Monday and Tuesday

Althouth we have no pics to post at the moment (they'll be posted soon) rest assured we are getting some work done just the same. In your mind's eye, you'll have to picture Marilyn Swets, Amy and Rachel Eizenga getting up early each morning and heading to the kitchen to serve the work crews for their 6:30 a.m. breakfast.

(At the moment there are about 5 or 6 different work teams here, including our two groups from Lynwood and Redemer. All told, there's about 175 people mouths to food).

After breakfast, at about 7:00-7:15 a.m. the work teams head to their trucks to get the supplies for the day. Here at the Lagniappe compound they have a HUGE tool and supply shed, and each tool has to be checked out and checked in. So as you can imagine, Monday was a slow start for our work group because we had to wait in line to check out all our tools; and unfortunately, since they don't have an endless supply of tools, it can happen that the tool(s) you need has already been checked out by another work crew.

Our work crew consists of Josha Zylstra (team leader), Tom Kramer, Rev. Davis, Tim van der Woerd, Eric Eizenga, and Caleb and Josh Davis. We were assigned to work on two homes (which they call "the twins") that were built side by side in a neighboring town about 10 miles from the Lagniappe headquaters.

Since both of these homes are near completion, we were never gave a specific work order which described the nature of the work that we would be doing (the Redeemer team for example had a specific work order which detailed the kind of work they'd be doing so they knew which tools to take).

We were told, "You could be hanging light fixtures, doing some touch up, installing some appliances, putting in kitchen sinks." To top it all off, the Lagniappe foreman wasn't exactly sure how much work the former work team (from last week) got accomplished, so they told us to be ready for anything. So we proceeded to check out tools for every job imaginable.

When we finally rolled up to our work site on Monday morming, we spent the first 45 minutes just walking through both of the homes, taking inventory of the all the odd jobs that had to be done in order to complete the houses.

Let's just say there was no shortage of work, and the jobs were not so 'small'. Josh Zylstra (who has experience in electrical work) noticed that may of the ordinary outlets were not trimmed out and the outlets for the applicances were not finished either. Also there were great big bunches of wires hanging out of the walls inside and outside both houses, but thankfully Josh seemed to have at least an idea of what to do.

Tom Kramer had plenty of work to do as well. While one of the houses was closer to being finished, the other house was missing a lot of doors, some baseboard in various rooms, and shoe-molding (quater-round trim) throughout; in fact, both houses need shoe molding because they have laminate and tile flooring throughout.

Rev. Davis could not paint at first because the doors (which need to be painted as well as the rest of the wood trim) was still being installed by Tom most of the day on Monday. So Rev. Davis kept busy doing odds and ends and making trip to Lowes for necesary supplies. Due to the nature of this work (installing aplicances and electrical and plumbing work) there is more of a need to 'run out for parts' as you can imagine.

As of mid-morning Tuesday, the doors and trim were ready to be painted, and Rev. Davis was finally able to break out the paint. The four boys have just been an amazing help. Eric and Josh Davis have been good little carpenter's apprentices (assisting Tom with his work). Tim (who along with Caleb has also lent a hand to Tom) helped Josh install an electric range, a bathroom light fixture and an over the ranger microwave. Eric was also working on the refrigerator doors and getting the door handles installed, etc.

Caleb has been doing all kinds of work, and Tuesday he helped his dad putty nail holes and prime all the new doors and doorframes. It's already Wednesday tomorrow, and there's still a lot of work to do, but we feel confident that we can get most of this work accomplished by Friday.

Tomorrow we have the afternoon off (including Marilyn and the girls) and we're planning an outing to the Aubudon Aquarium in New Orleans. We also intend to enjoy supper at a local New Orleans restaurant.

That about sums it up for now. There's so much more to tell, but suffice it to say that the team is really enjoying our time here (the weather has been warm--high 70's even though it rained all afternoon here), and the young people are having a great time with each other and with the group from Redemmer. Even as this blog is being composed tonight (it's about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday night), the YP are still sitting around here in the cafeterian area playing games and talking.

It's time to sign off...maybe tomorrow we can add a few pics to help you get a better understanding of what it is that we're doing (and get a little idea of the fun we're having, too!). Well, good night, y'all!

Sunday

After a long trip, our 'Sabbath rest' came as a great blessing! We had breakfast from 8 to 9 a.m. The cafeteria is located within the large barn that serves as the main facility of the Langniappe church. The bathrooms and showers are also located in this facility as are the administrative offices of the Langniappe church.

This is where we eat all our meals...

...and on the flip side of the cafeteria area is where our worship service was held. In the pic below we are just getting settled in. The service was packed, with several work groups like ours in attendance plus the Langiappe 'family' and prospective church members :

The Langniappe church (who took its name from the Cajun word for 'giving a little something extra') is a mission project of the Presbyterian Church in America. Before Sunday morning's worship service, they had a membership class for 40 plus new members.

