Back in the Big Easy

The work week consisted of many frustrating times. We started on Monday thinking that we would be finishing a retired Air Force veterans house. But, what we found out was that the only jobs we could do were clean up other people's messes and mop the floor countless times. It was unfortunate that we couldn't see the house as a finished product. Later in the week I was luckily moved to another project working on an older womans house. There I got to work with Andrew, who worked for lowernine.org, he let me work on a staircase that had termite damage and was built wrong by the original contractors. Other than working a day and a half, I enjoyed all the good times with the youth group. -Phil

Patience

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans in August 2005.  The winds and subsequent flooding caused widespread damage.  Twelve years later, some homes have been repaired, some homes are in the process of being repaired, and some homes will never be repaired.  This week, my work group worked with St. Bernard Project to restore a home for Ms. Delores.  Two times this week, she visited the home while we were working.  She is quiet and reserved.  I wonder what she thinks when she looks around the house.  It has been a long process.  The finish line is now in sight.  St. Bernard Project hopes she can move back home by the end of September.  She has been very patient.  Hopefully, that patience will soon be rewarded.

What God leads us to,
God will lead us through.

- Bob Little

In The City :)

Today LutheranHANDS ventured into the city of New Orleans. We started with getting a HUGE group picture in Jackson Square. After the picture we went straight over to Cafe Du Monde to get beignets and chocolate milk. The server there was underwhelming, but the beignets were deeeelicious! Thank you to Ms. Thomas for paying completely for the scrumptious food. Next, we split up into groups to explore the city. We did tons of shopping and sightseeing and got to see the awesomeness of the French Quarter. Once we were all tired out from walking, we went as a youth group to get dinner at Olde N'awlins Cookery. We got to try alligator and crawfish for the first time ever. It tasted a lot like chicken but also had a new unique taste of its own. Sitting with friends and enjoying their company was an amazing experience and something we'll never get tired of. So that was our evening in the city of New Orleans. -Ronnie and Will :)

home

One word, four letters, and a million and one different meanings. Tonight at family time we opened with a quote that says "Home isn't a place, it is a feeling." Immediately, I think about where home is to me and the best way to describe it. As everyone shouts out different adjectives such as family, security, even youth group, which are all great things to describe a home, one word comes to my mind that is consistently present in each place I have felt at home and that word is love. Nowadays, it isn't uncommon whatsoever to come from a place that isn't the perfect home. For me, I have moved around and had a different view of home each time. But each place I have gotten the chance to call home, there is one thing there in each place. Wherever it may be, whoever it may be with, where there is love there is life and where there is both you have a family and you have a home. This trip has led me to form new and stronger relationships with my church family, and even a couple hundred miles away from my house, I feel at home somewhere I have only been in half of a week because of the crazy amount of love this group has to give. 

Sarena Vogelsong

Thursday, July 13

Today was the last full work day at our job sites. My group finally- after we primed everything, cleaned the doors, painted and primed the ceiling, drywalled the walls, mudded, got to painted the walls bright green. After that, I showered and went to large group. Many of the kids sang and danced, then a family, that went through Hurricane Katrina talked all about their experience and what it was like for their faith. During family time, we talked about what makes a home. In conclusion, we decided that familiarity, love, and the people who surround us. Then they read a quote, "It's a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, even smells the same. You realize what's changed is you." Tonight was the last family time too. Tomorrow, we are able to work for half a day, then have free time to go to the city. I'm really going to miss this, but I'm looking forward to going home and seeing my dad and my pets.

Arianna

Thursday large group

       
        Today was a very eventful day as it was our last full day of work at our worksites. People are finishing up the projects that they were assigned and relationships have been strengthened greatly. At large group I had one of my god moments this week. One of the work groups homeowners came to eat dinner, hang out, and worship with us. He spoke to us about his experience in the hurricane and how he struggled to get his home back together. This paired with the music and other parts of worship gave me literal chills on me, I felt like this was where I belonged and where God put me.

