New Orleans- Touristy Stuff!

We didn't have a lot of time to spend in the tourist areas of the city, but our group did happen to be in New Orleans for Halloween on Friday night- we certainly got quite an experience hanging out on Bourbon Street that night!! It was incredibly crowded, and I think we left before it got too wild, but I think we are all glad we got to spend one Halloween in a town that really celebrates that holiday!

The Saturday we left, Phil and I arranged our flight out for later in the day, so we could see the French Quarter in the daylight. Thankfully that part of the city was barely hit by the flooding from the hurricane, and the old buildings were not damaged. It's a beautiful area, rich in history, and we enjoyed taking in the sights.

New Orleans- St. Roch Team

The house we worked on was on St. Roch Street (pronounced " st. rock"), so that was our team name for the week. The homeowners are Kenneth and Linette, and they are already living in the front half of the house. We were working on an apartment on the back of the house, and an apartment in a new upper level addition, so Kenneth and Linette could provide a home for several family members who lost their houses in the hurricane. The downstairs needed tile, trimwork, paint, etc, which is where Phil worked. Upstairs work was drywall taping, mudding and sanding, which was where Erin spent the week. We had a great team, with 7 from our church and 3 from a Florida church that was there volunteering. We got a ton of work done, and managed to squeeze in some time for play, too :)


Phil and David being silly with the uninstalled toilet:
Our homeowner, Kenneth:
Our team, with homeowners Kenneth and Linette, and Linette's cousin Kim:

New Orleans- Camp

We stayed at a church that had been converted to a camp- complete with mess hall, bunk rooms, and shower and toilet trailers. It was a nice facility, and PDA does a great job running it! Each group took turns cooking and cleaning and leading daily devotions.

New Orleans- Damages

The following pictures are a small selection of the images showing the damage after Hurricane Katrina. Three years after the storm, a lot of debris from demolished homes has been removed, but a few still remain. A common sight is an empty lot, maybe with cement front steps, or a front porch, but nothing else. I wish our pictures could do justice to the amount of destruction in New Orleans, and how much still needs to be done.

New Orleans... Coming Soon

Phil and I spent the last week of October in New Orleans, helping with some of the rebuilding efforts still going on from Hurricane Katrina. It was an amazing, exhausting, fun, emotional and wild week, full of blesssings! We have several hundred pictures from the trip, and haven't even seen what others from our church took, so I promise I'll add pictures from the trip to the blog as we sort through them.

Until then, thank you to everyone that supported us and prayed for us while we were gone! I can't wait to share more about it with everyone!