They are excited to see how the Lord has blessed this work over the past 3 years. Their goal in helping to rebuild their community of Bay St. Louis is to 'move toward people' with the love of Christ. This purpose and goal was also emphasized in the minister's sermon on Sunday morning.

The worship service itself consisted of singing, prayer, Scripture, and the sermon. Here, Rev. Davis took his turn leading the praise team:

JUST KIDDING! Actually Rev. Davis was snapping some photos before the service and couldn't resist the opportunity to snap one of himself at the microphone...not preaching on Sunday must have left him yearning to get behind the mike.

Our youth group was in charge of cleanup after all three meals on Sunday. Because there is no janitorial staff at the church, during the week, every work group will get a turn cleaning the cafeteria and kitchen, the bath houses, and the grounds. Tomorrow mornig at 7 a.m. the boys get to clean the boys bathroom! Here are a couple of our guys in the kitchen with Josh cleaning dishes:

After worship services we teamed up with the group from Redeemer URC and we took the opportunity to drive around a bit and see the Bay St. Louis area.

It's been three years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through here (Bay St. Loius and nearby Waveland, Mississippi took the full brunt of the storm--water levels reached over 40 feet inland!!) and while most of the debris has been carted off, every where we drove along the water front we saw empty lots; vacant concrete slabs; sets of front steps which used to lead to a front door but now lead to nowhere; we saw wooden stilts that used to support a house, but now they're just pieces of wood sticking out of the ground; we even saw a bank vault with the vault door standing open...but no building around it.

These errie sights are grim reminders of the extent of the devastation.

Besides our little tour, we also took advantage of the beautiful beachfront to enjoy the warm weather. We really hate to mention this to our friends and family back home, but the temps down here today were in the mid-70's. A few of us even got sunburned (but we know we won't get much sympathy from you at the moment)! Here's a team picture of us at the beach:

Well, tomorrow morning we have to be at breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and report for duty by 7 a.m. That's when the Langniappe supervisor meets with us to assign us our job for the day/week. If we have time, we hope to keep you up to date and informed about our trip. Hopefully our pics will bring a smile or two to your faces.

We do miss all of you and the Lynwood and Redeemer work groups covet your prayers in the coming week. Pray for strength, safety and a spirit of eagerness and cooperation as we go about our tasks. Pray especially for team leaders from both churches (Josh Zylstra and Trent Vander Zee) as they have the responsibility of keeping our groups running smoothly.

Thank you so much!

We've got a Convoy!

We rented a 15 passenger van for the trip. It certainly seemed big enough at the time (for ten people), but when we had to add all our luggage, sleeping bags, some persoanal tools, a few bags of goodies, the van filled up fast!

Before we left Lansing, we decided to pull out the back bench of the van in order to have enough storage space for all our luggage. That left 3 benches and the two seats in front for the 10 of us. It was 'close quaters', but we really travelled well together.

Josh Zylstra filled the van with gas then picked up Marilyn Swets at 8:30 p.m. Friday night. He then swung by the Davis residence to pick up the Davis' (Rev. Davis, Caleb and Joshua) and the Eizengas (Amy, Eric and Rachel).

After that, Josh drove over to the Van der Woerd's house and picked up Tim. We picked up the last passenger when we met the youth group from Redeemer URC inDyer. Tom Kramer was waiting there for us. We showed up just after 9:00 p.m.

The Redeemer Group consisted of 13 people (young people and adults), so we thought it would be great to travel together. They had two vehicles--a large 15 passenger van like ours and a pick-up pulling a work trailer filled with their luggage and tools. After Rev. Davis led in prayer for the whole group, our 3- vehicle-convy left destined for Bay St. Louis, Mississippi which was 'only' 975 away!

While the passengers talked together, slept, listened to their headsets, looked out the window, played cards, played the 'alphabet game' with road signs (and did whatever else they could to pass the time), Josh Zylstra and Rev. Davis safely conducted the group through the many hours of travel.

After a breakfast stop, a lunch stop, and a little 'field trip' to Rickwood Caverns State Park in Alabama (where the two youth groups toured the a cavern).



After the tour, we climed back in the vans and back on the road. After another 5 and a half hours, we finally rolled into Bay St. Louis, at the Lagnniappe Presbyterian church releif headquaters at 5:30 Saturday afternoon.

Yes, that was 21 hours total for those first in the van, but it was a fun filled time! Here's a picture of our convoy parked at the beautiful visiting center at the Mississippi border...

...and here's a photo of our group standing behind the Mississippi welcome center sign: