NOLA4 Friday

Our last day in New Orleans.  

Thanks to those who wrote notes of encouragement either electronically or on paper.  We have been blessed by you!

Work-wise, we got a lot done.  Howard's team finished a tile floor and moved on to sheetrock in the garage.  Bob's team finished all the assignments in one house (the house is not done, but we did all we could do with what we had.) and moved on to another house where they started fixing some things that previous team had not been as successful at.  Roma's team finished all the laminate flooring and all but one small corner of tile flooring (and really-  it's just grout) and went beyond the work order by trimming out one half of the house.  Gary's team did an EXCELLENT job with walls-  going further than planned.  The site manager walked into that house yesterday and asked where the seams were.  Gary asked if he should put them back in.  Because of favorable weather, they were able to blow orange peeling texture and prime the walls on the house.  

The weather:  Holy buckets it has been nice.  Today was the first day it was really humid.  Other than that, it's been warm and mostly sunny and really nice.  Today was pretty muggy.  

This morning in devotions, Mark S. said that there was only one path to God through Christ, but many paths to Christ.  And at first, I thought it sounded kind of new-agey- but then I thought about it more and decided he's right.  Jesus didn't always do the same things and say the same words to everyone He met.  Everyone's experience with Him was different.  This is not to say that God is not the same today tomorrow yesterday, etc., but that we can experience Jesus in different ways.  Our prayer this week is that the people we have worked for has experienced Jesus through us.  By our good work as a result of our faith, these people can come to maybe understand Jesus a little better, and to draw closer to Him, and thereby to God.  

The agency we work with asks us to knock off early on Friday so they can get all their tools back and ready for the following week.  Today at around 1:30pm, Howard took Hutch to the airport so he could catch a flight to Houston, where he will be living after this week.  Then Howard and 8 others went on to Memphis so that they could get a chance to go to the National Civil Rights Museum.  We will meet back up with them tomorrow evening in Kirkwood.  Those of us that stayed here, went to the French Quarter and walked around a bit.  We were ready to come back to the base we are staying at by about 7:30.  We saw some neat things and some ugly things.  New Orleans is like that.  Remind me of this when I do the "epilogue" entry after we get back.  

Good news and bad news:  
The Bad news-  UMCOR is pulling out of New Orleans at the end of 2010.  
The Good news-  I signed us up for another team in October.  

This means if you've been meaning to go, or go back, this is your last chance to work through UMCOR (read between the lines there-  and see that there is a possibility of working through other agency's.)  If you want to go on the last guaranteed trip, shoot me an email and I'll tell you where to send your check to sign up.  I signed us up for 20 slots (Becky K. -  if you're reading this, we will be staying with you guys at Filmore!)  

I will not have email access in Kirkwood, so I won't be able to write again until we get back.  -  I will have more pictures on the picasa website (www.picasaweb.com/rodscofield/nola4) and you can visit our blog (which is so far, still just these emails) at www.rodscof.blogspot.com  

Pray for our safe travel back to our homes.

And pray for our finances.  We are cutting it close this time.  With more people going, the costs are higher.  There is a little room for error, but not much.  

Talk to you again in a few days!

R

--
The spiritual life cannot be made suburban.  It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.
--  Howard Macey

NOLA 4 Wed. and Thursday

Best thing to do is check out the pictures on our picasa website:
www.picasaweb.com/rodscofield/nola4

We are getting a lot done on our worksites.

Cool things to remember:

The way Jerri and Tina didn't know anyone from this trip and have
integrated so well.

Hutch riding up in the icecream truck.

Ginger's devotion in the Lower 9th Ward

How much the Lower 9th has developed even since we were here 6 months ago.

How bad the Upper 9th is. This caught me by surprise. Sooooo many
buildings in horrible shape.

Having my cousin, Mark on this trip.

I got sick today and tried to go to the worksite. When we got there,
I told Hutch and Roma that I was going to try to sleep for just a
little while in the van. I ended up eventually returning the base and
trying to get some sleep.

We did our rootbeer float party tonight. The cool thing was that the
homeowners from two of our work sites came by for it. The bad thing
was that that was about it. Good floats, though....

The challenges of having a bigger group have been interesting. Do you
wait for everyone to get to the table for dinner? Devotions? Do we
try to accommodate what EVERYONE wants to do?

To that extent, there is a group leaving after the work hours tomorrow
for Memphis, where they will spend the night, and then stop at the
National Civil Rights Museum. Nothing wrong with it, but a hassle to
coordinate, and there has been some struggle with flexibility.

