back to reality...

it's crazy how different i feel since i have gotten back from mississippi. i feel as though i have matured so much, in my faith and in many other aspects of my life. i wasnt expecting to experience this much change from this trip. i am definitely not complaining tho. i have a much more positive outlook on life and im happier than i have been in quite a while. i kno that i am on a "spiritual high" right now, which many people experience after they've been on mission trips or spiritual retreats. people get on such a "high" from experiencing so much of God's love and strengthening their relationship with Him. they are in an environment where focusing on only God is possible...everything is about him...there are no distractions. but once they get back into the real world...after becoming so much stronger in their faith...they often get slapped in the face by the world. i have experienced this many times before and im hoping it wont be as bad this time.

i have gotten somewhat frustrated since ive gotten home because im still living in the world of lakeshore baptist church. my mind and heart are still there and im in a kind of limbo. i want to be back there and i feel as tho things are going on without me and it makes me sad and frustrated. plus, all i want to do is talk about my trip, but people dont really want to hear much about it. some people dont even ask :/ and whenever i try to talk about it, there's just too much to tell and i feel as though no one really understands where im coming from or what the experience was like for me. i mean, it was life-changing! and everyone at home doesnt understand that. i am so in love with christ right now that i just want to shout it from my window. i want people to feel the same way i feel. i want to share this feeling with them. but it's not that easy. its hard to evoke a feeling in someone by just telling them about something u experienced...they must experience it too or they cant fully understand or get the same feeling as u have. it's definitely frustrating, but all i can do is try and share my experiences with those willing to listen...

saying goodbye :(

today, the two teams worked offsite. half of the georgia team went to build a house with habitat for humanity (the youth who were 15 or older), while the rest of their team, along with the alabama team, scattered throughout the community to hand out VBS flyers. the alabama team was very enthused about this because they did some evangelist work last year when they came and the kids loved it. last year, they had gone door-to-door giving out bibles and sharing the word of christ. this year, they would be going door-to-door encouraging families to bring their children to vacation bible school in mid-july, as well as, sharing christ with them.

when the alabama group came back this afternoon, they were so excited about what they had done today and the people they had met. the youth minister came and told jamie and i about one house they went to. the team felt called to help this woman and her family out. i dont remember all the details, but the woman is elderly and several of her grandchildren live with her. one of her sons had died, another had been charged with assault, and the last was living with her, but was abusive towards the kids. the mother of the children wanted nothing to do with them. the story was a sad one and the living conditions were not pleasant. the team wanted to help this lady out as much as they could. they needed food and some things done around the house. the team gave her some food and they did some things around the property for her. they also prayed over her and her family and talked to her about the lord. they are hoping to have made a great impact on the lives of the people living in this home. the youth minister even spoke with the man who verbally/physically abused the children. the youth minister was very passionate about the evangelism work they had done and they had really made strong connections with everyone they met today. the Lord did work through them today. i was very moved by what they had accomplished :)

this morning, i was asked if i could make a walmart run for some goods to restock the mercy house with...i happily agreed. the distribution center was running low on food items to give out to people because of the large amount of people coming in and needing food. i was given a list and instructions on quantities and prices of items. my list included: 25 boxes of rice-a-roni, 25 boxes of hamburger helper, 25 cans of tomato sauce, 25 cans of diced tomatoes and 50 bags of dried beans. all of these items needed to cost less than one dollar each. so i was on a mission. i wandered up and down the aisles of walmart finding the cheapest food items and loading up my buggy. it was an interesting experience. i felt like i was on the show, extreme couponing, minus the coupons. lol. i mean, i had large quantities of random food in my buggy. people were staring at me and asking me who i was cooking all this food for. it was funny! it took a while to check out, load up my car, and then unload back at the food center. i was very proud of myself though because i had found everything cheaper than it was expected to be. and i did it all by myself! haha. it was a good time :)

this afternoon, jamie and i helped do a little bit of clean up on pastor don's house. it's coming along great! it will be done before we know it! :)

today was wednesday so we had church service tonight, which was awesome as usual. pastor don spoke on john 6, which tells the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. he dissected the story and helped us realize that sometimes we follow God (or the church) for the wrong reasons...just like the 5,000 people followed Jesus just so they could be fed again. even though we may have bad motives, Jesus loves us anyway (Jesus fed the people anyway!). God knows our hearts and what lies within them...he knows when we have ulterior motives. we cant hide anything from him.

i just love hearing pastor don speak. he says the funniest things! he had the whole church cracking up tonight :) i will definitely miss him and his loving heart and willingness to serve. he is such a genuinely happy person...he brushes off the bad stuff like it's nothing. he is always looking at the positive side of things and laughing when something goes wrong. i look up to him for that.

daniela had invited pastor don, jamie, and myself over for dinner at her and her husband's (greg) apartment. she wanted to cook dinner for us. it was very generous and the food was delicious :)

i havent mentioned it yet, but today was my last day at lakeshore baptist. i have grown so attached to this place and i will miss it dearly. it has been one of my best summer experiences and i will never forget the people i have met, the things i have done, and the memories i have made. it really hasnt hit me yet that i will leaving bright and early in the morning. tonight was a great end to a wonderful couple weeks here. it had already begun to feel like home to me.

i have just said all of my goodbyes because i will be gone before anyone wakes up in the morning. my last goodbye was to jamie whom i have spent the most time with while i have been here. we have become quite close and i will miss her very much. she is such a loving and beautiful person. i wish her all the best as she continues to live and serve here. she deserves nothing but the best and whatever God has planned for her future will be amazing. i know he will continue to bless her.

i am planning to come back here before the summer is over...hopefully more than just once. i can come for a week or just for a couple days. after all, it's only a plane ride away :) plus, ive already promised everyone i would. and i know God has more planned for me here. my time here is not finished yet. this place has my heart :)

god loves you!

yesterday was a pretty busy day...one team went back to the house from monday to finish up work there. the rest of us stayed back with the other team. since there were so many people, we split the team up into two groups. one group was sent with jamie over to pastor don's house to do some work over there, while the rest were assigned to me, to do some odd jobs around the church. i had a long list of small tasks that needed to be done and i had plenty of workers so it looked as though we would get everything done pretty quickly. i went down the list handing out jobs and instructions to each person. most of the older youth got right to work and constantly asked me for more things to do. the guys did a lot of weed eating and the girls did a lot of pulling weeds in the garden. they worked really hard for the first hour or so.

there was a lot of material scattered around the property that needed relocating, which is what i focused on doing. i had a few helpers that tagged along with me to help with that. these kids ended up being of no use to me at all. i got really frustrated with them because they basically just talked to each other and watched me do all the work. i didnt mind doing the work, it was the fact that none of them bothered to help. i mean thats why they came right? to do work, right? or maybe it was just to have fun with each other. im a pretty patient person on the outside, but on the inside my patience was definitely being tested. to make things worse, a lot of the other kids from my group started disappearing...i guess when they finished their jobs they were going to the kitchen to eat and play cards. they were too hot to help or too tired. many of the kids that were given jobs wouldnt do them, but then say they did. at one point i asked one boy specifically to help me do a small, easy job and he flat out said no. i was shocked! it was a trying day for me, jamie, and for pastor don because they were experiencing the same issues with this group. some groups are just harder to work with than others and we just have to deal with it the best we can. we have to be patient with them, just like God is patient with us when we sin or neglect him.

last night, i spent most of the night in my room because there was a storm outside...plus i was still pretty frustrated and needed some alone time. i had bought the movie passion of the christ while i was down here because i saw it in the 5$ bin in walmart. lol. i had been wanting to watch it for a long time now but had never gotten the chance. i had gone on a search for it several times before but never found it. i guess the timing wasnt right...until now. i knew it would be an emotional movie for me to watch and last night ended up being the perfect time because of the work ive been doing here and because it was the last bit of free time i would have before i left for home. the movie moved me even more than i thought it would. i wept most of the movie and it definitely brought me a lot closer to God and gave me a better and more real understanding of the horror and pain jesus endured to rescue me from my sins. he went thru all that brutality just so i could be saved and spend eternity with Him in heaven. it was truly an eye opener for me...one that i desperately needed. anytime i am feeling distant from God or frustrated with my life or with this world, i know i can turn to this movie. i read the gospel's accounts of the crucifixion before i watched the movie, and though they were moving, they couldnt exactly evoke the same feelings as the movie did. the crucifixion was just so realistic in the movie. i am brought to tears just thinking about some of the scenes from the movie.

for those of you who have never seen the movie and for those of you who have seen it but have forgotten the impact it made on you or who are in need of a reminder...i encourage you and challenge you to watch it. and dont just think about watching it...do it! and if u dont have the movie...well guess wat? i do! so ask me for it. i will gladly let you borrow it. or go to the 5$ bin at walmart lol. maybe u will find it too. i want everyone to feel the sadness and gratitude that i felt. i want you to cry like a baby just like i did. i want you to feel the love of God bursting in your heart just like i did. whenever u are feeling lost and confused...broken or forsaken...or as if God doesnt care about you...well think again! he cares more for you than anyone ever has. he allowed his own son to die just for you! he had to watch from above, as his own creation tortured and crucified his only son. and he did it all for you. that is how much God loves you!

it's a small world...after all.

last night, the first team arrived...they consisted of about 20 youth (younger high schoolers) and they were from southern alabama. today, i spent the day with the alabama group at a couple's house who had lost their home to katrina. this couple had built a beautiful new home for themselves, but they had used chinese drywall inside the house. this type of drywall is made with sulfur, which is emitted into the air. over a period of time, the drywall can cause health problems as well as problems to home appliances, etc inside the house. it is not safe to live in, so these people were forced to have it removed...so we spent the day tearing apart the inside of a home that had just been completed after being destroyed in the storm. it is such a sad story and the man came to tears as he explained the situation they were in. it was heartbreaking. he had lost a home, then he had spent time and money into a new home, only to have to tear it apart again. the hits just keep coming for him and his wife. im just glad we were able to help the couple in some small way. the team completely removed all the drywall from the house and also helped with some odd jobs around the house.

the house is a beautiful, 22-sided polygon (basically a circle)...it had a complete wrap-around porch and sat on very high stilts. the house overlooked a beautiful golf course and was located in a richer part of town. the couple obviously had money, but they were still hurting and had experienced loss...they still needed help and we gladly gave it to them.

the couple's neighbors were helping them out tremendously by allowing them to stay with them. the neighbors also allowed us to use their restrooms while we worked and then they graciously invited us over for lunch. it was so kind of them! they went out and bought food for over 20 people, not to mention they invited us back over for lunch the next day too.

later in the day, it stormed a bit, which was a blessing to a lot of people around here because they've been experiencing a bad drought for a while now. it hasnt rained barely at all in the past couple of months...any fire that starts is extremely difficult to stop so a burn ban has been put into effect also.

another team was coming in tonight, but i hadnt learned of where they were from yet. i overheard jamie telling someone they were from georgia, which caught my attention. i immediately asked where in georgia and she replied, locust grove...which is the town right next to mine! i was so surprised and excited. then, i wondered if it was first baptist church of locust grove, which is where one of my good friends goes to church. ive actually been to lock-ins and such at her church during high school and i kno several other people who attend that church. well, jamie confirmed that it was in fact, her church. it was so bizarre! i mean what are the odds of that happening...for real! like, one in a million. plus, her sister is down here too with the group and who knows who else i might see that i kno. there are 40 plus people in this group...im bound to kno or recognize at least someone...guess we'll find out in the morning.

don't forget what you once were.

sooo...the duet went great this morning in church. i was a little nervous, which caused me not do as well as i could have...but oh well. everyone said they enjoyed it :) after church, jamie and i went and got thai food for the last time :/ sad day for real. when i get home, i will definitely be scoping out a good thai place. it has become an addiction! haha.

new groups arrive tonight and tomorrow...looking forward to meeting them :) im pretty sure they are mostly youth, but guess i'll find out tomorrow. i will be working with one of the groups tomorrow tearing down chinese drywall in a woman's house...should be interesting. havent checked the weather for tmrw, but im hoping it wont be like it was today...the heat index was already 106 degrees at 8 am this morning...serious struggle.

***

lesson learned in church today: be submissive to all human authority.

"for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, 

slaves to various passions and pleasures, 

passing our days in malice and envy, 

hated by others and hating one another."

-titus 3:3

we, as christians, know that politicians are corrupt and unjust, but God tells us we must submit to them anyway. the past couple weeks we have been dissecting titus, chapter three, which deals with submitting to human authority. today we focused on titus 3, verse 3. here, paul reminds us that human authority may be corrupt and full of sin, but we must remember that before we allowed Jesus into our hearts to wash our sins away, we were just as corrupt as they are. we must be empathetic and resist quarreling and fighting against them, for this will accomplish nothing...rather it will make things worse. how else are we supposed to show the love of christ to those who need it if we are not kind and gentle towards them? is that not what someone did for us so that we could learn of Jesus' love?

we must remember that we were born sinners, just like everyone else. God took mercy on us, and we must take mercy on them. pastor don made a good point that we are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners. it is in our nature to sin...ever since Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. it is by the grace and mercy from god that we are saved from our sin. so paul reminds us in this passage: don't forget what you once were.

DADDY

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO THE BEST DADDY IN THE WORLD!!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! WISH I COULD SPEND THE DAY WITH YOU :( CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN 4 DAYS! :))

n'awlins =D

today, jamie and i decided to spend the day in new orleans, which is only about 45 minutes from the church. this was my third trip down there, but my first time going since i've been down here for the summer. we got there in the morning because we knew it was going to be a hot afternoon. we started out in the french market, which i had never been before. this was a cool experience :) there were vendors everywhere selling jewelry, clothing, accessories, toys, and food. it was packed with people! i loved looking at all the neat things they had. after, we walked around the french quarter a little and then went to lunch.

woman vs. food :p

jamie took me to a place called mother's, which is a pretty popular restaurant in new orleans. the restaurant was actually featured on the show man vs. food! i ordered the ferdi special there, which was the sandwich featured on the show. i was excited to try it since it was so famous. the sandwich was massive and loaded with all kinds of meat...baked ham, roast beef, and debris (the shavings from a roast beef). we both ordered the ferdi po' boy and we killed our sandwiches. they were amazing! no wonder it was featured on television! we were so full afterwards :)

we walked around some more doing some window shopping and sightseeing. i had a praline for the first time...they are really popular here. (jamie and i actually went in a few of the candy stores just so we could eat the samples they had out...haha). they were so good! we also walked down bourbon street and i was surprised at how early people got started drinking. we saw many people at the bars at 10 am! but i guess that's how they do it in NOLA.


by the afternoon, the heat had gotten pretty intense so we finished up at cafe du monde to indulge in their famous beignets. as usual, they were to die for! we were stuffed and satisfied leaving the city...it was a very successful trip :)

oh! side note: i will be singing a duet tomorrow in church with daniela...and jamie will be playing the guitar and doing back-up vocals. we're singing 'our god' by chris tomlin. soo excited! wish us luck! :)

kabobs!

well this morning i woke up feeling horrible. sleeping and showering were a serious struggle because i was so sore and bruised from last night. when i looked in the mirror, i was grossed out to find that my left eye was puffy and swollen…a purple outline was starting to appear around my eye. it kinda looks like i have eye shadow on one of my eyelids. very attractive i kno… :p at least now i can say ive gotten a black eye once in my life. haha.

today for lunch, jamie fixed shish kabobs for myself, daniela, and pastor don. they were incredible! and looked even better :) we had chicken and shrimp kabobs and ate every bit of them. be jealous!

plus, tomorrow jamie and i are taking a trip to new orleans for the day! wooo! she’s gonna take me to all the good spots around the city. pics and stories soon to come!

a bad collision

the illinois group is great :) ive bonded with them more than any other team so far. i hung out with a couple of them last night and then with the entire group tonight.

it was funny because last night, the pastor of the group planned on cooking jambalaya for his team. however, he didnt have a recipe and he had never made it before. so, he bought a whole bunch of random ingredients that he thought would taste good in it and cooked it for dinner. well, jamie and pastor don heard what he was putting in the jambalaya and needless to say, we all went out for taco bell after church instead of eating with them. later that night, i was hanging out with the illinois team and i tried the jambalaya and lets just say... it was a bit of a struggle...lol. plus it was sooo spicy (even for me!) and i love spicy foods. the funniest part was that they had diluted the spicyness of the food so much already from after they first cooked it, that their pastor said it tasted mild compared to earlier. i couldnt even imagine! anyway, ive never had jambalaya before, but im hoping my next experience will be better than this one.

also, found out that i look about 14 or15 years old...this is the second time people have thought that since ive been here. usually people think im about 16, but apparently i look even younger than that...interesting. lol.

tonight, jamie and i went out to dempsey's yet again because i wanted to eat a whole meal of crawfish since it was so good (and cheap!) the first time around. so i ate 3 pounds of that and got pretty good at shelling them too. they have just the right amount of kick to them...my arms were dripping with juices from the seafood and my nose was running from the spicyness of them. "thats when you know its good crawfish...when your nose starts to run", jamie said.

