Wednesday, May 4

This was a very long but enjoyable day.

PRAYER WALKING

Wednesday morning began with a side trip to meet Pastor Eric and his wife Kristina. God has called them to plant a church in downtown New Orleans and we helped by passing out fliers in the neighborhood. The people we met were very friendly.

At each corner we stopped to pray for either the city, the schools, the businesses, the police, the church plant, or the people living around us. Kristina told us that corruption was a big problem in many circles of New Orleans and we could see that prayer is very important in the recovery of the communities.

MEETING MISS CAMMIE

After the prayer walk, each team drove to their assigned home.

Today Miss Cammie stopped by to visit the team and share her heartfelt appreciation for helping rebuild her house. Katrina took a toll on her physically. The stress was so great that she had trouble with her heart and had a pace maker implanted. But she is convinced that the Lord loves her and watches over her through her many trials. We were able to pray with her and were encouraged by her persevering faith.

9^th WARD

After finishing our day of work, we headed toward the 9th Ward. Along the way we noted that there are more signs of life in the city than had been 5 yrs. ago. Many businesses are open and more homes rebuilt. But in the Lower 9th Ward near the levies there were still vast areas of empty lots and abandoned homes. Only about 15 % of the homes were restored and occupied. We saw many of the new, unusual Brad Pitt homes.

BLOCK PARTY

In an adjacent neighborhood we held a block party in the yard of one of our clients. We walked the streets and invited the neighbors to join us for grilled hot dogs. It was a great way to meet people and hear their stories. The stories we heard were harrowing. Veronica was awaken in the night to rapidly rising water in her bedroom. She escaped into her tiny attic, and was saved by her neighbor who hammered a hole in the roof for her to escape out onto. Otherwise she would have drowned in her attic. Patrick spent 2 days on his roof and didn't like to remember the things he saw floating by. He plans to drive up to Alabama next week when he has the time off so he can help out those who are in need there. Several walked up to thank us for the work Touch Global has provided over the years, and for sticking with it. We heard that 2 other relief organizations had pulled out of New Orleans this year.

We finished the night with a trip to the French Quarter for beignets and a creole dinner.

Tuesday, May 3rd

All had a good nights rest though the men were awakened a bit early by a team member's (who will remain unnamed) cell phone alarm that went off after the team member had wakened REAL early and left to take a shower (without turning off the cell phone). Men being men, all of us just laid in our bunks waiting for someone to get up and turn it off. After an eternal amount of time, the two youngest team members couldn't stand it anymore and got up to cancel the alarm. Everyone (except the showering culprit) slept for another precious 5 minutes. You can make your own conclusions about the meaning of who and why the alarm was eventually turned off :).

Once we all got up, we were surprised by a sudden rain shower on the way to breakfast. We ate a breakfast of Louisiana French Toast along with other healthy assortments served by the Reach Global staff. There is another team working with us this week from an EV Free Church in Lancaster, PA. Coincidentally, their church is also called Grace Community Church. After breakfast, Jason Fingerle lead the entire group in a devotional from 2 Corinthians 4 and we had a short time of prayer together.

Lima Work Team A returned to the home they had been working on yesterday and continued to work on painting and putting in trim, hanging doors, and adding a sink to the bathroom. We were able to share some good stories with the homeowner about fishing, boats, and family. A little after lunch, we went on a short prayer walk around the block, praying for different homes, families, and workers for the homes. Some of the team went back to work after the walk.

Lima Work Team B continued working on Ms. Cammie's house. The background on her house is sad. Her house is about 4 miles from the Superdome in New Orleans. It was built in 1905, and was flooded by several feet of water. It had to be totally gutted because of the length of time the polluted water stayed in the home. After Katrina, she received some money to repair her house. She hired a contractor to perform the work for $105,000. The work was never done. As it turns out, the “contractor” was a scam artist and took all of her money. He is now in jail, but the money was never recovered. We haven't met her yet, but were told that she knows the Lord. She is 65 years old and her husband is totally disabled with Parkinson's Disease. They are living in their daughter's home while waiting for hers to get fixed. You will be able to tell by the pictures that we post that this is a very large house and the outside painting is just the beginning of this ambitious project that Reach Global has adopted. Our team's assignment is to help finish painting the 30 ft tall outside walls. We haven't yet met Ms. Cammie, but expect to meet and pray with her sometime soon. Every day, we meet at the work site, circle and pray in front of the house together before starting our work. We do the same thing at the end of each day. Our public testimony about who sent us and why we are here is very critical to being strong ambassadors for Christ. It was a cool and windy day of work, but fortunately there was no more rain and we got lots of painting and outdoor repair work accomplished.

For dinner, we joined a fund raising event for the Mom's Group being held at Trinity Church. We ate authentic jambalaya and were entertained by an ambitious group of preschool kids.

More reflections will come tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers. We feel them each day as God has given us his safety and grace.

First day of work!!

Day 3: We had an early breakfast 6:30am, and then had a quick devotion, followed by an overview of project safety, which was led by John Horst (the Touch Global ministry manager). Following the training both teams loaded their delicious lunches' (put together by Leah and Julia Walker) Team 1: Jason, Ken, John, Leah, and Julia went to David Hernandez's house making and installing trim from lumber that came from pallets. Team 2: Brett, Janet, Ryan, Luke, Allen, and Austin went to Miss. Cammie's house to work on painting her giant house a beautiful “Ninja Turtle Green.” Ryan and Austin had fun painting Allen's hair green and white as Allen painted trim below them. Most of Team 1 had to paint from the top of a 25 ft scaffolding (fun fun). Please pray for Brett Anderson's back (he felt it pop early this morning). More details of project families, and previous days to follow..

N.O. Team 2011

Our church is sending out a team of 12 to New Orleans once again.
They leave this Saturday at approximately 3pm and return May 7.
The team is: Jason and Marlin Fingerle; Allen Ammons; Ken White; Austin Mayer; John, Leah, Julia Walker; Brett, Janet, Ryan Anderson; Luke Eshleman.

PRAY for safety traveling and working ...
for opportunities to encourage and witness ...
for compassionate servants' hearts ...
for good weather, good fellowship and plenty of sleep