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

Topsy Turvy

So being from New England and being Memorial Day and all, Amy and I found ourselves with the sudden urge to plant a garden, even though summer has been in full swing down here for weeks now. As we were wandering through the aisles of the Dollar Store, we came across the "Topsy Turvy" and couldn't resist. The deal with the Topsy Turvy, if you haven't seen the info-mercial three dozen times by now, is that you plant your tomatoes upside down and they grow as hanging plants rather than the normal way. I must admit that I never realized that tomato plants could grow upside down and I oddly am a bit intrigued by it... Anyway - so the day after we plant our topsy turvey garden, the owner of the home we have been working on, Eddie, gets a visit from FEMA and they inform him that they will be taking his trailer from him on June 1st, regardless of whether or not his home is ready to move into. If you have read our previous posts, Mr. King is 76, diabetic, has a broken rib and has been taken advantage of by just about every contractor that has worked for him to get back into his home. Any of you who are on Facebook saw our pleas to write to your Congressmen and Congresswomen to ask FEMA to extend the deadline to take back the trailers, because many of the people down here are just now getting settlements from the government of from their insurance companies. Many still haven't even received them yet, so a HUGE thank you to all of you who wrote on Eddie's behalf and on behalf of the people of New Orleans. Anything that you can do helps the people down here who have truly had their lives turned upside down - topsy turvy - for the past 4 years. Amy and I have been working down here as well to see if we can get his deadline extended through local channels, and hopefully we will be able to buy him a couple of weeks until his home is ready to be moved into.
In the meantime, God has been providing just the right people at just the right time to take Eddie's home just about to the point where he and his wife will be able to move in. Rich, the gentleman that we wrote about a number of weeks ago, came back and worked with us for a day during this past week, even though he was volunteering with a different organization this time that he was in town. Today, we were able to move to the upstairs of his home and start the cleanout and move-in, so the whole house is really starting to take shape. The downstairs is basically finished except for finishing a few cabinets in the kitchen and hooking up the gas for his kitchen stove. The upstairs has less work to do since he only had 2 feet of water... in the upstairs of his home... so most of the work is cleanup, painting and some plumbing and electrical issues. We had a crew from Missouri join us today and we were blessed with - wait for it... an electrician and a plumber! Just the right people at just the right time. We are praying that by Friday, we will be able to move Eddie and his wife in - just in time for us to leave on Saturday morning and just incase FEMA decides to take his trailer on Monday. Eddie's wife was in the house looking around this morning and for the first time said, "This is really starting to look like home again!" What a heartwarming thing to hear... We are finding it so hard to believe that our time here is already up and we are beginning to grieve the fact that we will be leaving. I have a feeling we will be back...
After work and on the weekends, we have been doing our best to take in the city while we have been here. Last night, we found ourselves listening to Eddie play with his band in Preservation Hall which is in the French Quarter and one of the most storied jazz halls in the city. It is about the size of our old living room and has been graced by the biggest names in jazz music for years and years. Amy and I were in the Standing Room Only section, which really means that we were about the 20th person in the door, but the people were lined up on the street for a full block waiting for a chance to get in. On Saturday, we went down to St. Martinsville which is in the heart of Cajun country and is the site where the Acadians were sent when they were exiled from Canada back in the 1800's. It is such an interesting part of the country and the people and their stories are really amazing. Last weekend, we went to see the Natchez, which is an old paddleboat that takes you up and down the Mississippi River, and the video below is part of the trip that you can see from shore... pretty cool.
So as we are into our last week here, thank you SO much for your support, prayers, thoughts, messages, calls, texts and everything that you have done to help us begin our journey. You will never know how much it has meant to us.... and please keep it up! Next week will be a travel week for us and then we begin Chapter 2! Love to you all!
~Amy and Dave

"There Are No Levees On The Other Side"

Last Sunday, Amy and I felt led to worship at a congregation in the neighborhood that we have been working in, so we went to worship at the Franklin Street Baptist Church in the 8th Ward, right around the corner from Eddie's home. They were flooded with upwards of 10 feet of water which destroyed much of the church building. As the majority of its members were displaced to other cities due to the storm, rather than disband as so many of the churches have done, this congregation decided that its ministry and outreach would continue, so they started worshipping in a temporary facility in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Houston, which is where most of their members were relocated to immediately after the storm. They also simulcast their services on the internet so that all of their members could still worship wherever they had moved. It wasn't until April of 2008 that the renovations were completed and the building was reopended in New Orleans. Today, there are nearly 4000 people that worship every Sunday, and last Sunday, we were blessed to be two of them.

