Yes, I am still alive. I will be honest with you... I just didn't feel like posting, and I have been busy the last couple of weeks ( imagine that, being busy in retail two weeks before Christmas!). That and not a lot going on. Had areally good Christmas, very relaxing. I will post more later. :)

Thing to be thankful for

-a wife that loves me, and takes care of me
-a step daughter that brings jo to our house
-a job that even though I always complain about provides for my family
-a great and awesome God that looks out for us and always does what is best for us even though we may not agree
-wonderful friends that really do care about me and would do anything for me
-a super brother and sister in law
-a warm and dry home
-a car that gets me where I am going
-a great church home
-and I am sure that I am forgrtting a whole bunch of things
Everyone just needs to remember that no matter how difficult things seem to be there is always something to be thankful for!

Let me preface this by saying I am a total diehard Notre Dame football fan, but.... Bill Moor wrote in is column in the South Bend Tribune "Did you hear that Notre Dame is changing its mascot from a leprechaun to a possum? That's because the Irish play dead at home and get killed on the road."
Better to laugh than cry...........

I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly my God was speaking, My name is I AM. He paused. I waited. He continued. When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WAS. When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I WILL BE. When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM.
My friend Sara had this posted on her blog. The first day I read it twice and didn't get it. The second day it finally sank in. God is here with us in the present. If we are living in the past, or in the future he is not there.
Sometimes I think I have a tendency to live in the future, instead of taking care of things in the present. I don't know.......

Time for another post. Work really has been going fairly well. I probably shouldn't say this.... but..... we seem to be getting caught up. Sales have been up and down, mostly down. We had a couple of good days the last two.
BOH had a meeting Thursday night to line up 2008. As near as we can tell we are going to have 18 local projects in addition to what we will be doing in Nappanee. We also will have two trips out of state, one to St Benards Parish in New Orleans, and one some where else, maybe Kansas. I am really excited about what God has planned for us. Hopefully I will be meeting with Joe soon to set my support so that I can start raising it.
Well not much else to talk about, gonna run. Bye!

So many things are going on! Two weeks ago one of our associates that had been battling cancer since January died. Cindy died Oct 8th, one week before her 49th birthday. The cancer had progressed really fast. In the middle of December 06 she had a severe backache and went to the emergency room for it. They took some xrays, gave her some pain pills, told her there was some spots on her lungs, scheduled her for a petscan in Feb. By the time she got to the petscan, a tumor on her neck had broken her c3 vertabra. They gave her chemo and radiation. It seemed like as soon as they got it controlled in one spot it would popup somewhere else. Finally in September they decided there was no more they could do. This was the second associate we had die this year. Needless to say we are all reeling.
Builders of Hope is moving foward. We sponsered a workday at a Habitat house Saturday the 20th. Then yesterday we went down to Nappanee to help with cleanup after the tornado that went through Thursday night. It was a F3 that caused quite a bit of damage across three counties. aparently everyone heeded the warnings because it struck at 10:30 pm, and there was no deaths, and only a handful of minor injuries.
We are partnering with Kevin Cox of Hope Crisis Responce Network. He has experience with disaster recovery. He belives that there will be 8-10 homes that will need our help.

Ever get that feeling that God is trying to tell you something? In Thursday morning bible study we got to talking about titheing. We bantered some things around, and I asked isn't the tithe actually more than 10%? Well.... last night Rick was preaching out of Dueteronomy, and one of the things he brought up was the tithe. There was the normal 10% tithe. Then there was the year of sabbath every seventh year, where they allowed the land to remain fallow, which amounts to 14%. Then there is the year of Jubilee every 50th year, where they partied all year and didn't plant anything, which is 2%. Then there was the gleaning laws, which basically said that they where to be sloppy when harvesting, in order to leave something behind for the aliens, orphans, and widows to glean, which is estimated to be 4% (maybe to make the total a nice round number). That is a total of 30%! For those of us that thought 10% was a stretch, ouch!. Actually we do a little more than 10% to the church, but God has kind of been tapping me on the shoulder there and saying "Is that enough?". It seems that the paycheck barely stretches as it is. To give more?
Maybe God is trying to ask me, once again, how much do you trust me? Do I not say that I will meet all your needs? I was struggling with this same thing this spring when debating whether to take my sabatical or not. Once I made the decision to do it, we were so richly blessed! So why am I hanging on so tightly now? Am I like the Israelites and forgeting what God has done for us?
I do not know!

Finally Pictures!

I got the trim up this weekend in the family room, so now I have pictures to share. As you can see in the bottom picture I have some electricall work to do in that corner. If I do say so myself... it turned out really good. Leighann says that it is now her favorite room in the house, and it used to be the one she hated the most. I was able to borrow Chris's cordless trim nailer to put the trim up with. That was really sweet! I would love to have one, and a cordless framing gun also..... but I do not have the $700 to get them. Oh well.

I also got my crabapple tree cut down today. It was a really good size one. At some point it must have been hit by lighting, it was about one third dead, and had a big section of bark offof it. It was starting to get critters, and more and more of it was dying.

I went to church last night. Rick talked about the tent of meeting that God had the Israelites build, all of the fixtures that were in it and what they meant. I also learned something else... that the word translated dwell is the same word that is translated Tabernacle. Puts a whole new spin on things. Gonna run now, see you all later!

So many things on my mind, I do not know what to write about. I have really been feeling "out there" the last couple of weeks. I feel as I have just been coasting along, there have been so many things going on.
I was supposed to open yesterday and close today. Andrea wanted to work with Missy yesterday morning setting the Halloween shop, so she traded with me. I closed yesterday and opened today. That gave me the opportunity to go to church tonight. If we wouldn't have made the switch I wouldn't have been able to go at all this weekend. I am sooo glad I had the opportunity to go. It was an excellant time of worship that really touched me where I needed it. Rick then preached on the Israelites journey from after they crossed the Red Sea untill they reached the promise land. It was about an 9 to 11 day jouney, yet it took the Israelites 40 years! The point is that God desired to make the Israelites a Holy nation, and he was more concerned with them getting it right then getting it done quickly. WOW! It is more about the journey then the destination. He further reinforced this with the observation that the Gospel is not about where we go when we die, but what we do while we are here. It was just so meaningful to me. We have to quit worrying about the end result, but learn from the lessons that are given to us on the way to the destination. I think that is what I really needed right now. Lately I have been so focused on getting into this non profit position that I have missed out on what God is trying to say to me.
All the STUFF that has been going on... the challenges at work with sales, personnel, impossible expectations, relationships on the edge, health issues of my own, family and close friends, legal issues, monetary concerns... God is still in charge. He will provide for our every need and he has a master plan that none of us knows or can understand.
I gues it has just given me alot to think about and ponder. Thanks for letting me get this off my chest!

Well I got the floor down over the weekend. I just have a coule more pieces to put in the bathroom doorway. We will be running the same flooring in the bathroom when I get it done. I actually got to go to church Sunday, I did n't last week due to my work schedule. We also had our first small group of the "season" Sunday night.
I am progressing well with the new teeth. I am still not eating anything real solid. I have very liitle pain now. I get the stitches out on Friday.
Nothing much else going on here. See you later!

Well I sort of have been enjoying my time off. Thursday morning I had what was left of my upper teeth pulled, and some of my bottom teeth pulled. There was three bottom teeththat they didn't pull... yet. I had an infection in one of them, and another one was fused. They are going to try to get them out at a later date. So I am getting used to an upper plate. It hasn't been to bad...the tylenol 3 helps! This morning my gums are starting to heal... because they ate itching!
I have been working on the family room also. I finished the painting, except for the trim. The floor is about two thirds down, I plan on finishing it today. I thin will get some pictures!. I really wish we had some before pictures, because it is a radical transformation. I just be glad wen it is done, I have been working on it for about a year and a half.

