Our site managers, Craig and Becky

Look at our air conditioning deck!

The group giving the blanket the girls' basketball team made

I also wanted to give everyone a chance to see the area as well as what the inside of a finished home looks like.  There is a finished one down the street that we had a chance to take a look through, so I took a couple of pictures when I was in there.  These homes turn our really nice when they are completed.  It is really amazing what Habitat For Humanity has done in the area.  Over the last 3 years, crime in the area has dropped over 50% as a result of the work that Habitat has done.  To illustrate what the area was like before hand, Jennifer Moskowitz, Habitat’s Volunteer Service Coordinator for St. Tammany West, told me that Domino’s would not even deliver to this neighborhood before HFH began working.

Run down housing is prevalent in the area

A basketball floating in sewage water

The corner of Progress and Dahlia, the streets we worked on

After Habitat for Humanity moved into the area, it completely changed the atmosphere of the neighborhood.

A street rebuilt by Habitat For Humanity

Entrance to a HFH home, view of the kitchen

View of the hallway

View of the master bedroom

These house really turn out nice when they are completed; what a blessing to have a part of the construction of these homes!

The week is over and we are all home now enjoying our families and telling them all about our week with Habitat For Humanity.  For the final blog post of this week, we wanted to do something special, so everyone wrote a little recap of the week in their own words…

“This is my third mission trip with the college ministry.  We really didn’t have a college ministry until Justin and Trevor.  I’m thankful for them and Trinity and that I am able to go on these mission trips.  Every trip holds something different and a different group of people.  It’s a blessing to be able to bond with fellow Christians and give back to a community that is struggling.  If Trinity didn’t allow me to, I probably would not be able to volunteer out of Michigan.  The fellowship that was created on this trip is priceless, you can see God working through every group that heads out on one of these trips.  This has been an awesome experience and I hope to continue being a part of a team and church that makes a difference. – Bre’Elle”

“This was my first mission trip and I’m glad I was able to do it with all the wonderful people I’ve met.  Not only was I able to meet new friends, I was able to grow in my faith and help others in need.  Working for Habitat For Humanity was very rewarding.  I feel so blessed to help build a house for a family in need.  We saw some very eye-opening living arrangements and it is nice to know we helped put multiple families in mor substantial housing.  This trip showed me how much I am blessed and I’m glad I was able to give back.  I would go on another trip given the chance. – Diana”

“For me this trip was a learning experience.  I’ve never so much as swung a hammer successfully, but when we were done I had become much more confident in my potential and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things.  Before we left, I made a list of intentions for God to speak to me and give me wisdom about, and before we even arrived at our destination, He already answered a lot of my questions and gave me guidance.  I was challenged in a lot of ways, and being out of my comfort zone really opened my heart to learn to depend on God.  It was great to see the physical progress we made on the houses and meet some really great people that shared the same joy.  I think the greatest part of the trip, though, was seeing God speak to us each in different ways.  I’m certain that He is on the move in each of our lives. – John”

“This trip was a great experience.  I had tons of fun and it had a great cause.  Going on this trip has made me want to do more charity work.  Trevor and Kris were excellent leaders and everyone in the group was extremely nice and caring.  Coming on this trip was on of the best experiences of my life. – Josh”

“This trip was a great experience.  I have been on many mission trips and have seen many downtrodden places, however this was one of the worst places I have seen.  Many people we saw had almost nothing.  I enjoyed this trip so much because we could physically see how we were helping these people.  We were building their home where they can grow and succeed.  It was a cool feeling and I could really see God working through our group and the other volunteers.  I really hope I’m able to do something like this again because it was awesome and very productive. – Kayla”

Thank you so much, church, for your prayers and support this week.  It was quite a pleasure to be able to document this trip so our families and friends could have a more concrete idea of what we worked on and how this trip helped St. Tammany West and impacted our personal lives.  I would like to thank Jennifer Moskowitz and Wendy Schneider at Habitat For Humanity for having us down there.  I would also like to thank Becky and Craig, Hannah, Luke and Brandon and the rest of the HFH staff and AmeriCorps workers, it was great working with you guys.  To our gracious hosts at Peace Lutheran, thank you so much for taking such good care of us.  It was a pleasure this week to be in Louisiana.  God truly blessed our trip this week, I hope He used us to our full potential to help promote a healthy environment in St. Tammany West.

-Kyle

Thanks for all the support this week.  It was a great trip.  I’ll fill you in on the rest in a little bit.

Peace,

-Kyle

John and Trevor building a deck

Craig working on the roof

Kayla, Josh and Diana building more lattices

We also had the pleasure of working alongside a lovely couple from Philly, Kirsten and Tim.  They came down by themselves just to get involved in Habitat For Humanity.