The worship experience was awesome! It was a Southern Baptist service complete with a huge choir, dynamic preacher, and Wurlitzer organ to back up the pastor as he spoke. As we went on through the service, there were two things that really started to stand out that definitely left an impression on us. The first was the simplicity of the worship. There were no hymnals or songbooks. There weren't even words on the overhead screen. The entire group of believers were singing songs from their heart with hands in the air that they either knew by heart, or occasionaly, someone would call out the words, but it was worship like we have never experienced before. The Pastor gave a great sermon on Gods' Grace, and it was during his message that the second thing really started to stand out... the difference in the physical and spiritual needs of the people of New Orleans. The service started with the Pastor saying "Are you happy that the Lord put breath in your lungs this morning"? "Do you feel blessed that the Lord woke you up today?" Not a word about the economy or the job market or the Swine Flu... Simply, are you happy that you are alive and breathing today? As he was wrapping up his sermon, the pastor started talking about the "other side". He said, "On the other side, there will be no hurricanes" (which was met with a chorus of Amen's) ... "On the other side, there will be no levees (which was met with another chorus of Amen's) ... "On the other side there will be no FEMA trailers"... The needs down here are so immediate... so basic... We stood there with our mouths open (literally) and exchanged a glance with each other and experienced a faith in God that we hadn't experienced before. Not a faith of excess or comfort, but a faith of true trust for provision and daily necessities... a faith of life and death that they had all been experiencing since August of 2005. It was humbling and I truly thank God that we were allowed to be a part of it.

We had a great week at Eddie's home. There were no other volunteers in camp at the beginning of the week, but Amy and I were able to put up a bunch of baseboard, do some painting, hang some cabinets in the bathrooms. On Friday, we were joined by Skyler, a 22 year old from Nebraska and we were able to clean piles of debris from the outside of the house and mow the lawn for the first time in years. Inside and out, his house is starting to look like a home! He and his wife are visibly starting to get excited and are starting to pick out furniture locations rather than picking up lumber and windows from Lowe's.

Now - I realize that was kind of a heavy entry, so just so you don't think that life is all serious and that we aren't having any "fun" down here, take a look at the video clip below. This was part of a Mother's Day song that we wrote. On Friday after work, Amy and I went around to different spots in New Orleans and filmed each of the verses and made a bit of a spectacle of ourselves in the process, but we had a lot of fun doing it. This was verse 4 that was filmed in the middle of Jackson Square which is the heart of the French Quarter. ...and yes... I'm playing the harmonica!

So once again, thanks for all of your prayers and support! Please keep the prayers coming... We really can feel them. We miss all of you more than you can imagine... especially our Mothers this week. Love you all. ~Dave and Amy

Being Rich...

This was an interesting week for Amy and me as God continued to work on our hearts and minds (and bodies!) like the potter and the clay written about in Isaiah 64:8. On Sunday, Amy developed some pain in her abdomen that we didn't think too much about until Monday morning when it got pretty severe. Just another indication of how disrupted life still is down here, we had to search for a doctor and finally were able to find one in downtown New Orleans. Many, if not most of the clinics and hospitals were wiped out in the storm and have not returned yet. The closest hospital with 24 hour emergency care that we could find is almost 40 minutes from Camp Restore!
So we spent much of Monday at the doctor's office waiting for someone to look at Amy. (Note picture of "sad Amy" to the left...) Our biggest concern was that she had something like appendicitis or a hernia, but after the doctor (also a Christian!) was able to poke and prod a little bit, he felt that it was most likely a muscular pull or something like that, so we had to monitor her temperature, etc. just to make sure. She was on "light duty" for much of the week, although she definitely did alot more than she probably should have... Her heart wouldn't let her body slow down and she continued laying tile and grouting at Eddie's house when she probably should have been taking it easy... One of the things that kept her going this week was actually one the guys we were working with - a guy named Rich from Illinios. In 2005, Rich was in an industrial accident at his workplace and was burned on over 60% of his body. He was in a coma for 3 months after the accident and is still having skin grafts done nearly 4 years after his accident. The first morning Rich joined our crew, we noticed that he had lost a couple of fingers in his accident, had difficulty walking, had lost some mobility in his wrists and ankles, and was visibly burned on his face, arms and legs, and had a bandage on his arm from a skin graft that he had received just before he came down to volunteer.

