I am convinced that there is nothing better in this world than working side by side, serving someone in need with our eyes fixed on the father! We have been working the past few days on Ms. Jermaine Elizabeth's home that she recently purchased on Castiglione Street near the Ninth Ward. The home had recently had an addition built on and was about three different shades of blue, white, & grey when we arrived. For the last three days we have been trimming, painting base coat, doing some carpentry work, & building relationships with her and those living nearby. Praise God, we had a full workday yesterday with no rain and working 8:30-4:15. As the painting rose higher and higher up the side of the house and the available ladders were being used, those not painting began enjoy the summer heat and horsing around while cleaning up the paint brushes and roller pans.
Last night we had an awesome time with the other group is also staying at the Annunciation Mission. They are from a private school in Boston, MA and decided that we should get our two groups together to share about the stories being heard & experienced while in New Orleans. Our very own Rebecca Wright started off the time by encouraging them and mentioned that she was glad that they were with us. Then, one-by-one the other students began discussing how they have been moved by hearing the stories of others and building relationships with the residents as they come back year after year to the Ninth Ward to do work. We were so encouraged to hear how they were being changed by their work this week. God is at work here! After sharing time, we had a time of worship in the chapel and then split up for free time games. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Tanner says 'hi' & please remember to pray for gospel breakthroughs this week! Our students are getting more and more tired as the days go by and the power of Christ is something that when observed at close proximity can alter your life forever. Thanks for walking beside us!
Josh 'Gillyman' Gilman
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Just Another Day In Paradise
Whats better than waking up at Six o'clock in the morning? Or working in the burning sun dripping with sweat? Nothing. Im so grateful for just being here and helping people who are in need. People get the idea that on a mission trip, you are just supposed to help the people you're working for. But really the people in need are actually helping us. On this mission ,this idea finally got to me. This idea is that the congregation from Seven Rivers that came on the mission is getting healed in every way. Last night we prayed out loud about our gratefulness. This really made us open up and let us get healed emotionally and religously. Everyine grew even close together in a matter of about an hour. Before that we got to see the family we will be helping. The family that we are helping demolish their house are thankful for the help but mostley just because we are there and we care. Will and Sabrina (which was the family) were such good sports and actually helped us destroy their house. Throughout the whole day Will was carrying the biggest and heaviest things and Sabrina was just kidding around/ helping with the little things as well. When we first got on site, we were met by Sabrina then all of a sudden this giant of a man comes out(Will). I can honestly say I was a little bit scared when I first saw him. But when he told his story and everyone at the end actually saw the thanfulness in his eyes. This happiness spread like wild fire throughout our group. And thankfully it did not end that day. Today was day three in our site and we tore down mostly every wall in the house. Through hail,thunderstorms,rain, forceful winds, and etc we Seven Rivers will be there for the New Orleans families through thick and thin. Keep praying for us, we are grateful for those. We will keep y'all in the loop.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Just another day in New Orleans...
The temp. rises over 99 degrees and sweat drips down over my lips, but when I go to wipe my mouth off with my arm the strikingly tangy and posionous flavour of bug spray fills my mouth. Quickly I run over to my waterbottle and splash down something that won't kill me, but instead of the cold icewater I was expecting, burning hot water scorches the back of my throat. An unfortunate sequence of events on my part, but really it's just another day in New Orleans...
It's day number two on the jobsite and once again the team and I find ourselves busy tearing down drywall, pulling out rusty nails, tripping over snake-like vines, and breathing in unheathly amounts of dust and grime. One room in particular had a curious effect on me. Broken bits of the wall big and small covered the floor, not to mention piles upon piles of dust! Never have I swept so much. My father would be proud, as sweeping is his favorite chore and sady (Florida home) floors his bigest pet pieve, but back to the point. This was the room my friends and I had been attempting to make spotless since we first laid eyes on it. After spending all day yesterday in the room and half the day today, this project had gotten personal. Not only were we tired of dusting and shoveling, but it was beginning to offend us that no matter how many times we carried our buckets of to and fro, it never seemed to get any cleaner. Our feeling (and our arms) were hurt.
