Fwd: NOLA 5 Tuesday- 2nd work day

Here is a note we got from Kim O., who was on the NOLA 3 trip and is still looking for her glasses.

R

You guys are awesome.

However,

the story I'd place on your hearts is David and Goliath.

Read it!

David, our psalm-singer who knew God's promises not because he had a Bible book to open but who carried them in his heart and songs, remembered who should REALLY be champion/hero to Israel, remembered the promise God had given to Joshua and his people about beating those nasty giants who wound up in Gath.  

Israel was in trouble and needed a hero.  Goliath was the champion and whoever won, won all.  How do you define a hero?  they do what we can't -- because we're in trouble.

The people of Israel had gotten stubborn -- thought that tall Saul was the way to go -- against the likes of tall Goliath.  But Saul let them down.  People do that.  Government's do that.  We are God's people and if we act as if we remember that, then our hero, our champion is God, and we remember His promises and let him be the one to do the hardest work....

David pointed to God throughout it all -- so when people thank YOU for being a hero -- share who your real hero is!  Jesus did the hard work of being our champion and did what we CANNOT -- he's all about taking our place so that sin, death and the power of evil can't defeat us.... echo David -- be a good leader and point to the real champ!

You guys are awesome -- and have an awesome God!!

That's what you get for having a friend in Seminary........

Praying for you all!!

Kim

Re: NOLA 5 = the last work day

Still praying for you.  Have a safe journey home.
Pastor Paul

Sent via MOTOBLUR™ on Verizon Wireless

NOLA 5 = the last work day

It's pretty late and I'm pretty tired.  Here's a recap-

Worked a half day.  The place we are working out of wants their tools back, so we have to knock off early.  

Group photo!

Carla and a few others wanted to see a New Orleans cemetery, so we drove around two of them.  Both closed at 3:00pm and we got there at 3:45.  They took some pictures.

Wandered around the French Quarter for a few minutes.  I saw an amazing street duo.  They are really good.  (www.tanyandorise.com)  

Then we met a college friend of mine that I had not seen in almost 20 years for dinner.  She suggested a local place that had great food and good prices and was not in the French Quarter.  We got to see another part of town that was kind of neat, called the Irish Channel.  

This is just a short rundown of things we did today.  

I posted more pictures, and put captions on them.  (www.picasaweb.com/rodscof/nola5)  

Our FB page is under "River Bend Mission Team"  leave us a note there if you would like.

Our blog site is:  www.rodscof.blogspot.com

We are leaving for St. Louis in 6.5 hours.  I better get some sleep.  I may or may not be able to write more  before we get back.  

Pray for safe travels and meaningful processing of our trip.  Continue to pray that God opens our eyes to what He wants us to see.  And that we have the wisdom to interpret what we are seeing the way He would want us to, and that we have the courage to respond in a way that brings Him glory.  

Amen

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 5- Wed and Thurs

Some things from Wed. and Thurs-

Bob is a genius.  I just have to say.  (I suppose this requires explanation now.  Bob is very good at renovations, construction, repair, building, etc.)  -  I am in awe of what he can do.  

 I had never HUNG sheet rock before.  I have sanded and mudded, but never hung.  I had to figure some things out on my own.  And cutting a triangle to fit in the right spot is no easy thing.   I kept telling Rob W. (who worked alongside me today and yesterday) that I am a genius.  I have learned a few things from Bob.  And have improvised a little. It has been rewarding.  I can probably fix that hole in the wall in my bathroom now.  

Kathy and Barbara have been making meals along with Rhonda, who is from the Pennsylvania team, with whom we are sharing our housing site.  All I can say is, wow!  They are doing great.  

Turns out that I do not have to fly home to work at all this week.  But I have used up all my banked up good will and favor.  We have an attendance point system.  If you miss a day unexcused, but call in, you get 2 points.  If you get up to 10 points, you are dismissed.  Well, my boss starting only working one shift on Fridays, so the my first shift counterpart and I switched this Friday.  My boss is upset.  The grapevine whispers that he says I manipulated the system.  I wouldn't say manipulated it.  I would say I worked within it.  Maybe even took advantage of it.  (Although how going to the edge of what's allowed in attendance absences, using up all my goodwill, and going a week without getting paid is getting an advantage, I'm not sure.  Everything costs something, right?)  Prayers for my work situation would not be wasted.  Some people will say I did the wrong thing by going on this trip.  But this is where my heart is.  And I can't be who I'm not.  