Slacking

Yeah,yeah I know I am slacking. Been busy with not much to talk about. Work has still been challenging. Two more associates quit, we hired and scheduled five people for orientation and only three showed up. We are challenged with our starting wage. We have lost several people to places paying 50 cents to $1.25 more then what we pay. We are trying to get the higher ups to approve a higher starting wage. Hopefully that will help us.
Been working on the family room. Have to put a second coat of paint on one wall, and paint the ceiling in the other half. I hve about one third of the floor down, so I have to finish that up also.
School has been in session for two and a half weeks, and so far Erin's lowest grade is a C plus! That is really great considering how she started last year.
I have to work 10 - 6 today and 1 to close tomorrow. I close Tuesday and open wednesday, then I have thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Sweet!

Full Day

Yesterday was a full day. Up at 5:30, at bible study at 6:30, over to Lowes to get flooring for the family room. Then over to my brother's to rip down some boards and pick up some trim that I had over there. Went home , unloaded the truck, over to Eddie's for lunch with the guys. Then home, where I wacked down the front yard, which hadn't been mowed in three weeks. I then started laying the floor. It is going to look real nice. I was really wooped when I wet to bed about 11:15.
Our challenges at work continue. We hired five people last week and four of them have quit already. Hopefully our new DM can help us out with some incentives. We are going to have to do something, or we will never make it through the holiday season.
Well going to run now, my bed is calling.....

Yeah, yeah, I know you all thought I fell off the face of the earth, right Sara? I have been busyworking on the family room. I have almost all the painting done. I will have to get some pictures taken and posted. Leigh and I both really like the colors we picked out. I still have alot of work to get done before I am finished with it.
I also spent all day Satarday at Pulse Fest. What a line up this year. Krystal Meyers, Superchic, Santus Real, Desperation Band, Kutless, Third Day, and MICHAEL W. SMITH. If you can't tell I really like Michael, and he put on an awesome performance. The whole day was great.

Just a pondering thought....

A freind of mine sent an email the other day that had a line in it that I thought was rather profound. Going to church no more makes you a christian than standing in your garage makes you a car. Tha really hit me this time. I had seen the email before, it was one of those fowards, but that line had never really jumped out at me. How many people do you know, maybe you are one of them, that thinks the christian life is all about going to church? The christian life is more about what you do, how you act, how you react the other six days of the week. I an not saying that going to church is not important, because it is important. We just need to take what we learn in church and apply it to our every waking moment.
I have a great example. The past eight days at work have been real challenging. We have had major technical issues within the store, personel issues, and an over whelming work load. In our Thursday morning bible study we started studying James three weeks ago. What is the first couple of verses of James? (This is the Whybrew paraphrase), Consider it PURE JOY when faced with trials of all kinds. One of the things that I had gotten out of our discussion was that this was a concious choice to consider it joy. So this afternoon when we have had one of the most challenging 8 day periods in awhile, was I overwelmed with joy? I really got broadsided with that one, and had to repent of my attitude. After that my day went a little better.
I guess what I am saying here is if we understand who is really in charge, and submit to that, our lives will be better. I am not saying that we won't have challenges and hardships, we will just relize that we have someone to lean on that has our total best interests at heart, and he will not give us more than we can bear, and that we should consider it pure joy, because he is molding and shaping us to become more like him.
Getting back to my original thought, Rick had a really great message last night about holding on to our things with open hands. Everything we have is God's, and he just allows us to be stewards of it for a while. So we need to be willing to sacrifice every thing we have to God. All our money, all our stuff (take a mission trip to a third world country, or just go spend a couple of days helping out in the huricane or tornado ravished areas of our country, to realize how much stuff we really have), all of ourselves we must be willing to sacrifice to God. You may think, hey he sounds like he has got it all figured out, I don't. I am still hanging on to way to many things with closed hands.

Well I am progessing on the family room. Primed the walls last night, painted part of the ceiling this morning. I am wondering if we went with too light of a tint on the ceiling. It hardly looks like it has any color at all. I am hoping when I get the paint on the walls it will show up more.
Glad to hear from Sara. Just as I thought, she has been extremely busy. It is hotter there then here, and just as humid. So rember that when we complain... it could be worse. Of course come about February 5th when it is 13 below and about three feet of snow on the ground, this 95 degrees will look pretty good!

Yesterday Leighann, Phil, Cheri and I Went to see Evan Almighty. It was hilarious. It also had a very good point. A great family film. I highly recomend it (if you couldn't tell). I was concerned about the Hollywood theology, but it wasn't bad.
Saturday night while I was moving some things around in the family room, I ran across three books by Beverly Lewis that I had read before. They are a series, and I had wanted to read them again. So I read two of them between Saturday night and Sunday. Needless to say, I didn't get any painting done! The names of the books are The Shunning, The Confession, and The Reconciliation. Very good, easy reads. I encourage anyone to read them.
I am just wondering if Sara B. has fallen off the face of the earth. She hasn't posted in a week and a half. She probably has been busy getting the kids ready for school. (Either that are she has taken residence up in the pool, if they are having any sort of weather like we are!) I miss hearing from her. Gonna run, have to get to that painting!

Whats happening

That is the question, isn't it? Just a normal week at work, nothing spectacular, or unusual. Rick had a good message about baptism. I have been working on the family room this week Last night I textured most of the walls. I have to move a door, and do a little drywall, before I can finish texturing, and then prime. We have decided to do a three tone color scheme. We are going to do a plum color up 32", then a lavender color the rest of the way up. The ceiling then gets a color two shades lighter then the lavender. I think it is going to look real good. I will post pics when I get it done (sometime around 2015, at the rate I seem to be moving!),

Worship

Wow two entries in one day!
Rick started a series last week on worship, and he talked about whether or not we pay attention to the words that we "sing" when we are worshipping.
Tonight we sang some songs with some of those lyrics he was talking about last week. We sang a new song that has the line "stolen my heart" refer to Jesus stealing my heart. Is that true? Has he stolen my heart? Is my every breathing moment captured with thoughts of him? Is he the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning? Is he the last thing I think about before I fall asleep? Another song we sang was "Sweetly Broken". It has the lines "sweetly broken, wholely surrendered". Am I wholely surrendered? Am I really completely and totally surrendered to God? What would this look like? Is their parts of me that I haven't given over to him? These are just some random thoughts running around in my head.
Another one we sang is "Hungry".
Hungery I come to you
So I wait for you
I've fallen on my knees
Offering all my needs
Jesus you're all
This Heart is living for

Broken I run to you
For your arms are open wide
I am weary but I know your touch
Restores my life

So I wait for you
So I wait for you

Do I wait for him? Do I stop and listen to him? (See my blog from 7/20) Is he all my heart is living for?
I am sitting here watching "Pretty Woman" with Julia Roberts. I saw the scene where she is walking back into the Hotel after shopping for a whole new wardrobe. I thought WOW, what a change. But isn't that the type of change we make when we ask God to save us? We make this radical change from what we were to what Jesus makes us.

