In Antigua

It is now Tuesday, and we have left the town of Lemoa for the big city of Antigua. We thank God that we were able to serve many people.

The construction team poured a couple of lintels for a wall at a local school in Lemoa. The purpose of the wall is to expand the reach of the school, as well as providing safety and security. The school serves children up through sixth grade, which is about all the schooling the Mayan people in Guatemala receive.

The medical team saw somewhere around 350 to 400 people. They traveled many miles, up hills, down hills, and of course over dirt roads. They were bumped around a lot, but they continued to serve with joy.

The VBS team served over 315 people, sometimes all at once! It started as bedlam, but it eventually came under some sort of control. We are thankful that we had just barely enough crayons and toothbrushes for everyone.

We have met some amazing people. We met several American young adults who are spending a year in an orphanage. We also met two inspirational Roman Catholic nuns whose lives testify to the power of God in the midst of violence and poverty. God is certainly good! All the time!

We will be touring Antigua for the next day and a half and plan to return home on Thursday evening, God willing.

Hope you all are well. Thank you for your prayerful support!

Pastor Mark

We Are Here

we are here in guatemala city.
after a long day of travel we arrived at the methodist camp in lemoa last night around 9 pm central time.
this morning our teams set out
the medical team served 75 people today
work was done on a wall at a local school
vacation bible school was...an experience.
the closest internet connection is in chichicastanenga, so we will probably not be able to post much.
thank you all for your prayers and support!
- amanda

2008 VIM Trip to Guatemala

Beloved Ones,

Here we are, just a couple of days before leaving on our next VIM trip to Guatemala! 16 of us will be going - along with lots of luggage, mostly containing donations made by you for the people we will be serving.

Providing we can find an internet cafe, we'll post as often as we can throughout our journey.

Please pray for us!

Pastor Mark

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

From Nicaragua

Greetings from Camoapa, Nicaragua!!!

We are alive and well and appreciating the finer things of life, such as sunsets, friendships, and a wider view of the world. We may not have hot water (or even water, at times), consistent electricity, or peace and quiet in the evenings (sometimes the music in the bar next door gets a little raucous), but the good work we are doing and the great relationships we are forming make those things matter little.We are involved in 2 projects, planting trees and building stoves out of concrete and rebar. We are working in one of the lushest, greenest places I have ever been. We are in the midst of gorgeous mountains, sometimes working on steep hillsides, and we can see other mountains miles away. It rains at least once a day, sometimes hard, so the heat and humidity combine to make excellent growing conditions. And the flowers! Every house, no matter how plain, has a garden. The houses are about what we expected, wood or block structures with dirt floors and no screens or glass in the windows. The roofs are made of a variety of materials including tin, wood, terra cotta tiles, and the occasional thatch. This is farm country, so animals abound everywhere, horses, pigs, dogs, and lots of cows. It reminds me a lot of old cowboy movies.

We are grateful to God, to our families, and to Hiss Church for supporting us with your prayers and financial support. We look forward to seeing you again in person very soon!
To God be the glory!

Mark SmileyVolunteers in MissionHiss United Methodist Church

Pictures from WV

Doug

Doug D is the Housing Repair Coordinator for the Summer Home Repair program. He has been with the Upshur Cooperative Parish since 1996. His previous experience was with McDowell Mission in Gary, WV and a non-profit in Williamson, WV. He is married to Carol , the Director of Upshur Cooperative Parish and Crosslines
Doug lead our closing ceremony which we will always remember. We washed each other's hands to continually remind us to always be of service to others and in so doing we are serving God.
We had a chance to share with each other about our service and love for each other.

The Clothes Closet

New and recycled clothing for the entire family is available to anyone who wants to shop at the Clothes Closet. The store is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 1:00 P.M. The Clothes Closet is operated completely by volunteers and sells clothing, household items, books and furniture. Prices range from 25 cents and up. The store is located at 47 Sedgewick Street in Buckhannon and is directly behind the Parish House.

Sue, Janey, Beth, Rachael and Sarah spent time here sorting clothes, pricing clothes and placing items out in the store.

West Virginia Wesleyan - Wesley Chapel

Upshur Parish House

The Parish House 68 College Avenue Buckhannon, WV 26201 (304) 473-8490

parishhouse@wvwc.edu

The Parish House was purchased by the Upshur Cooperative Parish in 1991 in order to house the ministries that were started to address the needs of people in Upshur County. The United Methodist Churches of Upshur Parish purchased the house which is located across from the West Virginia Wesleyan College Campus. The Parish House provides resources to individuals, local churches and other organizations: A Resource Room contains curriculum for Bible studies, worship resources, Church School teaching materials, reference books and other materials for use by the churches in the Upshur Parish. Included in these materials is the Disciple Bible Study series. An office is provided for Buckhannon River Habitat For Humanity. The Layette Room provides a bundle of supplies to eligible parents of newborn babies; churches and other organizations provide the items for the layettes through planned baby showers and special donations. Crosslines is located in the Parish House, providing information and referral services to individuals. Youth exchange trips to Germany are organized in a cooperative effort with Methodist churches abroad. The Parish House works in cooperation with other local organizations to provide the Christmas Store, a place where eligible parents may purchase new toys at reduced prices and obtain books, puzzles, warm winter clothing and used toys for their children.

Travels to and from WV

Wow what a week.
Sunday, we left from the Carney Mars parking lot about 8:30 am, drove in 3 cars and 2 trucks to WV. Stopped at McDonald's for lunch, along with about 200 boys scouts on their way to camp and then finally arrived in Buckhannon about 2:45 pm.
Unpacked and settled in our dorm ( not exactly the dorm for which I would want to pay big bucks.
Return home was Friday night. After a wonderful closing ceremony on Friday lead by Doug ourliason in WV, we headed home. We stopped at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner (took longer than expected) and then we had along drive home. We all arrived at Hiss by midnight with a tired group of workers. Boy did they work too!
Thanks to all who worked this week. It was a very successful week. I am sure you will see more entries in this blog once everyone wakes up again.
Lois, Don and Amy met us at Hiss. We all said good-bye and went home to sleep, sleep , sleep!

Janey

Tired!

Hello!

This week has gone by so fast! I can't believe it's Thursday already!!!! We have had a great time working. Scraping paint off a house is tough work! We've had fun though, and now the house is all painted and looking lovely! I am so proud of all our hard work and endurance throughout the week.

The man who owns the house we are working on is very grateful and the neighbors are quite appreciative as well. One woman even baked us a Zucchini Cake on Monday! YUM!

On Tuesday we used primer and scraped some more.

On Wednesday, six of us went White Water Rafting and had a blast. Not one person in our group fell out of the raft while going over the rapids. We went up to a class 5 rapid and had a ball jumping from high rocks into the water, "riding the bull" and popping wheelies in the raft. The only thing is, I got sunburn on the top of my thighs! Talk about weird. For dinner, those who went rafting stopped at Biscuit World for dinner. We have all decided that Maryland needs a Biscuit World. :)

The dorms are pretty nice. Everyone seems to be getting along well. :)

Today we finished painting the house, and now it's a bright, crisp white. Mr. Bob, Steph and I got to explore the weak & rotting roof and paint up there. That was even scarier than the rapids! There is still much work to be done on the house but we can only do so much in the little time have here. While painting today I got to thinking about just how blessed I am to have such good people around me. I really am happy and proud to work with everyone on our team.

Alright folks! I can't think of anything else to type and I'm falling asleep on the keyboard as it is! It's time for a nap, goodnight. :) God Bless! ~Laura~

Our Week in WV

Emily-
Well... it only took us until the second to last day to fiqure out the blog! Good thing we finally did! We have done so much this week! I have been working with Dave and Greg to fix a bathroom floor and put a finish on a wall and put in a dryer thing... I don't remember what it is called! The bathroom floor was my part of the "project" I got the wonderful job of ripping it up! It was very fun. The floor under her bath tub was rotten and we later found out that the support beam under the bathroom was completly rotted- Dave could even step right though it! Dave and Greg then had to figure out how to fix the floor when there was little to no wood to hook on to, but they did it! Then we found out that the bathtub drain was just funning under the house and thats why it was rotted. Then after the whole floor was repaired and the tub connected, they put down new tiles and a new vanity which had sunk into the floor and was also rotten. Before I left my Dad made sure that I had all the tools on the list and I got to use most of them! I think this week has been amazing and except for how tired I am, I am not entirely ready to go home.
Yesterday, six of us got to go White Water Rafting which was on of the most fun things I think i have ever done in my life! All the rapids were between 3 and 5 after the "warm-up rapids". The people that went were Stephanie, me, Laura, Joel, Mr. Wayne and Mr. Bob. Our guide's name is Stu and he made the rafting much more fun than it already was.
Well, I think I should leave room for other to type as well!
God Bless!