Rich is a pipefitter by trade and the house we were working on needed to have some sinks and tubs connected so we could get running water to the kitchen and bathrooms, and praise the Lord, Rich volunteered at just the right time so the work could be done. When we started talking with Rich, he told us that he spends most of his time volunteering at different camps like Camp Restore, and that this was his 4th or 5th trip down to New Orleans in the last few years. He gives more of his time to volunteer at burn camps to work with children who have been burned and to help them deal with the trauma that comes from being a burn victim....... So just when Amy and I are feeling pretty good about what we are doing, God sends someone into our lives to (rightfully) knock us down a few pegs and put things back in perspective once more. Here is a guy that had every right to give up and focus on himself and his own problems, and he has chosen to put all of his energy into volunteering and making the lives of other people better. God doesn't need our tile laying abilitities... He wants our hearts. The Potter and the clay...

On a lighter note, over the course of the past week and a half, we have made a neat bond with Eddie (the homeowner that we have been working with mentioned in last week's post). Eddie is 76 years old and is a jazz musician here in the city. On Monday, he invited us to come and hear him and his brass band play at the Candlelight Lounge in the 6th Ward (also known as Tremme). Tremme is the oldest free settlement of African Americans in the United States and has a long and storied history. Amy and I so were honored (and excited!) to go hear him play. He was AWESOME! (See attached video clip of him soloing on the trombone). It has been such an inspiration to us to see how the people of New Orleans have continued to live their lives in the face of such adversity and are slowly putting things back together, and how important their relationships with their neighbors and friends have become to them. I know that Amy and I will treasure the relationships that we are making already.
As we ask every week, please continue to keep us in your prayers. As we are both rediscovering muscles in our 35 and 40 year old bodies that we forgot existed (yikes!), please pray for strength and endurance for our bodies as well as for wisdom and safety as we continue on our trip. We love you all! ~Dave and Amy

Don't forget to listen to Eddie below!!

Layin' tile in the Big Easy... Ain't Easy (for Amy!)

Last Sunday, Amy and I took a trip up the Gulf Coast and went to see the towns of Waveland, Gulfport, and Biloxi which were all in the direct path of Katrina. The devastation that we saw is something that is hard to describe and unlike anything that we have ever seen before. In New Orleans, there are entire neighborhoods that have been abandoned that were flooded. On the Gulf Coast, there is nothing left of the homes but slabs and driveways. In Waveland, nearly one mile from the shore, there are just roads with driveways that led to houses, and the slabs that the homes sat on. Occasionally, a statue or a swingset, or the ladder from a swimming pool that survived the surge can be seen, but nothing more than that. The picture here was from St. Clare's Catholic Church in Waveland. The entire church was swept away in the surge, but they have set up a temporary shelter that they worship in. The sign speaks for itself and really represents what the majority of the people who have lost homes, family, and friends believe. It is truly a lesson in what is important in life to speak with people who have endured a disaster like Katrina. It really does help us put things into perspective...

This week, we were sent to the home of a man named Eddie who lives in the 9th Ward and is still living in a FEMA trailer 3 1/2 years after Katrina hit the area. Eddie's home was flooded with nearly 12 feet of water when the levees broke. His home is directly across from one of the enormous pump houses that were built to pump the water to the gulf in the event of a big storm, but there was so much water, that the pumps were completely inundated and did nothing to stop the flooding in his neighborhood. Everything that he had was destroyed in the flood and had to be thrown out. Eddie is 76 years old and is a Jazz musician who is well known in New Orleans and has played all around the country as well as overseas. He is a really amazing man who has endured so much during his lifetime. although on a really cool note, Amy and I couldn't believe it when he told us that he had just been married only one month ago! Eddie has had some work done to his home, but local contractors have taken advantage of him, and in some cases made more of a mess of his home than the hurricane did. FEMA has given him a deadline of May 1st to vacate his trailer and after the first, they will be coming to take it regardless of whether or not his home is ready for him to live in. So Amy and I and a gentleman from Mississippi were sent to Eddie's house to install subflooring and tile in his living room, dining room, foyer, and hallways. We made some really good progress this week and will be finishing it up during the first half of next week, along with hopefully hooking up some plumbing that was left unfinished by the plumbers so he can have a working bathtub and kitchen sink. I have to tell you that I have never been so proud of Amy as I have been this week. She has been laying subfloor and tile as good as anyone I have ever worked with!!! She is really an amazing woman!! So we have settled into life at Camp Restore pretty well and have met some really awesome people down here. New Orleans is truly an amazing city with a spirit unlike any other that we have seen. Amy and I would ask that you all please continue to pray for the people of New Orleans, and in particular this week for Eddie. Also, please continue to keep us in your prayers for safety, strength and for opportunities to be the hands and feet of our Lord! Thank you for all of your notes, emails, texts, and most of all... prayers. We are really moved by all of the support that we have been given since we left home and are so grateful and thankful for all of you. You mean the world to us. God's blessings this week!! ~ Dave and Amy