Almost a week since I have posted. Just not a whole lot going on. Last Saturday Builders of Hope joined with the local Habitat to begin building some walls an parts needed for a home that Habitat is going to be building in August. They had about 16 people show up. I was not able to be there, because I had to go to my job that is paying the bills (for now). They got a lot accomplished. By 11a the had done what the Habitat people had planned to take till 1 or 2p.
We are going to try to meet week after next, since Chris is planning on going to Ms Aug 11th. We want to finalize some plans for that trip.
Sunday Leighann, my brother Phil and his wife Cheri, and I went to the Elkhart County 4H fair. On Sundays they have free addmission, and no parking fees. Now that is my kind of a date! A good time was had by all. Next weeek is the St Joe county fair, I am not sure whether we will get to that or not.
Since it is Thursday we have church tonight. That will be continuing for two more weeks, then it will be moved to Saturday night. That is disapointing to me because they are still only going to have the two services on Sunday morning. This means that on my week end to work I will not be able to go to church. Bummer! Maybe I will have to start going to that "other" church that has services on Thursday nights :).
Speaking of church, we are having a worship and praise service this Sunday night with Faith Apostolic from the west side of South Bend. We haven't joined up with them for four years. It is always an awesome time when we get together! I am looking foward to it, even though I will not get there til late, since I have to work till 6 :(

Isaiah 40:31 tells us "but those who hope (or wait as another version put it) in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." This was the verse from my devotions, My Upmost for His Highest, this morning. I have to include some of Oswald Chambers thoughts also. " Having the reality of God's presence is not dependant on our being in a paticular circumstance or place, but is only dependant on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. ..... At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it is unnecessary to be constantly saying " Oh, Lord direct me in this, and in that." Of course he will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.
God has really been really working on the thought of "walking with God". I always thought is was neat how "Abraham walked with God". Or how "God walked through the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve to fellowship with them. I thought how cool is that to be fellowshiping with Gods presence.
You know what? That is available to Us! We have the ability to walk with God and fellowship in his presence! The only thing stopping this is.........US! If we truely want this for our lives, all we have to do is put aside our agenda, and be quiet and wait for God's direction. Sometimes the reason we cannot hear God, is because he can't get a word in edgewise!
As you can tell this is someting I have become very passionate about. God has really been talking to me about this. I used to think that I needed to get a really great position, or win the lottery, so that I was financially indepedant so that I could serve God. As a very good friend has said many times "God doesn't need our money, if he wants money he can just print more". What God wants is Us completely broken and relying on him for all our needs. We also must learn the difference between needs and wants.

Not much happening here. I am enjoying my three days off of work. Alot of rest and relaxing going on. Moving along on the family room, just sand again, and maybe a little more mud. Then we can paint. I am hoping to be able to do that on my next weekend off, which I think will be the first weekend of August. That will make such a difference! Then all we have to do is come up with the money for the flooring, put it down, and trim.
Sara, if you could send some of your rain this way, we could really use it. We got some light rain this morning, not nearly enough. Even the lawns with sprinkling systems are turning brown. They were saying that we were suppossed to get really hot (98) again this week, I am not sure if it is still supposed to happen or not.
Well, I am going to go get ready for work, yak at you later.

Change in plans! In doing our research we found out that buying the materials in for the walls was cheaper in Mississippi. That was one of the reasons we were considering building them here and shipping them down. Therefore we will not be building them here. But we have a backup plan for the 21st. It is really interesting how God works. Monday morning Dave Hatch ( director for Habitat in St Joe County) called Chris to see if we would be willing to work with them on the 21st to build walls for a home they are doing for a displaced Katrina victim! Chris had told them no at first, but after we discussed it Monday night, it became a yes.
Habitats across the country are building up to four homes for people that were displaced by Katrina or Rita that have decided to stay in their new location. The home that we will be doing the walls for is for a gal that works with Mike L. So we have our own personal conection with this project. Like I said, it is amazing how God works. As he shuts the door on one thing he opens it on another.
Finally a day off from work. I work days tommorrow the I am off Sat, Sun, and Mon. Sort of a mini vacation after my nine days in a row. It is great that we can work with one another so well that we can flex back and forth like this. Again it is really great to have Missy back. It really takes alot of the load off of Andrea and I. Whew!
I am just looking foward to August when Joe gets back so that we can sit down and I can then get started on raising support. See ya later alligators!

Day 7 of 9 in a row! Finally some relief today. Andrea was back from vacation, and Missy was back from maternity leave. For the first time since mid February we are fully staffed managementwise. I think Andrea is really glad! She is the one that had to endure it the whole time. It was nice to walk the store and bounce ideas off of one another again.
I have a BOH meeting here in a little bit. We are going to go over the plans for the construction of the walls for Mrs Hui's reseraunt. We are going to be framing them in the church parking lot on July 21st. The Mike Schaffer is planning on getting a goose neck trailer to haul them down there with his pickup. I may have the opportunity to ride along with him! He was planning on just running them down and then coming right back. I talked to Andrea and got three days in a row off so that I could go with him if the logistics work.
Well I got to get ready to go, so I will right more the next time. Bye!

Wow, the fourth of July, Happy Birthday America! I worked today, as I have for every fourth since we opened, and the day just seemed to d r a g..... We were pretty busy, with a lot of foot traffic, a decent day in sales, not fantastic. To day was the second day of nine days in a row. I can't beleive that I suggested this to Andrea. Just a gluttin for punishment I guess.
After work I went over to Andrea's. Her and her husband have a big bash every fourth. Lots of good food and company.
Not much else happening here!

I really like having the opportunity to go to church on Thursday night. Today I get the opportunity to just relax and take it easy.
Yesterday after our book study, I came home, and after a nap worked on mudding the drywall in the family room. Then I ran out of drywall mud.
We have changed Time and attendance software at work, this was our first week on it. We had to do a Saturday payroll close because of the holiday next week. Since this was our first time closing with this system, and it was a Saturday close, I went in about 8:30 last night to help out. It was a good thing. We had some challenges with the close, and it would have been difficult for Andrea to close the store and close the payroll both. Some times we really wonder if the higher ups have any concept of the realities of running a store. Retail is just sooooo much fun!
This afternoon Leigh and I watched "Little Miss Sunshine". It is a funny movie that makes some poignant points about family life.
Going to sign off now, Bye!

Well what can I say...... I am a slacker. Haven't posted in a week and a half, figured I had better do something before Sara gets on my case again. Not a lot happening around here. It has been really hot and humid up until yesterday. We had a cold front go thru and it is quite comfortable today.
Things are going ok at work. Due to different circumstances we have lost eight employees this month, so we have been busy hiring new people, getting them oriented and trying to get them trained. We got good news last week, our other assistant that has been out on maternity leave is coming back two weeks earlier then expected. This just makes things so much easier. We have had to use our keycarriers a lot which has pulled them off of what they are supposed to be doing. Hopefully things can get back to normal a little bit now.
Been working on getting the mudding done on the drywall in the family room. It is a rather time consuming task. It would be great to get it done so that we can get it painted. Then I can move onto the downstairs bathroom. After that a little updating in the kitchen, wiring and painting in the bedrooms, and somewhere in amongst all of this redoing the hardwood floors. I do not have much on my agenda....LOL.
Well time to get ready for work, see ya later!

It's Monday!!! Had a good weekend. Got some yard work done on Saturday, relaxed most of Sunday. Did go over to my nephew's house to help Phil celebrate yesterday. So far he is taking 50 very gracefully. I hope I do that well. I think I will probably go into it kicking and screaming, even though there is nothing I can do to change it.
I am sitting out on the back porch and it is sooooo wonderful. It has been really hot the last few days, high of 92 today. But right now there is a reallly good breeze blowing, and it feels nice.
I am sitting here starrig at our empty pool. Last year we had a problem with it, holes in the liner, and had to continually fill it. We decided that it is just not worth it to spend the money to get it fixed. We were in it maybe 10 times last year, so it cost us like $25 per swim. It would be even more this year. It is kind of a weird design and the location of it is not real practical. We pretty much have decided that we are just going to fill it in. It is too bad it was one of the features that really attracted me to this place. An outside pool is just too much work for me at this time. If any thing I'll go buy a $10 wading pool to soak my head in! lol
Gonna run, everybody take care. Bye!