when we got back, the guys on the illinois team begged me to come and play "kick the can" with them outside. i reluctantly agreed. now, im not even going to try to describe the game because i didnt even understand how to play during it. lol. but at one point people kick a can. well, i was given the go ahead to run and kick the can, when the "it" person wasnt looking. so i ran as fast as i could towards the can, but the "it" guy was running towards it too...so of course we collided because neither of us were going to back down. i assumed he would, since i was a girl and he wouldnt want to hit me. well, i was wrong. so my head hit his head...things went flying...dirt covered me from head to toe...lost my glasses...almost passed out from getting the wind knocked out of me...and got some bruises. the only thing i really cared about was making sure my glasses hadnt broken (which they hadnt).

anyway, so the crash was extremely painful...i now have a welt on my face (hopefully i wont have a colorful bruise tomorrow...) and my knee wont bend without experiencing excruciating pain. i thought it was pretty funny but everyone was really concerned, which was nice.

i quit after that and hung out with the adults for a while and then with rest of the group. it was nice to be so included by them. the kids were a little immature, but i didnt mind hanging out with them. the funny thing was that i enjoyed talking with the adults more than i did with the kids who were 4 years younger than me. ive always gotten along better with older people anyway.

their group was a lot of fun and i will definitely miss hanging out with them. they leave at 6 am so i wont see them before they leave in the morning :( but we will have no workers tomorrow, which means a relaxing day (and weekend!) ahead of me. def looking forward to that :)

oh, and the kitten is doing well...named him sebastian. he's a handful and constantly meows ALL. THE. TIME. struggle. so he's been drinking out of a bottle for the past week, but he's finally starting to drink from a bowl so thats good. all we have for him to eat is specially formulated milk and tuna...lol.

rejoice in our sufferings?

the past couple days have been spent working on the man's house whom i spoke about in my last entry. the illinois team, who have been working on the house, have finished painting the exterior of the house (which is what i've been helping with) and hanging the dry wall in his house. the man now has at least a much more comfortable and prettier place to live.

last night, we had wednesday night service...pastor don spoke on romans, chapter five. the passage he focused on really spoke to me. it said:

"we rejoice in our sufferings, 

knowing that suffering produces endurance, 

and endurance produces character, 

and character produces hope, 

and hope does not put us to shame" 

-romans 5:3-5

often times, when we go through times of suffering, our faith is tested. some people lean on God entirely when they suffer hardship, but many Christians turn from God and blame him for the devastation in their life...they get angry and confused with him. their faith may become unstable or they lose it completely. they avoid his refuge and comfort in these difficult times. instead of giving him their burdens and struggles, they carry it all on their own and dont allow the Lord to help them. they are so angry and hurt at God that they dont realize that if they just turn to him instead of turning away from him then everything will be so much easier for them. they will be able to heal faster and eventually come out stronger, which is what this passage is saying.

if we push through our sufferings and not give up on our faith, then it will make us stronger and strengthen our character. from enduring our hardships and staying faithful to God, our faith will be even more stronger than before the storm. we will find hope in this and the next time we go through a tough time, we know that we will survive it because with God on our side, anything is possible :)

i've known people who have turned away from God in their times of pain and hurt, but i've also known people who have turned to God and who could not have survived without his help. the first way to go will make healing harder and take longer...the second way will make healing go faster and make your faith stronger.

so, obviously we wont be joyful during our sufferings, but after the fact, we should realize that their was a reason for the pain we endured. the reason was to improve our character and strengthen our faith. we must find joy in that :)

not just a number

two teams arrived yesterday morning, one is staying off-site and the other on-site. the off-site group is mostly doing work on pastor don’s house and we don’t see them very much. the on-site group consists of older high school kids. they are a really awesome group of kids who are very willing to do hard work. the pastor of the church is the most friendliest man. he clearly has a passion for serving others, but he primarily cares about building relationships with people, which is most important when serving the kingdom of God. his team is from illinois…they drove here in two days and right when they got here, they got right to work. they even spent the evening making sure they finished a job that they could have easily finished the next day. they are very determined and you can definitely tell that they came here to work. the youth are so kind and friendly too, which makes things so much easier for us. not only do we not have to babysit them as they work, but they are happy workers. this week is going to be a breeze :)

this week the illinois group is working on a house that we started rehabbing last week. the owner of this house lives like a lot of people live around here. he has a house, or a roof over his head, but he has no electricity or running water. a lot of the work that the church has been doing lately involves people like this man, who may be living in a tent, a trailer, or a house with no electricity or water access. these people have been living like this for years…since Katrina hit! this man in particular only has his exterior walls up, with no insulation, dry wall, plumbing, air conditioning, proper flooring, electricity, etc. he just has enough shelter to keep him alive. not to mention, one of his arms is crippled, which is why he hasn’t been able to fix up his house. so far we've done his flooring, added insulation, hung dry wall, and now we're painting the exterior of the house. we still have a lot to do tho.

jamie took me around town to show me a lot of the houses that lakeshore baptist has built or rehabbed. there were so many houses! the church has currently built 39 houses from the ground up and rehabbed over 100 houses. the cool thing was that jamie knew of every single house that had been worked on, whose it was, and their story. when Katrina hit, FEMA gave each person who had been affected a number…it was so impersonal. jamie told me that the church made a strong point of not making any person a number. this is why the church makes sure to get to know each person on a personal level and build a relationship with them.

it’s horrible to hear about (and see!) the living conditions of so many people down here. especially driving around and seeing how many people live in trailers or sheds. it’s hard to believe that people can survive like that for so many years. some of them are living in water damaged houses that are ruined…some are living in a shed with multiple children…some are living in tents on their old property (or on strangers property’s!). Katrina is still affecting so many people down here and most of America does not even realize it.

the man that the team is helping this week is so grateful of our help. he has been helping with everything that we have been doing. there are a lot of people that the church helps out who just sit there and watch the whole time. they don’t help out at all! but this man is crippled and he is doing anything he can to help fix up his house. its people like him that make volunteering so worthwhile :)

crawfish!