Sarah-
Stephanie, Laura, Rachael, Mr. Bob, Mrs. Mary and me worked all week on scraping and painting a house. Some of the wood was rotting and the paint was chipping off. After we chipped off all of the paint off the house and porch we started painting. After every day we were covered in paint. And to make matters worse we have bees chasing and stinging us. On ther first day Mr. Bob got stung on the neck by a wasp. He almost fell off the latter but luckily Mrs. Mary was spotting him. All the neighbors were so thankful for what we were doing, one even made us a cake. Even though I still have paint in my hair I think it was worth it. Tomorrow
we are putting new wood on the porch. When we got there there were boards missing and we lost some more in the process.
Yesterday while the others were going out white water rafting, Mrs. Carol, Mrs, Beth, Mrs. Janey, Mrs. Sue, Mrs. Mary, Rachael, Lauren and I did other things. First we went to breakfast at the Ole Mill Inn. It was really good! Then staight from there we went to the Blackwater falls. We ate lunch at the Purple Fiddle and looked at some stores. Then we came back went shopping and went to Maggie's for dinner. Overall I think the trip was great!

Steph= so this has been an amazing week! my group has been painting this houseand today me and laura went up on the roof.it was deff the scariest thing ive ever done .i almost cried.but we lived.then on weds. we went rafting it was the most amaizing thing ive done.we rode class1-5 rapids.our guide was very cool he taught us to "ride the bull"which is when you get in the frony of the rapids hold on to the handle with 1 hand and wavw the other in the air.**thanks STU for not killing us**.oh joel did try to kill us on the last rapid plus while we poped the wheely. all in all a very cool week.

Rachael- This week has been so much fun! I've been painting a man's house and it looks really nice. The neighbors have been so nice and appreciative. One neighbor even made us a zuchinni cake!!! A bunch of people stop to thank us and when people go buy they usually smile or wave. On Tuesday night we went to a gathering thing that Mrs. Beth's 2nd cousin had for us at the pool. It was so much fun swimming. Some people from the other church were diving and they had their own cheering section from us. We've had so much fun this week and have a lot of funny stories. I can't wait for next year!!!

Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

Hello Hiss Friends and family,

We have had a rough time being able to access the internet. No access to our laptops in our rooms, the only option is to go to the library ( which closes at 4:30 pm). Consequently, no information. Everyone else is working ( except for me ).

We have been divided into 3 ( actually 4) teams.

Wayne , Joel, David B, Lauren and Carol have worked very hard pulling down ceiling tiles from a living room and kitchen in a house . Earlier today, I was out there helping a bit to staple the new tiles to the ceiling. Joel is the official cutter. Wayne is the boss and everyone else pitches in. Lauren and Carol have become excellent staplers. Another new member today is Beth. She can reach the ceiling without a ladder so she is a good helper, too. They get them lined up and bang, bang bang , it is up. I left at lunch time and they just about had the living room completed. Only the kitchen to finish. David and Wayne have also been working on that roof. It looks so good!


Group #2 consists of Bob, Mary and 4 of the girls, Laura, Stephanie,Sarah and Rachael ( note I spelled it correctly, I hope). They are painting a house. I hear they just came in so they may be finished. Not really sure about that. Mary keeps them on task and well hydrated. She is a great crew leader. This is the house that my sister, Sue and family were painting last week.


Group # 3 consists of David C, Greg and Emily. They have torn up floor and replaced it, done some plumbing work and not sure what else exactly. A major job though. I think they accomplished a lot.

And then there is Beth, Sue and me. On Monday and Tuesday, we went over to the clothes closet. We went through bag after bag of clothes and other goodies. All were donations.
For those of you, who went to LA last summer and remember the warehouse. Well this is a mini-warehouse. They run a store selling just about anything for up to $1. We sorted through bags of stuff from total junk to beautiful new clothes. There was a small child's bed. They keep busy over there. New donations come in every day. They are eternally grateful for the supplies that we brought down here. Two truckloads full of clothing, kitchen items, shoes, boots, etc.. Thanks to each and everyone who contributed to this very worthy cause.
The school supplies will be given out beginning this week. They are not in the store. They are being given to children in need.

Sue and Beth have been great cooks ( I am the chief bottle washer). We have breakfast and dinner together every day. We pack our own lunches at breakfast and then eat lunch at the job site. We certainly can use up the bottled water. We 'gotta' keep the youth and adults well hydrated.

The dorms leave a bit to be desired but at least there are beds and good showers, etc.. We are enjoying each other. The youth are having a great time too.

Now for the fun day. On Wednesday, Sue, Carol, Beth, Janey, David B, Sarah, Rachael, Lauren and Miss Mary started the morning by having breakfast out. A" good ole West Virginia restaurant". We took off for Blackwater Falls. A beautiful site and yes, I made it all the way to the bottom and back out again. It was a great morning. The girls liked the gift shops, too.
After that, we stopped in Thomas, WV at a little country place called the " Purple Fiddler". We had lunch- lots of organic foods and at the right time, you could fill up on blue grass music. It was a very unusual place. Lots of little shops around but we forgot that in little towns, shops close at noon on Wednesdays so we didn't get in to much shopping. Later, we later went out for dinner at a local restaurant, called CJ Maggie's. It was much more typical of a modern chain like TGIF. It ended a perfect day.

Now there was the brave group. Wayne, Bob, Laura, Emily, Joel and Stephanie. They spend Wednesday white water rafting. They came home about 9 pm full of stories and video of their trip. They could not stop talking about it. I think they will remember that day for a long time.

Tonight, we are going out to David C and Greg's campsite for a cookout. Youth may even get a chance to go fishing.

Tuesday evening was wonderful too. The local Presbyterian Church hosted a dinner and pool party for us. It was a lot of fun. Beth's cousin, Joseph and his wife Charlotte brought along many members and they were great hosts and hostesses. The pool was great relaxation for all of those aching joints.

I will be home tomorrow night ( Friday ) with Carol, Joel and Rachael. Some others , are also opting to come home Friday night. I think dorm life is not all it's cracked up to be.

Thanks for all of your gifts and prayers for this trip. A lot of people have been helped this week.

See you all soon.

Thursday Aug 2nd

Janey

And, for the next trip - to West Virginia!

I brought Emily bright and early to the church on Sunday - in fact, she even did the driving - and did a great job, I might add. Sue Crue picked her up and crammed her stuff into an already overstuffed car. I hope they didn't drive all the way with their luggage in their laps!

Our prayers go with all of our youth and adults as they spend a week as Volunteers in Mission in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Do some good, and enjoy yourselves, as well!

Pastor Mark Smiley

Home at last

Tom -

I finally made it home this afternoon. Tired but otherwise in reasonably good (at least as good as it can get after 18 plus hours in the saddle behind the wheel and long, seemingly endless roads ahead of me!) condition.

On Saturday, I dropped Louise and Wayne off at the airport and wished them well (How little did I realize the adventure that awaited them.) I drove back over the 27 mile Causeway to Mandeville and stayed at Sally Tausend's home overnight getting some much needed rest before starting the long 1135 mile journey to Baltimore and home.

Sunday I arrived in Chattanooga, TN. Checked into the hotel and ordered pizza before going back to bed for 12 plus hours! On Monday, I played the tourist and visited the Chattanooga Choo Choo National Historical Site and the 2 Tennessee Aquariums on the panoramic Tennessee River and a gorgeous view of the Smokey and Lookout Mountains. It was a much needed day of genuine relaxation. Tuesday it was off to Harrisonburg, VA and today, the final 150 miles home.

I must truly echo Louise's comments about the short and long term volunteers that keep the rebuilding process going. They are a dedicated bunch of people from literally all over the United States and for our time there, from Ireland too. One of the gentlemen in our room drove his motorcycle from Los Angeles for a ten day stay. Others from Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, New Hampshire, Delaware, New Jersey. From the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains, Albany, New York City areas and of course my most favorite of birthplaces - Buffalo,NY. A marvelously diverse group of eager individuals and groups of people to help out.

We Worked hard each day (on the 4th - we worked hard at sleeping and having fun). We met many great people and learned a great deal about the culture of post Katrina survival and recovery. The locals were very friendly and eagerly shared their experiences and thanks for the efforts of all the volunteers who have been a part of the recovery effort. They went out of their way to offer whatever assistance they could to make the transition easier. Even my vehicle got into the act when a tire tried to eat a screw on Friday and nearly went flat. I had local help at Camp Hope to change the tire out and a 10 dollar patch repair at the tire repair shop up the road on Saturday morning.

