What to do, what to do!

i'd like to continue blogging! Maybe not as regularly as before, but still regularly. i really enjoyed it!

Well, spring break is now over and i have so much life stuff to catch up on. i'm going to Colorado for summer project and i have a lot of information to sort out and catch them up on, as well as a wedding to be a part of in the middle of it (my friends Dave and Chrissy are getting married!).

Along with making future plans, we also as a team are leaving our house and therefore need to clean it out, relief tools, furniture, everything! So we arent done working in this city, but need to attend to a lot of logistical things! It will certainly keep us busy!

We got to spend time with our Mexican friends at the swamp the other day... i dont remember if i ever mentioned that. It was a complete riot. They're so fun and funny and have great hearts for God. Our friend Oscar even got to do a service at the New Orleans Mission in Spanish! Isnt that fun? They were such a blessing to us!

Oscar and Kat

Me holding an alligator baby

Me and Andreas

Antonio and Kat making fun of Kat's mom Pat, who was falling asleep during the tour!

Also, we had a PR nightmare from Week 3 (our huge week of 300 students) come back to haunt us. Our friend who reads the New Orleans Newspaper online nola.com emailed Rebecca on our team about a situation. Then Rebecca emailed us to read the article. For those interested, here is the article. In brief, we found out through an email that one of our students called the police claiming that housekeeping staff at our hotel had stolen money from her. It was a strange way to learn about that kind of news. We found out that all this had happened without anyone contacting us! i dont know what kind of rule that breaks, but neglecting to tell our team about that send up red flags to me!

We've been told that an investigation is underway and that the housekeeping staff have key cards that record when they key into a room and no one keyed into these students rooms while they claimed the money was stolen. There's a lot of hearsay and rumors involved in the situation. It all seems very shady. i'm sad that money was stolen and i'm also disappointed in how this situation has been handled by the students reporting that money was stolen.

i said today during staff meeting that i was completely uninterested in getting into some strange PR war and Ken said that at this point it's just a bunch of people pointing fingers. i think we're all on the same page as far as how the situation should be handled from our end. i'm glad our team is very wise and composed of wise people.

ok, you should see a prayer letter soon! Life is crazy, but nowhere near as busy as the past month.

Sorry for not posting as much this week!

First, i didnt post on Easter because it was Easter and i didnt want to post on Easter. Also, i kinda assumed no one would read it. i think that set the pace for the rest of the week. We worked on Easter and had Mediterranean food that night because it was easy and so that was our Easter dinner.

i missed my family and wished i could be at home eating large amounts of food for Easter. It gave me a chance to think through Easter and i tried to keep the attitude of celebration no matter what i was doing. Jesus is risen and a gyro on Easter day and registering students for a conference cant ever ruin that!

This week has been much more low-key considering we dont have as many students at this conference. It's been delightful. i've had time to catch up on life a little bit (like grocery shop and watch a movie and not work on the weekends) but at the same time our team is struggling to keep ourselves from checking out of the conference.

There are still students working in our city and we want to give them our best.

That's good for me to state minutes before our last meeting of spring break and considering that after tomorrow's staff meeting we're probably all going to be incredibly lazy until Monday! And i look forward to it. i'd love to sleep and not be awakened by a phone call or a situation!

Hard to keep this up!

i think blogging has been really rewarding for me this month. Even though i usually do it extremely late, it's been fun to do and i'm hoping that when i go back and read this stuff, i'll actually remember what happened during those weeks!

Sorry i missed last night! This week has been absolutely crazy, and i have to admit that i was absolutely pooped last night. It's very rare for me to go to bed before 11 or 12 at night these days and as soon as Rebecca and i popped in Napolean Dynamite to watch - or more precisely - as soon we turned the lights off 10 minutes into the movie, i was out! And then i woke up long enough to brush my teeth and then go to bed.

i was also quite grumpy last night. Pretty much anything and everything only made it worse. i really didnt have much reason to be grumpy and all the stuff that i would get mad at were not important. That tells me that i've had a long week and need some recovery time.

It has been a long week. The five of us are responsible for about 300. i cant imagine doing the same thing last year with 11 seeing over 1200! That would be intense.

This week went smoothly even though it was long and intense. Our speaker, Pastor Rick, from Journey was great and dynamic and i loved his talks. The first night he spoke to the students about the importance of their work in the city. The second night he spoke about how we can be passionate through the strength of God in us. And i cant save it so i'll add to it later i think!

i dont know what to write!

This past day has been a lesson in having things constantly changing. Everything seems to shift out from under us and it seems like we're experiencing the outworkings of "when it rains, it pours." Maybe it's not really that bad, but it feels like life is happening at an extremely fast pace and a million things need to be juggled in the midst of what's already a busy week!