finally, after a busy, stressful week of hard work, i was able to relax and get some laziness in. it was very nice :)

last night was taco night...one of the teams made tacos for dinner with all the fixins. it was delish! we had church this morning and then after we went out to dempseys again for lunch. one thing i had wanted to try while i was down here was crawfish. this part of the u.s. is known for their crawfish, so i had to get me some.

i was surprised at how cheap the crawfish is here. it was only 2.75$ for a pound of crawfish! i only ordered a pound because i just wanted to try them. everyone else ordered a pound also...the waittress brought us out a large platter filled with crawfish. they smelled incredible! jamie had to demonstrate to me how to eat the little creatures because i didnt kno where to start. i had heard from several people that it was common to suck out the brains of the crawfish before eating the meat. this sounds disgusting to most people who've never tried it but thats how they do it down here. im willing to try most anything so i tried it. it was actually pretty delicious...its basically just drinking the juice that the crawfish is cooked in. the actual crawfish was also delicious and i quickly got the hang of peeling it. i really enjoyed the strong flavor in the crawfish, especially the kick it had to it. i wished i had ordered more of it because i loved it. i also got another shrimp po-boy and some gumbo. i got a great taste of the culture in this meal :)

the rest of the day was pretty relaxed...we will have two teams here next week and they are both arriving tomorrow morning. one of the teams wont be staying on the property tho, so there wont be that many people here, which will make things a lot less stressful. im definitely looking forward to that :)

oh wallyworld :)

yesterday was one of our hottest days of work...my group of teenagers were miserable in the heat and most of them only lasted for about an hour of good work before they all became so pitiful that we had to find a new job for them. i mean we cant force volunteers to work and some people just arent used to this type of labor or this kind of heat (these people are from indiana). about mid morning we decided to relocate the remaining workers to another job site to do a small job before lunch. the group looked so pitiful and exhausted that we knew they would call it a day after lunch.

i was pretty tired too...i woke up with a stomachache and i was a little dehydrated so i wasnt too motivated either. the rest of the day was a little more relaxed. plus, jamie and i went back to the thai restaurant for dinner :) this time i ordered the massaman curry, which i was told i had to try...i was a little skeptical because i had loved the first dish i tried there and i didnt want my next dish to not be as good. amazingly, my food was even better the second time around! i was a little skeptical bc it had coconut milk in the broth (i hate coconut!) but it made for a very unique taste and after the third bite i was sold.

usually saturday is a day-off for most people after a long week of hard work, well this week for us, saturday was just another work day. we had less people today since 2 of the groups left this morning, so it wasnt as hectic of a day. today, my group was split up by gender...i had the guys so we did the hard work. we finished clearing out the area we had moved all the materials from on thursday. the lot looked really awesome once we were done :) then we had to transfer some materials from the church property to behind the mercy house which is across the street. the materials were located on a trailer that hadnt been moved or used in about 5 years. the men didnt want to move all the materials off the trailer, into a van, across the street, and then back out of the van...so they spent about 4 hours trying to hook the rusted trailer, covered in grass up to the van so they could just cart it over to where it needed to go. sounded good in theory...but it def didnt work. they struggled but they never gave up on their idea. after giving it a second try after lunch, they finally gave up for the day. the funny thing is that in that 4 hours the materials could have been carried piece by piece across the street by one person...but oh well.

this afternoon, jamie, daniela, and i took a trip to walmart...it was the funniest trip because i was in one of my super hyper moods. we had a great time laughing and being dumb. im pretty sure all of walmart judged us. i did try a few new things while i was there, basically got high off of sniffing candles for 20 minutes, squirted sunscreen into my nose when trying to smell it, looked at dog costumes (couldnt decide between what looked like superdog and slutty kitty...bahaha), attempted to ride around on a 3-wheel bike, checked out in spanish at the self-checkout, and learned a new word: 'foot-fop'. oh the memories you make at wally world :)

it's been a long week, but now im ready to relax tonight and tomorrow. im going to try and remember what it was like to be lazy...

celebrate the memories

two of the church teams left early this morning...it was before i even made it to breakfast. today hasnt been the same without all those crazy, funny old men. i will definitely miss them...you dont realize how attached you get to some of these people until they arent around anymore :(

one man that i will def miss was mr. cy. every time he saw me he would shout my name, but almost like he was singing it. he put a smile on my face every time i saw him. plus, he was a bit of a flirt and constantly asked me about boys and how he wanted to set me up with all these different guys he knew. once, he even made me make a list of all the things i looked for in a man. mostly, i just enjoyed hearing him give me dating tips and how to make a relationship last. he talked about his wife of 50 years and how lucky he was that she put up with him for all that time. he often said: "oh boy, when my wife finds out about this...she's gonna kill me" haha.

all the men in those teams were so great...they constantly joked around with me in a good-natured way and they worked so hard at their jobs. they made me miss my home church a lot and how things used to be before i went off to college. growing up, i always got along better with the older people at my church, than with the younger ones. there were about 5 or 6 couples with whom i was pretty close with. these people were like family to me...i was so involved in my church and i spent so much time there and with these people. the church was basically my whole life growing up...it meant/means the world to me. now, new people have come to our church and old ones have left...and things will never be the same as they were back then. some of the couples have separated, some have left the church, and some are still there but i rarely ever get to see them anymore.

it's so sad to think about how fast time flies and before you know it the people, events, and laughs you shared, are all things of the distant past...never to be seen again. all you have left is that memory of the time you spent with them. you will never get that time back.

so enjoy every minute of every day. dont forget to stop and thank God for what you have been given...some of us are so blessed, yet we fail to realize it til too much time has passed. once a stage in your life has passed, you will never get it back. so savor the good times, endure the bad, and celebrate the memories =]

catching up :)

the past few days have been pretty busy around here. i havent talked much about what ive done this week...so i'll try to catch up on that. until today, i had been doing small jobs here and there...but no big projects. i really wanted a big project because it was hard trying to find things to do since there are so many people here. you kno you have a lot of volunteers when people start asking for things to do because all the jobs are taken. this can be frustrating, but it is definitely a good thing. that means we are getting a lot done!

