Extreme Makeover... Home Edition in New Orleans.

Amy got back on Tuesday afternoon. It was really good to see her... even if she was tired. We decided to head right over to the Extreme Makeover Home Edition set.

They were here this past week working on a couple houses and a church in the city. The church is right down the street from the Yellow House and Castle Rock Community Church in Central City, New Orleans. They built the church and houses from the ground up in 6 days. A couple of the construction guys, a couple of Urban Impact staff, and even a team from Washington came over after our work was done for the day at our work sites. We worked well into the night, digging post holes for some stair cases and moving stuff around for the flooring crew to keep working.

Amy and I came back the next day when she got back. When we got there, people were painting in the front of the church and doing a lot of other stuff. Side note: It was amazing to see 100's of people all working on separate projects trying to get the work done in 6 days. At one point during the night, there were 4-5 different heavy machines running around us, carrying a variety of things. It was really neat to see. Especially since we have a much different philosophy for doing the work we do. We see the construction projects as way into relationships with people. So we don't mind if it takes 3 or 4 times as long to get the work done. That just means we're in the community a little longer.

We primed the hand rails on the front steps. One of the builders was going to hook me up with his drywall contractor to work around a door, but we left before he got back with the drywall, so it didn't work out. There were people walking around with video and still cameras. Click here for some pictures of me painting on set. Click "Day 5" and scroll through the pics. You'll see me in my orange hard hat. Those are Amy's white tennis shoes behind me on the stairs.

I went out there for the reveal and got to see some famous faces. Ty, Edward, Michael, and Paige were there for the reveal at the church.

I was really torn about all this. I kept thinking this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To work on such a huge project, not to mention, high profile. A comment was made in crowd at the reveal. "Once they (the pastor and family) go inside, this place will turn into a ghost town because they won't be coming back outside until filming is done". This struck me. Once this crew is gone, that's it. They're gone. They'll pack up their semi's and buses and go back to where ever they live. We'll still be here. No TV cameras, no audience, just us and our volunteers, making relationships, helping people get back into their houses and churches and, as our shirts say, "showing the love of Christ to those in need".