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Mission Trip pics!

Miss Maxine

I have a pic of her w/the boys that I need to upload. She was an amazingly sweet lady. Probably in her 50s and her house was very special to her. The winds ripped off the roof and the waves and rain poured inside of it. She had taken care of her mom and sister as they died from cancer in that home. It upset her so badly that she left her nursing profession and is now a dealer in a casino. She just couldn't handle it. She was so welcoming and grateful for everything that we did. Her brother stays w/her on occasion. She's also originally from Chicago. From what she said and wore, it appeared as tho she is a Christain and living where she did, that is a challenge. I'm hoping that by us settign her up to stay there that she can continue to shine God's Light in that neighborhood. We were NEVER bothered while we were there. Nothing stolen--money, tools, appliancies, lumber, etc and we have Maxine to thank in part for that.

Mission Trip--Sunday

We managed to get up and make it back to church on clear roads and DH was the spokesperson for our group. He did an AWESOME job! We are gettign the tape of the service so that his mom and dad can hear it.;) We also got the rest of our luggage. 6 of the team stayed behind on Saturday to finish up some things, but a few of us were not able to stay.

And that's the end of our trip. It was so amazing and wonderful and Dh wants to go back down next year I am pretty sure!!!!!!!!!!!! Heaven knows there will be at least 4-5 more years of work to do!

Mission Trip--Saturday

We were up and out the door early. The cook got up and started setting out leftovers at 4am for anyone who wanted them, which was nice.

We made fabulous time and had shortened the trip by an hour. Until we hit the IN state line.;( That big ice storm was moving in and there were NO plows or trucks on teh road at all! We were on major interstates and moving at 30mph!!!! We lost that hour and then some by the time we got to the church. Some sweet ppl waiting on their loved ones had cleaned our vehicles off and helped us to unload in the freezing rain as well. It then took us 2 hours to go the 1 hr home. But boy did our own bed feel GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

Mission Trip--Friday

The last day.......lots to do and we were frantically trying to do it all! Dh got the trash ppl to empty her can and come back on their way back and empty it again cuz it was so full! And it was full when we left on Friday too! DH asked me to stand outside the window and look under the house (down there all the homes are just up on 3 cement blocks all the way around). I knew he was putting on face plates and all of a sudden I see one hit teh ground! I popped me head up at the window and said, DID THAT DROP FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE? Yup!LOL You could see thru her preexisting old hardwood floor to the ground thru the cracks! I was glad we were covering it up! We didnt' get everything done that we wanted so 6 of them stayed on and worked on Saturday. About 2 a policeman came next door (where the boys were playing) and were questioning ppl.......by 3 the street was swarming w/ppl and I was getting anxious to leave. They got big chunks of the floor laid, the kitchen cabinets nad sink in and almost all the painting done. We came back to a huge turkey dinner, complete w/all the trimmings, and the turkey had been cooked in trash cans.;) DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! That was also the same day that we learned that my brother's FIL has spots on his liver and that MIL has cancer in her brain. That was very difficult for me.

We did go to the beach for lunch. They are all closed down there as there is so much debris and broken glass. Huge caterpiller tractors were on the beach and we sat at a broken pier for lunch and watched them and fed the seagulls. It was adorable as  Joey would chase them down trying ot feed them. Mat was upset taht he couldn't get in the water, but it was too dangerous w/all the glass. And on the way home, the lady who popped her head in at the gas station on that first day, waved to us on our way back to the church that night!!!!!

We then worked on packing and getting ready for the 5:30am (our time) departure. While we did that, Mat was invited to the big party the highschoolers were having--they had a beautiful candlelight service that some of our adults went to and the children talked about their experiences and then they broke out the music!;)

Mission Trip--Thursday

Again, we stumbled out of bed down to a fabulous bfast. This time Joey was up early enuf to get cereal!LOL We had been feeding him sausages wrapped in bread during devotions in order to let him sleep the other 3 days!LOL

By today, I was feeling oddly more comfy w/the boys playing next door. Ground rules had been set (they were asked to come inside and see their bedrooms and stuff and I said no) and our group was crawling all over the worksite by now and ppl were able to keep their eye out enuf to let me get engrossed in a project--that happened to be helping to get the lu ann (pronounced "lou on") down. I'd never heard or seen the stuff before!LOL It's like really thin, super smooth plywood that goes under linoleum. And that's what Maxine wanted. The lady was so grateful and unpicky that her requests of textured ceiling and linoleum were very easy to grant. She didn't even care as long as they were brown. And God picked the stuff out cuz there was one countertop the length we needed and it happened to be brown and the same w/the linoleum! Only one roll had enuf for her home!

