Available

It is coming...

No, The NOLA photo album is not up yet.  Hello to the 3rd world type environment where we were staying in relation to internet access. I couldn't get it at the church long enough to upload the pics.  And the last 2 nights couldn't get on at all.  So tomorrow after I get to North Carolina I Promise I will upload them. And I will blog about the other days in NOLA.  It was good.  The team is great and fun and such servants.  We laughed, we smashed fingers and toes, and covered our bodies and noses full of sheetrock mud dust.  Good times.  Oh and we ate (food is ALWAYS important in my book!)

I will be back with ya tomorrow (Monday).  Thanks for reading.  And more importantly, for praying!

pools of blood

I have been thinking a lot about our missions program at Cornerstone. Plans for next year. Ways to stretch my own understanding. I came upon this article at wrecked for the ordinary It's worth a read. I wonder as I read it- what would my reaction have been. I indeed want to be like Jesus. But it's messy. Part of me is all there, part of me says "no thanks." I am asking God to cause my heart to walk into the mess...

And I promise something fun will be posted soon... I don't mean to be so serious. Well, not ALL the time at least : )

NOLA

New Orleans Mission Trip
November 5 - 9
Annual trip to help with reconstruction in New Orleans. Leave church Wednesday evening for construction work in the Big Easy on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Participants will have dinner in the French Quarter on Friday evening and participate in a ministry for the homeless on Saturday evening. $75 per person covers transportation, meals and lodging. Additional costs would include snacks and souvenirs.
questions? Let me know

Want to go? sign up here:NOLA Nov Trip

another NOLA team member's thoughts

This is what Greg Powell wanted to share about his experience:

The mission trip to New Orleans was, personally, one of the most clear examples of God's will at work that I personally have been a part of.  "Fluid" was definitely the theme of the week.  No matter how much we could have planned, there was always the unexpected twist that God had just around the corner. 

We left Auburn thinking we were going to spend the week sheet rocking, but learned first thing Monday that we were going to help finish up a house to have it ready to be moved in by the weekend.  This actually was a much better project for our group since we all were able to do different tasks to get the house complete.  We were also able to work closely with and get to know the homeowner, Ms. Johnson, and her daughter, which made the work much more valuable.

But the experience that most opened my eyes to God's unexpected plan wasn't even part of the main reason we went down to New Orleans.  It was what we did on Sunday for our outreach activity.  We really had struggled to come up with a great idea before we left for the trip.  We had planned just to hand out ice cold cokes to the street performers, artists, and tarot card readers in Jackson Square.  But as Andi detailed in the Day 2 blog, God had bigger plans for us.  We would never have imagined we'd be working side-by-side with dozens of other Christians helping feed and give out supplies to about a hundred people in need.  Seeing these volunteers working unselfishly and energetically and talking to those who we were serving, I was rewarded more than I could have imagined.  I think after we had finished and loaded up in the van, we all sat there thinking about what happened that day to get us where we were, and how obvious it was that God was leading us in that direction from the beginning stages of the trip.

NOLA Trip Monday and Tuesday

Monday-

I will keep today a little brief- I have to figure out a place to upload all of this.  So I want to upload a lot of pictures and not a lot of words. 

Today indeed FLUID was the word of the day.  We went to our work station prepared to do sheetrock and such in one area.  Ended up we are in a totally different area (near where the November team went).  We worked on Ms. Johnson and her dtr Ishesia’s home.  She is ONE week from moving in!  She is so excited.  We laid down sticky tiles in her kitchen, did some trimwork, painted some furniture, sanded some other furniture, installed her dryer vent and struggled hanging some closet doors on her crooked closets.  We also got to buy her a microwave- one of the last things she needed to get.  (insert big surprised smile on Ms. Johnson’s face here…haha)

Tomorrow we will go back to Ms. Johnson’s and do some more work.  We will also be painting.  Fun thing about all this change of plans is… we are definitely more suited to the tasks at Ms. Johnson’s then we would have been at the other home.  Jodi and Jamie helped put down sticky tile at the home for Cornerstone in the Community in January.  We are really liking God’s plans.

I forgot to say in yesterday’s blogs- thank you SO MUCH for your prayers!  It is because of you that we have been having such a great time. 

Tuesday-

Okay- so major issues finding internet connection.  So I couldn’t upload until now.  I am sorry for those of you who keep looking for it!

Today was full of more random house stuff.  Ms. Johnson got to put up her first drapes in her dtr’s room!  So her dtr’s room is pretty much 100% ready to live in!  She just needs to move the rest of her clothes out of the FEMA trailer.  She is so excited. 

Wednesday is our last day.  Folks were already talking about how time has flown and they aren’t ready to go home yet.  We plan to get a bunch of things done to hopefully finish out the details so Ms. Johnson can move in this summer without too much else to do. 

I wanted to take a minute to share about the day we passed out cokes, goodie bags to the police personnel and the homeless folks.  I didn’t get a chance to look up the scripture on the card my prayer warrior gave me for Sunday.  When I got back to the room afterwards it was the first thing I looked up- “They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of you holy servant Jesus.”  Acts 4:28-30  Pretty fitting to the day and all of the team nodded as I read it to them last night during devotion time.   

I continue to see how God is planning things out for us even before we know it.  I have heard several times “I wonder what we would be doing at the other house right now.  Probably not enjoying it quite as much since I can’t do sheetrock…”  We are so thankful to the Lord for HIS PLANS for us!   Thank you again for your prayers!

NOLA Day 1

So today was full of eating.  The snacks from Erin S., the goodies several of us received from friends or prayer warriors, the amazing lunch David Jacobs sent with us (chicken salad, subs, brownies and fruit.  And not to forget the big bag of assorted chips and stuff!), not to mention the snacks acquired when we stopped a couple of times.  THEN came the dinner at ACME in the French Quarter followed off by beignets from Café Du Monde.  It has been a good day.

Yes, we WILL do some work!  I found out late Friday where we will be working so we will do a little breakfast, some devo time, then prayerwalk our construction community.  After that we will drive around to see some areas then decide how to tackle the servant evangelism portion of our day.  We have found a couple of places we would like to go.  The teenage boys are ready to head out to the homeless tent village under the interstate near the Superdome.  I told them that we would have to discuss that in the morning.  (and probably with the local police mobile station that is right there too…)  You have to love their willing hearts to just be nice to folks.

Here is a great story about today.  I went to pick up the van and discovered we had no CD player- which means shady random stations.  So we stopped at WalMart in Greenville to pick up an adapter for our MP3 and XM players (and eat our amazing lunch in the parking lot).  While we were in the store we realized we were waiting on Dalton who ended up behind an older lady in line.  We turned around to check on him and he was unloading her buggy onto the conveyor belt.  She didn’t ask him, he just offered.  He noticed she had some heavy stuff in there and wanted to help I guess.  You gotta love the servant hearts of our team.  And we were only in GREENVILLE,Alabama! (insert a smile here)

Good things are coming!  Thank you for reading and praying.  I will include pictures tomorrow!