It was truly a wonderful and inspirational experience. One definitely well worth exploring for future VIM trips. The need will be there for many years to come.

Till the next time........

Tom

Louise-On our last day in New Orleans we said our goodbyes to our fellow workers at Camp Hope. The people we met were an amazing bunch, esp the college students. So far from home, many of them alone, but all very committed to do something worthwhile this summer.Our stay was short but many of them will be there for 3-5 weeks. The Americorp workers and long term workers were also very driven to make these people's lives better and they are doing it, one family at a time.
After fixing a flat tire on Tom car, we headed to the French Quarter (locally known as Vieux Carre) to meet with Sally and Jamie Tausend. They were part of the St. Timothy's group from Mandeville LA that sang at our church last year. Sally gave us a tour last year of the harder hit areas. We had lunch and caught up with each lives. We then walked around the Royal Street
area which has lots of art galleries and jewelry stores. Before we met up with Sally we toured the St. Louis Cathedral which was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. When we came out a couple was getting married right at the entrance of Jackson Square! We listened to the vows and clapped as they were pronounced husband and wife. It was sweet.
Our flights home were interesting. Once we were in Nashville we found out that our plane
was going to be 3 hours late! We didn't get into Baltimore until 2pm and our luggage didn't come in for a while so we didn't get home until 3:30am. But we did the great fortune to sit with a local DJ named Konan from 92.3 who was very nice and interested in our trip. We showed him our Katrina DVD and told him all about our experiences and ended up giving him the DVD to put online. He will get the message out to a lot of people and remind everyone how badly LA still needs our help. He ended up buying us dinner! He speaks at lots of schools and organizations and I think he will have great impact, his choosing to sit next to us was definitely divine intervention!
Thanks to everyone who helped support us this week, with your prayers and well wishes and especially all your support at the VIM fundraisers, the flower and pizza sales etc. We are willing to take vacation time, do the traveling and work, but your support so we don't have to pay ALL the expenses really helps and makes it possible for us to do this more often. In fact we are thinking of coming back down in January! Hopefully with some more youth and muscle (otherwise known as college students!). We will presenting all the VIM trip at services sometime this fall. Hope to see you there.

Ready to come home.

Tom - This has been quite a week. Today we closed our last day at the build site. There has been a lot of work done to the house. Today Wayne helped install the fascia board so the roof work could begin. There is still more work to be done on that before they can commence. Louise and I worked on framing a post on the porch. We had a good deal of fun trying to get just the right measurements and cuts to compensate for the wood being wet and warped. By the end of the day we finally got the right cuts and secured it in place. Someone else will have to put the finishing touches on it. All in all it looks a lot more like a house than it did on Monday. It rained steadily in the morning and we all got soaked trying to do our jobs. It stopped by the afternoon but then the sun blazed in all its hot and humid glory and we got sunburned fairly good.

There is an Irish contingent here this week and today they were challenged to a soccer match by us Americans. The final score was Irish 4 Americans 3. All in all we did what we could to keep the peace on this side of "the lake" for a little longer. (I think we probably let them win!)

Tomorrow we start our journey's home. We will spend some more time in the French Quarter until I take Louise and Wayne to the airport later in the afternoon for flight at 530pm. I will stay one more night in Mandeville with Sally Tausend and get started home on Sunday morning.

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us and kept us in your thoughts this week. We look forward to seeing you again soon and share our experiences. Pray for safe travel.

Good Night and God Bless.

PS.

Pastor Mark,

Wish you were here to give us all 'absolution' that we could return with a clear conscience and cleansed souls. Just kidding for we all really did behave ourselves (chuckle chuckle laugh).

more about the storm

Louise- Yesterday I told you a little about the DVD we watched which was followed by a discussion with 2 residents, one a man named Steve and another who is a local fireman who lived his whole life here in the parish. When Steve's house flooded he had about 30 seconds to get his disabled wife through the water and up the attic stairs. She made it to the stairs but couldn't get to the roof, he did and after a few hours he was able to flag someone down who helped him pull her out. She unfortunately died 9 months later of "Katrina related conditions".
That's what the death certificate says. He still cries when he speaks about her, it's so hard not to cry when you see this 60 something year old man choke up.
Many people here had fishing boats, there is lots of marsh around here. Because of this many many people we saved by their neighbors. The fireman said that the reason so many people did not know how hard this parish was hit was because after the huge wave of water came in, the officials made this area a "No Fly Zone" because they did not expect there to be any survivors!
What this means is that no media or reports or pictures would record this. They did not see help for 4 days! But there were survivors!
At the top of a local bridge there is a camera that takes pictures every minute, it recorded the major wave coming in. The picture is mesmerizing, the levee is 25 feet high, the water is easily that large with some room to spare, the estimate is a total of anywhere between 60-70 feet tall.
Houses closer than Steve's were instantly submerged and everyone drown, people and pets.
The numbers of each are still on the houses.
I can only handle this a bit a a time, but we will be back later tonight to tell you about our day.
Till then-ciao.

This is not my driveway

house for sale

i am hungry

levees rebuilt

wallboard going up

Thursday

Tom- Today I spent at Andrew Jackson High School volunteering with Play Power an organization underwritten by the Children's Museum of Louisiana. Originally it began in New York City following 9-11. The program was for the children of the families affected to give them a therapeutic opportunity to be children and be themselves in the midst of catastrophes. The age range is elementary school, ages 6-12. It is just a summer program which also allows the parents to attend to family matter related to their recovery.
Today following orientation began working with 3rd and 4th graders who were in the process of putting together a circus to be held on the 12th of July. At the beginning after I introduced myself I told them a funny story about myself and showed them on a map where I drove from.The kids surrounded me wanting to know more details of my trip down. We put together their costumes, one young lad made a colorful creation out of pipe cleaners and walked up to me and said "Here, I want you to have this" and he had a big smile on his face and saying thank you. Following lunch we went down to the gym to watch them play and interact with each other which was wonderful to see. Going back upstairs they entered into a classroom of kids, 4th grader boy and girls and likewise began helping them with their costumes and as I was sitting there creating a headpiece with ears out of pipecleaners a young girl came over to me and asked if she could have it. She had irresistable eyes so I gave it to her!. Shortly after that a boy walked over to me and gave me a wrist bracelet made out of pipecleaners and said "I made this for you " and he tied it around my wrist saying thank you with a big smile.
At the close of the day as I was preparing to leave, 2 young boys that I had worked with, stopped coloring and came to the door and said "Bye Bye Tom" which put me through the floor, thinking they actually remembered my name. This school , AJ Elementary School is now the largest in the US with 2085 children so they are coming back.
This was a very profound and moving experience for me seeing these kids in the midst of this tragedy having fun just being kids. Last year when me and Wayne drove through he parish delivering supplies from Sager Brown there were no kids to be seen. A very worthwhile and faith re-enforcing day, one that would benefit young people and youth equally.

Wayne and Louise- Today we went into a madhouse of clothes etc. we sorted and hung and cleaned and spoke with many people coming into the distribution center. People were very appreciative of the things they received and our help. We gave out boxes of linen from the Church of Latter Day Saints along with clothes, shoes, shovels and rakes. Even though everything was free of charge, most people only took exactly what they needed, no more. It was impressive. We also got a more extensive tour through some of the harder hit neighborhoods.
Previously on Tuesday night we watched a DVD about the storm and St. Bernard's parish (where Camp Hope is located). This area got hit by water from 3 different directions. It took about 30 seconds for the water to go from floor level to the ceiling. For about 1 hour the water came in, then it retreated and most of this area was left with 10 feet of standing water. It took between 3-5 weeks to go away. Only about one quarter of the population has returned to this close knit working class community. Approximately 1 out of every 25 houses is being restored. 24/25 houses are still as they were last year when we first saw them. That's how slow this is changing but when you see the one house you are bursting with a sense of hope. We are bringing 2 copies of the DVD home with us to share with anyone interested.

Framing Work

Foundation Work

shower stalls at M*A*S*H

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!
We slept late and enjoyed every minute of it! After a huge thunderstorm that lasted a good 3 hours we headed off for the French Quarter in the cooler but very muggy afternoon air. The guys were happy eating their alligator bites and we heard several types of musical bands. The city was much cleaner with many more souvenir stores and restaurants open. It was much more alive and that was very heartwarming to see.
The guys totally enjoyed all the interesting (?) slogans and messages on the t-shirts. Man you could hear them laughing all the way in the back of the store! I tried to pretend I didn't know them but it didn't matter they always had new friend up front anyway! That's all I can say about that because we decided "what happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans". Sorry Mark, it's between us and God now. Tom is going to do a lot of praying for us on Sunday, he might not make it home till the weekend at this rate! Ah, these trip always lead to such bonding experiences!
At 9pm we had the best display of fireworks! It only lasted 10 minutes but it was from 2 barges on the river, well synchronized and very technically advanced. It was impressive.
Back to work tomorrow, hope you all had as great a day as we did.