Closing in on our last hour of work, we still had not left the room, but we had finally began to see some progress. As we neared the back of the room with shovel in hand, we noticed a large,long piece of wood nailed to the ground and blocking any further achievment. We pulled and proded at the the wood with our shovels and with our hamers, but to no avial. It wasn't budging. Weak-armed and tired legs we trudged to the front of the house. We were losing faith, but suddenly the amazing crowbar cought our sight and hope filled our eyes. Finally after a half hour of trying to move this piece of wood, it came out! Proudly we shared a round of high fives and took an early, yet well deserved water beak.
After our short, but sweet celebration, I began to think agian about that stupid piece of wood. It kept coming up in conversation, but not for nothing. This piece of wood was a symbol. A symbol of distration. Just like in life and in our Christian faith, we hit roadblocks. They get in our way and sometimes it just seems impossible to move them aside. Today this piece of wood was our roadblock. Although it may seem insignificant, it really ment a lot to me today. It put into perspect the struggles I have been facing recently and showed me just how much they can block my reationship with God. Pushing and pulling doesn't always work. For this job, we needed something bigger, just like in Christianity we need somthing bigger than our good works to get us through hard times. We need Christ to get past it all. Christ is our crowbar.
Written by Allison Green
It's day number two on the jobsite and once again the team and I find ourselves busy tearing down drywall, pulling out rusty nails, tripping over snake-like vines, and breathing in unheathly amounts of dust and grime. One room in particular had a curious effect on me. Broken bits of the wall big and small covered the floor, not to mention piles upon piles of dust! Never have I swept so much. My father would be proud, as sweeping is his favorite chore and sady (Florida home) floors his bigest pet pieve, but back to the point. This was the room my friends and I had been attempting to make spotless since we first laid eyes on it. After spending all day yesterday in the room and half the day today, this project had gotten personal. Not only were we tired of dusting and shoveling, but it was beginning to offend us that no matter how many times we carried our buckets of to and fro, it never seemed to get any cleaner. Our feeling (and our arms) were hurt.
Closing in on our last hour of work, we still had not left the room, but we had finally began to see some progress. As we neared the back of the room with shovel in hand, we noticed a large,long piece of wood nailed to the ground and blocking any further achievment. We pulled and proded at the the wood with our shovels and with our hamers, but to no avial. It wasn't budging. Weak-armed and tired legs we trudged to the front of the house. We were losing faith, but suddenly the amazing crowbar cought our sight and hope filled our eyes. Finally after a half hour of trying to move this piece of wood, it came out! Proudly we shared a round of high fives and took an early, yet well deserved water beak.
After our short, but sweet celebration, I began to think agian about that stupid piece of wood. It kept coming up in conversation, but not for nothing. This piece of wood was a symbol. A symbol of distration. Just like in life and in our Christian faith, we hit roadblocks. They get in our way and sometimes it just seems impossible to move them aside. Today this piece of wood was our roadblock. Although it may seem insignificant, it really ment a lot to me today. It put into perspect the struggles I have been facing recently and showed me just how much they can block my reationship with God. Pushing and pulling doesn't always work. For this job, we needed something bigger, just like in Christianity we need somthing bigger than our good works to get us through hard times. We need Christ to get past it all. Christ is our crowbar.
Written by Allison Green
Hannah's Update
Hey,
I can't believe we're already on day four of our trip. Time is flying by so fast. You wouldn't believe the day we've had today.
Our missions group is split in half. In my group, we went to a woman's house (her name is Liz, short for Jermaine), to paint the exterior of her house. It was blue when we got there, and when we left it was brown-green. The houses on this street were so run down, some still having X's from the search and rescue squads that went through them 6 years ago.
Today was about a hundred degrees outside. We spent from 8 AM until about 1:30 PM painting in the hot sun, with the majority of us wearing blue zinc on our face. The woman next door to where we were working was gracious and let us rest under her shaded porch. She witnessed the flooding and saw dead bodies float by as she stayed in her home, waiting for the rescue squad to allow her to bring her dogs with her.
Anyway, after a long day of work, we ran out of paint, then got more paint, then almost everyone was worn out. A thunderstorm rolled in and we were forced inside as lightning started to flash. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees or so. Suddenly and surprisingly, it started to hail. Marble sized hail.
I wish I knew a meteorologist, because nothing about this made much sense. It was wonderful and refreshing and hopefully pictures will be up soon of Tanner running and jumping through ankle deep puddles through the hail.