The week is still going well and i'm excited about what we're doing and this week has been our smoothest so far imho, and i'm ready for it to be over so i can have a personal life back!

i wonder if this is how people feel when they have a baby, except more acute...

Another long day again!

The Milne Boys Home (North Cottage?)

Arthur wearing the humongous pigeon poop filters (as we affectionately call them
- organic waste filters actually)

Today was another long one. i got up at 6:30 AM to meet our dumpster coming at 7, but they didnt show up until after i had left to get more tools ready. i drove back and forth delivering tools to our biggest worksite, the Milne Home. i think i left a link on my last post.

Our friends from Mexico just walked in our house, so i took care of getting them situated and talking with them!

Oh my! It's late! i need to go to bed! i'll post more tomorrow!

Wow

This week we're hosting about 300 students. Rebecca mentioned today that we're in our 4th week of hosting spring breaks and it's strange to think that we've been running on this schedule that long.

Another thing i've noticed is that having just 100 more students than last week has really changed the character of the conference. Since we knew this week was going to be more hectic, i think we have shed our more laid back ways and have really kicked it into high gear. We've been working a lot more (i worked from about 6-12 AM last night and from 12:30 PM until 12:30 AM now Sunday, i will also be getting up at 6:30 AM today to get some things organized) but we're also much more streamlined, organized, and flowing.

Tonight we even had a strange incident of two guys mistaking which room was theirs and walking in on a room of our girls. It involved the police and everything. When it rains, it pours you know?

i'm excited for this week! We have some fun work lined up. We're sending students to work on various projects at the Milne Boy's Home. i dont know much about the site, but i believe that it's a historical place that Louis Armstrong himself was a friend of - having grown up in wavering family circumstances himself, so it's a big deal for local New Orleans culture.

i was able to talk quite a bit to our neighbor Jane last night. i dont know if i've mentioned her before, but she's a very interesting person and i'm glad that we've been able to get to know her.
She's even been helping us by leading teams and almost apprenticing Ken in carpentry.

All in all quiet a fun experience. There's way more to say but i need to get to bed!

Please pray for us! There's a lot of stress and tension that we each carry and it's easy for our team to get short-tempered. Please pray that God works through our students this week as they serve the city!

i was just reading Wikipedia articles about New Orleans... did you know they had legalized prostitution for a short time? That explains a little more of the history we experience here...

The paper

More t-shirts (for the band)

For some reason, i just cannot get a daily paper. i counted today and i've received four papers and missed six. If a major league baseball player batted like that it would be amazing, but if it's paper delivery we're talking about, that's horrible! And i've called the circulation department everytime. Blah!

Today i felt quite productive. i was out of the house at 8 to go to Target to buy shirts for the band. Then off to the other Michael's to buy out their ink too; i'm going to have to buy more ink online or something. After finishing the shirts for Giants of Silence i gave them to Mia and took off for home.

Arthur and i made a trip to the hardware stores to see about buying and renting tools for next week. We have about 320 students coming in next week and i want to do everything i can to prepare. So after all was said and done i cleaned out our tool shed and assembled everything i could think of for next week. i'll be continuing the process tomorrow too.

i'll mention it in my prayer letter, which you better read, but...

i'd like to make you (my prayer supporters) t-shirts as a gift for sticking it out with me! Please email me some information:

• The size you want
• The color of the ink that you want
• How many you want (if you want some for your family)

Please be reasonable with me! No asking for shirts for your third cousins...

i wont be posting tomorrow, since it's technically a day off... please come back on Sunday night for more! Or Monday morning, depending on what time you go to bed.

Concert + pizza + buying water = craziness

Tonight was royally busy! We had our last meeting of the week tonight and in addition we provided pizza for the students, had a keynote (music ministry of Crusade) band play a concert, and also i ran t-shirt making again. During the concert Ken came up to me and said that the band needed water and could i run to the gas station for some. Fortunately the gas station is right next door to the hotel, so it was only a five minute trip. It's funny how no matter how hard you plan, there's always some little thing that creeps in that you seem to have forgotten to take into account and needs to be provided immediately even though there's a million other things you'd like to take care of. Fortunately my attitude in dealing with buying water was much better than dealing with some students today...