Day 2

Well another interesting day. We realized that we are the oldest workers at the job site, in fact Louise is the oldest. Which at first was momentarily depressing but then I felt like I must be doing ok for an old broad because I was keeping up with most of the people (but not all). It started out very humid but cooler, by about 2pm the sun came out and we fried for the last 45 minutes. Thank God it was the end of the day.
We accomplished a lot today as a group. We put in several windows, the front door, started on the front stairs and leveled all around the house. We had help from another group of teens mostly from Illinois. After lunch the trusses for the roof arrived. They should go up on Thursday.
On Thursday Tom is going to spend some time with the group Play Power, mostly elementary school aged kids. This is a place where the kids can get away and act like kids. There is so much stress in the homes because the parents are still fighting with the insurance companies that the kids need a safe and fun place to hang. Uncle Tom Meyer will be great fun I know. Wayne and
Louise will spend the day in the distribution center doing whatever needs to be done.
We finally got rain tonight, one heck of a thunderstorm that lasted a good 20 minutes of hard rain and thunder. Our lights were flickering constantly. Thank goodness we were back by then.
As we drive over to our site we feel like we are traveling through a war zone. Every now and then we hit a pocket where there is life and open stores. Then for the next few miles it's back to total destruction and isolation. It's depressing how little has changed in a year, and then you'll hit another pocket that springs hope of resurgence. Everyone keeps telling us that it's the college and high school students and the church groups that are rebuilding New Orleans.
Today we had several people stop by the site to thank us and take pictures. They are so appreciative and often ask where we are from. They love hearing all the places that are sending help, I think it helps them feel connected.
We plan on sleeping for about the next 12 hours, then we will eat then probably take a nap,
then have lunch and after one more power nap we might venture into the French Quarter for some dinner, fun and fireworks on the Mississippi. They are having "Dueling barges" on the river with lots of music and food. We can't be out too late because Thursday is an early day. Then on Friday we will probably go back to the house site and finish up there. Saturday we are out of Camp M*A*S*H* ( oops I mean Camp Hope) and will probably head back to the French Quarter to meet with Sally (our friend that gave us a tour last year) and do a little shopping.
Then Tom starts his road trip back and Wayne and Louise hit the friendly skies for a late arrival
on Saturday night. Tom will probably arrive home on Tuesday or Wednesday.
If we are not too tired tomorrow we will all chat again. Have a safe and happy 4th.

We are here in Camp Hope, LA

we arrived last night about 5:15pm, Tom was already here. It was hot and muggy, nice breeze at night here. We have decided this place reminds us of the show M*A*S*H*. They have this horrible canned filtered water that reminds the guys of the Army. Thank goodness we found a working store and bought Gatorade (and chocolate for Louise) . Today we started out at the musician's village then moved into the city of New Orleans where they were building another

Habitat home right down from a levee. There were about 22 of us , lots of kids and we hammered and moved lots of dirt and concrete. We are feeling old tonight but I think tomorrow we will really be feeling it. Tomorrow the trusses for the roof arrive and we will help with that. Wednesday we are off for the holiday!!!! We might help at the St. Bernard Parish picnic then go to the fireworks in the french quarter right on the river. Time to go shower and try to find some air conditioning, please send cooler weather. ttyl

How can you tell when you have been in the car for to long?

So, do you want to know how to tell you have been in the car for to long? Its really very simple.
~One way to tell is when finding Heather's reflexes becomes the most interesting and hilarious thing in the world (i was begining to think they did not exist...but have no fear, i found them twice, they dont jump very high)
~Another way to tell is when phrases like "you need to see a body programer" escape from your mouth. which i did say. to heather. and she does. If you are curious, a body programer is like a computer programer, they fix the wiring of someone who is wired wrong. like our dear heather(lyl!) .
~Yet another way is when the only adult in the car is 15 years old. and yes, i am that adult. Amanda was calling people and getting the answering machine, so Amanda and Heather decided to call each other with out actually calling each other. My dad decided it looked like so much fun, he decided to 3-way himself in. That is when i decided i was the only adult. They were talking about the weather, Amanda said it was raining, Heather said it was discusting, my dad said he didnt know how the weather was do drastically different concidering he was dry and was only about 2 feet away from each of them.
~Cracking up without making any noise tells two things, one, you are really tired, and two, you have been in the car to long.
~You also know you have been in the car to long when your Bejewled score is over 20,000. and that was mine. i beat heather, and she now feels a need to play until she beats it.
~When Su Doku's give you amazing headaches, you know you have been staring at if for to long and that you need to get out of the car.
~Sleeping extensivly when you are not tired is yet another way to tell you have been in the car for to long, especially when you decide the person next to you is about as comfey as the pillow.
You now know how to tell if you have been in the car for to long. There are many other ways, but i dont feel like writing them! Thanks for following our blog! It can be used in the future by any Hiss VIM trips, just see someone who went on the trip for the access information. I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday!
God Bless!
Emily

FINALLY HOME!!!!

We made it home.. It may have been about 5pm but it was earlier than we thought and we had no problems...There was many ways that you could tell that we had been in the car with one another way too long, but all that matters is that we had fun. It was an extremly long haul and we couldnt wait to get home. Sunday we were like, cant we justhdrive straight through ( we woulda arrived home at 6am!) how great would that have been?
Playing "phone" with the adults in the car, emily decides she is officially the only adult that was in the car. haha (not). we were just making amada feel loved.
Emica (emily amanda megan) < we never know who we were talking to everyone always had a different name (that is all except pastor mark).
Sleeping about 12 hours last night in my OWN bed was the greatest. I however had time to reflect a little last night when I got home. I am so thankful for everything that I am lucky enough to still own. I was able to come home to my own bed and things that are mine. There was damage to my house however.. but damage in which we planned for (new work in the kitchen). To make living here a little more moveable for the future.
Thank you to all for your prayers and thoughts. You were all with us, and with out you all praying for us, who knows what would have happened.
May God Bless you all and please those who wanna experience something like this, dont let anything hold you back, people are so opening an dwilling that even if a few go down you will still be able to find a host family or something that as long as you are up to change and easy goign all will work out. Thanks Ms Sally and Jaime and to Shawn and his wife for you opening your house to the at first 5 than 4 of us, ya'll are great and may I say such beautiful homes.
Hope to see you all at church on Sunday.
Love Always
Heather

8-6-08

Janey
What a day in New Orleans on Saturday. We tried to see it all from the French Market to a little walk down Bourbon Street to the Katrina devastation.
With all of the storms around, we arrived in Baltimore about 11:45 pm on Saturday evening.
I was not home till close 1:30 am this morning. Sylvia's group arrived in Baltimore within an hour of the big group. Hope the car travellers are having a safe trip.

August 5, 2006

Emily: Everyone left today. They are actually home now. I am really tired, so this will be really short. Steph and Mr. Bob are in Canada. She woke up REALLY early and said good-bye. We toured New Orleans today and then we said good-bye to everyone and us driving people went to our host houses. Tomorrow we will be going to church at the youth service and then Starbucks and then starting for home. I'm gonna go to bed now, this was longer than I intended, it was gonna be "hello, im tired, good-night" oh well. I guess you all lucked out... lol. Good night!

August 4, 2006

Laura: Where to start? This morning we went to the depot and folded up more health kits. It was the most exciting thing I have ever done! lol. After a couple hours of this we went to an Indian Reservation down the road. It was quite interesting. The reservation had 280 acres. When the land was being fought over and getting sold off the heiress of the TABASCO company fought for and saved the reservation. The people on the reservation ow have their own constitution.
Soon we were off to lunch where Emily and I split a chunk of Salisbury steak and dropped half on the table. We tried to give it to Pastor Mark but he was already stuffed and working on his pie. After lunch, some of the group decided to take a trip to the TABASCO plant. One word: HoT ! ! ! The factory was pretty interesting and everyone got a small bottle of TABASCO sauce. At the gift shop there, we tried TABASCO ice cream and all the other TABASCO products.
Now, everyone is back at UMCOR Sager-Brown reflecting on the day they've had so far. Mandee and Shane are playing hang-man on the chalkboard while Emily walks around behind me and corrects my spelling. The rest of the crew is just waking up after napping while we were at the factory. @___@ .