Finally Made it to Camp Restore, New Orleans!

So after a fairly eventful trip from Connecticut to New Orleans via Florida, we finally made it to Camp Restore in New Orleans on the 16th of April! We set up camp (left) and were put to work right away! Our first assignment was painting the interior of a home that is owned by a man named Robert and his family.

Robert's street was flooded with about 4 feet of water and his home was flooded with about a foot of water during "the storm" as everyone calls it. Robert and his family were among the first in their neighborhood to return to their home about a month after Katrina hit the area and found the interior of the home including all of their furniture, clothes, etc. covered in mold. Since there was no way for them to live in their home while it was being rebuilt, they lived in a FEMA trailer on their front lawn. They finally had power to their home restored nearly 6 months after the storm.

Amy and I and 3 other volunteers from Illinois primed and painted the interior of Robert's home and had a chance to fellowship and pray with Robert over the few days that we were working in his home.

Our "shakeout" time in Florida was very exciting, getting used to full time life in the RV and getting chased around by tornadoes! We found a few leaks during the 4 inches of rain that fell one night and woke one morning to find that one of the dogs had been horribly sick... all over... literally. The good news is that we left Florida more determined than when we got there, so all of the enemy's predictable attacks only made us want to move on and get going. God also opened up some opportunities to spend a day with some of the homeless on the streets of Saint Augustine. We met 5 amazing people and had a chance to minister to and provide for some of their basic needs. Each of them have their own stories, but Amy and I would ask you to pray for James, James, John, Harley and Darlene, that God would meet their basic needs and open opportunities for employment in their lives.

Amy and I ask that you would also continue to keep us in your prayers for safety, strength and wisdom! We also want to thank you all for the amazing amount of support that we have received from all of you since we have been on the road. You have no idea how much hearing a voice from home or getting an email or text can make our day. Blessings from the Big Easy and missing you all!

-Dave and Amy

Sent Out In Love, Power and... Shaving Cream...

Last Sunday was our last week worshiping with our home church, Cornerstone, in Clinton. For us, it was a very emotional day. Amy and I gave a little talk about where we were going and what we were going to be doing for the next year. Pastor Chris and Pastor Dave (and the entire congregation) annointed us with oil and covered us in love and prayer which was the best part of all. At the end of the service, the entire congregation went out to the RV (which we drove to church at Pastor Chris' suggestion... hilarious!) and in the rain, surrounded the RV and prayed over it and us one more time. Pastor Chris then christened the RV with a bottle of champagne (two flat tires on the way out... jk) and we all went back into the church for one more song. At the end of the service, Pastor Chris made a passing comment that as a parting gift, a few of our brothers and sisters had decorated the RV and that they should all take a look at it on their way out. We should have known that the decorations would be done "Cornerstone Style" because when we went outside, the entire RV had been completely covered in shaving cream and toilet paper!! It was amazingly well done too!! (Good job DJ, Shannon and Greg! - Love you guys) We will miss our Cornerstone family tremendously. Thank you all for the outpouring of love and support that you have given to us during our time with you all.

The rest of the past week was spent saying goodbye to friends and family and moving into the RV! Amy took her first shower on Friday night and we are pleased to report that the shower pressure was "decent"! It even got the shampoo out of her hair!!! Also, thanks to Herb and Jeff for taking the time last Saturday to help install the tow brackets for the car. You guys were life savers!

So we are leaving tomorrow (finally) after a number of last minute things that popped up with RV, but everything is as set as it can be and we are New Orleans bound!! Please keep us in your prayers for safety and "boring travel". Love you all. Dave and Amy