Sorry... I know it's been a while

A whole week! It seems like longer. It's been a kinda strange week. Amy really felt a burden to be at home with her family last week, so she got on a plane last Saturday and has been hanging out with her family for the last week. She'll return March 11. It's hard being apart. We really miss having each other around. Things have been pretty good besides.

We started work on a church in the city this week. It's called Rock of Ages Baptist Church. If I heard right, they were a congregation of 250 before the storm, now down to 25. They have continued to meet in other churches and have stayed in contact with the community around the church. I've heard a lot about the people in the community being really excited about getting the church back in the neighborhood. We were asked to come in and hang drywall. The church had been gutted sometime ago. This isn't the first time we've sent teams to the church, however. A church from Naperville, IL replaced the roof a while ago (at least this is what I've heard). There were 30 volunteers working there this past week, representing 3 churches. A team from California, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota/Minnesota. There were 3 builders on the teams there so it made my job a lot easier. There were 3 or 4 crews all hanging drywall in different parts of the church. Some of them had never hung a sheet of drywall. By the end of the week, they were calling the shots! Others were installing insulation, others scraping walls and floors, others fixing some of the framing studs in the basement. They even built a wall in the kitchen that will act as a serving window. It was really cool to see all those people working together. Some that hadn't met before this week. They worked really hard and got more accomplished than I anticipated. They completed all but the walls of the sanctuary and a few pieces on the ceiling of the sanctuary. They even had time to put the first coat of mud on in the classrooms. "It's an awe-some spec-ta-cle." We're excited to have 15 more volunteers working there next week from Amy's alma mater, Trinity International University.

Please continue to pray for us as we're apart. Pray for unity and communication in our team as we look to having 1100 volunteers in the next 6 weeks. Pray for the homeowners and people in the communities where we are working. Pray for the teams that are coming to help in the next weeks. Pray that God would be glorified by our actions, words, and thoughts.

Thanks for reading, We look forward to hearing your comments. Also, there is a group on facebook.com called "I served with EFCA Crisis Response". If you've served with us, and you're on facebook, please join. It's a great place to post pictures, stories, videos, etc and keep in touch with others that have served here in NOLA.

Phil