Also pray for Matt's eye.  He scratched his eyelid?  or his cornea?  -  anyway, it's giving him trouble.  The Colonel (who was a physician some years ago) put a patch on it today before he went to the worksite.  

Both worksites are getting ready to wrap up.  ON Bob's site, most of the drywall is done.  On Howard's site, they are ready to spray texture.  They ask us to stop work early on Fridays so they can get their tools back.  I hope we have enough time to everything done we want to accomplish.  

My friend, Brody, told me to video record what we are doing.  I have been trying, but it has been tough to.  And then editing the video is long and tedious.  Brody said our videos would go viral on Youtube.  I'm skeptical, but I have gotten a couple good things recorded.  I will try to get them out in a timely manner once we get back.  Remind me.  Bug me about this.

I posted an entry on our Blog site that I didn't email out to everyone.  You can read it here if you would like.  It's about the homeowner my team is working for and some of the feelings around "who deserves help.  

There are a couple more pictures on our photo web page-  photos here.  I will put some captions on some of these before I go to bed tonight.  

And you can visit us on FaceBook.  Become of fan of the "River Bend Mission Team"

One more day.  

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

Workin' on Wednesday and Thursday

We hung a significant amount of sheet rock.  It felt good to take over some of the drywall duties.  When Bob was busy with something else,  I looked for things to keep busy, and usually found them in another room with more sheet rock.  I'm not going to lie.  I'm not very good at it.  When Barry, the construction coordinator we are working with stopped by, he suggested we make a few changes, which we did on Thursday morning.

The house Howard's team is working on is about ready for texture to be sprayed on.  On the past few trips, I've seen all the houses we have been working on.  This time, I don't think I'll get a chance to see Howard's house, except in pictures.

It wouldn't be honest if I didn't wonder about this house we are working for.  It's half of a duplex.  (This is the house Bob's team is working on).  And I hesitate to talk about this, but honesty is better, right?  The owner lives in the other half.  And I think (from overhearing him talk to a guy delivering plumbing parts) that he owns the house next door.  I'm not sure he qualifies as "least, last, lost."  It's probably better not to ask if you don't want to know.  But I am curious.  And I want to know how this guy qualifies.  Usually, we can say, we helped get someone back into their home.  This time, I think we would have to say, we helped a guy be able to rent out the other half of his duplex.  So am I a schmuck for asking?  Maybe we are supposed to just bless.  And be blessed, right?  Does someone have to "deserve" restoration on their house?  In the Bible, I guess it says that if someone sues you for your tunic, you give your cloak also.  If they force you to walk a mile with them, walk 2.  That is the best I can find to tell me how to respond to this.  The only other thing to tell myself is that I don't know the situation for sure.  I have been asked to hang drywall.  I will hang drywall.   I might not be very good at it, but I will do the best I can.

NOLA 5 Tuesday- 2nd work day

I want to apologize for the crazy photo disaster last night for those of you that got about 3 emails from me.  I think several ISP's think I'm a spam sender now.  

This morning, The Colonel (Carolyn N., Howard and Bob's sister) did devotions and compared Noah's Flood to NOLA's flood.  She talked about how Noah sent out birds to see if it was safe to come out of the ark.  In the same way, there are a lot of people still wondering if it's ok to come back.  

Howard's team thinks they may be able to get more done on their house than originally thought.  Bob said tonight, too, that he thinks we might get our house taped.  We actually started hanging sheet rock.  

Not a whole lot else to tell.  Work and more work.  Neither team has met their home owners.  

I did put more pictures on our Picasa website.  You can see them here:  www.picasaweb.com/rodscofield/nola5

I will try to put more captions tomorrow night.  

Thanks to my friend, Brian Norton, who called at 7:00am to encourage us.  We are supposed to read Ephesians 3:14-19.  I will have to look it up.  

More later!

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

Electronic fail....

Some people got the last email I sent.  Some people didn't.  

I apologize if you did and are getting yet another email from me tonight.  -  

I think the fail had to do with the pictures I tried to attach.  

Let's do this instead:

To read about our latest adventures in New Orleans, including our first work day, and how Bob and I got pretty wet, click here:  www.rodscof.blogspot.com

To see pictures from our trip so far, including a picture of Bob and me pretty wet, click here:  www.picasaweb.com/rodscofield/nola5

To visit us on Face Book, click here:  Our FB page

--
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 5- The first work day

We started out the day with devotions and then orientation.  A little about orientation....