Shane: I am writing this only because Emily threatened to steal my hat if I didn't, and I really like that hat. Went to the tabasco place. Got Ryan a pepper growing kit (it's actually for me, but mom will get a kick out of that because of a long story involving Ryan growing a chili pepper plant and not realizing what it would taste like.). They had a movie about the company. I never thought that the word Tabasco could be used so many times in a 15 minute movie. Now, no more blogging!!!!!!!

Emily: Today we went to the Tabasco company. It was a lot of fun even though i dont like hot sauce. At the gift shop Mandee and Shane found a book called "A cajan night before christmas" Mandee read it first pronouncing the words as they are written which is not common written language. It was really funny. Then we got my Dad into the room to read the book. That was hilarious. He liked the book so much he decided to buy it. We might want to expect to hear it in a childrens sermon closer to Christmas! You will all love it! Everyone is getting ready to pack and preparing to get up REALLY early... please pray that our alarm clocks go off!


amanda:
i know its been a few days, so bear with me since some of what i write will be "old news." i had a BLAST! had mulate's the other night. i had gator, and frog legs, both of which tasted almost exactly like chicken. then when the music started i started dancing!!! i love to dance! hehe, i danced with the girls, and with mr.bob and mark, who is a good waltzer. i wanted to dance with the fiddle player from the cajun band, but was too shy to ask. :( oh well. i worked up more of a sweat dancing than i did working earlier that day in the community. in the morning i had painted at ms.morris' house. i even got up on the ladder, which is a big step for me. everyone swore they didnt know i was terrified of heights, but im pretty sure some of them knew. ive worked in the depot mostly, stuffing health kits. today i had bob hollifield (mr.bob) and bob jagoe, who was going by Bee-ob (its mr.bob, what can we say?) i think i heard we packed over 18,000 health kits this week. go us! we only worked in the morning today, then we went to the tabasco factory. it was so neat! i learned a lot of stuff about the hot sauce and how its made. for instance, they buy their white oak barrels from jack daniels! how funny is that!?! then, they scrape all the alchohol wood out, and use it to store the pepper mash while it ferments for 3 YEARS!!!! thats a long time. after the mash sits, it gets put in a big vat with vinegar and is stirred for 28 days. then it is strained (to get the seeds out) and bottled for our enjoyment! the seeds (after theyve been in the vats) are sent to another state where the oils are extracted and then used as flavoring in big red chewing gum. i thought that was really cool. then, the guide said that those oak barrels can be used by them for up to 20 years. when they begin to fall apart, they split them up in wood chips and sell them as flavored BBQ chips for grilling. so there is very little waste. in the store we were able to sample all 6 of the hot sauces, plus marinades, condiments, even jelly! yes, they have 2 different kinds of pepper jelly, both of which are very good and sweet. THEN.....ice cream!!!! i tried both the jalapeno and spicy cinnamon crunch icecream. both were delicious! i wish you could get them back home. unfortunately they wouldve melted in the car, otherwise i wouldve bought and brought some back home with me! oh, and last night, after vespers, we played a very rousing game of capture the flag with the wisconsin group. a lot of fun, but very tiring. mr.bob hollifield is now calling me granny because my back and legs are so sore it hurts to do anything at all. were supposed to go to sonic tonight for icecream, but i hear thunder, so i dont know if plans will change. its been a great time, but im ready to come home. i love and miss you all!

Megan Lauren and James:
...to be contiuned...

Miss Carol
Today was a great day. First I went back to the Depot to pack some more health kits. After lunch, we went to the Tabasco factory on Avery Island. I was impressed that there was so much history in a hot sauce factory. Tabasco is distributed to over 160 countries. My luggage will be carring back more than a few bottles of assorted hot sauces and spices. Tonight we did get to go to Sonic for a vanilla ice cream cup. Tomorrow we will be doing a little site seeing in New Orleans before we catch our plane. This mission trip was great, we did some good deeds and had a good time.

Janey on 8-3-06

Another day in the depot is like being in the sauna but it sure beats the heat at the house work site. They amazeme, especially George and Mary.Theyare real troopers. The youth have
been working well together and on their best behavior(most of the time).
It has been great gettingto know all ofthe youth but especially gettingto have
timeto socialize with allmy old andnew Hiss friends.

Willsee you verysoon. The week ispassinngby very quickly.
Love you all and keep praying for us. Hope your heat is dyingdown by the timewe get home.

August 3,2006

Steph:
hello all! well this has been a very interesting week . Last night we went out to this really nice restaurant . And tried alligator ,it was actually really good and tasted like chicken. Then we went dancing to local music at the restaurant. It was tons of fun.we were trying to get people to dance **joel** but didn't really have much success.So i hope your all having a as much fun at home as we are having here:)bye.

Emily: Hello everyone! I just wanted to tell Mr. Chuck and everyone else that Hearts on Fire sung in the talent show! I'm not sure if that has already been said, but i just wanted to tell you all. We had lots of fun rehearsing. We sung "You've got a friend". It was not our best preformance but... it was still good. We are almost finished the house we were painting so only a few people went back in the afternoon. I'll let more people write, so thanks for keeping us in your prayers!

Miss Carol
Last night we had a really nice time traveling to the cajun restaurant. I had never had alligator before and it was very good. I am not sure just why so many things that are exotic taste like chicken, but it did. It was fried and very tasty. Just another of lifes experiences that I can now say I have accomplished. The dancing after dinner helped work off the oversized portion of stuffed grilled catfish that I had. There were a few walkie-talkies that kept in vehicles in touch during the trip.

I worked in the Depot again today. We are packing around 3,500 to 4,000 health kits every day. It is interesting working with different people gathered around a work station . I have gotten to know people better each time I work there. By the time we leave, UMCOR will be better prepared for the next disaster.

KEVIN,
HELLO EVERYONE! TODAY WE WE'RE ALMOST DONE THE HOUSE AND IT LOOKS SO GOOD BUT ON THE PORTCH TOMMOROW WE HAVE TO PAINT THE FLOOR AGAIN AND JUST TO DO A LITTLE CAULKING. THEN TODAY ME AND MR.WAYNE GOT A CHANCE TO GO INTO THE GUYS HOUSE THAT WAS NEXT DOOR THAT THEY WERE TEARING DOWN COMPLETELY THEN RE-BUILDING IT AGAIN. ALSO DOWN HERE THE HOUSES ARE MADE OUT OF CYPRUS WOOD WHICH IS ONLY $30 HERE BUT THERE AT HOME IT IS THREE TIMES AS MUCH. BUT THE OTHER DAY AFTER LUNCH WHEN YOU WENT BACK TO DO MORE I DIDN'T THINK THAT IT WAS THE CORRECT HOUSE BECAUSE IT LOOKED SO MUCH DIFFERENT. I THINK THAT TOMMOROW MORNING AT 10:30 THE WHOLE HOUSE WILL BE FINISHED AND LOOK LIKE SOME OF THE OTHER HOUSES ON THE BLOCK WHICH ISN'T MANY. NOW TIME FOR VESPERS. BYE!

Sylvia
This has been a wonderful experience, from painting an ederly lady's house, to packing toiletry bags, to experiencing the local culture, meeting new people from all over the country, to renewing friendship with Hiss friends. Each experience has made this a week of spiritual growth and satisfaction at being able to reach out to others. The trip to dinner last night was fun from the ride with Bob to the alligator tasting. I am sure Tom will never be quite the same after riding with Bob and the WOWs! The house truly looks like a brand new house. Now if we can just get the men to put away the caulking guns and call it quits we may make the plane home on time!

Dee
Painting the outside of a lady's house in the community has been a good experience. Each day we think the painting will be finished tomorrow and find more tasks that need to be done. Hiss youth doing a great job - good workers! A total of 13,766 health kits have been put together so far this week by everyone working in the Depot. We are having a fun time.

August 2, 2006, George

George: August 2 at 10:30 P.M.

We just got back from a really great trip to Mulate's Cajun restaurant in Lafayette about a 75-minute drive from Baldwin. The food was excellent, and the kids enjoyed the Cajun band that started its music at 7:30. Adding to the enjoyment was the presence of the group from Madison, Wisconsin, at the same restaurant. In fact, it was they who originally told us about Mulate's. It was all a lot of fun. Earlier today, the team that has been repainting Mrs. Morris' home made a lot of progress and has nearly completed the outside painting. Tomorrow, the team should finish the outside and nearly finish the interior painting of the front porch. Other members of our team have continued to work on the health kits, for transfer to people, recovering from Katrina. Mrs. Morris really seemed very happy about the work that we have been able to do. It gives us a great feeling to know that we are able to make tangible changes in a person's quality of life, an elderly lady who is not able to afford to pay a private contractor to do the work that we are doing for free. This fact alone makes me feel good about taking the time to do what we've been doing in Louisiana.