BUT- the reason we are here- to share Jesus' love through tangible
ways by helping restore people into their homes- MUCH is getting
done. Bob's team pretty much did all they could do at their site.
Howard and Gary both think they might get done early tomorrow. Roma's
team has gone above and beyond the worklist, but is going to struggle
with finishing everything they start.

It has been a good week.

R

--
The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier,
and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains
untamed.
-- Howard Macey

NOLA 4 Sat-Tues. Trying again...

I apologize to the people that got this the first time. I had this
email bounce back from MANY people, and am trying to figure out how to
make sure that this can get to everyone- If you got it and read it
once, you can just delete this. It's old news.

Thanks!
R

Lots of catching up to do...

First- You can see pictures at www.picasaweb.com/rodscofield/nola4
I haven't been able to get everyone's pictures, but I think Kristen
figured out a way to get them and we can get more pictures on soon.
Also- you can visit our blog at www.rodscof.blogspot.com Today, it's
the same exact entry as this email.

We are seeing a lot and feeling the urgency of getting houses done.
We are clicking well together and everyone seems to fit in pretty
well. We are working on 4 different work sites.

Howard is leading a team at a house in the Upper 9th ward. On
Howard's team is: Bonnie and Dennis W., Mark P., Mark S., Judie R.,
Vince J., and Lewis W. The house was damaged from the roof down, but
it never flooded. They are doing a lot of tile. Bonnie has been able
to spend a lot of time talking with the homeowners.

Bob is working on a house out by the airport. Zach B., Krissy K.,
Corrine M., and Jeff are helping with a lot of misc. projects. They
have cut and laid baseboard, installed vanities, and several other
things.

Gary is working on a house in the northeast part of town. They are
doing drywall, mostly. Helping Gary are Jerri H., Tina B., Kristen
B., Paul A., Shane I., Carolyn W, and Barbara S.

Roma is leading a team with Rob W., Rod S., Matt S., Hutch T., and
Ginger S. We have been working on laminate and ceramic flooring.

After two days, all teams are reporting being on schedule. In fact,
when we report to each other in the evenings, everyone talks about how
proud we are with the amount of work that is getting done. Everyone
works together and have been placed on the right teams.

Usually, they have asked us to take a half day off on Wednesday. This
year, they seem to not need us to do that. We have readjusted our
plans to work all day on Wed. and try to get as much as we can done.

Kristen and Bonnie have been leading music for devotions. That has
added a really neat component.

Again, Donna has been cooking for us. This year, she has a helper
named Jean. Jean fits in great and Donna has said she loves working
with her. They are both two ladies that get stuff done, too!

That's a little about what we've been up to. I encourage you to check
out the pictures.

--
The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier,
and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains
untamed.
-- Howard Macey

NOLA 4- The day before

Hello prayer supporters and well-wishers and friends and family and
people that are getting this because I happen to have your email
address-

First- let me remind everyone that if you don't want to get these
emails, let me know and I will remove your name from the list. There
is a way to subscribe to our blog (where this is also posted). I
think you have to join a google service, though (like gmail). If,
when you are in our blog, you opt to "follow" us, and then using the
"reader" function, you can get notifications when we post. I think.
I do see a day where this form of communication is obsolete.
(remember the stamp and envelope days?)

You can also join us on Facebook. Search for River Bend Mission Team-
and you'll see the pictures of the ducks. Become a fan and you'll get
updated each time we post, too. I honestly am trying to figure out
how to best use all the social networking media and everything else
that will help us be in front of you.

This Saturday morning we take off with our largest group so far.
There will be 30 participants of NOLA 4. We have four meeting up with
us from Kentucky. We have two meeting up with us from Michigan. We
have Bob meeting up with us from Indianapolis. And 23 others, 11 of
which are first timers to River Bend. This is exciting, and presents
challenges. There are people that never were able to make it to a
team meeting before the trip, and so to integrate them into the team
and to make sure everyone is on the same page.

We leave in less than 24 hours and I have to pack and pick up rental
equipment and several other things and I have to work again tonight at
10:00pm. I'm not sure what I would do, though, if I wasn't running in
100 different directions at once.

We have the Commissioning service tonight at Salem UMC at 7:00pm if
anyone is in town and wants to come send us out.

This is going to be good.

R

--
The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier,
and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains
untamed.
-- Howard Macey