      -Tyler                      

Maddogg's Post

Today we discussed how God has overfilled our "cups" with so many blessings and that our mission in life is to fill others' cups and appreciate those who fill our own. My cup has been overflown by everyone's love and compassion on this trip. Each day I am blessed with each new person I meet and get the chance to talk to and laugh with. Being an adult leader of Group 11, with 34 people, seems like a daunting task but having a group of kids who are ready for any challenge at hand makes it so much easier. At each work site we have completed our jobs not only with hard work but also with ease. I can't wait to see what we do the next two days!!
Miss you all. Thank you all for all of your wonderful support!!
S/o Julia Freimuth -- love you❤️

My First Mission Trip

One God sighting I was able to see was a rare double rainbow tonight before having dinner on Monday evening. This was an awesome way to end the first work day. Thank you God for blessing us with a sight of beauty after the thunderstorm. I guess God's beauty never fails to amaze. After seeing the double rainbow my cup was overflowed with awe and wonder for the rest of the evening.

-Kenzie

Boys and Girls Club

Today my group went to the boys and girls club.  There we painted accent walls in three of their rooms, so the large group divided into three smaller ones.  My group had to cover up the green neon paint on the wall in the computer room, which made things more complicated.  We had carpet and computer that we had to be mindful of, so it took an hour just to tape and cover the area.  At the beginning of the day it was very slow and I felt unsure if this was a project that was truly making any impact.  Once the lady in charge came in to explain her appreciation I began to feel a little better about it, knowing that all the small things count.  Eventually this little girl approached me and began to ask me all these questions about why we were there, what we were doing, her questions kept coming.  Her final question for me was if we could paint the walls baby blue just for her, this made me realize that what we were doing was going to make people smile by seeing the new fresh colors on their walls.  Everything we are doing this week is impacting the life of someone here.  Word!
-Danielle

Nate Dogg's day

So today group 10 (my group) worked on a fence for an low income apartment complex to be in the lower nine. What hit me the most today was that are sight leader kept on saying how amazed he was on how far we got compared to the people that the owners hired and it really brought pride and joyfulness to my heart and it will inspire me the next two days to keep working hard and keep bring joyfulness to those in the lower nine.

X God Moment

So far this week, my group has been painting the garage of an older couple living in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. While working today, our homeowner Errol Joseph was talking to us about how he's been so blessed in his life, even though he has been through so much in his life after Katrina. He said that he had so many blessings in his life that "his cup runneth over", which is the same lesson we learned from the night before. The reading from the night before was Psalm 23:5, which was "5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." Errol said that all the blessings he had in his life has helped him go out and help other people, which then gets passed on to people/groups like LutheranHANDS to pass these blessings along. 

-X
6 

Hoffman School By Jocie Little

Today was another eventful day for Lutheran HANDS and for my work group, group 11.  This week we are working with Hands On New Orleans, a volunteer group that is centered in New Orleans.

 Today we went to Hoffman Charter School, a school for children 6 weeks old to 4 years old. These children come from families who make less than $20,000 per year. Hoffman started with 8 classrooms, and this year added 8 more in a separate building. While we were there, the new building wasn't finished, but will be done for when the kiddos get there in August.

Our main task today was to move all of the furniture from the cafeteria to the new classrooms in the separate building.  The whole room was packed with furniture that all had to be separated and moved into each room. Then we had to hoist each piece up to the building which was elevated about 4 feet. For the first hour we had a ramp, but then we had an incident. Several strong men and women were walking up the ramp with a heavy cabinet when the ramp slipped off the foundation it was attached to with all of the people on it. Thankfully, no one was hurt and the people holding the cabinet held on and still got it into the building. Even with that bump in the road, we still managed to move all of the pieces into their places an hour early.

I feel so lucky by going to Hoffman and impacting all of the students I won't even meet. I am so excited for the rest of my week and all of the rest of the work!