August 2, 2006, dinner plans

Mark: Greetings, all ye who swelter back home! We have heard that it is hotter there than it is here. I'm not sure that's possible! It is so hot that even the alligators are too tired to bite us!

Actually, we get to turn the tables on the alligators tonight. We get to bite them! We are going to a restaurant called Mulate's in the town of Breaux Bridge, LA, about an hour and a quarter from here. Rumor has it that they have "Gator Bites" on the menu as well as a few other delicacies including crawfish and frog legs. I know at least one youth who will be enjoying a hamburger instead! We will also get to hear and dance to live cajun music. This should be a nice way to thank all the youth and adults who are sweating their hearts out with the love of Jesus Christ.

I am honored to be with such an eager group of hard workers from Hiss UMC. May God's grace be with us and those we help. Onward and upward!

August 2, 2006 -- Faith Hope and Love (1COR 13:13)

Tom,

This is my first ever blog so please bear with me. I would have posted yesterday but my hip and neck were a bit sore.

Yesterday, me and Wayne drove 8 pallets of supplies down to a place called 'Camp Hope' in Violet which is southeast of New Orleans in an area of refineries. It is about 2 and a half hours from UMCOR. We took down 5 pallets of bleach 2 of health kits and one which had baby supplies, school supplies and other miscellaneous items for immediate use (toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, combs, other hygeine products. The intrepid Americorps volunteers, Wayne amd myself pitched in to unload the pallets by hand. Their attitudes were fantastic and their dedication to the task at hand were a source of profound inspiration.

The drive down was quite sobering. As we got into the city we saw a roof top with HELP ME in big and bold white lettering. Houses with no roofs to speak of, places where brick chimneys once were but were just blown away leaving gaping holes in the side of the houses. Houses washed right off their foundations and collapsing inside themselves, businesses smashed, and what seemed to be endless piles of rubble. Houses still with trees through their roofs and signs spray painted on houses and other buildings 'bulldoze this building but not that building', 'cut this tree but not that one'. And this is one year later!!

'Camp Hope' is a reclaimed Elementary School once called Elmer T Smith. Here we encountered a group of very dedicated people of young Americorps Volunteers under an adult coordinator we know as 'MAMA SUSAN' and her husband. I found out this morning that it has only been up and running for about a month after it was finally cleaned out. Inside it was completely gutted out and turned into a place where the volunteers sleep and socialize and run the affairs of the camp. There was what appeared to be a gymnasium that was now being used as a large cafeteria to feed 700 people a day and store supplies.

Despite all the damage that remained, there was much evidence of rebuilding homes and businesses. People with painted signs that said 'WE ARE OPEN' and sitting in chairs next to their pickup trucks waiting patiently for customers to come by. Hope was literally everywhere. Grace was everywhere.
Thanks be to God!!

Mandee:
Well, I'm finally blogging...everyone should be proud! We went back today to finish up the house we've been working on. The difference is amazing, I'll try and get Heather to post the before and after photos. Tonight we are going out to dinner at a Cajun restaurant so not as many people will be going back to the house after lunch but there's really not too much more to do. I got a chance to talk to the lady who owns the house yesterday, she's really sweet and extremely grateful for what we are doing for her. She told my grandma and me that FEMA only gave her $400 for repairs. With that money all she could do was buy a new screen door and have it put in. I think I will go to the Depot today since I've been at the house all week. Oh by the way, Ms. Bonnie, Mr. George was extremely hard-working today and still took his breaks. I can't believe it's already Wednesday, it's gone by so quickly! I'll try and update again, I'm sure Emily will make me. I love and miss all of you back home!

Emily: Hey all! I have two very important things to say today. One, You can now ALL post comments without getting a blog and entering your self into the system. And two, yesterday we wrote about Mr. George not taking breaks. What we failed to mention and should have is that he is one of the best workers that we have. He gives nothing but encouragment and support. You never hear a negative word from him. He was giving all he could and more. He did not want a break for one good reason, he wanted to help. He was thinking about others more than himself and that is really the point of a mission trip!
Ok, so also, I am having trouble convincing some people to write in this blog! I just don't understand it! If you would, gplease comment us telling if you want certian people to write or if you want people to write again. We will be sure to tell the people requested what you say to them! Thanks so much and God bless!

devastation

MATCHSTICK FORREST.



Only one home which was built in the water remains standing. Here are the supports which still remain



Many people left messages and well as phone numbers on the side of houses and in this case the concrete floor.



Wind damage much?? Entire houses were leaning. Most if not all to the right.



A house not yet gutted...



Articles of everything from broken plates, pillows, toothbrushes, and stuffed animals could all be found in the rubble.

A HOME WE TOURED::




A hole in the support pole




An ANGEL was able to withstand windows breaking and busting out while everything else around it was broken!



What an area in the house looked like before a shovel and brooms were taken to it.



A hole in the celing. You can see all the things that were stored in the attic.

August 1

Amanda:
apparently its hotter in maryland than it is down here. so far the weather has not been too opressive...the sun is hot, but so long as you keep moving its alright. its so nice to sit in the shade and watch the bayou. last night a boat went down and blew their horn at us, to say hello. the food here is interesting. today for lunch we had crawfish etouffle. it was really good! i like crawfish! who wouldve guessed. ive worked in the depot the past 2 days, unpacking health kits, examining them, then repacking them with the proper supplies. what part of face towel dont people understand!? today was very frustrating with the health kits, because very few of them had the proper items, or else they were expired. although, they apparently dont have a first in first out system here; megan found a check in a health kit that was dated september 15, 2005! we had a bit of a dress code fiasco yesterday, but it has since been sorted out and remedied. i was very proud of the girls last night; not a peep came from their room after quiet hours, whereas the wisconsin girls were making all kinds of racket close to midnight. its amazing how tired the sun can make you. tonight we are having a "no talent talent show." this should prove interesting. i miss everyone at home, and am thinking of you! love you all!


KEVIN,
THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS WERE HOT AND HARD WORKING WE HAVE BEEN SCRAPING IT AND PAINTING IS KIND OF HARD IF YOU HAVE TO MANY PEOPLE. I LIKE WORKING IN THE COMMUNITY BECAUSE YOU'RE ACTUALLY HELPING OUT THE PEOPLE HERE AND IN THE DEPOT THEN YOU KNOW YOU HELP OUT SOME PEOPLE BUT NOT EXACTLY WHO. BUT IN THIS CASE THEN YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE WHO YOU ARE WORKING FOR. THEN DURRING THE DAY SOME PEOPLE WOULD STOP AND ASK LIKE "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO MY HOUSE AND HELP EVERYONE ELSE". BUT WE HAVE TO SAY THAT YOU HAVE TO GO THOUGH UMCORE SAGER BROWN AND OTHER THINGS BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW HOW THE SYTEMES REALLY WORK. BUT I LIKE HELPING OTHERS AND THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO EXSPRESS IT AND SHOW HOW. HAVE FUN AT HOME.

Shane:
According to Emily, I am a willing volunteer, but I am sure they said the same about conscripts. So, we had fun. Went out to paint the house, and like yesterday, helped Ms. Mary tell people to take a break. Mr. George, made my job difficult. He only stopped working when Emily threatened to call Ms. Bonnie, and even then took his time climbing down the roof. Mom wants me to say hi to her so "Hi Mom". And I am sure my brother is enjoying my absence so "RYAN, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!!!!! NOW!!!!" And if by some chance the kids at my pool are following this "NO DIVING!!!!! WALK!!!!! BE QUIET, NONE OF THE ADULTS CARE ABOUT YOUR TEEN DRAMAS!!!!" I can't think of anything to say to my sister, but if it comes to mind I will. Hopefully, this will be my last entry, but Emily has been reading over my shoulder and I am sure she won't let that be the case. Not after the conscript comment

Emily: He's right! not after the conscript comment! Dont worry. You all will hear plenty more from Shane.... *laugh* this will be fun! So, today, i went to the paint site. It was fun minus the heat. We were there for about 3 minutes and were dripping sweat. and I know you ALL want to know that. We did a second coat and started the trim. Shane was not exagerating about the difficulty of getting Mr. George to take a 15 min break (haha Mr. Goerge, i told you I would put it in)! And as i explained (very patiently i might add) he will not appreciate the work if he does not take a break. At the end we were talking about being clean. I decided that my hair was clean, if you forget about the dirt, sweat, and paint! We had a lot of fun and drank more water than i ever have before. Tonight is the no talent talent show, MC'd by our own Mr. Bob! The youth choir (without Kaitlyn and Jackie who are not here) will be singing "You've got a friend". Arn't you glad Mr. Chuck? Everyone have fun at home! We miss all of you! Beth, try to cheer Angel up! Love you all!