This is the week of long days. Wednesday ws long having to go to Valpo for training, yesterday with bible study in the morning and then working to close, today up at 4:30 in order to be at work at 6. Tonight Leigh and I went out to dinner and then went down to the south side of town to check out the new retail down there. Wow , what an exciting date I am! Sorry gals, I am already taken.
Today was one of those days at work. The simplest thing just took forever to get done...ugh. Overall though I think it was a good day, and I have the weekend off! Not sure what the agenda is other than bible study tomorrow morning and church on Sunday. We will just have to see what happens! Chow

Yesterday was a long day. Met June at the store at 7:30a and we drove over to the Valpo store for training in our new time and attendance system called Workbrain. We got there just before 9a our time. We didn't leave there untill almost 6p, getting back to the store at about 7p. Had to do some shopping (it is our 4th anniversary today, and my brothers 50th birthday is Sunday). By the time I got home I was exhausted and fell into bed shortly there after.

This morning at 6:20 Leighann woke me up and asked if I was going to bible study today. Since my work week is askew this week I had forgotten this was Thursday. So I jumped up, got dressed, and headed off to Bella Vita. We had a good study, we are working through Colosions and are at the end of chapter 3, where Paul is talking about slaves serving their masters as if they where serving God. We have been chewing on this for 4 or 5 weeks now, because we are relating it to work. We have three people that have their own business and the relate it to the customer being their boss. It has been very interesting. It has helped me get more out of Rick's sermon series he is doing, and that has helped in the Thursday morning study.
I need to run now, got to take a shower so I can go to work.... I know I am closing on my anniversary, but there really wasn't any other option for the schedule we have this week. Therefore we are celebrating tommorrow night. See ya!

Well, while our friends were here this weekend, Sara got on me pretty hard about not posting regularly. So I had to promise that I would try to do better. Of course that was Saturday, and it is Monday already, so I do not know if I am doing any better or not.
I had today off from work since our schedule is messed up this week because of training that Andrea, the two key carriers, and I have to go to this week. Did not get alot accomplished during the day other than getting my laundry done, and getting my ironing done.
We had a meeting of BOH tonight discussing some of our future plans. One of the things that we discussed was the possibility of prefabing walls here, and then shipping them where we would need them. We are going to try to do this with the walls for Mrs Hui's resteraunt. We are hoping that we can do it in RVC's parking lot during July's servefest. Chris is planning on being in Mississippi in August to frame her resteraunt up. If we had the walls framed it would considerably shorten the time he would need to get the job done. We are hoping that through the contacts we have that we could get them shipped down there very reasonably. I am excited about this!!!! (If you couldn't tell.....)
It was so good to see Steve, Sara and the family this weekend. Steve made it to bible study on Thursday which was good. I got to see Sara and the kids at Alyssa's graduation party Saturday. We really miss them, but are glad they have this opportunity in Arkansas.

Not much going on. Work that pays the bills....and work at home. Since we are considering this change in careers it probably will necessitate down sizing some. Therefore I am working on getting the house ready to sell. It won't be right away, but we have quite a bit to get done, so I need to get cracking. What started out as a simple project to redo the family room has turned into a major project. (Don't they always?!!!!)
I am excited that our former associate pastor and his family are going to be back in town this week. Their oldest offspring is graduating from Penn High School this week end. They moved to Little Rock Arkansas the first of the year. Alyssa stayed here for a couple of weeks longer som that she could finish her high school classes. I had the opportunity to go see them when I was down south this spring. The bad thing was that it was the weekend that Sara had planned to go to New York to see her friend, so I didn't get to see her.
I miss Steve and Sara so much. Steve led our Thursday morning men's bible study, and Sara and Alyssa went to St Lucia the first year that I went. They also are role models for a true christian marriage. I have learned so much from Steve and Sara in the four short years I have known them. It is going to be really good to see them.

It's Official

Today Mike S., Randy D. Chris E. and I met with the board of directors of World Compassion Network and Builders of Hope was officially adopted by WCN. We can now start raising funds for the ministry and individual support. We have a meeting with Joe W. next Thursday night to go over some of the financial particulars. So expect to be hearing from me in the near future requesting support!
I am soooo excited about this. I have been wandering aimlessly for fortyeight years trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. After this spring I now have a definative answer to that. It would be absolutely incredible to be able to have support in place by the end of August. I realize that in human perspective that isn't possible....but my God is awesome and can absolutely make that happen if he wants to!

I haven't posted in a while, haven't had a whole lot going on. I was tagged by Sara B. and I have to write seven random things about myself.
1. I was born at 11:55pm on my parents third wedding annivesary.

2. 10 days before my wedding to Leigh, I was on an extension ladder when the rung broke! I fell about eight feet and landed on my head. (to those of you who have met me since then, that doesn't explain anything. I was this way before I landed on my head!) (It has something to do with teaching seventh graders)

3. I taught at a christian school for two years, 6th thru 12th grade, mostly math and science.

4.I have been to St Lucia twice on mission trips.

5. I have two half sisters that I have never met. I have another half sister that I saw the other week for the first time in 47 years.

6.At one point in time I had 15 dogs.

7. I am not afraid of horses, in fact I had one before moving to Granger. ( I had to get rid of her because we didn't have enough property in Granger)

There are my seven random things. Now I am supossed to tag seven more friends, but I do not know anybody else that blogs regularly!

Try to make a quick update here. Last Saturday the 28th, Mike Schaffer, Randy Dobroat and I met with Joe Wilkey of World Compassion Network. We hammered out a memorandum of understanding so that Builders of Hope could become part of WCN. By the end of the month we should be a part of WCN. At that point in time I will be able to begin raising support, so that I can start doing mission work full time!
Last Friday we got some sad news. My half brother died Wednesday. He was 56. He had been waiting for a liver transplant for a number of years. They finally found one for him, and were in the process of implanting it. They hooked the new liver up and his heart gave out. The funneral was Tuesday. We were not that close, it had been four years since I saw him, and he lived in Elkhart. It really seems like we get so rapped up in our lives that we forget what is really important.
One of the good things that came out of this is that Bobby had a sister (which is my half sister) that says she wants to be in our lives. I haven't seen or heard from her in over forty years. I guess I am a little skeptical, since she hasn't seemed to have made any attempt in the last forty years to make any contact. We will see what happens.

Boy, I am realllly getting lax on posting. I think I will blame it on Leighann. While we were apart I was pretty good about posting.... Then when we got back in the same zip code, my posting took a real nose dive, LOL. It does seem like since I got back that I have been going almost non stop and do not have time for everything I want to do. Work has been going pretty good. Yesterdaywas a great day. It was my regular day off from work, so I went to my Bible study in the morning, Leigh and I went over to Sturgis, Lagrange, Shipshewana, then last night the principles of Builders of Hope met.
Leigh and I went to Sturgis to Kmart where I used to work. I wanted to stop by there and share pictures and my experience with them. We then went down to Lagrange to see my Dad. He was sitting in front of the TV in the lounge sleeping (see I come by it honestly). We were talking with the nurse and she was explaining how the have put a lap tray on Dad's wheelchair now, so that he can reposition himself, eat off of it, and it keeps him in more of an upright position, because as the disease progresses he has a tendency to return to a fetal position. The said that when given a snack he can feed himself, but when it comes to meals he has to be fed. We then went over to Shipshe to do some of our staple shopping.
Last night BOH had a meeting to discuss what we want to accomplish tomorrow morning when we have this breakfast meeting with the other churches, and we also debriefed from the trip we just took. We had a lot of positives out of the trip, but some things that we need to do better next time. We also had some really neat experiences that were shared also. It is so interesting how a group of guys can come together with a common goal, (build the house in November) and form such a incredible bond because of it. I can not get over how awesome God is!!!!!