New Orleans is a beautiful city. Just yesterday we were at Bunny Friends Park, on Desire Street in the 9th Ward. After returning home Chad informed us that the place we were working at was the 2nd most dangerous place in the United States. If you had been there with us, I doubt you would believe it. The people in the community all around the park were thanking us and offering to help throughout the day.
God is so powerful. And it just goes to show how love overcomes all fear.
Right now, the Heat and the Mavs are in their 4th? game and it's 61-63 (Dallas in lead) in the third quarter.
Just in case you read this Trav, I have changed my mind and started to hope the Heat will win. I bet you guys were pretty happy when they won the last game.
We do have some fun at the end of the day, watching
Good luck, Heat.
Thank you to all who have been praying for us as we've been working. Please continue to pray for strength for our team and for us to have grateful hearts throughout the week.
I miss you all so much at home.
I miss you Mom, and Travis, and all my other buddies who I haven't been able to talk to in awhile.
Thank you so much for all your support.
I can't believe we're already on day four of our trip. Time is flying by so fast. You wouldn't believe the day we've had today.
Our missions group is split in half. In my group, we went to a woman's house (her name is Liz, short for Jermaine), to paint the exterior of her house. It was blue when we got there, and when we left it was brown-green. The houses on this street were so run down, some still having X's from the search and rescue squads that went through them 6 years ago.
Today was about a hundred degrees outside. We spent from 8 AM until about 1:30 PM painting in the hot sun, with the majority of us wearing blue zinc on our face. The woman next door to where we were working was gracious and let us rest under her shaded porch. She witnessed the flooding and saw dead bodies float by as she stayed in her home, waiting for the rescue squad to allow her to bring her dogs with her.
Anyway, after a long day of work, we ran out of paint, then got more paint, then almost everyone was worn out. A thunderstorm rolled in and we were forced inside as lightning started to flash. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees or so. Suddenly and surprisingly, it started to hail. Marble sized hail.
I wish I knew a meteorologist, because nothing about this made much sense. It was wonderful and refreshing and hopefully pictures will be up soon of Tanner running and jumping through ankle deep puddles through the hail.
New Orleans is a beautiful city. Just yesterday we were at Bunny Friends Park, on Desire Street in the 9th Ward. After returning home Chad informed us that the place we were working at was the 2nd most dangerous place in the United States. If you had been there with us, I doubt you would believe it. The people in the community all around the park were thanking us and offering to help throughout the day.
God is so powerful. And it just goes to show how love overcomes all fear.
Right now, the Heat and the Mavs are in their 4th? game and it's 61-63 (Dallas in lead) in the third quarter.
Just in case you read this Trav, I have changed my mind and started to hope the Heat will win. I bet you guys were pretty happy when they won the last game.
We do have some fun at the end of the day, watching
Good luck, Heat.
Thank you to all who have been praying for us as we've been working. Please continue to pray for strength for our team and for us to have grateful hearts throughout the week.
I miss you all so much at home.
I miss you Mom, and Travis, and all my other buddies who I haven't been able to talk to in awhile.
Thank you so much for all your support.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Mission New Orleans: Monday
Romans 5.3-5 says: "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
Hello Missed Family and Friends!
Our adventure to New Orleans is well on its way, and the memories of liar's dice, signs, and demolition are already being made. Saturday our 12 hour ride started our journey, and when we arrived at Annunciation church we were pleasantly surprised with how nice our accommodations are-air conditioning and hot showers! Sunday we enjoyed the service at Redeemer Presbyterian, and the lively worship with an oboe was such a positive way to introduce us to the city. The pastor spoke about perservereing in times of despair, something that was particularly notable to me because one of our students read the verse above before the service, and I think it is an appropriate theme to the city of New Orleans. After the service we explored the French Quarter and the lively streets,with a notable part of the evening being the cajun food we enjoyed. The city is obviously full of excitement and bustling with activity, but it also has a brokenness and pain to it that is noticeable when walking down the streets. We ended the night with some fresh hot benets.
This morning we started working at the job sites; one group went to home of one of the locals to do some demolition and the other to a local park to clean up and beautify the park. The home was owned by a couple who have not had a home since the hurricane happened, and theirs was one of the 350+ of the people who's application for help from the government was lost. Not knowing how to read, this family was trapped without a place to live and gave up on ever being able to reclaim their property. Somehow they were able to get in contact with Redeemer church, who has rebuilt over 500 homes since Katrina. They told us that before the home was theirs, it had been a brothel. It was wonderful to see how God could use our team to redeem such a broken and destroyed place. The house was so devastated and nonlivable- and it has remained untouched since the storm. Our team has already got a great start at hammering the dry wall out and emptying the debris. The entire time that we were there the couple was working along side us, continually thanking us for our help. Our kids worked so hard and got a great start, despite the heat.
