A busy one

We've been a bit busy as of late. Between all the vehicle problems I had the last few weeks and getting ready for teams each week, I've been pretty tired. Last weekend, I don't think I really moved until Sunday, then it was back to work. Not to mention, Amy's been really busy in the kitchen.

So, I'm heading off to Pensacola, FL with a couple guys from CO here for the next couple weeks and another staff member. We're hoping for some good conversations and relaxing time on the beach. Pray for our time there this weekend and for Brandon and Charles, the guys from CO.
We're also gearing up for our trip home. We'll be flying there one week from today and will be there until the following Saturday. While home, we'll be trying to catch up with as many people as possible, check out a baseball game with my dad, and top it all off with an "interview" on Friday. I was poking around online and came across a job that I had applied for before, but didn't get because I needed some more experience. Well, I got that and even worked part time for the company before departing for New Orleans. Amy and I are really excited about this opportunity and another opportunity. We're praying about all these things and asking that you would join with us in prayer for the Lord's will in this area.

A quick update on our friend that was sick. She's feeling much better now. She had to go to the hospital one night because she passed out. While waiting for the doctor to see her, she and her husband just prayed for about an hour. The tests came back totally normal. Kinda strange since she had been diagnosed just days earlier with Mono. But praise the Lord. She's been getting better and better as of late. Thanks for all your prayers for her and our team in her absence. We really appreciate it.

We look forward to seeing those of you in the Chicago area in a week and always look forward to reading your emails and comments. Have a great weekend.

Phil (for Phil and Amy)

A Couple of Prayer Requests

One of our dear friends and team members here in LA is very ill. Please pray for her to get better and that the physicians would have an understanding of what is going on and clarity in her treatment.

We're also praying for another car for us to get around while we're here. We are looking for something inexpensive (under $1000) that I can drive to and from the church or whatever.

Thanks, everyone!

Phil

Kind of a rough week

That may be a bit of an understatement. Monday was riddled with problems for the rest of the construction team. My Monday didn't go too bad. It started Tuesday afternoon. I stopped by a job site in the city and ran in to check on a team of plumbers. About 10 minutes later, while walking out to the truck, I heard tires squealing. I had just poked my head out the door and saw the truck pulling out and rounding the corner. I grabbed for my belt loop where I normally keep the keys to the truck... oops. I took off running through a field towards where the truck was going. A neighbor had heard the commotion and came outside to check on it. We hopped into his car and took chase, all the while, updating the police over the phone. Eventually, we spotted the truck. We pursued it for a while, but after about 10 minutes, we lost it for good. The police stopped their search shortly after. It was gone. Along with a bunch of the ministry's tools (brand new Dewalt 18v cordless tool set), my tool belt, camera, iPod, etc. My heart sank. It's gone. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night. Wednesday was without incident, just some processing, which wasn't much fun.
Thursday came about and I needed a truck to haul some materials for Rock of Ages and get the tools. I took the '96 F150 that we call the Spud. It was donated with a bed full of potatoes from Idaho, thus the Spud. got off the highway on my way to Rock of Ages. It was just a couple minutes later as I was sitting at a red light, I was resting my foot on the break when it suddenly lost pressure and went to the floor. "Great... no brakes. This will be fun." I was able to carefully get to the church, which was only a mile away or so. Further inspection... broken brake line to the front brakes. OK. Now what?
I was able to get a ride to our Thursday meeting where we picked up a trailer to tow the Spud back to Trinity for repair. We loaded it up and were on our way. Before we got to the highway, we hit a bump and the trailer jumped the ball, hit the ground, slammed into the back of the truck we were towing it with, and we dragged it by the chains until we could safely come to a stop. "Well, this is going well." At this point, I was pretty discouraged. A long week just got longer. After a trip to Lowe's to get the right size ball on our hitch, we were finally on our way.
All that to catch you up to where we are today. Amy and I are pretty tired. It was really hard to focus on what we were doing last week. There's going to be a little time to recover and try to catch up on some of the areas we lost track of. Amy has been there for me every step of the way, helping me cope with this, as well as helping another family on our team. Mom has mono and dad was with me, so Amy has been watching their kids. She has been great. I would really have been lost without her around.
I'm getting ready for next week, trying to put all this behind me and get back to "normal". We've learned a lot, both as an organization and as individuals, about how to handle situations like this one in the future. It's opened up the door for some good communication.
Please continue to pray that we would all see the good God has planned to come out of this. Pray for the person who took the truck, that they would know God through this. While it was partly my fault, having left the keys in the truck, I know God will provide for exactly what we need. The beauty and mystery of His grace.

Hello everyone!

Greetings from Louisiana, where the weather today is the same as back home. Sunny and 60. It's a nice change from the upper 80's and humidity we'd been feeling the last couple weeks.
Well, Amy and I have been kinda sick again lately. I'm getting over a cold, but I think it's turning into a sinus infection. I've been congested for over a week now and my face hurts when I bend over to tie my shoes. Amy's got strep, along with two or three others here on staff. We've been joking that it's our latest "Staff" infection.
My eyes have been feeling better the last couple of days. After another irritation, I've been wearing my glasses. I got a stye later in the week, but that's gone now, too. I'm hoping to wear my contacts for the rest of the week. My dad sent me some safety glasses that don't fog. I'm hoping that this will help. That way I can still see what I'm doing and keep my eyes safe from debris. I had an appointment with the LASIK guy here in New Orleans. He does 400 procedures a month and did one of my friends eyes. I'm eligible for the procedure and will be doing some additional research on it before I continue with the process. Please be praying for this.
Amy's home church, Grace EFC, was here from Aledo, IL last week. There were about 10 of them here for the week. Amy went out with them for Monday and Friday and I was working with them most of the rest of the week. We worked at Rock of Ages mostly, but found our way to a couple other job sites trying to get them ready for this week. They made a lot of connections with the people in the neighborhood around Rock of Ages. They also had some great ideas for bringing what we do here in NOLA back to Aledo. I'm really excited to see how God uses this trip to further His kingdom through this team.
This is the last week of 100+ volunteers. We'll be slimming down to 40's-50's until school lets out, then it'll be crazy again. Please be praying for the staff here as we will have some time on our hands to plan and prepare for the summer. We are also going to be looking to replace about 6 people that will be leaving between May and the end of July. Thanks to all that read this blog for your support, prayerfully, financially, and with your encouraging words. We really appreciate all you do for us!! God bless.

~Phil

Another great week

The weather has started to warm up into the 80's around here. It's getting pretty humid. I've started bring extra shirts to work this past week. It turns out I sweat a lot. The work at Rock of Ages is moving along at a pretty good clip now. The sanctuary and classrooms are painted. The fellowship hall downstairs is almost ready for texture and the bathrooms are finally drywalled. Thanks to the team from Midland, MI that worked really hard on getting all that done this week. Amy's home church, Grace EFC, will be here next week. They'll be working on the church and another house in the city. I'm hoping we'll be able to close that house out this week. Our volunteer numbers will be coming down a little over the next few weeks. We need to finish up some of these smaller jobs so we can focus our few resources on the bigger projects we have open right now.

You can be praying for our health this week. I've started getting a cold. Amy's doing OK. We've actually had some of our volunteers getting really sick while they are here. Some have even had to make ER visits. Please be praying for this. We don't know what's causing it.

Finally, I've been thinking a lot about 1 Peter 2:9 lately.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

It's just been showing up in different places all this week. First in a couple of songs I was listening to in the truck, then on the backs of the t-shirts the team from MI was wearing. So I thought I would share it with you. Have a wonderful week. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

~Phil (for Phil and Amy)