Monday morning,return to work after almost seven weeks off.... ugh. I really had to pray to have a proper attitude going back. The whole idea of my taking six weeks to do this was to "rent the lifestyle" to see if that is what I really wanted to do. The answer is a resounding yes! I definately did not want to leave down there and niether did Leigh. Right now we need to figure out what God has in mind for us. We are trying to be faithful, and follow God's calling.
Work did go well, everyone was glad to see me.
Friday night Leigh and I had a date, dinner and a movie. We went to see Wild Hogs. It was an extremely funny movie.
Sunday ( today) I was at work and had an extremely pleasant surprise. Christine, who was our merch manager from Nov 04 till May 05 stopped in. We hadn't seen or heard from each other since she had left. Her and her significant other had moved to Pennsyvania for his job, and now they have moved back. It was soooo good to see her, I am glad she dropped in.

I forgot that we did one more project while we were down there. The house on Hardy street. I am not sure what all we got accomplished on that one. I know we did some reframing, put in huricane straps and secured the house. I also do not have pictures of this house.
Leigh and I left about 4:30 Saturday morning, local time. We had a rather uneventful trip home. We got home about 22:30, and the teens got home about an hour later.
I went to the sunrise service at church, then stayed for the 8:30 service with Leigh. After that we went to Leigh's mother's for lunch. I then went home aand took a thre hour nap.

This is what is left of Puppy and Sunshine's house. They stayed during the storm, had a tree fall through the roof, and water running across the floor. The started tearing off the damaged part attempting to get down to good material, in order to repair the home. The kept going, and going untill they got to the box sill and found out it was rotten. Supposedly their insurance had lapsed, and they had no money to rebuild. They are both disabled and Puppy does motorcycle repair for income. The are both christians and have a really neat testamony. We got some materials donated and below you see what we got accomplished for them. It is a start, and they are so estatic. Like alot of people after 19 months they thought that they would never see a house, and be living in a FEMA trailer forever.

This is Mrs Hui's house as we left it in Novenber. Other teams were in to roof, side, and put windows in. What we got done this time is the dormer windows in, a garage door hung (and the other one ordered), the back door hung, a lockset in the front door, soffit on the porch, so this house is totally secured. This is a good thing because the wiring, plumbing, and HVAC had already put in.
This is the front view of the house now.

This is the little "red" house that was painted blue amongst other things that were done. The house had four roofs on it, we tore out three of them and raised the ceiling height from six feet to eight feet. Also reroofed the house and added new windows and doors. The house is now secured and ready for electric and drywall.
The house had been flooded so it needed to be completely gutted. This is part of the pile of debries.

The teamed worked on three other homes while they were down there. They did a little bit of work on Mrs Hui's house (the one we framed up in November), a home that we started to renovate, another new house for a couple that lost theirs in the hurricane, and were living in a FEMA trailer. We also finished redoing Barney the purple bus. This is a bus that they are going to take out to the FEMA parks to do kids ministry. I will do a post with pictures for each project. This is of Barney.

Try to catch up here, it has been very busy in the last eight days. Thursday and Friday morning were spent working on the block house. Once again the kids did an awesome job. I have really enjoyed getting to know the kids and Josh. The homeowners seem estatic with our progress. I wish we could have gotten further, but I realize that six weeks ago they didn't even have a hole in the ground, and a pile of blocks that needed to be cleaned. I think alot got done.

It was a typical Monday around here. Very chaotic and I didn't get to the work site untill 11a. We got our concrete about 12:15p, and wheelbarrowed almost five yards into the footer. The kids did a great job! After we got done there, I came back to the camp, got Leigh, and ran some errands.
Tuesday Morning I took a crew back up to Puppy and Sunshine's to strip the forms off the footer and to lay one row of block across the footer to set the floor joists on. It basically was a training session on laying block, because after lunch we went up to the block house I have been working on to lay block.
Wednesday we went back to the block house to lay some more block. I tell you some of these gals do a better job than the guys! Overall the kids are doing a great job, and we got alot done Wednesday. Leigh and I ate supper at the camp, then headed over to ckeck out the "blue house". One of the houses we are working on they painted with paint that was donated. The color is called safety blue. It is pretty bright! We got back to the camper and I gathered up my excess clothes and tools, so that I could put them in the trailer that is leaving Thursday. That will give us alot more room on the way back.

I have been so busy since the team got here. Saturday the Brothers, the Dobroats, and I went to Puppy and Sunshine's house to prep the footer so that we could pour it Monday. We then came back and convined in the Builders of Hope command center, aka the Schaffers camper, to discuss work teams and job assignments. One of the teen vans experienced a flat tire in Alabama (of course). The were able to limp along until they got to a service center to get it repaired. They finally got in about 10:45, I got to reunite with my family,both biological and spiritual.
Sunday morning Leigh and I got up and drove around to look at all the places we are working on this week. We then went to breakfast at IHOP, went back to camp to meet up with the rest of the group. While waiting we saw Chris McCrutchen, who ran the work teams down here untill October of last year, and caught up with him. We then lead the group to Pass Road Baptist where we worshipped. The message was on God openning doors, and very appropo to what we are doing.The homeowners I am working for came to church also.
After church we went to CiCi's for lunch. After that we caravaned over to St Bernards, and the lower 9th ward. We also went by the Franklin Avenue Baptist church that a group of guys from RVC gutted in Dec of 05. After that some of the group dove over to the French Quarter. Our part of the group got back to the camp about 8:30 where the first ones back had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato and Macaroni saad waiting for us. The last group straggled in about 9p. We then went throught the camp orientation that was put on by Vicki. After that we went over work teams and assignments for Monday.
We also got some bad news that night. Mike Schaffer's two sisters that lived in Alanta were in a serious car accident and one of them was in very crittical condition. She passed away about 7a local time Monday. Needless to say the Schaffers were very discombobulated. They left Tuesday to go to Alanta.

Thursday, Mike and I checked out the projects that Phil had lined up. He gave us some back ground info on the people that we would be working for. One lady is taking care of her grandson because her daughter was shot by the daughter's husband who then turned the gun on himself. This happened in front of the grandson, in 2003. This caused turmoil between the Grandma and her husband who then left. She then moved to Gulfport in June of 05, and we all know what happened in August of 05.
Chris and Michelle Elmerick ran into challenges on the way down and had two "Godsightings". Randy and Dana Dobroat also had challenges but made it through. It seems that all our challenges happened in Alabama! We just need to find a way to bypass Alabama. I am writing this on Saturday night and one of the teen vans had a flat tire in Alabama.
I went out early on Friday to lay some block, since Chris got in about 9:30p and Randy got in about 3a. Mike took Chris and Randy out to look at some of the jobs Friday morning. I finished up about noon and came back to the camp to eat lunch. After lunch I went out with Mike, Chris, and Randy to look at the rest of the projects.
Tami Keigley, her sister and nephew got in about 7:30. Larry and Kim Brothers also came in Friday night.

I will try to quickly bring you up to date. Monday I was expecting the group from southren Indiana to be helping me. Well... there was a little communication challenge, they diddn't get in till late Monday afternoon. So I have help, major help, Tuesday and Wednesday. I have had four gentlemen and twoo teen males helping out, and they ROCK! We have gotten so much accomplished it amazing. Only one of them had ever laid block before, but two others jumped in and picked it up. It has been great! The ones not laying block have been mixing mortar, carrying blocks, cutting rebar, and just general fetching. This group has also brought two women and two female teens that are awesome cooks. The group is staying at the Wittenbergs,not at Gkk. There they have to provide their own meals, and I have been eatting supper with them. We had some killer Lasagna last night, and sloppy Joes the night before. The only bad part about all of this is they are leaving tommorrow morning early. :(
Mike and Carolyn Schaffer made it in yesterday afternoon. They were planning on being here Monday, but there truck decided that they needed to stay at the Prattville, Alabama Ford campground. They had some mechanical problems, but have them all fixed up now. I had the opportunity to catch up withh them last night. Chris and Michelle Emerick left last night, and Randy and Dana Dobrought are leaving this morning. More of the group is going to be here Friday, with the rest coming in Saturday and Sunday. I am so excited to see all these folks. (Especially my Wife and daughter :) !!!!!!!!!! )

This is the house on 34th ave that we closed in the back porch, screened the front porch, put down some flooring, and put in a bathroom exhaust fan.Turn your head sideways for the las t one. I will try to bring you up to date and add more pictures tonight.