We have some students here that are frustrated with their work experience. i understand that. Working in New Orleans means feeling useless some of the time and i'm guessing they've got more than their fair share this week. Our team tried bending over backwards for them; i made some calls to try to line up different things to do for them instead of what they were already doing. They didnt want that.

i'm frustrated because backup plans are a "no-no" in my mind because if we've committed volunteers to a certain group, i think we should follow up with them for our organization's names sake and to foster a relationship with that group. Overbooking and then having some students not show up would be relational suicide for us (my opinion) and would damage our efforts in finding work in the future. In addition, it was reported that this group of students didnt like the idea of the work we had selected for them even before they got on the worksite. It's hard to serve people when you dont feel like they're very appreciative (even though they may be, i dont know their hearts...). i hope they learn something in New Orleans, and i hope that it's what God would like them to learn. i also hope that it lines up with what i'd like them to learn, but i hope most of all that God has his way with them, regardless of what i desire.

Oh, it was also my dad's birthday today, so in between emceeing the meeting, running t-shirts, and cleaning up sound equipment, i gave him a call and talked with him for a while.

Well, chalk up another long day of work. At least 9 hours today, plus some unaccounted for time.

i dont think i'm going to write as many late night posts, i get wordy and complainy at this hour! :)

strange

someone was shot and killed a block away from where i live last night

Fun!

Today i worked at Extreme Makeover's site again and just returned (it's now 12:30 AM). i worked from about 11 until 12 at one of the sites. i'd post pictures but i signed a contract saying i wouldnt give away any information, including pictures or details about the site's location, design, etc etc, and so forth.

Today was much more relaxed, i made phone calls, sent out my prayer letter for this month (late!), took some students on a tour of New Orleans, and was able to find more work for next week. Things seem to be coming together for our insane number of 322 people next week. i found spots for them in working with the wetlands, which even though i dont know much about them, are very important for the Louisiana environment. They act like a natural barrier to disasters and flooding but since they have been receding, their ability to dam is compromised. i encourage you to look it up because i dont know what i'm talking about. Research shall ensue.

i felt very productive today. It was a nice feeling that honestly i havent always felt here. i expect the feeling to continue.

If you want to see a little bit of what i was working on check out Extreme New Orleans

t-shirts and more t-shirts

Today i woke up really early for me... 6:45 AM. i know my dad must be thinking about how he wakes up that early all the time, but working according to more college hours as a Campus Crusade intern has given me quite a tweaked schedule...

Today we visited our worksites in Westwego and Central city ish-areas (i better not say anymore than that). They are both with the Extreme Makeover Home Edition. i took a bunch of pictures of them, but i dont think i'm allowed to show them until after the show airs. So i will hold off on them for now. But it was fun looking at the sites and seeing a roof that according to the workers, didnt exist 5 hours earlier.

i also got to see BT and the UB IV crew! What a surprise! It was nice seeing some old compadres and partners in crime.

Tonight we ran our large group meeting for week 2. Ken's pastor Ray spoke for our meeting. i loved what he talked about, he was very conversational and spoke about how Christians move towards the pain instead of away from it. i feel like he spent all his time sharing anecdotes about his life in New Orleans, how living here means living free from pretense and how New Orleans is a crystal clear picture of the fall and redemption...

Pastor Ray

Some notes i took (combination of my thoughts and Ray's though mostly Ray's)-

There's not much opportunity for pretense:

• You dont pretend youre safe because youre not
• You are able to be who you are in the Big Easy (For good or bad)
• Things are broken and you know it: Roads/Govt

New Orleans very much like the Kingdom:

• Place of celebration
• Diversity
• Very relationsal; community is incredibly important
• Great food
• Wild creativity

New Orleans is about moving towards pain, into it and through it and letting it wash over you and figuring out a way to remedy the situation. And it's a lesson worth learning even though i feel beat up and bedraggled in the process.

In other news, the students made more t-shirts (instead of me! yay!) and it worked out really well. It was a fun time for me to connect with them and share a little about New Orleans and see where they are in their trip.


Thanks so much for being apart of what i do down here! i plan on sending out a prayer letter soon to give you more updates. Your prayers have really kept me going as i navigate this strange stage of life and keep long hours serving the city of New Orleans for God.

Another long day

Today was another long day! i've been on since 1:30 PM today and i'm still going at 11:48 PM. i'm going to work long enough to finish this blog post! (Now that's dedication!)

i spent the day working registration for week 2. After another frustrating trip at Kinkos (there always seems to be something with them, they didnt print my job for when i had requested it) we went to register students for spring break. It was pretty laid back, but required being available for a long time. Then i ran errands for everybody. i bought paper and envelopes.

Then i went to Kinkos again to pick up my print job and they had only printed the first page of my five page packet! So i waited for them to finish the job while i made some copies and fedexed a bunch of checks.