The other team went to the "Bunny Friend Park." Yes, this name sounds intimidating and dangerous! But fear not! It is only a name passed down to a park which was dedicated to the beloved son of a wealthy family. Upon our arrival here we were ushered into a group of volunteers gathering for an opening ceremony. An older gentleman introduced simply as "Coach" took the mic and the short span of our attention. He shared with the group that the very park we were beautifying was the park he grew up playing baseball in! In 1966!! Working side by side with a historical member of the community was really a treat! Throughout the day we toiled at a variety of tasks including (but not limited to): building benches and picnic tables, planting trees, painting a basketball court, constructing a gazebo, and painting signs for Bunny Friend Park. A few people who lived in the area came out and helped us too. There were two children helping paint the basketball court. Even though they were tired and sweaty, after we finished, they stuck around and hung out with us as we sat in the shade. The little boy, Tyrell, was so happy with what he had done-- he was flaunting his bag full of leftover sandwiches (that they had given away for breakfast and lunch) hanging off of the handlebar of his bike when he told me, "I helped EVERYONE at least a little today!" It was amazing to see that even the kids in the community were excited about what we did at the park.
Hello Missed Family and Friends!
Our adventure to New Orleans is well on its way, and the memories of liar's dice, signs, and demolition are already being made. Saturday our 12 hour ride started our journey, and when we arrived at Annunciation church we were pleasantly surprised with how nice our accommodations are-air conditioning and hot showers! Sunday we enjoyed the service at Redeemer Presbyterian, and the lively worship with an oboe was such a positive way to introduce us to the city. The pastor spoke about perservereing in times of despair, something that was particularly notable to me because one of our students read the verse above before the service, and I think it is an appropriate theme to the city of New Orleans. After the service we explored the French Quarter and the lively streets,with a notable part of the evening being the cajun food we enjoyed. The city is obviously full of excitement and bustling with activity, but it also has a brokenness and pain to it that is noticeable when walking down the streets. We ended the night with some fresh hot benets.
This morning we started working at the job sites; one group went to home of one of the locals to do some demolition and the other to a local park to clean up and beautify the park. The home was owned by a couple who have not had a home since the hurricane happened, and theirs was one of the 350+ of the people who's application for help from the government was lost. Not knowing how to read, this family was trapped without a place to live and gave up on ever being able to reclaim their property. Somehow they were able to get in contact with Redeemer church, who has rebuilt over 500 homes since Katrina. They told us that before the home was theirs, it had been a brothel. It was wonderful to see how God could use our team to redeem such a broken and destroyed place. The house was so devastated and nonlivable- and it has remained untouched since the storm. Our team has already got a great start at hammering the dry wall out and emptying the debris. The entire time that we were there the couple was working along side us, continually thanking us for our help. Our kids worked so hard and got a great start, despite the heat.
The other team went to the "Bunny Friend Park." Yes, this name sounds intimidating and dangerous! But fear not! It is only a name passed down to a park which was dedicated to the beloved son of a wealthy family. Upon our arrival here we were ushered into a group of volunteers gathering for an opening ceremony. An older gentleman introduced simply as "Coach" took the mic and the short span of our attention. He shared with the group that the very park we were beautifying was the park he grew up playing baseball in! In 1966!! Working side by side with a historical member of the community was really a treat! Throughout the day we toiled at a variety of tasks including (but not limited to): building benches and picnic tables, planting trees, painting a basketball court, constructing a gazebo, and painting signs for Bunny Friend Park. A few people who lived in the area came out and helped us too. There were two children helping paint the basketball court. Even though they were tired and sweaty, after we finished, they stuck around and hung out with us as we sat in the shade. The little boy, Tyrell, was so happy with what he had done-- he was flaunting his bag full of leftover sandwiches (that they had given away for breakfast and lunch) hanging off of the handlebar of his bike when he told me, "I helped EVERYONE at least a little today!" It was amazing to see that even the kids in the community were excited about what we did at the park.
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