I don’t have a proper story here. Just a bunch of thoughts that I captured on my phone during the trip.
- Drive to Birmingham was easy.
- We stayed in the gym of a southern Baptist church. Dinner was at Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ Restaurant and the biscuits were to die for. There was a very loud bang at night and it woke up nearly everyone. Linda Constand’s mattress deflated overnight and she threw it away; and she was exhausted.
- Drive to camp how was beautiful. Not a lot of cities along the way. As we got to Louisiana, roads are very flat. Crossed Lake Pontchartrain and that was very cool.
- Our Campsite (Camp Hope) is a little disappointing, lots of other teams here. We are very close to lower 9th Ward. This site is four feet BELOW sea level. No wonder it flooded!! Why would you build here.
- Our work site is old house. Our task is dry walling the second floor. Rashana the owner and her children Rashan, and Kassidy came and worked with us everyday. I taught the kids the electric slide. They taught me the Nay, Nay. We had a radio and the music constantly repeated, Ed Sheehan, Walk the Moon, Cheerleader, Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainer, etc. Our leader Kirk Page, thought his care got stolen but it was only towed. That will be a story for the ages.
- It seems every night we’d run to Wal-Mart for something. John is the neighborhood leader in a wheel chair. He really liked Sophie and Maria. Lynn took our crew the bathroom down the street. Day one, one break. Day five, multiple breaks
- Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
- John 15:16 NIV “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”
- Maria and I had a rather serious mud fight (I think I lost). We drove thru lower 9th Ward. That place is still a mess. We visited French quarter and had dinner at the Gumbo Shop. Lynn and I stopped in a small cafe and ordered barbeque shrimp thinking it would be shrimp in barbeque sauce. No, this was a large, whole shrimp cooked on a barbeque. Tasty but…
- On our trip home we stopped at Deer Run Camp. After Chris face-planted, Lynn did the zip line and she was AWESOME. They had a Blob but we struggled to get it work. The Senior presentations were very special.
- Songs at work site…Bad Blood, Going Down For Real, Ed Sheeran, Nay Nay, This is My Fight Song.
Here’s how I described it to my Dad.
We just got home today. It was a long, long week. There were 12 adults and 38 high school kids. We drove six large vans and a cargo truck from Cinci to Birmingham to sleep in a church gymnasium. The next day we drove to the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Ten years later and they’re still a mess!!!
I spent five days dry walling the second floor of a house with no electricity nor water with 12 kids. It was a little warm as you can imagine. Luckily we got a generator and some fans to at least move the air. We had a rough start but they learned quickly. We only went into the city one afternoon, the rest of time was about work and church. I had a great time. I’ll send some picture when I get them sorted. Needless to say, we didn’t get to visit any of the places you mentioned below. Maybe next time.
And the story about Lynn’s Zip Line:
Nathan and I went to New Orleans with our church to help people in need. On our way, back we stopped at a campsite in Tennessee. The camp had a small lake with huge water slides, trampolines and a zip line. Nathan convinced Lynn that she should try the zip line. I was terrified because two other adults tried and failed miserably; a third couldn’t move her shoulder the next morning.
Lynn did it!! She went the entire length of the line hanging by her arms. She dropped at just the right time with a perfect water entry. I was so proud of her. It really shows that she has great strength.
There are two pictures:
1. You can see her holding on. This was near the end of the line. She started a good 50 feet away and 15 feet up in the air.
2. She has dropped and is about to splash down.
And this video is of the kids riding a carousel on the trip down. We stopped at a mall food court for lunch. It was great because after putting all the kids on, we filled the entire carousel. Very fun.