Amazing Grace...

It has already been a month since Amy and I left New Orleans, and we have spent the time restocking, recharging and reconnecting with friends and family back home in Connecticut before we head out for the next chapter later this week. Before we move on though, I felt like we needed to wrap up our time in New Orleans because I hadn't really done that. I think there were three things that God really impressed on our hearts while we were down there ... well - actually there were a whole lot more, but I'd run out of space if I put them all down and you would definitely go back to playing TEXTWIST before you got halfway through reading them...so here's the condensed list... The first is that God has an appointment book for each of us, and it doesn't always match the appointment book that we have for ourselves. Amy and I couldn't figure out why our trip was delayed by 3 months prior to going to New Orleans, but that was revealed to us shortly after we started working at Eddie's house. Amy had a conversation with Eddie in which he was telling us about how many roadblocks he had run into while he was trying to put his house back together... dishonest contractors who took his money and left without finishing the work, shoddy workmanship of the ones that did their work, fighting with government and insurance agencies to try and get the settlements that he was entitled to, people who broke into his home and stole his tools and materials while he was trying to complete his home.... Amy looked at Eddie and said "This is ridiculous! What has gone right for you"?? Eddie looked at her and said "You and your man are here... That's what went right. God had an appointment for us at this time and if you had come any earlier, I wouldn't have been ready for you". ... Message received... God's time, not ours... God's appointment book, not ours...

The second thing was a work that God had to do in our hearts... a bit of refining by fire, so to speak, that was learned through the little things that we encountered along the way. It wasn't that God needed our construction abilities... What we came to realize is that what was truly important wasn't the tile that we laid or the baseboard that we put down or the hot water that we hooked up, although those things certainly were important so that Eddie and his wife could move back into their home. What was truly important was the relationships that were formed during our time there... the fellowship and prayer and kinship that we were able to share with Eddie and the people of New Orleans for a short time while we were there, yet leaving with a bond that will last for our lifetime... Eddie calling Amy his daughter and me his son, telling us that we have a place to live with them if we ever need it, giving us the keys to his house on the last day that we were together... They are still on my key ring and probably will be as long as I can carry keys around in my pocket. Love God, love people...

The last thing is how amazing our God is and how abundant and amazing His grace is. We saw grace evidenced all around us... in the eyes of a man who has lost everything, but when he thought no one was looking was seen walking around his house as it was getting put back together saying, "Thank you Jesus.... THANK you Jesus... Thank you Jesus..." We saw grace in the volunteers that we worked with, some of them with so many needs of their own, who were still down there rebuilding homes as if it was for the Lord himself. We saw grace in a city that embraced Amy and I with its collective arms and accepted and poured into us the entire time we were there.... and of course, we found grace in the risen Savior who poured out his life for Amy and I and Eddie and Robert and the people of New Orleans and the people of the world... a grace that was shown to us by the very people that we went to serve.

On our last night in New Orleans, we stopped by to see Eddie and his wife before we left because we wanted to see them one last time. After we had visited for a little while, we moved out to the car to say our goodbye's. Eddie caught sight of my guitar that I had thrown on the back seat of the car and asked if I played, to which I replied yes, and so we pulled it out, and on the sidewalks of the 8th Ward at 10:30 at night, Eddie, his wife, Amy and I sang ... Amazing Grace... and we prayed together and cried a little, but moreso rejoiced at the appointment that God had made for all of us and what HE had accomplished in our time there. Our God is an awesome God...

So we have been back in CT for a few weeks now and added a window and door into Amy's parent's kitchen to raise a little money for the trip and help them out a little, and we took a sidetrip up to Bar Harbor, ME for our birthdays (which was very grey and rainy, but very relaxing and still beautiful). And now, we're getting ready to leave for our next stop which is going to be on the (Lakota) Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota where we will be working with Habitat for Humanity to replace windows, doors, and roofs to help some of the residents tighten up their homes for the (as I understand it) severe winters that they endure. Much of the housing on the Reservation is in great need of repair and there are little to no resources to have the work done. So once again, Amy and I ask for your thoughts and prayers as we head out to South Dakota. Please pray for safety, wisdom, and mechanical reliability for the RV! If you feel the desire, please send us a text message or an email. We truly do treasure messages from home. We will be updating our Facebook accounts on the way out to let everybody know where we are and that we are in safe for the night and will update the blog once we have settled in on the Reservation. Love you all...

Dave and Amy