Then i came back to the site, ran our large group meeting for about 200 students, answered questions, alphabetized a ton of papers.

Just now that i've gotten back i've filled out my company credit card reports, written in my blog, and now i'm ready for bed!

Up tomorrow at 7 AM to get tools out to one of our groups!

Spring break week 2, here we come.

A labor of love

T-shirts strewn everywhere

i'm still behind, but i'll take some of my time off to write this one. And then i'm off until Sunday!

Yesterday, i spent the entire day making t-shirts. i decided that it would be fun to take my idea of making t-shirts for my team to making t-shirts for our conference participants. So i made about 50 shirts yesterday. It took way too long.

From now on, students will make their own shirts. i had a blast making them, but i cant afford to take that much time for t-shirts. There's other stuff to be done.

i already missed one didnt i!

Chrissy paints her New Orleans Water Meter t-shirt

Yesterday was a long day for me. i started out at a pretty late time (around 9:30 AM) but went all day after that. It was fun, but taxing. i delivered tools to mid-city, then turned around and went to the lower ninth ward (which is the area that was probably hit the hardest) to deliver water to our groups.

i've heard some pretty fun stories from students that have been working with Common Ground. We just started working with them (remember they're the group we've jokingly termed "the socialists") and respect them a lot so far. i guess some students spent time at an animal shelter walking dogs. Pretty fun huh?

Last night we started making t-shirts with the students. i had a diy project to make t-shirts and opened it up to our spring breakers. i think it went over well and was fun for the people that we had visit us here.

i'm enjoying spring break, but i think i'm at my wit's end for this week. i've noticed i'm getting more impatient and flustered easily... blah!

Also, i've had some lazy days in my time with Campus Crusade, but sometimes i think days like that make up for it. i believe i worked for 12ish hours yesterday: from 9:30-12:30 and then from 2-11:30, with a small stop for dinner around 10:15.

Long day!

This morning began with a bunch of miscommunications between me and a group we're working with called Common Ground. They were telling me that our group needed to meet them back at their headquarters, but our group was being told by another member of their organization that they were supposed to work where they were.

So we ended up with a triangle of confusion and i really wish i had handled it better! There were a lot of steps i could have taken to solve the problem, but i put a bunch of those tasks on the backburner. i dont think it was all that wise for me to do! Woops!

i'm learning that coordinating for this spring break monster is all-intensive and requires me to be available at all hours of the day!

It takes a lot of work, but i'm learning, and for the most part i'm enjoying it.

If you think of it, could you please pray for me? i have big decisions to make about my summer and i'm pretty apprehensive about it... :(

Spring Break Week 1: Day 2

Students working with a homeowner in St. Roch

i'm hoping to blog everyday of spring break! (ideally, that means everyday, with the exception of saturdays!)

Yesterday, we registered all of our students for the hotel and the conference from 2-8 PM. So from about 12:30 PM until 10 PM i was running around New Orleans, answering questions, emceeing a meeting, and in general preparing. It was a long day and i'm pretty pooped from it today.

This morning i helped situate our students working with the Arkansas Baptist Builders. Ken and i were running around frantic trying to get everyone work and to help them get going on it - a task that can be very difficult when you're thrown into another organizations workings and acting like a leader.

All in all it's been fun. Rebecca mentioned the other day that we're extremely busy, but that it's a good season to be extremely busy because it balances out the phone calling and being at the house planning.

Today while delivering a ladder to one of our groups, i made a little pit stop to take a picture of a wrecked stoop of a wrecked home. All of a sudden i hear someone behind me ask what i'm doing.

"oh, i'm just taking a picture"

"why?"

"i like the way this stoop looks all broken."

"It's not broken. This is my house."

"oh..."

At first it was pretty confusing for me. i didnt get that it was her house so i was caught off guard. We shared a few moments of silence and then i asked her about the house and what she was doing. Her name was Yelena(?) and she had lived in that house for 45 years. Her brother lived downstairs in the house and died during Katrina. She had the house paid off and got insurance money but it wasnt enough for her to demolish the house and build another one and in the meantime she was renting down the street.

We didnt talk for long; i offered to help and she said thanks, but we're demolishing it. And we traded goodbyes and off she went.

Yelena's stoop

i was shocked that she would continue talking to me after seeing me taking pictures of her home (she seemed quite skeptical of my intentions at first) but we talked for a while. Just proof that people here are way more relational than me in general.

i'm not shocked that she's been in the same house for 45 years. New Orleans is full of "born and raised" people. Not too many (besides my type of people) are from somewhere else...

keep tuned in, tonight we have a main meeting that i'm emceeing and we'll keep going hectic and strong until Friday morning!