Here are pics of the blocks we had to clean, and the homeowners home that had four feet of water in it.

Here are so pictures (I hope). These are of the house in Pass Christian that we did the tile floor in.

I will quickly bring you up to date on what I have been doing the last three days. Saturday Nash went out to the new house with me and helped me snap the outside lines and put down some measurements. We then went and looked at acouple of projects that he had been working on. Got back about 11a, so I started my laundry, ate lunch and then headed back up to the worksite. I got one corner of the house blocked.
Sunday I got up, went for a walk on the beach, went to church, then a group of us went to lunch. I then stopped by Circuit City and picked up an adapter so that I could download my pictures to the computer. Got back to camp and played around with trying to get pictures into my blog, couldn't quite get it figured out so I took a nap. Abunch of us then went up to Henderson Point for a BBQ. That was a lot of fun.
Monday, I went up to the worksite, got two more corners up, started the fourth corner and laid out the rest of the walls.
This morning I am heading back up there to start laying some serious block. There is a group from Southren Indiana that will be helping me today.

Friday, got up, got around, killed a little time before breakfast started. Ate breakfast, found Travis ( the leader of the Ohio State group) told him what I needed today and then headed to the new site. I had ten students come up, they pulled the forms and stakes, dug a trench, and moved a bunch of block onto the slab for me. We then headed back to camp to eat lunch. Some of my group desserted me because their rides were leaving to go home. I took what I had left up to another site where we hope to be building a house while the group is down here. They had to finish tearing down the sill and clean the lumber that was there. I took Travis back to where we worked in the morning so that we could set lines for the walls. We were working on that when the homeowner showed up with the windows he wanted to use in the house. It was a little different arrangement then what the blueprint had shown. I got those measurements written on the blue print so that I can lay out my block runs. By that time it was time to go pick up the other group. I got back and it was almost 5p, and I had set that time for me to get with Greg Porter about the daycare bus. Greg is the founder of GKK. They have a bus that they are going to equip with kids toys and stuff, and a puppet stage, to take to each of the FEMA parks on a daily basis. While the group is down here it is going to be used for a daycare. He has groups that are going to get it ready next week. Had supper, a shower, went to service, then chilled.

I had a fantastic day yesterday (for the most part). I didn't get out of bed untill 7:15, ate breakfasthung around for a little bit, made plans to meet with Matt and Jamie for lunch. I then headed for Lowes. I was attempting to find block trowels at a reasonable price. I checked out Lowes, and then went to a place called Hoods Discount. It is a surplus building materials store. I wondered around in there for a while untill Matt called me to say that they had left the camp. I met them at CiCi's pizza, where we had lunch and then we said goodbye. :( I am really going to miss them, hopefully they can be back before I leave. I would love for them to meet the rest of the group, and the group to meet them. After that I stopped and washed my car, stopped at Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, another surplus buildng supply store, and a catalog return store. Are you catching a theme here? Yes, I am cheap! I end up back at Lowes and bought the trowels there.
I came back to camp, got with Vicky to give her the lowdown on the rest of the group coming down. I then took a nap, and went to supper. After supper, two of my bunkies, Matt and John, and I walked down to the conveniance store. Came back, went to service, after which the staff surprised me with a birthday cake and card. It was really a good day. I have to start anew post for today.

What a day! We had 25+ students come out to help us today! We needed them. Our 38 yards of concrete ended up being 56 yards. Woops! I am not sure where I miscaculated, but I apparently did. We had a challenge getting the xtra concrete, the last truck getting there at 6p. After we got that down, we picked up tools, cleaned them, loaded them and come back to camp. We ended up leaving the site at 7:55p. The homeowner's son in law was attempting to get it troweled out with the power troweler.
I decided I am going to take it easy tomorrow. I need the clean out my car, and reorganize it. Nash wants me to replace a toliet here at the camp. I also have to say goodbye to Matt, Jamie and Rylan. They have to leave tomorrow. :( I am going to really miss them. I'll try to post again tomorrow.

Even though I didn't get to bed untill about 2a, my eyes popped open at 5:45. Got around, gather what we needed, and headed up to the new site about 7:45. Got up there, laid out the footers, and Matt started digging them about 10:30. Jamie brought us lunch about 12:30. We had a group of students from Ohio State at the old site cleaning lumber. After lunch three of the student came up to the new site to help us. They worked on final grading the footers, and kept taking readings for Matt to keep him on track. We worked till after 8p trying to get done, since we had the inspector coming on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, Matt and I headed out about 6:40a. Matt finished fine tuning the footers while I worked on setting the rebar. We had five of the OSU students show up about 9a. We had them start leveling up the pads. The homeowner's son in law came over to help us out again this morning. By 12:30 when Jamie brought us lunch the kids had the pads leveled. In the afternoon we finished the horizontal rebar, got the plastic down, started forming the pad, and got the horizontal rebar done. We are finishing up the forms, and putting in the rewire in the morning before the concrete comes at 10a. The inspector came about ten and passed us, it looked like we knew what we were doing I guess. Left the site about 6p today, went by Home Depot to pick up a few things on the way home. Did email and a couple of calls after supper and a shower. Heading to bed now. Yak at you all later.

Saturday morning woke up about 2:30, got around and heded out by 3. I went to Little Rock, Ar for the weekend. I got into Lonoke, Ar about 1p. I went to Lonoke to visit Mildred Carroll's grave. Those of you who are not familiar with Mashalleske, Mildred was one of our original associates. She died January 7th, the day before inventory. She was everybody's Mom/Grandma. We were all her "kids".
I cleaned up her gravesite a little, and put some flowers out. I went and checked into the hotel, a Super 8 in North Little Rock. Had dinner at Cracker Barrel, and went to find Steve and Sara's church. Located it so I would know how to find it Sunday morning.
Sunday morning I got up, around, and headed to Grace Church. When I walked in the door, Steve was standing right there. He warmly greeted me, and we chatted a while, and decided to do dinner after the service. Enjoyed the service (have you ever known Steve to have a bad sermon?). Went to lunch and then went to their house and hung out for the afternoon, Left about 6p to head back to Gulfport. Crawled into my bunk about 1:55a Monday.