Another Day Hard at Work

Hey everyone! I've never been on a true mission trip before and I have to say that this adventure in New Orleans could not be going better and is definitely exceeding my expectations. The past two days have been filled with long, hard work and have required immediate showers with heavy scrubbing after the work session, I am not complaining one bit. Yesterday and today were my first times ever dry-walling and the task may sound boring, but really it's extremely satisfying to finish a wall and Julia Hoffman and I have really cranked out a lot of solid work and have built a relationship becaus of it. I'm super excited for another long day tomorrow, God Bless!!
-Anne Johnson

Today's God Moment- Gabe Angus

So today my group was in charge of doing landscaping at a local church. We were tasked with cleaning out the gardens and clearing bamboo-like trees away from a gazebo. About an hour into work I was in the front of the church clearing out the gardens and as bad as it may sound I was wondering why I was doing the landscaping, I was asking myself; is the home congregation unable to do this? How much of an impact am I making? Almost as soon as these questions popped into my head, the pastor of the church pulled up the front of the church and him and I began a conversation. He told me that only 2 weeks ago he was called to go the church I was working at. He said that he was asked to help bring some life back into the church. The home congregation's average age was around 65. He told me how grateful he was that we were able to help clean up the church because the home congregation was unable to do it. The pastor was so happy we were there! Almost as soon as I had began asking questions about why I was there, my questions were answered. I think this was God kinda elbowing me in the ribs and saying; You are making an impact! This is why you are here!

I pray all of you at home are able to read these blogs and I am eager to return home with many others and share our experiences with you! Much love! - Gabe Angus

My God Moment

My God moment today happened when we got to our worksite for the first time.  There were only a few people in my group that really knew each other but once we got to the site, everyone jumped in and started to help each other to put the siding up on the house we were working on. Even though we didn't know each other, we all worked together to help someone in need! Watching this happen made me realize that God was truly with each of us helping to do His work. It was truly an amazing first day!
~Liz Smulligan

We need to look a lot more like L O V E

Hey everyone! Katie Smith here. I have the experience of being in the LutheranHands band this week and tonight we sang a song called Nothing More by The Alternate Routes! I've attached the video to the song to listen to if you would like. But my God Moment today was when we were singing this song in large group worship time, I looked out into the crowd of people and I was overwhelmed by the feeling of love that was coming from our group of volunteers. There has been a lot of hate lately in the world and it was amazingly reassuring to see all of the people in one room spreading love. And no matter our differences we are able to come together and be loved and accepted by the beautiful people of New Orleans.

Love prevails.

HI JULIA I MISS YOU AND I HOPE YOU'RE READING THIS!!!!!

HI MOM!

HI G-MAMA BAIR!!!

Hope all is well back home everyone, thank you for your support and for reading our blog! <3

Joel's Blog

          Today, we went to our first day of work. For my group we were doing mudding, a process of pulling seams together with a cement like paste. Then we came back and ate rice and beans with sausage. After that we went to worship followed by family time where we shared our highs and lows.
Lastly we go to bed which I was doing until I wrote this blog.

Our First Night

After a long day of travel and lots and lots of sleeping we arrived in New Orleans. We've had two large group sessions, this year I'm part of the mission trip band which was a very new and exciting experience for me. Dinner was delicious and the staff here at the retreat center has been nothing but welcoming and excited to work with us. As we go into work tomorrow we're all anxious and super hype! :) Will Youse

Soundboard

I got the privilege to be able to work the soundboard for the week at large group.  I wanted to learn how to do it so i could run it at confirmation camp if needed.  The soundboard is very intimidating at first but after you find out what each button does its a lot simpler.  -Griffin Artz

1st night

Are first day at NOLA got settled in and had two awesome large group sessions. Got to play some hoops with some other guys here (fell on some rocks...long story)  and had some great pasta with meat sauce.- Nathan Smith

We have arrived in NOLA safely and excited for a great week! Stay posted for live updates! #WeHere #WeReady

En route!

We had time for a quick group pic before departure!  Thanks Katie for the idea and Heather for taking it!!!  Be in NOLA soon!! (Kind of)

Less than one week away!!

Less than a week away!!!

God's Blessings!

We are only a few days away from our departure for New Orleans!!  This trip is the first mission trip for many from our group this year so we are really looking forward to their posts on this blog.  We hope that y'all will tune in to read and respond to what the youth and adults post from Grace.

We are traveling from July 8th-16th.  We will work full work days on July 10th-13th and a half day on the 14th.  Later in the afternoon on Friday (14th) we will be in the city of NOLA to experience the culture, food and all it has to offer.

We will be partnering with SBP.  Click on this link to learn more about them!  LutheranHANDS has partnered with them in three different states to work in disaster relief!  to learn more about LutheranHANDS click here.

Please continue to pray for us as we embark on this journey together!  God Bless!