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.