so this week we've had around 4 or 5 different groups arriving at all different times. most of the people are elderly or middle-aged. there are two groups from alabama, one from mississippi, and one from indiana. one group came with two different churches and they are all retired men and women. some of the groups contained electricians, plumbers, and other people skilled in construction work. at the beginning of each week, pastor don and jamie make a list of tasks for the group to do for the entire week. the teams this week finished their weekly tasks in just a few days. one group even finished their list the first day! it was awesome!

some of the big projects of the week included starting the foundation for the fellowship hall for the church, the electric work and tiling in the pastor's house, the shutters for the office, putting the finishing touches on the mercy house, building a ramp at an elderly woman's, and moving the materials behind the mercy house. not to mention all the other little jobs being done in between.

last night, another group arrived and they were also from indiana. this was a youth group...so we finally had some younger kids around...they ranged from grades 7th to12th. and i was chosen to work with the group for the next couple of days, which i was excited about. this morning, i met with the group and we started the grueling task of moving materials from one location to another. the materials included things like bricks, sheets of plywood, sheetrock, air-conditioning units, wooden blocks, and much more. today was a very hot day and it was the first day i got really nasty. by lunchtime i was covered in dirt from head to foot and i smelled horrible! lol. but i was content with the work i had done...it was the hardest i'd been able to work all week!

not to mention, the kids were great :) the young girls were neat to work with because they loved to talk and joke around. they bickered with each other about dumb things and they gossiped like normal teenage girls. it was interesting to watch because i had forgotten how girls acted at this age. they made me feel old, which ive never experienced before! they were so sweet tho. the boys were the most helpful when it came to the hard work, which is understandable. they never complained, which was nice. most of my group scattered after lunch because they wanted to go to the beach...but they got a lot of hard work done that morning...plus, i was real tired too. also, i fell at one point today and landed on the palm of my hand so it is swollen and bruised real bad...serious struggle :/

also, big news for the day...i found another kitten. it was younger than the first one i found...just a baby...only about 5 or 6 weeks old. ive claimed it for now, but we'll see what happens to it by the end of my time here. a couple hours after finding my kitty...the rest of the litter was found and claimed real quickly by some ladies from the community. they were the cutest little things. all of them were different colors, but they all had the same big blue eyes. they were precious! :)

a lot of the groups are leaving tomorrow, which is sad because ive made friends with a lot of the older people. they are all so kind and loving. i will definitely miss them. since tonight was the last night for most of them, the kitchen crew had a fish fry. we had fried fish, fried chicken, hush puppies, and jalapeno poppers. it was great :) i had a lot of great laughs with daniela, jamie, and pastor don...then we all went over to his house and looked all the work that had been done this week. it was coming along so fast!

tomorrow is the last day of the week and ive been assigned to work with the youth group again. it should be another good, hard day. looking forward to it!

rebuilding lakeshore

so let me kinda give u a rundown on lakeshore baptist church and the devastation they faced after katrina and the role they played in rebuilding themselves and, more importantly, the community. lakeshore baptist was a little church before the storm, with several dozen members. they had a little sanctuary and fellowship hall located on a small piece of land. the hurricane devastated the entire town and left it in shambles. pastor don elbourne of lakeshore baptist lost his home in the hurricane and he said it took months before he heard from every church member to see if they had survived the storm. when people were finally able to go back into the town after the storm, almost every house was destroyed. the church was just a pile of debris...all that remained intact was the steeple and the pulpit, which are still used today. the pastor and his family, along with the others who gradually returned, slowly began the long journey of rebuilding.

everyone from the church lost their house in the storm and most of the community did as well. pastor don has already told me countless stories of those who had survived the storm, those who had lost everything, and those who had their houses rebuilt or repaired. at the church, the water level had reached a total of 30 feet. so if houses weren’t destroyed from the actual storm, then they were destroyed due to water damage. 

soon after the hurricane, the pastor was already getting tons of phone calls from people wanting to know how they could help. people wanted to come down and do whatever they possibly could. pastor don told them they would love to have them, but they had to bring their own food and housing because there was absolutely no place for anyone to stay, and certainly no food. so people came bringing their campers, tents, and anything else you could imagine. they made fires on the property to cook food for themselves and for other volunteers. eighteen-wheel trucks were arriving daily filled with clothes and food donated from across the U.S. however, there was no place to put them, so they were dumped on the ground in the church property. soon, quonset huts and shipping containers were sent to hold donations and to house volunteers. over time, more things were put up that would last longer.

after a year or so, money was offered to build a new church building, but the pastor felt this wouldn’t be right…he felt that putting money towards a new church building while there were so many people out there without homes, wasn’t fair. it didn’t sit well with his heart…so instead, he put the money towards helping others rebuild their lives. as for the church, an aluminum quonset hut was put up to hold the church services. the property expanded to include more land and over the years, an office building was built, a kitchen, a bunk house to house more volunteers, and the mercy house (also known as the distribution center). 

currently, volunteers are helping to build pastor don’s house. after building 39 houses from the ground up for those devastated by katrina, the pastor is finally allowing his own home to be rebuilt. however, he is paying for all the materials out of his own pocket. he is allowing volunteers to do the construction tho. the man is so selfless that he has put the needs of everyone else above his own for the past six years, so this house is way overdue.

today, if you were to visit the property, you may think it looks pretty rough, but compared to how it was six years ago, so much has improved. many people who have been coming for years are amazed about how much has changed and how much better it looks. volunteers continue to come as abundant and as regularly as they did six years ago. the help has yet to die down. and as long as they keep coming, the church will keep having them. so far, there has been almost 600 different churches come to lakeshore since katrina.