At any rate, I think the man (Bob) who I was helping thought I knew way more than I did!ROTFL! He handed me the staple gun and told me to hook it up to the portable air compressor and nail it down. I'm guessing that I had the 'deer in the headlights' look on my face and I did pick up the right end of the air compressor hose, but could not get it together. Not that I'd have had the foggiest idea how to use the staple gun anyway!ROTFL! So I got a quick lesson and he realized that this was more him being polite in letting me 'help' than me actually doing much at that point. I quickly learned how to prep the floor (ripping up nails and stuff) for the lu ann and he realized that it was best if he measured and cut while I stapled. I did help him hold the lu ann while he used the power saw and he offered to let me try it, but I told him that I thought a staple gun was plenty for this trip!ROTFL! It went well and we made progress. We were all scrambling at this point to make sure that we were at a stopping point in time. My dad fell off a ladder and I got whacked in the head by a 1x4 (which left a nice bruise on my forehead) and there were some other scrapes and bruises, but we were all safe. We came back to fabulous italian supper and Dh said he wasn't going to take me to the laundrmat. I was upset, but there was nothign I could do. Then my dad offered to take me!!!!!!! Dh kept hte boys while he worked on the taillight of the church's trailer and dad and I took off. Some were poo pooing the laundromat, bu ta couple asked ot put some pants in!LOL I found the biggest washer and shoved all the darks in adn the next biggest for the whites. I split up the darks for drying tho adn in 1h15m we were done! CLEAN CLOTHES!!!!!LOL

Also every night Mat had been playing football w/the high schoolers and having a ball! They were great w/him for the most part! And he sold over half his candy bars! Almost 50 of the 80!

Mission Trip--Wednesday

Once again, we rolled out of bed and stumbled down to a fabulous bfast. By now we had learned that the men cooking left the restaurant business to be a driver's ed teacher. He, a lady and 3 girls did ALL the cooking for 150+ of us!!!! Which is why teh food was so incredible and how I did not have kitchen duty all week! This also put me in somewhat of a bind since I didn't have super trashy clothes for Joey and I. I was hoping to do laundry Wed night. But they were calling for rain so we used that afternoon to drive into New Orleans. So we went to Maxine's and did some more work (more of the same) and got several projects finished up adn then headed out to NO to see the 9th ward and some of the harder hit areas. DH parked the van funny so we had to go straight down the street and turn down the next block over to get out. There were young men sitting w/shot guns on the front porch, etc. Not very comforting. After that it was a gorgeous drive (not raining in NO) and we went thru the 9th ward and saw how awful it was. We drove down the to the French Quarter and down Bourbon street. Very interesting the day after Mardi Gras.;) We got to a spot where nudie pics were plastered everywhere, but thankfully Mat was looking up to see how high the beads had been thrown since they were hanging down from electrical lines, rails, street lights, etc. But someone asked if we were in the red light district and Mat asked what that was and I told him that it meant that you were supposed to stop, turn around and go back home!ROTL!!!!!!! I'd have loved to gotten out and walked thru the market and open air cafes, but we didn't. We did see the sediment lines on homes and there were oh so many vacant. 65% of NO still does not have power! It's understandable if you go down there and see why!

But it was late coming backa nd we stopped by Applebees to eat. 1/2 price appetizers and the boys meals were .99 on Wed nights so we did quite well!LOL And then my dad bought ours so that was even better!

I didn't make it to the laundromat so Mat had to get a pair of socks out of the dirty clothes and wear them. We fell into bed and tried to sleep.

Mission Trip--Tuesday

Tuesday was a bit better, again, we had a huge fabulous spread for bfast. My dad asked him to make his lunch using rye bread. I noticed on Monday that he didn't make or really eat lunch so that was fine. Dh had found a job in the kitchen in the mornings after bfast prepping the deli meat trays and we were still rather cautious about the boys being left unattended w/all those ppl so I had a rough go trying to find Mat on occasion (Joey was usually w/me). There was lots more painting as the interior closets  had been finished and they were now working on ladders scraping and painting the gable end in the front and downt he sides (it was sided, but there was trim to paint). Those not on ladders were painting interior doors, framesa nd baseboards (outside). A husband/wife team were mudding/sanding/prepping the bathroom so it could be painted (that took 3 days). Dh found his niche w/wiring--he had to do all the outlets and switches and fixtures/fans. Again in the afternoon, the children emerged. After they'd been out a bit, they were again given $5 to go to teh store to buy food. This time they asked if the boys could go and I said no. They walked to wherever this store is and bought chips, giant pickles, cans of soda and other 'junk' and that was their daily food! I wonder if there were even cooking capabilities inside--it was very rough looking on the exterior and some windows were broken w/plastic and cloth to cover them, no toys--the children played w/the small propane tank (no, I'm not kidding), grill, cooler and whatever else was laying around outside. Josiah even came over and took whatever scraps we let them have to fashion toys w/. But it was Fat Tuesday adn things were still not 'normal' so we weren't sure.