Thursday morning we had the IU group helping us again. We went out and finished cleaning the blocks! Finally! Got them all loaded on the dump truck, took them to the new site. Matt and I unloaded them. Matt called Jamie to bring us some lunch. We had just finished unloading the block when she got there. Matt started working on the water line, while I went down to the old site to check on the kids. By the time I got down there it was pouring rain. The kids where all in the van. One of them came over and jumped in the truck with me. We discussed the situation and decided that they would go back to camp. I went down to the homeowner's shop to pickup the drain pipe. Ran to the hardware store to pick up some parts Matt needed to finish the water line. Got back to the new site and Matt said it had only sprinkled there. Finished the water line, and rough laid out the drain line to find out the other parts I needed.
Friday, the IU students went out to clean lumber, Matt and I took the backhoe up to the new site. We got the pad built up, leveled out, and ready to dig footers.

tuesday, working around the excavator again. Had him scoop ou the pad for the home, we will just need to smooth it out with the backhoe. Dug the waterline from the homeownwer's daughter's place, and started to lay the water line. I got the foot print of the house laid out again.
Wednesday, they are predicting rain. Matt takes a group of IU students out to clean blocks and plywood. Phil takes me up to look at another site where they want to build a house for a couple. They had a 30 x 25 home that sustained some damage. When they went to remove the damaged part, they discovered a lot of the sill on the rest of the house was rotten. They are tearing down that part and want to rebuild a new 30 x 40 home. They have no money so the kitchen is trying to scrounge materials, and they do have some usable lumber from the old house. Matt and I went up to the new house site and ate lunch while it rained. The rain let up some and we started glueing the water line together. Jamie (Matt's wife) kept text messaging him weather updates. About 1p she texted that there was going to be a break in the rain for two hours and then it was going to really let loose. It started raining harder and we decided to call it quits about 2:15p. Went back to camp, where it wasn't raining did a few things and the sun came out. The sun wa out the rest of the day, no more rain! I told Jamie she was fired as our weather forcaster, lol.

....continued. Unloaded the backhoe and decided that we would come back after lunch, otherwise we would just be in the septic guys way. We went down and cleaned block till noon, then went to lunch. After lonch, headed back to the new site and Matt started clearing the pad. About 4:30 I went down and retreived the dump truck and trailer, which were now loaded with blocks. Once again these ladies did an excellant job. After unload ed the blocks , we loaded the backhoe, got back to camp about 7:10. Time to grab supper a shower and then get on the computer. Did manage to find my patch cord for the camera yesterday, but the computer is not recognizing the camera, so I still cannot add pictures to my blog :(, Gonna run now, it is 0:40 and I am tired. Bye!

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. Went to church in the morning, ate lunch at IHOP, went to Home Depot to look around, came back to take a nap, cleaned out the backseat of my car, went to Arbys to get a Jamocha Shake and read the paper. Came back to camp, retrevied the computer from Matt, checked email, watched the last part of "The Man of the Year", went to bed. Man of the year was a good movie, funny, yet with a serious side.
Monday morning, woke up at 4:40, laid in bed until 5. Got up, got around, ate some oatmeal, went out to start to work. We are taking the backhoe out to Joey's place today, so we are checking it out before we go. Ray had sugested we check the anti freeze, so I did and it was bone dry. Couldn't find any around here so went to Wal Mart to pick some up since I had to fuel the dump truck anyway. Before I left at 6:30 I checked and there was no light on in Matt and Jamie's trailer. Hmmm Matt said he was going to be out at 6.
Got back to camp and Matt was up working on the backhoe. We got it aired up, greased, and radiator filled before loading it up. Collected our helpers from Phil, aand headed to the blocks once again. This time we got a group of ladies from Ontario. We took the out and showed them what needed to be done. Then Matt and I heading up to the building site, discovering they were there puting in the septic system....going to another post.

Friday, we took seven guys from Virgina Tech and we rocked! Had a trailer load of over 400 blocks cleaned, loaded, delivered and unloaded before lunch. After lunch we did the same thing again, and were still back at the camp before 4:30. We would have been back earlier if we would have left the tools with the students at lunch. Matt and I made a couple of stops on the way back up there after lunch. We got up there and they were playing frisbee. I was a little upset till I realized WE HAD THE TOOLS! DUH!
Today I went out to the site where we are building the new house and got the footprint all laid out. Monday Matt is going to take the John Deere Tractor up there and level out the spot where we are going to pu the house. We are then going to figure out how to dig the footers, and get going on them. Hopefully by the end of the week we can have footers and floor down. That would be awesome! Phil told me today that some one is putting in pilings and should be ready to build by the time the rest of the team comes down.

More blocks again

It is Thursday, I got up early went out to wherewe were cleaning the blocks and worked for about one and a half hours. Had the opportunity to meet the homeowner's wife. The homeowner came out to talk to me then. He was working on brazing a broken hub on a trailer when the grease heated up, blew off the hubcap and splattered hot grease all over his hand. He had a blister two inches acrosss and about one and a quarter inches high on the base of his thumb. He also had smaller areas all over his hand. He was heading down to the VA hospital to have it checked out. I went back to camp collected my 8 college students, Matt and the dump truck. We headed out to the block pile. We cleaned, loaded and moved 538 blocks today. We also got some of the lumber cleaned. It was a good day! We were back to camp before 5p. We have about 1400 blocks done all together. I figure it would take about 1700 blocks just to do the shell. I will need more to do the footing and interior walls. We are helping these homeowners soooo much. It would probably take them about two months to get this all done.

More blocks

Wednesday, Matt and I were up and loading tools by 6a this morning. Went over to the house on 34th street, want to get it finished today. We got two sections of screen up,then headed back to camp about 8:30a. We got our group of college students and headed out to clean blocks. Matt drove the dump truck and trailer out there. We got the kids started then Matt and I went to camp, picked up some supplies, went to Lowe's to get some more supplies, went back to camp to eat lunch, then back to 34th street. We finished up the front porch screen, put some screen in the soffit on the back porch, and put in a bath vent fan. We also did some sanding of drywall, put on some recepticle plates. Except for a little touch up painting, the house is ready to move into! We then headed out to the block site, took the blocks and students over to the new home site to unload the blocks. They had cleaned about 500 blocks, what a awesome job! It is great working with college students, they have so much energy! I got back to camp, showered, ate, went to CVS to get my Allegra. I did a little other shopping, stopped and got a Hot Fudge Sundae at DQ. Got back to camp about 8:45p. I had loaned Jamie, Matt's wife, my laptop in the afternoon, so I retreived it. In then checked email, payed a bill, and hit the sack. I loaned Jamie the laptop because she was going through internet withdrawal. What did we do before we had the internet? She thanked me profusly, over and over again.

You know you are working with college kids when....

Tuesday morning Phil took me out to meet Joey, the gentleman that wants the cement block house. He has about 3,000 cement blocks that need to be cleaned, a bunch of plywood and dimension lumber that he salvaged after the storm. He is going to use this to build his house. He wants to block both the outside and inside walls, pour them solid, and then put on a cement roof.
After lunch I took a group of college students out to start working on cleaning the blocks. They were talking about the TV shows that David Hasslehoff had been in. Of course it turned to Baywatch. One of them was asking "who was that older woman on there? O yeah, Jamie Lee Curtis"! I said thanks alot, she is about my age!
Matt is going to take the dump truck and equipment trailer out there tommorrow morning with me, and we are goint to get the crew going, then he and I are going back to finnish the house on 34th street.

Monday was another good day. Matt and I were sent over to the house on 34th street. The person that was suppossed to paint it was unable to do it. We got the opportunity to work with five women from Lancaster county, Pa. They were a hoot! They did all the painting while Matt and I caulked, did electrical work, drywall finishing, and laying some flooring. We just have to put the screen on the front porch, and put a vent fan in the bathroom, and these people can move back into their home! That is awesome!
The box truck broke down on the interstate, and I took Phil out to get it monday night. We got to discuss a lot of what was going on, which was a good thing. He had someone call him about having her house rebuilt. Hopefully we can get something worked out so that the team can work on it when they come down. He also is going to hook me up with a guy who wants to build a cement block house. Therefore we may have two houses for the group to work on.