George: All I wanted to do was to climb the ladder and inspect up close some of the work on the front of the house. I took a paint can and brush with me just in case I wanted to make a little "touch up" or two. The last thing I wanted to have happen was for people to think that I was not taking seriously Mary's efforts to keep us from getting overheated in the sun. Emily may have misunderstood my true intentions, but I was very careful after that to stay hydrated and to rest for the prescribed periods of time. The house looks really good with at least 15 to 16 members of the team working on it during the morning and afternoon sessions today.

Janey

Another great day!
Lots more health kits done and what "no talent" we saw tonight.

St.Timothy Church in Mandeville, L.A.

" >

Sanctuary




Choir Room



Youth Highway




Discipleship classes offered



Memorial Area



Amanda playing the organ

July 31, 2006

Emily:
Today some of us worked in the Depot. We were packaging Health Kits. It was a lot of fun! We sat at a bunch of big tables and were each given a bag with supplies, we had to check all the supplies and make sure that it was all correct and re-package it. When something was missing we put it in and if it was wrong we repalced it. I was getting steadly more hyper as the time passed! We all made friends with the people in the room next to us and we share a bathroom with. 17 girls in one bathroom, 3 showers, and 2 toiletes! This will be an intresting week! All of us are really happy that the other group is really nice and we actually were sharing a table with 4 of them. Talk to you all soon!




Mary:
Today we are at a house in the city were we are preparing to paint it this afternoon. We have 14 in our group so we hope to finish to complete our painting today . It is hot and everyone that know me knows how I hate hot weather. Please keep us in your prayers.

Sue:
Hello All, Boy is it hot down here! There are over 70 people here from 3 different parts of the county. We have our Hiss group, a group from Louisana, and another group from Wisconsin. Today about 30+ of us worked at the depot packing health kits. Keep us in your prayers as we continue our mission here.





lauren r. :
hey hiss! hi mommy! today i started my first mission trip being biten by bugs sweating in the depot and cramping my hands. other than that it was fun. the food isn't great, but it will do. there are two other groups here, one from louisiana and one from wisconsin. *misspelled?* the bathroom situation is interesting. seven of us girls from baltimore are sharing a room and the ten girls from wisconsin are too. guess what? we get to share one bathroom w/ two toilets and three showers. needless to say , its interesting.

Steph:
Hi people ! hi mommom and poppop ! So today we started our firt real day of work . And i decided to work at the Depot .We made these health bags that are getting shiped all over[it's pretty cool] With these kids from wisconsin at our table helping out.and we started talking and it seems like ive known them FOREVER !anyways my mom got me this really pretty t-shirt from the gift shop. well im going to go get ready for dinner. BYE !

Miss Carol:
I spent this day working in the Depot packing health kits with Sylvia, Dee, Janey and a nice young lady from Wisconsin. It was a little hot in the Depot in the afternoon. We packed over 3,500 health kits today. I hope that helps out when the next disaster happens. The food here is also very good. For lunch we had macaroni and ground beef, salad and yellow cake with chocolate icing. Yum. Going to get ready for dinner. Bye.

Mr. Bob J.

We drove from the New Orleans airport and used three hand-held low frequency radios (walkie Talkies). Of course we needed "handles" for our group. Bob H became "Rockin' Robin" and Wayne became "Batman" (as in "Bruce Wayne") and since I was carrying the baggage, I became Baggage Only Boy (B-O-B) or just baggage boy. We made good time and got to Sager Brown in about two hours.

Today we painted an elderly woman's home. First we had to scrape the old paint. Much of the wooden clap-boards on her house had rotted, so we had to work with care. Later, we painted with a primer coat, and the old house just drank up the paint. And it was a furnace on the sunny side of the house. Mandi, Laura, Katie and I worked there in full sun. Joel, Kevin and Shane worked on the rear second floor roof and rear of the house. George W. became our cult hero, working tirelessly in the heat and sun.

Tomorrow we may finish, and we are trying to get a relief truck with supplies into New Orleans tomorrow. Lots of work. Many neighbors offered to let us paint their homes also. These homes aren't flood or storm damaged, just neglected for whatever reason.

Stay cool....Baggage Boy

Wayne:
7/31/06 Today half of the church went to the depot, the other half went into the community to paint a house. The teens work very hard and it was HOT. We drank a lot of water. I hope everybody is okay. We are eating very good down here and having fun. We are meeting a lot of people in the community and they are thanking us for the hard work. Picture are coming.

George:
July 31 It's been a busy day. Our group had cafeteria duty after breakfast and just enough time to get to the 8:30 AM orientation. After that we had group pictures, and, then, went to work. We're painting a small house in Franklin, LA. We did scraping and priming today. We started on the first of two finish coats today as well. Overall, we had a productive day. We stopped work at about 3:30 PM and had dinner at 5:30 PM. After dinner, Mark gave a short devotion. I am supposed to do a devotion on Tuesday and Tom on Wednesday. Mark will be leading the vespers service on Thursday. It's been great to see a part of the country that I have never seen before. Around here, there is little evidence of the impact of Katrina. You would never have imagined that a terrible hurricane had struck this region less than a year ago. I'm really glad that I came on this VIM trip.

Janey:
July 31, 2006
Well, we finished one full day on the job. I worked in the depot creating health kits, containing towels, wash cloths, soap,combs, toothpaste, toothbrush, bandaids and nail clippers. It was great time to spend learning to know the people at your table. A good social time. I worked in the store. Opened up and sold a few items, some which managed to come all the way from New Windsor, MD. Now, I guess I will need to go up there to volunteer one day. The food is great and the youth are wonderful. They even manage to follow directions. WalMart is close by and everyone seems to be interested in a short trip to the store. Somehow, that isnot at the top of my priority list. Think I will go back to the depot tomorrow, work with a different group and get to know some new people.
God has blessed us with great company and lots of good sharing times.
Time to quit. Will send another message later in the week.

July 30, 2006

Emily:
So, we just arrived at Sager Brown and have heard a small orientation. We have now been informed that all people under 18 must be chaperoned at all times except when we are in the rooms. We had a two hour tour of the devistation. It was hard. We saw all the houses that had caved in and all the businesses that were not even open yet, and the whole parish of St. Bernard was declared unlivable. What we call countys is what they call parishes. After a while I went completly numb and did not say much for a while. The people who know me at home know that I do not normally stop talking for long time periods. So that was difficult. Before that we went to the amazing church service at St. Timothys. That was a lot of fun. The praise team actually sung in harmony! The whole service was very professionally done. The sermon was amazing, it gave me goosebumps through the whole thing. Talk to you all later!

Katie:
i have been here 4 a while now and i love it!!! its sooo much fun!! emily pretty much exsplained everything in her blog so i really dont have much 2 say. it was my first plane ride ever and i LOVED it!! i would sooo do it AGAIN. form talkin 2 a girl about 23 on the plane that was from New Orlands and was there when Katrina hit and evacuated on time said it was a very nerve rakin scary feelin 2 have and tho kno that every thing u wonce had gone in a second!! she told me that i was lucky 2 come later cuz u really couldnt do anything!! but then she thanked me for doin this and it made me feel real good!!Alot of people were askin us wut were are green shirts were for and we told them that we were goin 2 New Orland 2 help out wit Katrina damge they thanked all of us. and i felt really proud doin some thing!!

Janey:
A long day but good ! Thanks Jean for picking me up and taking our little group to the airport.
The flights were good. We had about 2 hour ride to Sager Brown from the airport. By the way, I think it is only in the low 90's- probably cooler than MD. Our drivers have walkie talkies, so Batman got us here in good shape. I lost Shane and found him a few times ( just ask him about that). I think he has decided it is worse than having Mom around. My last phone call was for Shane and he was travelling in another car. He and Kevin got me good.
The bayou behind our buildings on the site is beautiful. I think we saw an alligator.
Also, saw a beautiful rainbow over the water. I will try to get some pictures ( hopefully, we can figure out how to post them).

Louise:
After a long day of travel we have arrived! The Sager-Brown facilities are beautiful, as Janey said a rainbow and alligator all in the first evening! After arriving around 2pm, we got our vans and we went for a nice meal at the Voodoo bbq and grill. Great food and good conversation. We are starting to get to know each other, the ride over gave us lots of laughs. Everything is very tropical and green, we will be hitting the tougher areas tomorrow.
As we walked though the airport we got lots of attention, (a mass of lime green shirts) many people asked about our trip and some thanked us and others said "God bless you all". It was really humbling to hear that from strangers and made us feel even more energized about our efforts. As always this time is extra special for me because Megs and I get to be roommates and spend tons of time together before she heads back to Montana.
That makes these trips GREAT. I hear a train in the background, I hope they don't run at night.
PS. Snakes and fire ants are our newest fears! Wish us luck!