Maxine bought us lunch taht day a chicken place--fried chicken, biscuits, french fries (for my babies) and fried okra! Very greasy, but tasty. We in turn gave our sandwiches to the neighbor children who took every sandwich offered them. It was so sad.

And in honor of Mardi Gras, our cook made jumbalaya! Unfortunately, they started serving supper at 4:30 and we worked late so there was next to nothing left! Alot of our group went out to eat and we stayed behind. There was enuf for me to have a salad and some tasty fruit that was at one time part of a cake!LOL But it was a very quiet evening and we got the boys to bed at a decent hour as the adults rolled in late. Then we all tumbled into bed.

Mission Trip--Monday

To our complete amazement, I got a shower Monday morning! I seized the opportunity not knowing when my next chance might be. We had a huge spread for bfast waiting on us. All 150 of us got thru bfast, made lunches and were sitting in the santuary at 7:15 for devotions!!!!!!!!!! We all went our seperate ways and made it to meet our homeowner and see the home that we were to work on. The chatter in the van was great and exciting as we rode down the coast and saw how much devastation was still there. Plus it was Mardi Gras and everything was closed--schools, businesses, etc for that. We stopped by a gas station to fill up and a lady popped her head in and thanked us for caring enuf to come! We made it to Maxine's house and were pleasantly surprized at how nice it looked! There was lots of work to do, but we were ready! The neighborhood was unlike anything my boys were used to--small homes, small lots, very crowded, ravaged by the storm and not much done to them, ppl walking everywhere, children running wild, etc. So I hung around outside not really sure what to do about the boys. Maxine came out of her FEMA trailer (on her lot right next to her house) and was thrilled to death to see 'the babies'! I was glad (well relieved!LOL).  She told us that we were free to use her bathroom (otherwise we had NONE all day) and  that she had sodas for us (I don't think we drank any, but once she found out about the coffee lovers, they cashe din on her coffee that she made for them!) She was so grateful and nice and wonderful. Mat was desperate to help and there wasn't tons for him to do at that point so ppl kept kicking him out and he was very frustrated. He was finally given a closet to prime and was thrilled. Joey played on the (decrepit) porch swing for most of the morning. In the afternoon, more life was appearing on the street and 2 children emerged from the duplex right next door. Josiah was 5 and his sister Jasmine was 7. Who knew?LOL Josiah and Joey hit it off right away and w/in an hour, Mat and Jasmine were thick as thieves. There were other children there off an on all week ranging from infant to 10yo so they never lacked for playmates! However, I didn't get alot done on Monday for hovering over the boys as I just wasn't comfy in the neighborhood. But others were hard at work. There were lots of appliances and cabinets and NOT ONE FLOOR PLAN! The women quickly found the paint and started in on that, but the 3 main guys (my dad being one of them) all took off to Lowes to get what was needed. 2 other men were trying to figure out where cabinets and appliances went and why there were 2 hot water heaters and 2 bathroom vanities (1ba home). They had no idea what Lowes was like down there--new manager, employees in plain clothes stocking so that they wouldn't be bothered, rearranging the store, etc. It would take a minimum of 2 hours to get one thing. NUTS!!!!!!! I don't know that the men returned by lunch that first day! And the ones working w/laying out cabinets and appliances were frustrated as well.

So things got moving that afternoon and we were getting sorted out to be up and running for the week. We came back to a wonderful spread for supper and were fed. We learned that the 80 ppl from NY were lots of high schoolers on winter break! We also learned that the Holiday Inn gave 10 rooms for free and that all the females were there and that the males were showering there as well so that was 80 less ppl! We went thru the undone part of the church adn saw the sleeping bags all over the floors (the NY group) and the huge tool room adn were very grateful for our small room w/mattressess! They had no privacy--no walls, doors, etc. We crawled into bed feeling somewhat better about how things were going and completely amazed that all 150 of us were able to eat and be on time for everything.