I am stealing this from Oswald Chambers "My Upmost for His Highest". It was my Sunday devotion, and it really spoke to me. (I have no idea why I am suddenly typing in Italics!) "It is easier to serve or work for God without a vision and without a call, because you are not bothered by what he requires. Common sense, covered with a layer of Christian emotion becomes your guide. You maybe more prosperous and successful from the world's perspective, and have more leisure time, if you never acknowledge the call of God. But once youreceive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do his will. You no longer will be able to workfor Him on the basis of common sense."
I am way behind in posting so I am going to break this into about three parts. Went to Pass Road Baptist on Sunday again. It was a two hour and ten minute service that seemed like about fortyfive minutes. The Pastor is doing a series on David going after the Lion and Bear that took lambs. Refering to the enemy trying to take our flock one lamb at a time. It is only one lamb, right? Pretty soon the enemy has the whole flock. Therefore we need to gaurd against any intrusion by the enemy, no matter how insignificant it seems.

Wow, it is Sunday already. On Friday Matt, Samuel, and I went to the house in the Pass to grout the tile. We got that done and went back over to the house on 34th st where we were doing the porches. Mat and Samuel put the battons on the back porch while I hung the storm door. We then went around front and started working on the front porch. Ran out of materials so we made a Lowes list. Matt and I decided that we would go to Lowes Saturday after we got done with our 5:30a to 1:30 kitchen duty. Got over to the kitchen Saturday morning and there was a bunch of help there, so about 7 Phil told us to take off. Phil is the person in charge of the skilled labor, he helps out in the kitchen on Saturday. Matt and I went to Lowes, got our materials and went to the house. We got the front porch done as far as we could, it needs to be painted, and then we can finish it out. Came back to camp, showered, ate, did some shopping, came back and watched the movie they were showing. It was "Facing the Giants". Excellant movie, one I think we are going to have to purchase.

Good Morning everyone! Yesterday was another good day. We got all the tile down at the house in the Pass. We finished, got everything cleaned up, and loaded just as it started to sprinkle. As we were driving back to camp it really let loose. We got back, got the equipment unloaded in the rain, it let up for a couple of minutes and got a running start. The wind blew and it poured for about a half hour. It was dry the rest of the night then. No damage here, but I heard fifteen people were killed in Alabama by tornados. I took some pictures yesterday, but I can not find my patch cord right now, so I am unable to post them.
Not sure what today is going to bring, I think it will be too wet to grout that tile today, so I think we will be back on the porch project. Yak at everybody later.

It is early Thursday morning and I need to catch this up. Tuesday we had a productive day. Leveled the floor at a house in Pass Christian so that it would be ready for tile. We then wet over to Gulfport where we are helping Matt close in a back porch. Matt is from Booneville, In and has his own business of flipping houses. He also has an excavator amd dump truck and does septic systems, site prep, and tearing down of buildings. He is down here with his wife Jamie, and their five and a half month old son Rylae. He didn't have work up home so they are down here for three weeks at least. His brother has a full time job, but helps him out with the business too. His brother has been getting lots of calls for work now that Matt is down here! Seems like the devil is trying to play with Matt a little, saying "you don't want to be dowm there, there is work at home to be done". Right now it is not enough work to keep hin busy if he goes back.
Anyway, back to Mississippi, On Wednesday we went back to the house in Pass Christian to lay tile. It was Matt, Samuel, who is down from Denver, Rachel, a 20 year old from James Madison University, and I. We got the job about half done. Samuel does flooring for a living, the rest of us are kind of novices. We will be down there to finish the floor today, and if we get that done, we will go back to the house in Gulfport. Besides closing in the back porch so that they have a dry place to keep their washer and dryer, we are also screening in the front porch.
It is really neat getting to know some of the long termers stories. Like John, one of my roommates. He is here from Grand Haven, Mi. His youngest son died in an industrial accident in 1999, I believe he was 18. Then in 2003 his oldest son fell asleep at the wheel of his truck and ran off the road and was killed. I believe he was 28. John also had some other friends and relatives die in this time frame. It seemed like all he was doing was going to funnerals. He is having struggles processing all of it. He thought if he came down here where people lost everything they had, maybe he could relate to them, and they could relate to him.

Today was a Monday. Didn't really get going till about 11a, had to go pick up stuff before we got to work. Set a shower base, and worked on leveling a concrete floor preparing it for tile. After we came back some of went down to the apartment complex to look around. We picked up a couple things down there. It is amazing what people left behind. It looks like some of them never even came back to get anything. We have found photos, like of graduations and things like that. You would think people would want those. Anyway, I want to thank everybody who is helping out for this trip. Either financially, through prayer, encouraging words, loking after Leighann and Erin, (especially keeping Leighann out of the bars, right, Joanne? LOL). God is just so awesome when you listen to what he is telling you, (and doing it), and just releying on him for your needs.

Well it is Sunday, a day off. Got up at 6A, did some housekeeping chores and shopping before going to church. Went to Pass Road Baptist church for service today. Definately not your typical Baptist church! Not even Southren Baptist. It was good, very upbeat music and a active pastor. Definately a salvation message that you expect from a baptist preacher. Afterwards they had a spaggetti dinner to raise funds for the youth band. After that I explored the lndscape some. Had a group from South Carolina come in tonight, about 8 - 10 people. Right now we are watching the nascar race, and I probably will hit the sack early. Yak at you all later.

Saturday morning, I am up at 4:20 preparing to serve kitchen duty at 5:30. I got to fry the sausage this morning, very exciting...not. Then I got to do the dishes for the next six hours...wow. Got done with that about 13:45, then went over to help Ray and Marge with the project they were working on with the group from Indiana University. We had a group of students from IU came in Friday morning, and they are leaving tomorrow morning. Any way the project is a 300 unit apartment complex that is going to be demolished, that we are salvaging what ever we can out of it... doors, windows, appliances, towel bars, vanities, cabinets, sinks, so on and so forth. Did a little shopping, came back and showered, now I am writing this. Tomorrow I plan on going to church then??????

Sorry I haven't posted the last couple of days, I have been busy. I am going to break down the last couple of days into more than one entry so it is not so long. Thursday I was up early, finished packing, went to Bible study and hit the road. Rather uneventful trip. Stopped about 9:30p at a rest area about 40 miles from Mississippi and slept for about 4 hours. Got back on the road and arrived at GKK about 5:30a. In the morning I got checked in, and got a job assignment for the day. I had the opportunity to do some painting with three guys from Amelia, Va. We had a good service that night, Ray talked about building the one cross. This is an incredible story. I will have to get a copy of it and share it with everybody. We then watched the Pass Road DVD.

Today has been a very long day. Up at 5, over to GCC by 6a for a mens breakfast. It was excellant, both the food and the message. I can see why Phil likes Mark Beeson so much, he is a very engaging speaker. He talked about leadership, I can use this at work and on the trip I am about to embark on. Went to the store to drop off my keys. Got home, had the opportunity to take Erin to school since there was a two hour delay because of the fog. Then Leigh and I headed up to the Sturgis Kmart, where they had collected $450 to help me out with my trip. I was overwhelmed by their generosity, and mere words cannot begin to express my thanks. We then headed down to see Dad. He was really alert, and actually "talked" to me. I really couldn't understand what he said, but I think he may have recognized me, because as we were leave he was walking his wheelchair up toward the exit. I think he thought I was going to take him home.
The nurse said they had decreased his zeprexia which is a good thing, because it really strings him out. While I was there I signed a change order so that they could give him a soft cookie instead of a pureed one (since he is on a pureed diet). Yuk, isn't that sacrilege to puree a cookie? Then we headed to Shipshe to grab dog food, and stopped at Leigh's mom's on the way home. Got some packing done then over to the church for an ash Wednesday service... really neat. Home, more packing, and baking cookies to take, and now this journal. Whew!! I probably won't write again untill Friday or sat, so see ya then!

Day 1

I am creating this so others can keep track of my activities while I spend six weeks in Gulfport, Ms doing huricane recovery work. I leave the day after tomorrow, and I am driving down.