It was AMAZING!!

Ok, so this will probably be a fairly long post because I have a whole week to catch up and it was chock full of awesomeness. So as most of you know I went down to New Orleans this week for spring break. We actually stayed outside of New Orlean's in a town called Slidell. Our "camp" was in an abandoned grocery store and parking lot. The girls had bunk beds in a couple different room, and the guys had cots in the old cooler and a room across from the cooler. Then we had a meal tent and shower trailers out in the parking lot. All in all, it was pretty nice, and we were definitely fed well. A group of menonites cooked breakfast and dinner for us at camp and then we had MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for lunch. Those MREs rocked my socks.

So anyway, we got down there Sunday afternoon but couldn't work until we went through orientation on Monday morning. So we just hung out around the camp and then later in the evening we drove to New Orleans. Even though it was dark, we could see so much destruction and abandonment in the city. It was crazy. I thought that there wasn't much left to do since it's now nearly 7 months after the hurricane, but I was wrong. We found that to be even more true when we actually got to go out and work.

The first work cite we went to was for a lady named Sally. I'll never forget her for the rest of my life. When we were walking up she was crying and telling us how thankful she was that we were there to help her and that we were all angels sent by God. Then she went around to give us all a hug and said, "I can see the love of Jesus in all of your faces." That was so awesome, I'll always remember it. But I must backtrack a bit. On our way to Sally's we got lost, so we had to turn around and then we were sitting at an intersection and noticed a guy who's car had died, so we pulled into a gas station and went out to help him push his car. Then we were waiting around so we could jump his car and we started talking to him. He told us that it was so nice to see other believers around. He kept saying that everyone down there really appreciates us coming down, especially us being a bunch of college students on Spring Break. So that was pretty cool. Now back to Sally's house. We really just had to clean out two of her bedrooms and a bathroom. It took all afternoon, but we got it done. She was so thankful, and she got everyone's address so she could send us something to thank us. It was so awesome being around her and working together with my team.

Speaking of my team. I ended up not driving down, which was such a good thing. We all rode in a van and it was so much fun because we got to know each other, and then working together, we got to know each other even more. By the end of the week, we were like family. There's more to that, but you'll have to talk about it with me in person. :D

The second site we went to was this 84 year old lady named Pearl. She was a sweet old lady with a real Louisiana accent. It took us two days to finish the job, but we got it done. When we finished, she gave us a check to give as a donation to Operation Blessing (the organization we were working for). Then she told us to tell our parents what a wonderful job they did rasing us because we're such wonderful people. The next job we went to was our attempt to hang drywall. We did ok, but it was pretty good considering none of us had really done it before.

The next day we finished gutting out a house and got to meet a team workin on the house next to us that was a church group from Indiana. They were pretty cool. We all ate lunch together and they were envious of our MREs. It was funny. The last day we built a little shelter house thingy that we called a shanti for a well pump for a lady named Pauline. It took a lot longer than we expected so we left like 6 hours later than we had originally planned, that's ok though.

On the trip back we talked about what we learned from the experience then a little bit later, we all went around and talked about the strengths that each other had. It was really cool. Yeah, so I might get to see some of the crew later today because we're going to try to go to Chuck E Cheese's for my birthday. By the way, if any of y'all want to come, that would be cool.

There's so much more to the story, but this is getting pretty long and I'm getting kinda tired. So I might right more later or I might have to just tell y'all in person. I will say though, that God is AWESOME! I grew so much this week and found new brothers and sisters. It was so encouraging to see these people that have lost everything but are still so hopeful and thankful that we were there to help. It felt awesome to serve people in the name of Jesus. I hope I get the chance to do something like that again.

Well, I'm gonna hit the hay soon. Peace out.

God bless!

Pepto (a.k.a. Birthday Girl) :D

Update: Ok, so it looks like a guy from my crew is going to be at church tomorrow. I'll call him Toolman. So if I seem like a nervous wreck, it's because I am, but I'll also be in a GREAT mood.