the church does not require volunteers to pay to stay on the property and work, but they do ask for donations. for each volunteer it costs about 10 dollars a day for them to eat, wash, and sleep, so if people want to pay then that’s how much the church asks. from what i have seen, every single group pays about this rate for each of their group members. also, the few groups that i have seen will go out and buy materials for projects out of their own pockets. everyone is so generous.

still today, people are living in rough conditions from the storm. there are still lots filled with debris or just sitting there empty. many lots have just trailers on them with their yards covered with their junk that was found after the storm. much is still left to do and as long as that’s the case then lakeshore baptist will be here willing to help :)

day one...for real!

today felt like my actual first day here...FINALLY! haha. just kidding...today was the first day i was actually able to do some work :) so i was pretty happy about that...i mean that's the whole reason i came right?

so anyway, basically i spent the whole day painting...which i thoroughly enjoyed :) i teamed up with a couple ladies from alabama and we spent the morning and the afternoon touching up the exterior paint on the mercy house across the street from the church (this building was built and is owned by the church). this house is a distribution center for those in the community who need clothes, food, etc. it was built because a place was needed for the large amount of items that were donated for katrina relief (donations are still being received today!)

this morning, the heat was intense! ...so we were sweating like crazy...the high was around 100 degrees and the heat index was even higher! it was still a good time tho...plus the food was great...we had some older women from one of the church groups cooking for us...they even brought us snacks every couple of hours. they were precious! :)

needless to say, the day was great. we even finished working by 4, which may seem early, but considering the fact that i woke up at 5:30 am...i was exhausted!

until tomorrow... :)

a lazy sunday

today, was another relaxing day. we had church in the morning, which was good (minus the screaming kid right behind me). haha. i met some of the members of the church, who were all very friendly. the church is so warm and welcoming to all the newcomers. i suppose it's because they are used to having volunteers from all over the country come to their church on sundays.

after church, jamie took me out for lunch to a local favorite called dempsey's, which served mostly seafood (my fav!). i had been craving a shrimp po boy since i had gotten here, because i had my first one when i came to new orleans over spring break. so i ordered a po boy, half with oyster and half with shrimp. it was absolutely delicious :)

for the afternoon, i rode my bike to the beach and went for a run along the water. it was great...and so peaceful. i spent some alone time with God on the pier down at the ocean. i found a great little hidden spot below the pier where the waves met the concrete. i will definitely be going back there :)

this evening, two different groups of volunteers came slowly trickling in. they consisted of mostly older people and some families. i have only met a few of them so far, but they seem great :)

the most eventful part of the evening was finding a stray kitten :) it was adorable and starving so gave it some food. then, i proceeded to spend the rest of the night petting it and playing with it. i just LOVE kittens :) we're hoping to keep it at the church for good.

tomorrow is going to be a pretty hectic and busy day from what i've heard. im pretty excited about that since my time here so far has been pretty slow. we're finally starting work, now that there are a lot of volunteers here...so im hoping to get a lot done :) another group arrives tomorrow and then one on wednesday. there's supposed to be about a hundred volunteers here by the end of the week. its gonna be gggrreat!

just a normal saturday :)

today i got to sleep in a little bit since it was saturday. the morning’s plan was to make a trip to lowe’s to get supplies for monday. so me and jamie made a trip to lowe’s and because of the large amount of materials we were purchasing, we had to take two vans…so i got to drive a big old van for the first time. i didn’t do too bad either…it was a piece of cake ;)

so we spent the next two hours shopping around lowe’s. i had no idea what anything was, but jamie had it all under control. thank goodness! lol. i didn’t realize how much went into building a house. it takes a lot of work and a whole lot of materials. i was clueless to everything. i was definitely out of my element there. we ended up filling up five carts full of materials to buy, which we then loaded up into our vans to take back to the church.

that afternoon i had some free time and since it was super hot outside (my favorite weather!), i decided i needed to take a trip down to the beach to work on my tan :) so i drove down to the beach and set up my beach chair right next to the water and spent the next few hours soaking up the sun, listening to the waves, and feeling the cool breeze against my skin. it was absolutely beautiful weather and fantastic scenery. i was definitely in my element there. i could’ve stayed there all day :)

this evening, i went out with daniela to a place called the mockingbird café. she had been telling me about it and the fact that it had an open mic night on saturday nights. i had wanted to check it out, so we went, and it ended up being the cutest little place. it's located in bay st. louis, ms, which is just a town over from lakeshore. this has to be the cutest little town. the houses here are beautiful and they look very beachy, which i just LOVE! i even found my future house here! haha. it was the most beautiful house. this was definitely a wealthier part of town. plus, the streets were lined with little local shops that sold everything from art, to clothes, to crafts. i had a great time walking around and window shopping. plus the ocean was only a block away from the cafe.

the cafe sold burgers, pastries, and coffee. it was basically a little coffee shop. it was so unique and the atmosphere was so relaxed. i definitely would love to go back and just hang out and get some coffee or read a book.

the outside was almost another atmosphere altogether. there was a little stage set up with twinkling lights wrapped around it and along the building of the cafe. it was so pretty! there were tons of locals sitting around in chairs listening to the people who went up to the stage to sing their original or cover songs and play their guitars. one guy even went up and played a little drum...he was incredible! the atmosphere was so laid backed and friendly. i loved it! i wish we had a place like this in lagrange. i really enjoyed it. 

plus, next week they have an even bigger open mic night. this is when tons of people come out from the community and a bunch of shops stay open late. it's like a little festival held once a month. we're planning on going to this next saturday night, so im pretty excited :)

thai food and a sketchy situation...

last night, i was pretty excited because jamie said she’d take me to eat thai food for dinner. it was one of her favorite places to eat. she kept raving about how good the food was at this place…so i was pretty pumped to try thai food for the first time. there were tons of things on the menu that looked amazing and it took me a while to finally decide, but i finally chose a pineapple fried rice with chicken. it sounded different, but i like trying new foods and i was feeling pretty adventurous.

