an epic week

so the past week and a half has been a whirlwind of adventure for me, spanning a couple thousand miles and a bunch of new friends::
here's a brief rundown...get a hold of me if you want more info or want to see the details in newsletter form which should come out later this week.

so...this past week i had the extreme prilelage of taking 11 people down to new orleans to work on the incredible rebuilding efforts that are still going on in the wake of hurricane katrina in fall of 2005 [yeah that'd be a year and a half ago]. before i tell you a bit about the trip let me refresh you on some of the facts. katrina hit in august of '05 with devistating force but not nearly as bad as it could have been. in fact she just glanced new orleans but the effects caused devistation beyond imagination. the storm itself was not the biggest problem. the system that was setup to save the city was actually it's downfall. as pumping system components (the levee's) failed, the city was covered in the waters of the lake. some say this was the judgement of god on an evil place, but with 80% of the city under water, the most ungodly areas were spared, god doesn't miss. since the storm water receeded only a tiny part of the city has found it's way back to normal function again. the truely shocking part is that nearly 85% of the rebuilding has actually been done by churches from literally around the world [somehow this doesn't get a lot of press].

our trip was hosted by a church on the west bank [across the river from downtown, part of the 20% not flooded] who has been working with the rebuilding efforts since day one. they've played host to countless volunteers and god has placed them there as a beacon of light in the midst of very dark days. we left for NOLA [new orleans] on may 13th and drove the 900+ miles through the long hours of the night. after settling in and getting some rest we headed over to the job site on monday afternoon to meet mattie and get a grip on just what we had signed up for. mattie is a wonderful woman who god has smiled upon with his love and it shows in her attitude and trust in his goodness in spite of having more than six feet of water in her entire house. we arrived to an empty shell of a house, ripped down to simple studs and electrical wires. for the next four days we proceded to insulate, drywall, and tape her house to restore some idea of normalcy again.

our group was absolutely amazing! i have been humbled many times in life but their hearts were so into this project that long hot days with dust beyond measure had no effect on their high spirits. the house was filled every day with abundant laughter and fun. where once the quiet waters had destroyed now the home was ringing with the sounds of joy and progress. when we left on friday after 11 hours of straight work we all left with the feeling that good had been done there but all wishing for just one more day.

it wasn't all work while we were down there though. we were introduced to the amazing world of wii (for those not tech savvy that's the new nintendo system that is flat out amazing). it was wonderful to hang out with friends at the end of a long day and just have fun. we also "ate" our way through the city. from muflata's to crawfish we all had a blast experiencing the city through our tastebuds.

god gave us safety beyond measure and i know that we had a ton of people praying for us which was such a blessing, much more than i can say. my week was capped by getting home in time to grab an hours sleep after driving back through the night and then going to church with the community that i love so much. to make it all better, we got to then attend a small venue talk with brennan manning (one of my favorite authors and speakers) and phil keggy on guitar (not a big fan, that is until last night, he's freakin awesome in person).

all in all, the last week has been incredible and god's doing some amazing work. don't forget new orleans, go if you can!

peace and much love
phil