road to looking like a church again.  we had communion there by generator and candlelight.  it was very special.

there are two teams here that are not part of our group.  one from wisconsin and one from minnesota.  this is the first time that i have been here that we haven't had the place to ourselves.  it is great to see how organized we are (thanks steve simpson) .  in contrast, the those teams are not organized at all. they probably will lose at least half of tomorrow.

ok - i am tired.  i am going to do about 10 minutes of research and i am gonna go nitey nite.

pray for us tomorrow that we can get done what we have to get done.

we love you and miss you all

ginny

we are crossing the bayou's

We decidid not to take the lake route this year but to come in the way we usually leave. Usually we cross the bayoiu's in the dark and don't get to see any of this. It is awsome. There are thise little run down fishing villages all along here. Looks like the only way to get to thm is by boat and how they ever built a home is a mystery because it looks real swampy around them. Think there are alligators in the reeds? Bet I wouldn't go in that water. We'll be coming in on the west of new orleans instead of in the center like usual.and o yeah the sun is shining a bit.there are still some clouds. The second mardi gras parade of 2010 is stepping off at 1 pm this afternoon. It's the krewe of claude parade. Wow - new.orleans is in view about 20 miles ahead of us. How magnificent! It's 56 degrees and getting sunnier by the minute. This is God's special welcome for us. God is good! Ok I'm going to go and enjoy the view!

louisiana

We just crossed into louisiana. 9w miles to go. There is no rain and the roads are dry. Yoohoo. I think we may be leading the pack right now but all seems to be going well with everyone. By the way I can't figure out to change any typos on the phone entries so to decode the mileage above it's 91 and probably a lot less than that since I've been typing this.

on the road again...

We have been on the road for 2 1/2 hours now. Not much longer to go. The pouring rain has stopped and it is just kinda misting. Would love to see the sun. most of us have checked in at home and hear you all woke to the beautiful sight of trees being frosted over and all shiny. How glorious. We were all keeping an ear on the saints football game last night. What a great win. I had neighbors down in nola and they checked in with my hubby and said the town was just crazy. I bet it was. Once we get to camp restore our first job will be to set up our beds and take a shower. The church we stayed at in hernando doesn't have shower facilities. Sometime we will be meeting with our advance teams to get our work assignments. Then we will be off to gloria dei church to tour the facility and have a dinner prepared by pastor buss from down here and some of the locals. But wait - there's more... Then we are off to tour another church across the street from the brad pitt homes in the lower 9th. Some time in there the "newbies" and any others who wantto can get a tour of the lower 9th. Our flyers should be landing in about 2 hours so they will be at the camp as our welcoming committee. Just checked with our other driving teams and they are all doing well. That's a great sign. Not much more to tell you right now plus it is getting harder and harded to type with my thunbs on thi blackberry. Will try to post pictures sometime today if I can find a bit pf unscheduled time. Just gotta tell you about lamberts - the home of the throwd rolls (and no - I didn't spelled throwd wrong). We love you all. Keep us in your prayers as we will keep you in ours.

it's raining, itr's pouring, the old man...

Good morning blog family. We are up and waiting for breakfast. The truck is repacked and ready to go. So far everything is great - thanks for your prayers. We should be at camp restore around noon with a full schedule of activities. We are touring a couple churches and having a real new orleans dinner. Soooo off we go! Keep us in your prayers and also prayers for our flyers who will join us later today

missouri

The baerwolf car of 4 has just crossed the mississippi river in to missouri. 10 miles to our lunch stop at lamberts the home of the tossed rolls. This should be something. We need food - we're singing broadway show tunes! Maybe food will help!