Mission Trip-Sunday

We got up last Sunday at 3am and finished packing and got the boys up and headed out! We left the church about 5:30am and had a rather uneventful trip. The boys were awesome and the 9 of us in the 15 passenger church van did OK. We stopped what seemed very often to us, but it was nice to stretch the legs. But that made it 14 hours to get down there.;) There was a big meeting at the church on Sunday evening at 7:30 to get us orientated. I'll confess to being pretty down at that point. We were told to bring our air mattress, sheets and sleeping bags for the boys. Our air mattress is a king. About 4 hours away, we got a call from our leader (from our church) that no air mattresses were allowed and that we all had to sleep on twin mattressess! Dh adn I had no idea what we were going to do! At the meeting they announced that they'd never had a group t hat big before--156+ ppl. They had 4 showers, 10ish toilets and the septic was set up for a 3br2ba home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was wondering if we were even going to get ONE shower that week! I am more than happy to give up lots of luxuries, but I didnt' realize how strained things were going to be. We got to the rooms and the men were in one room adn the women in another so Dh took both boys and the air mattress and blew it up in their room. Turns out the men got little mats to sleep on and only women got mattressess!! So some of hte men in our room got more mats since DH set up the air mattress. I got Mat's sleeping bag in the women's room. Joey didn't fair so well in the men's room so he wound up sleeping in the women's room mainly, once we found a spot. It was lookign like he was goign to be sleeping under a table for a while!LOL

We were also given our daily schedule: 6:30 (which was 5:30 our time!) to 7am was bfast (yes, for all 150 ppl), 7-7:15 was when you packed your lunch for the site (yes, all 150ppl) and 7:15 to 7:30 was devotions and then out the door to your work site. We were all shaking our heads thinking how this was so impossible. We, the doubting Thomases..........

I was also in the lurch about working in the kitchen. That's what I had packed for. But I was told to bring Joey adn I to the worksite the first day so we did. And with that, we all crawled in bed and tried to sleep--with our tylenol PM and earplugs.;)

prayer request for our mission

I added a ticker!

Mission trip--WE GOT THE GREEN LIGHT!!!!!!

Thank you for your prayers!!!!!!!!!!! We got the OK for the children to go!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited and happy!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even imagine how this will affect their lives! Now to have them do a study on hurricanes (altho Mat  probably knows more than he needs to!LOL) and how it affected the area in preparation for this.

I can start planning that part at least--we are still in limbo as to how to get down there. We'll find out when we need to tho!

MIssion Update

I talked to the guy and got some good news. We can run our money thru the church to utilize the tax deduction. He's really pushing us to take out popup. He also said taht children and pets aren't allowed?!?!?!?!? He says that we'll get Joey to go. But that my dad had told him that there would be someone to watch Joey if he can't go. Um, no. That pretty much defeats the whole point of doing a mission as a family. If Joey doesn't go, I don't go (Mat nad DH will). So there are a few bumps to get smoothed out adn I'm not letting this bother me. But I think he maybe wants us to take the popup because of Joey. We finally told him that it's not Joey we are worried about--it's Mat!!!!! He's the one who is can be very contrary! At any rate, this will all work itself out.

Other than that, life is status quo!ROTFL!!!!!!!!!!

A praise and a prayer request!!!!!!!

Ok, I have a praise and a request! I haven't posted much here, but we are going to Gulfport MS for a mission trip in Feb. I asked for prayer on another board about finances for that just this morning!!!!! Anyway I got a call this afternoon from teh guy rounding us up and he said it's only $15/night/person at the church and THAT INCLUDES OUR MEALS!!!!! So $300 for the 5 days we are working there!!!!!! We will still have gas expensives down there (from IN) and probably 2 nights of lodging (I'm assuming we'll be splitting the driving up in 2 days down and 2 days back, but DH and my dad aren't big on stopping, so who really knows!LOL) and food while on the road, but I think that could easily be kept to a reasonable amt. I was praying this trip would be under $1000 and I think it will! I'd love to see it under $500, but I"m not getting my hopes up. If it's under $500, we would be able to have a fun family weekend this summer somewhere.

Just please pray this all works out for His glory! I'm so excited that I could burst!

And they did express concern over Joey only being 4 and going. I've been on lots of mission trips w/this guy so I know what to expect from him adn I think he knows what to expect of me!LOL I told him that Joey is the most laid back child there is and as long as he's in bed by 8 our time, he'll be FINE. There were other big pluses about this trip--WE WILL BE ABLE TO SEE THE OCEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they split you up into groups of 5, and w/our family, my dad and FIL, that's our whole group! Also, he mentioned someone working in the kitchen (preparing the meals for the 50-70 guests who stay at hte church) and I said that I would be more than happy to do that w/Joey. I'd like 1-2 days to help at the site, but I think this helped to set his mind at ease about Joey. Joey's such the entertainer and conversationalist that he would sit and talk to the families that we are helping for hours!LOL And he said he might request a classroom just for our family, which would be nice, but it really doesn't matter. Otherwise, he said that he thinks they split you into guys on one side and girls on the other.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop. I'm just so stinking excited.........