They give a bunch of information about the work that's been done, and how to stay safe on the jobsite, and who the staff are that affect what we do, and a little about the houses we are working on.  Then they assign the houses and then it's like a free for all.  People are trying to get tools for the job, figure out who is going to go on which team, shuffle the coolers around so everyone has the lunches they packed and enough water for the day, and trying to find the assignment folder that nobody gave to Howard, but he seems to have it in his tool bag anyway, even though it's not the site he's going to.  (True story).  At the time, it feels a little stressful, but after it's done, you look back and kind of laugh.  

The worksite that Howard's team is working on is finishing drywall and texturing and painting.  They said that for the most part, the previous team did a good job with the drywall.  This is unusual because usually when we go in behind a drywall team, we spend a day or the week fixing what they did.  But for the most part, this team did pretty well.  Almost.  Just a couple closets.  I have not been to this site, but it sounds like it's pretty close.  Howard, Ginger, Lewis, Jeff, and Carolyn are on this site.  

The worksite that Bob's team is working on has actual hanging drywall.  We spent the first day just getting the house ready for the drywall.  We had to take down some plywood on the wall.  (Not nearly as innocuous as it sounds.  This was double layered with many many ringshank nails.)  We also had to pull down part of the ceiling.  It was particle board tile, and then we had to go around and pull out the staples that the tile was holding up the tile.  Two rooms of that.  The best part of the day for me was when I was working with Bob on removing that evil plywood from the bathroom.  There was a piece with a hold cut out of it, and there was a pipe sticking out-  as if for an eventual shower head.  Bob said we had to take off the cap on the end of the pipe or else we wouldn't be able to get the plywood off the wall.  (I wish I had a picture)-  As he started unscrewing that cap, I started to hear a rushing sound.  It happened pretty quick, but I thought, "I wonder what's going to come out of that pipe?"  Bob can't hear super well, so I can only assume now, that he didn't hear the wooshing sound.  I didn't say anything because I guess I forgot his hearing is a little impaired and I thought he heard it.  And really, there was no time.  As he got that cap off, a big blast of water hit him square in the face.  As the water continued to gush out of this uncapped pipe, I started looking for a shutoff and Bob tried to put that cap back on.  We both got pretty wet. I can't say it didn't feel good.  Bob's team includes Bob, me, Carla, Corrine, Matthew, and Rob.  Bob says we are going to actually start hanging drywall tomorrow.

The pictures are:  (In I'm not sure what order....)

Matt pulling staples out of the wall

Orientation

Rod and Bob all wet

Carla hard at it

Howard and Lewis right after devotions before Orientation.

I will get more pictures from the other team tomorrow.

You can visit our blog at Click here for our blog

You can see more pictures at:  click here for more pictures

See us on Facebook at:  click here for our FaceBook Page

Thank you to everyone who is praying for our safety and for our impact.  (both the impact that is made on us, and the impact we make)  Also thank you for your encouragement via emails and leaving messages on our FB page!

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

Your New Orleans travels

Rod,

Did you need our location for this trip?  Thought your trip was early October.  Let me know if you do -- because you're always welcome.  If not, that's okay, too.

Safe travels and blessed mission work!

Micki Seeling

NOLA 5- day two- traveling some more

Left Cape Girardeau and didn't make as good time this time.  Arrived in New Orleans around 6:30pm.  I had to ask the PA team to pick up Carla at the airport because were were about 2 hours out when she called saying she landed.  When we met up, Carla fit in PERFECTLY with our group.  She is a joy and blessing to add to our team.  

We went out to dinner.  We said we would just drive around until we found something.  Bob found a Rally's.  It's just food.  Just eat it.  

Devotions were awesome.  I asked everyone to go around the room to tell why they came.  This was couched as introductions so Carla could get to know us.  When Carla's turn came, she talked about her cancer and why she is bald and why she wanted to come.  She explained that when she got the invitation, God convicted her right then that she was to come.  And then He provided the money for the plane ticket.  Then we talked about Psalm 37:5-6  (Click here for that verse).  It was powerful.