we enjoyed some light, airy rice cake type things dipped in some spicy sauce while we waited on our food. when they brought out our food, it looked and smelled amazing. my dish contained fried rice, pineapples, yellow curry powder (which gave the dish a touch of spicyness), chicken, eggs, and tomatoes. it was the most delicious fried rice ive ever eaten. i am officially in love with thai food! i cant wait to go back : )

that night, i stayed up pretty late just hanging out in the office and didn’t head back to my room until around 1 am. everyone else was gone and there were only two other people on the property and they were already asleep.

now, im the type of person who rarely ever gets creeped out or scared about anything, but i have to say, i felt pretty uncomfortable walking back to my room last night. first of all there was a storm going on outside…well sorta...there was lightning, thunder, and lots of wind, but it only dripped a little bit.

anyway, so i locked up the front of the office and started to head over to my room, but across the street there was a person standing outside their house in a long white gown. they were just kinda roaming around their front yard. it was so freaky, especially since it was one in the morning. i had only heard stories about the neighbors across the street and they weren’t good stories. so i just prayed that this person would not see me as i walked as quietly as i could back to my room. later, i found out that the person was a woman who often went outside at all hours of the night to feed her cat. it was a pretty sketchy situation tho.

WHY?

so last night was pretty cool because i got to ride my bike finally. i was really excited because i was able to bring my bike down here with me...and as many of you probably know, i love to ride my bike :) it was a little terrifying to bike around a place ive never been before, but i was careful to only go places i was somewhat familiar with. i was able to ride down to the beach and then i rode along the beach a little. the beach was beautiful :) and after a very hot day (high around the mid to high 90s), the breeze on the ocean felt amazing. the best part was right before i made it to the beach, i could just smell the ocean as i got closer and closer. i just love that smell :)

the road that i traveled down to get to the ocean had a lot of empty lots with remnants of houses. i wished i had brought my camera with me so i could take some pictures...there was even one property with a tent planted in the middle of a torn down structure. i will be sure to take pictures later to post.

this morning, the group of college kids from georgia left, so today was a very slow day because there were no volunteers here. so it was a day off for the few that were still here. i ran some errands with jamie this morning, cooked some lunch, and then i tagged along with the pastor and jamie to look at potential work sites for volunteers.

first, we went to the house of an old woman who needed a ramp built for her front porch. she was the funniest old lady who shared several random, funny stories with us. she had hip replacement surgery and needed the ramp to help her get in and out of her house easier. she said that one of the screws in her hip had shifted and that with the slightest wrong movement, the screw would move around causing her excruciating pain. it was so sad to hear, but the woman had such a good attitude about her condition. she told us stories about her dogs and her nephew and even one about how she called the doctor and told her she had spoken to the receptionist with the "tattoo on her boob" the last time she came in to see him. then she proceeded to go into more depth about the tattoo. it was hilarious.

next, we went to check out some of the habitat for humanity houses that were being worked on and talked with them about maybe teaming up with them to do some projects.

lastly, we went to a woman's house who was a hoarder. this part was very sad to me. beforehand, pastor don told me that many of the people who lost everything after the storm, had become hoarders. since they had no belongings after the storm, they found comfort in keeping every single thing they came across after the  storm and put it in their houses. it is how they deal with their loss. this woman was one of these people. the work she needed done was just some moving of building materials because she had to get rid of some old cars that had been totaled in the storm. the county was fining her for permits she didnt have for the cars. she needed a permit because all the cars on the lot were technically considered a junkyard...so she needed to get rid of them. the woman had even been summoned into court for this.

the woman needed an oxygen tank because of her health problems. it was so sad to see the way this woman was living. it was then that i realized just how amazingly God has blessed me. this woman was dealing with so many problems and i complain about the stupidest, littlest things. this woman has real issues to deal with. i should be grateful for the things i have...the opportunities i am given...and the healthy condition that i am in.

now i thought this woman was in bad shape...but she kept referring to her neighbor who also needed some help...so she led us over to his house. this is the part that almost made me cry. this old man in a wheel chair opened up his door and the worst smells in the world wafted from his porch door. the man looked like a ghost and was hooked up to an oxygen tank. his eyes were sunken into his face and we all thought he was about to be sick. his neighbor made a comment that he wasnt looking so good and he said that he had been vomiting all day. he looked as though he was about to pass out, but he forced himself to stand up and walk outside and sit on a chair. he tried to tell us what he needed done in his backyard, but none of us could really understand him. he constantly had to stop himself because he was trying to keep from blacking out. he had suffered a number of strokes and heart attacks and i honestly thought he was about to have another one. he was shaking so bad and i couldve cried at the sight of this poor old man. it broke my heart. i had to force myself not run over to his side and try to catch him if he were to fall. we also found out that his wife was living off an oxygen tank. i couldnt understand how they were surviving on their own. i just kept thinking that they should be in a nursing home or something. there was no way they could be taking care of themselves.

it was the first time i asked God: WHY? how could he allow this much pain in someone's life. it just wasnt fair. i just couldnt wrap my head around it. now ive been on mission trips in the past and ive seen sadness and poverty to the extreme. but i have never seen people in actual, physical pain. it was absolutely horrible. i couldnt handle it. i wanted to break down and cry.

i am so ashamed of myself. i am so selfish and i complain about things that cant even compare to this. i feel like God should be up there laughing at the things i consider "difficult" in my life. my struggles are NOTHING...absolutely nothing compared to the things that other people endure every minute of every day. i feel so guilty. i have been so very blessed with the life i have been given. i have the best parents in the world, whom i take for granted so often. i have friends and family who love and care about me. and i have a promising future ahead of me, with endless opportunities. i need to remember that the next time i open my mouth to complain.