It's good to be back!

Sorry I haven't written anything on here for a while. I was out of town last week on a mission project in New Orleans. I had the pleasure of going with 7 other guys to work on houses that were damaged by hurricane Katrina. It has been almost two years since that storm, and there are still thousands of homes that aren't ready for people to live in yet. The good news is that there many more than there were when we took our first trip down to work there in July of 06. The city truly is coming back.
Sherry and I lived in New Orleans for almost three years while I attended New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. "Nawlins" (as the folks down there call it) can be a tough city to live in. There's a lot of poverty and not a lot of opportunity, so I think it's been great how followers of Christ from all over the country have been coming there week after week to show God's love by rebuilding homes. I'll tell you more about those projects later, but in the meantime here's some random thoughts about last week's trip.

- Our crew consisted of: Jake Ticknor, Jim Grubb, Chris Roberts, Danny Terry, and Brian & Patrick Thomas.

- Danny, Jim, and Chris did electrical work in houses with no AC while Jake, Brian, Patrick and myself did finish carpentry work in a cool house with AC and ceiling fans. Danny only complained about that set-up a little bit!

- Jake can do amazing things with a tape measure, saw, and a nail gun.

- We forgot to take a radio so Brian and I provided entertainment by singing bits and pieces of songs that came into our heads. The most random one was when Brian busted out with part of that old "Morning After" song. Jake loved it when I sang "Umbrella" to him. Just try singing a line of that to him and see what reaction you get. If you don't know those songs Brian and I will be glad to give you a sample.

- We got to fatten ourselves up on some awesome bread pudding at Mulate's again this trip. I'm glad that they don't sell that stuff down here or I'd weigh 300 lbs!

- After working with him all week, Chris noticed that Danny is really good at giving orders on the job site. Somebody has got to be in charge, right Danny?

- I noticed after spending a week doing that type of work, with Jake telling me what to do next, that my body was more tired than usual, but my brain was much more relaxed.

- As much fun as we had it sure was good to get home to Sherry and the girls on Saturday.

All in all it is good to be home.