We are excited about what God is doing here already.  We have been praying that God show us what He would have us see.  That we would have the wisdom to interpret what we are seeing the way He would want us to understand it.  And for the courage to respond how God would have us respond.  Amen

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

Day 1 - on the road

One of the things I keep thinking about is trying to find ways to make these email notices different than the past 8 trips.  My friend Brody tells me I need to shoot video each day, and post them on Youtube.  I shot about a total of .5 hours of video today, and I can't find anything in there that seems like exactly the right thing to show that tells the story.  And since I was shooting video, I didn't take any photos.  

But here are my observations so far.  And a couple things that happened and a couple things to remember.  And maybe a couple things to think about.

1.  At the Commissioning Service, Pastor Paul Marzahn gave us to remember 3 things from 1 Thessalonians 1:3.  Bonus points if you can pick them out.

  Click here for that verse.  

2.  This morning at devotions, Rob reminded that God has called us to do three things from Micah 6:8.  Bonus points if you can pick them out. 

Click here for that verse 

3.  Howard lost one of our team credit cards.

4.  Carolyn (The Colonel) won the mobile game of Apples to Apples.  She was good!  

5.  Watching adults play on playground equipment brings joy.  

6.  Last Spring, our team was 29 people strong.  This time, we are 13 people and still just as strong.  And while I like being able to say we have 30 people on a trip, I like the group dynamics from a smaller group better.  This will be a source of tension for me as I ask God which is better and what He would have us do.  Bigger is better, right?  Bring more people in to experience what God is doing, right?   Am I feeding my own ego by having more people?  Glory to God, not glory to rod.  

7.  We made great time in the van today.  12 hours to Cape Girardeau-  that included 2 gas stops and lunch.  This church is HUGE!  

8.  We forgot to bring one of the roasters for the meals.  We will need to stop and pick one up.  

9.  We are having a good time with each other.  God is good.  

10.  We are looking very much forward to having Carla join us tomorrow.  Carla is from Hale, Michigan, my home town.  This will be her first trip with us, but already, she fits in great!  

11.  It was great talking on the phone with Kristen, Roma, and Pastor Bruce.  It was also neat to share the emails and Facebook messages you sent with the team.  Vicki, we loved your prayer!

12.  We are going to have a contest to name the trailer.  Send your submissions.  I'll put some video and some photos online.  Entries will be due by the end of the trip.  More info forthcoming about this.  I just now made it up and have to decide the details. 

It is late and I think I'm the last one up.  I am excited about tomorrow.  Thanks everyone for their love and prayers.  

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 5- Here we go!

Usually, I send out a few more emails before this, reminding people to be praying for us, and reminding people of the Commissioning Service and etc.  

In a couple hours, I will be at the church, loading the trailer and getting last minute things ready for our trip.  It kind of worked out really well that the company I work for is only working 1 shift on Fridays, and this today was the other shift's turn to work.  (the significance of this will come up again in a few days.)  So I had today off, and the ability to run errands, and get a lot done for the trip.  It feels like Christmas.  It's a similar anticipation.  The weather was great, and as I was driving the rental van to go pick up the rest of the things from the party rental and the team t-shirts, it felt like all was right with the world.  I was exactly where I was supposed to be.  Doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing.    A few years ago, my pastor at the time, Bruce Ruggles, preached about operating out of your "sweet spot."  That place where your gifts and interests and heart and experiences all sync together and allow you to bless and be blessed all at the same time.  I've known how much I enjoy doing these trips, but today, it just clicked again.  And I KNEW what Pastor Bruce was talking about.  

I am so excited to be going back to New Orleans to get more people that much closer to being in their homes.  I am excited about the camaraderie that comes from riding for hours on end in a van together.  I am excited the bond that is created when you are working alongside someone else for someone else.  I am excited to see what God has in store for me and for our team this week.  I am grateful that God has allowed me to be a part of this.  

The team:

Howard N.

Barbara S.

Corrine M.

Lewis W.

Bob N.

Ginger S.

Matt. S.

Jeff S.

Kathy B.

Rob W.

Carla M.

Carolyn N.

and me.

I asked the team members to find someone to pray for them personally this week, and specifically this week.  I've asked that they pray that:

1-  We will see what God wants us to see.

2-  We will have the wisdom to understand what God is showing us

3-  We will have the courage to respond how God would want us to respond.

If you want off this mailing list, let me know and I'll take you off.  Otherwise, I'll send out an email once a day or every other day or so.  I have a new little video camera flip thingy, so maybe some video on the way, too.  

Thanks for your love and support.  Feel free to pass this on.  

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