and away we go

We are on the road to new orleans with a stop overnight in mississippi. We have been driving for two hours and just passed paxton illinois. We stil haven't seen the sun yet and there still is snow on the ground. We just checked on the other drivers in our driving group and everyone is about in the same location as we are and doing well. I hward that lark has put the group picture from this morning on his blog already. Check it out! Jusr remember that it was before 6 this morning and some of us were still asleep. We were well fed though thanks to the saturday morning men's bible group. Thanks guys it was great! Ok that's all for now from the road for now. We love you all. Ginny

haiti

hi blog family,

today is the day before the day before.... tomorrow we drop off our tubs, bags, and tools off at immanuel east dundee to be loaded into the truck.  i am all packed and soooo excited but it is with a heavy heart that all of us leave.  i am thinking of all our brothers and sisters in in haiti.  i wish there was something i could do for the people there but i think it is the time to leave it up to the professionals.  then if God leads me i will find a way to help.  in the meantime we all can help with our prayers and our dollars.  there are several ways to contribute.  check out the red cross website for their method of donating.  also lutheran charities has set up a fund.  be careful that you do not get scammed, please.  go with a legitimate charity and be sure YOU make the call - do not donate to anyone who calls you unless you are 100% sure who they are.

for now there are many, many things that need to be done in new orleans.  i am sure that all of us on the team can't wait to get going and get working.  we will spend the next few hours tying up loose ends at home and at our jobs and i bet that most of us will remember one or two that we forgot when we get on the road.  hey - it's nothing that can't wait.

we received an email this week from dave moll, our organizer who told us of an easy way to log on to our blogs.  i will try to post that info here.  let's see if it works

Daily Updates Online - Pass the word to all of your family and friends … we will be providing daily online updates from the trip.  We plan to do video and photo updates, as well as a couple blogs.  The website is easy to remember … www.gulfcoastmissiontrip.com.  Friends and family can submit their email address to receive email updates when new items are posted to the site!

hey - it did work.  on the website there is a link to our two blogs, a video from last year and our route.  i haven't explored the whole site yet so there may be a lot more.  there was a lot of work that went in to that site.  congratulations to the authors.

ok - it's time to get going.  remember those loose ends i was talking about.....  there are a lot of them right in front of me so i'm going to scoot.

please say a prayer for those brothers and sisters in haiti and also pray for us, that we have easy and safe travels.  we'll be "talking" to you all along the way.

we love you all and carry you in our hearts.

ginny

this is cool

I just learned that I can publish posts from my blackberry if I can just figure out how to get it to post so it can be seen. Now I can send posts from the road and from my project house. Isn't technology great!!! Wow!

time is a tickin' tickin'....

remember when you were a kid and you just couldn't wait for christmas to come?  remember asking mom or dad "how many more days now". remember how exciting it all was?  that's where i am right now.  i can't wait for next week.  but - remember december 27th and you start thinking about the next christmas?  when you wonder how it went so fast and how sad that makes you?  that's also where i am.

i want to get going - to blast off to new orleans.  i want to get back to camp restore and get back to work.  i want to see my friends, i want to find out what i am going to do, i want to find out my team - i want to get going.

on the other hand, i don't want it to come.  i don't want it to be over.  i want to savor the time.  i want to be able to expand the time - to be able to get more done, to help where i can, to "share a smile, share a hug, share myself".

it all goes so fast.  as i get older i have tried not to wish my life away because time has a way of flying on it's own.  i find that i have been thinking of this a lot.  i know there are things that i have not done.  things that God has asked me to do that i haven't.  there are people i haven't "smiled at", there are people i haven't "hugged" and there are soooo many times that i haven't "shared myself".  time keeps a tickin' , tickin', so it is time that i examine what i still need to do when i get back to give back.

today please say an extra prayer for the people in the south including our friends in new orleans.  it is so cold for them.  they do not have heaters like we do.  they don't have insulation in their homes.  they are prepared for heat - not cold.  i worry for them.  the heater in the house i worked in last year was about the size of a small carry-on suitcase.  they hang on the wall and they are usually in the back of the house.  i am sure many will be using their ovens to heat up part of their homes.  i worry about the chance of fires when they do that.  today will be 43 in new orleans.  that is their high and that is very cold for them.  keep them in your prayers.

i am now off to church.  it is cantada sunday where all of our talented musicians and singers lend their voices to the praise of our God.  what a wonderful send off to the  immanuel mission team.  we will leave with the memories of their beautiful voices in our hearts.  thank you

i love you all
ginny

p.s. there are pictures of the furnaces at the bottom of this blog and also a picture of the underside of their houses where you can see how exposed their pipes and everything is.