Heather::
Hello and greetings from BALDWIN!!! We made it and made it alive (thanks amanda and pastor mark) we had a lot of fun not only in the car but last night at the homes of the St.Timothy Choir members home. What a beautiful church not to mention the beautiful homes. I have a lot of ideas to bring home to the church from differnt ways to enhance the look and layout of church to a few ideas on contemporary service. Those of us who had to lovely chance to drive down had the opportunity to have a tour of a few of the cities in which were hit by the hurricane. Those parsonishes were Slidel, St. Bernard (which was hit by the eye of the storm) and a little bit of east new orleans. Knowing that what we say is about a year after the storm, i would not be able to imagine the damage in which has already been cleaned up. Hearing stories and seeing pictures and TV shows is only so much; but being able to see things for yourself is an experience that you would never experience any other way. You become so numb after a while you want to forget what has happened and than you think of the families in which lost everything and how they couldnt just forget what happened. We say many people who were trying to restore their homes but Jaime (one of our lovely tour guides from St. Timothy) and I both agreed that we would just rip down the remainder of our homes and rebuild to create a stronger home for anything that would gosh forbid ever come again. According to local citizens they figure if another storm were to hit in the next year NEW ORLEANS would never be again.
I was glad we were able to visit the areas in which we did today so that we knew why we were here and to give us meaning. Not that we didnt know what was here or have meaning but seeing the homes and neighborhoods, is just shocking how much it really touches you and how bad you feel as if it almost were your home as well.
PRAY FOR ALL THOSE WHOM ARE REMEMBERED AND REMEMBER NEVER TO GO MAD AT SOMEONE IN THE EVENING BECAUSE THE NEXT MORNING YOU NEVER KNOW IF THAT PERSON WILL STILL BE THERE. AMEN

Amanda:sorry i didnt post yestereday, but i was sooooo tired after driving. we met up with our homestays, sally and jamie, around 3 at st.timothys, in mandeville,LA. they were soo nice! we got a tour of the church, which is a really nice place. i am very envious of the choir room, and they let me play their organ!! then we went around mandeville and had a very yummy dinner at a local restaurant. we talked at sally and jamie's house, then i went to bed. this morning (sunday) we attended the contemporary service at st.timothys. it was very professional, but still similar to hiss' service. i wasnt familiar with many of the songs though. we wanted to attend the youth only service, but it was at the same time as contemporary and mark wanted us to stay together. hopefully next sunday we can go to that one. after church sally and jamie took us on a tour through slidell, st.bernard, and the eastern part of new orleans. the destruction was totally overwhelming. i cant even begin to describe; an entire block of hosues gone, only stilts left. houses caved in, or literally leaning at an angle from the wind. in st.bernard the entire parish had been deemed unlivable, so it was basically deserted. we drove through a neighborhood of houses that had suffered water damage, and it was awful. doors and windows had been broken by the force of the water; most of the the houses were gutted, and we went inside one that had been half gutted. the water marks, and dirt and dried seaweed went azll the way up to the ceiling; insulation and mold were everywhere. on one of the ceiling fans was a small stuffed animal that had belonged to one of the children in the home. there was no celing whatsoever...you could see straight into the attic. the rest of the house that hadnt been cleaned had inches of dirt, sand, and rotting who knows what. on every house were the spray painted signs showing they had been searched. most of them showed that no bodies had been found. heather found a house that said "all." mark and i saw what looked like a doctors office that said 6. many of the x's were blank; sally explained that that didnt mean there were no bodies found, only that the houses were so full of debris that a proper search could not be made. the experience of seeing these places was emotionally numbing for me. after that we got in the van and drove over the longest bridge in the world! i wont even try to spell the name of the lake it passed over, but the bridge was 27 miles long!!!! luckily, mark drove lol. we had dinner at the sonic, and then met up with everyone else here at sager brown. the dorms are not so great, but it could be a lot worse. so far every is getting along well, but we have an early and busy day tomorrow. i myself am exhausted, and towards the end of a great book, so i shall end now and head to bed. good night baltimore!

July 29, 2006

Emily:
Hello again! We are now at our host homes in Mandyville. My Dad and I are staying with the choir director and his wife, while Heather, Joel and Amanda are at a different home. The hotel was interesting last night... the boy room had a dirty pillow case that had to be changed, and their lamp shade almost caught on fire! In the girl room the only problem was the toilett which took the longest time to figure out how to flush. We started driving early and started the day off by listening to the Spice Girls! I bet you all KNOW how much Joel loved that! Me, Heather and Joel all fell asleep (or tried to) for about an hour and a half. After that, we gave Joel a lovley learning experience and had him watch a "Chick Flick". He moaned and groaned the whole movie! We stopped at the LA welcome station and got our picture with a giant model of the state. Heather and I also picked up brochures and cards for scrapbooking. When we decided to stop for lunch, we started for a Burger King. Notice I said started. The GPS (Gerdie) was not aware of a road being blocked. We enjoyed a 10-15 min drive through a neighborhood that had a blocked street that Gerdie kept trying to tell us to go to! Poor Amanda was driving and trying to listen to my dad and Gerdie at the same time! We enjoyed that part! Well, I am going to say good night and we will write you tomorrow when we meet up the the people who are flying!
Good night and God bless!

JOEL:
today i was forced to watch a chick-flick while we were on the road. The girls thankfuly let me choose (out of 10 movies) i chose 13 going on 30 witch diden't look too bad. it was at a loss for any other discription bearable

loging out

Hiss UMC Mission Trips

Hiss UMC Mission Trips

Mark, Friday, 7/28/2006: Well, after driving all day from Maryland, the first part of our team has stopped for the night in Gadsden, Alabama. We are a little bit tired, but mostly energized about the trip and the great opportunity we will have to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Here's the hot news from the day: we left at 7:30 am, fortified with donuts, Starbucks coffee, and canteloupes. We shared driving, 2 hours per driver at a time. Lunch was McDonalds; dinner was Cracker Barrel. We traveled through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia, and are now well ensconced in Northern Alabama. We were surprised at a Tennessee rest stop to run into another UMC pastor and his family who the Smileys knew from our conference and from camp Manidokan. We had a few brief but intense rain showers and some traffic in Knoxville, but the trip was otherwise smooth sailing. We are now settled into our motel, and at least one of us is already fast asleep!

We look forward to worshiping with the good folks of St. Timothy's UMC on Sunday and seeing the rest of our group on Sunday afternoon. Please keep those prayers flying heavenward!

God is good!

July 28,2006

Heather:
Hello everyone: we have officially landed in ALABAMA. We are in Gadsen Alabama. It is 9:54 our time seeing as we are now in Central Time. We left Baltimore at about 7:45AM Eastern Time this morning beginning our trip with a stop at Starbucks (thanks Amanda). Lots of things have happened, well all that can happen in a 12 hour car ride! About 700 or so miles as of so far. Playing bejeweled on emily's and my phone seems to off been about the only thing we have found to occupy ourselves. (34.020 < style="font-style: italic;">long legs. Conversations have been to say the least bit interesting. From speaking of the foods we eat and how picky we all seem to be, to traveling the world, to just Pastor Mark and I relating to our Honduras trip last year (Oh the pinapples). Well going to attempt to sleep in a non-moving area and just think about the day a little. Hope all back home are doing well and we will see the other 20 or so of you on SUNDAY!!! Love you all.

Amanda:
not too much to say except that im exhausted. mark and i split the driving pretty evenly...thats alot of driving! it was a good trip, although there were a ton of tractor trailers thatwe were constantly dodging. i am responsible for a munchkin fiasco, which ended with me accidentally eating a donut that was in heathers shoe. going to get some rest for another fun day of driving tomorrow.

Emily:
hello! today we got up early and started to drive. Within 30 min, i was already bored! After lunch, my dad made me do the Rosetta Stone (a spanish learning program) much to my unhappiness. Oh well... Joel had to do it too! (haha Dad, i told you i would put that in!!) We spent hours and hours playing this AMAZING cell phone game called Bejewled. So, Heather beat my high score so, naturally, Joel and I could not stop until we had beat it! It still hasn't happened, we decided to stop... for now! At a rest stop, we ran into some of our friends from Maryland, even though we were in Tennessee! It was really amazing. well, we are now watching a new t.v. show so, i will chat a little more later, i promise!
Good night!!

Mission Trip

As you all know, we will be going to Louisiana on a mission trip, this is a blog that will be letting you all know what we are doing and how we are! Someone will write in it everyday, and we will post pictures as well.
Please keep us in your prayers!
Emily