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!

what else can i say.........  it's almost blast off time!   yahoo!

news from the orientation meeting

last night we had our orientation meeting.  it was like a pep rally in high school without the cheerleaders and basketball players.  it was so cool and the excitement was high.  it was fun to see those we haven't seen since the last trip and was also great to meet the "newbies".  i remember my first meeting - excitement mixed with fear and wonder.  i saw that in the faces of the new members last night and some of the veterans, too.  the feeling was excitement by all i am sure.

we keep adding team members so we are up to about 64 and counting.  that is so great.  but - just because some of you aren't on the trip, please know we are taking all of you with us in our hearts.  please pray for us as we will for you.

there have been a couple of changes that make me a bit anxious but it is the best way to do things.  camp restore has thrown open their case files and we have our choice of projects.  our "general contractor" "general organizer" will go down a few days before we go there and get everything ready.  at that point he will match talents with projects.  new also this year is that teams will be more fluid than in the past.  that will mean that just because you start with one team on monday, you may be needed with a different team on tuesday.  the neat thing about this is that you get to work with and spend more time with more people.  i think i like this new wrinkle.  the drawback i see is that if your homeowner is present you may not get to spend that much time with them.  i love to be with the homeowners but maybe this way we will get to meet more than one.

also new this trip is another opportunity to serve the people of new orleans.  there is an outreach program where some of us may work helping at the art museum, a horse farm, or a youth center, etc. wherever we are needed in the community  what fun.  truly this year there will be something for everyone.

we also discussed the blogs and from time to time we may have "guest bloggers".  i love the thought of sharing with you all different views of our experiences.  so, be sure you check out lark sanders blog at larkn5.blogspot.com also.  you never know who will turn up on these pages.

so - tonight i have started packing my "tub".  it was fun to pull out my work clothes again.  talk about paint drips!  i also write the year of the trip and the address of my house on my work pants as a memory.  that was cool to look at again.  tuesday (senior day 10% discount day for us seniors) i will make my trek to fisher nuts outlet store to gather my ingredients for the road trip treats.  that was the greatest discovery on my first trip - never had anything like it before but am addicted.  chocolate candies, hot spicy peanuts, gummies, jellie bellies and much more all mixed together.  what could be better!!!  a junk lovers paradise.  how can you travel without junk food?  then when we get down there i have to get a case of zapps potato chips.  if you have never had them - yummo.  they have a crawfish flavor (now now - it's not as yucky as it sounds so stop making those faces!) chips.  talk about an addiction!!!  potbelly sandwich stores sell them but that is the only place up here that carry the zappos.  the owner of zappos chips is also on the board of the camp restore governing group so that makes me happy too.  boy - it sounds like all we do is eat but no - well, kinda.  gotta keep up that ole strength you know.

well, for those of you reading this and going on the trip, i feel your excitement.  for those of you staying home and keeping the home fires burning please know we love you and will miss you but you will never be far from our hearts and minds.  i hope with all my heart that we will make you proud.  and to those of you that couldn't go this year because of financial reasons or scheduling reasons, or anything else that makes this just undoable, our hope is that next year you can join us. we'll talk.......  i promise..... we'll get you there with God's help.

we love you all -

two weeks from today it's blast off!

2 weeks from today we'll be on the road.  whew! back in the summer it seemed so far away.  today it seems so very close.  i can't believe how fast time has gone.  i have so much to do here and at work before i can even think of going.  as my mom used to say "God give me strength"!    thankfully the time crunch is finally becoming real to my brain because i really work better under stress.

so.... this weekend is dedicated to rounding up my "stuff" to take.  it won't take long if i just get down to it.  at work it will be a different story.  the stack of stuff seems insurmountable.  that is where the stress is.  hate to leave when it is not all done but this year i may have to leave some loose strings.  oh well - like i said "God give me strength" and HE will and it will get done - i hope.

so - off to make my lists which i will promptly lose and have to redo.

stay warm this weekend and keep the mission team in your prayers as we prepare to go to NOLA and our 3rd mission trip.

love you all