Kirsten fixing Tim's Back

Us in front of a Habitat home (Craig and Becky on the left)

I’ve been having a hard time with the server here and haven’t had time to upload the videos, but I got a chance to take care of two of them today.  Please enjoy the camera work of up-and-coming director, Trevor Noonan.com:

The world lost a teenager today as Kayla celebrated her 20th birthday.  Last night, Diana and Kris snuck out to Walmart to get her some presents and a cake.  After we came back from the site today, we showered and headed out to a local restaurant called Morton’s for Kayla’s birth day.  The food was delicious and Tim and Kirsten came along to share the fun.

Happy Birthday, Kayla!

Kayla was amped for her Snuggie!

Diana cutting the cake

Make a wish!

What a wonderful week it has been.  This has been such a good opportunity to express our faith through our actions and learn about ourselves in the process.  Tomorrow we will be getting up to put in one more half-day of work before we jump on the road after lunch.  I’m going to turn in; please keep us in your prayers as we start the first leg of our trip home tomorrow.  Good night, church.

-Kyle

There was something in the air today that was special.  We really accomplished a lot and grew as a team. From siding the houses to shingling the sheds and hanging lattices, we work incredibly well together.  The mood was positive all throughout the day that was refreshing and exciting, from the beginning of the day til the end.

The group is working so hard on these houses.  Please enjoy these shot of us gettin’ work done!

Josh making a drill work

Kayla and Diana hanging lattices

Bre and Kris hanging facia metal

John and Trevor shingling a shed

Katie and Becky, our site managers

Becky, Katie and Craig are our site managers.  Unfortunately Craig was sick today, but it’s really wonderful to work with people who are so knowledgeable and patient.  They are very open and willing to teach us stuff that most of us are not used to (and they make sure we don’t break things), and they do their jobs very well.

After we wrapped up on the site, we headed back to the church to shower and jumped on the road to downtown New Orleans.  We didn’t think we were going to make it this week, so it was really exciting to have a chance to see some more of the area.  It’s amazing to see how much of the city has been rebuilt and how much is still destroyed.  When we arrived in the area, Bre’Elle and Trevor filled us in on some recent history, as they both went on a mission trip a couple years ago.  We parked downtown and walked to the levee, then headed near Bourbon Street to have pizza.

The group at the Levee

Don't act like you're not impressed

trev and kris

I did get a chance to take a couple interesting pictures.  The first is a shot of the evening sun from the 6-mile-long bridge that leads into New Orleans.  The second is a shot of the levee and cityscape from a park bench.

Evening sky from the bridge

The levee from a park bench

The trip to New Orleans was about 40 minutes, so it gave us a chance to have a mobile devotion on the way back.  Kris asked some tough questions that really made some of us step out of our comfort zones.  “How do we want others to see us?” is a tough question, but it added a new dimension when he asked, “How do you think people see you?”  The conversation revealed a lot about ourselves that we may normally try to avoid.  This conversation has really revealed a sense of unity among.  There is a glow among our small community that I really appreciate.  God is definitely working in our hearts this week.

It’s time for me to turn in, so I hope everyone has a wonderful day.  I have a special post planned for tomorrow that I have been thinking about today, so don’t miss it!  Sweet dreams, church, and keep us in your hearts, minds and prayers.

-Kyle

I just want to start out this post with a great picture I took today…

Kayla showing this piece of siding what's what

Kayla manned up and tried the miter box (Mr. and Mrs. K., she has all her fingers….except her thumb.)

As Trevor said, today went really well.  Our new team leaders, Craig and Becky, were motivated and organized and wonderful to be around.  To illustrate our progress today, here are before and after photos of a shed:

Before...

...and After

The weather was very fickle today; it couldn’t decide whether to rain or not.  Right as we were wrapping up the work day, the rain decided to come down.  We hurried and picked up all the tools and raced home to beat the high school students to the showers.  In the scattered moments when the sun decided to peek through, I managed to get a couple pictures of us working on the site.

Has anybody seen Bubba Gump?

If you see this woman with this tool, please alert local authorities.

Work, work, work!

John, Josh and a floating hammer

After our work day and our trip to Sonic, we made a pit stop at a local park and had a devotion.  The discussion floated on topics about where we are in our lives and how it affects our emotions.  The group really opened up, sharing about our school and work situations and how much control we give to God over our lives.  God is doing pretty cool things down here with us, but we don’t want that to be fleeting.  We are really growing as a group and our conversations get deeper and deeper every night.

Well, it’s getting pretty late and we’re going to have another long day tomorrow, so I will say g’night.  Please keep us and the weather in your prayers tomorrow!

-Kyle

-Trev

Habitat for Humanity

One of the houses we worked on

T-noonan

Judge Rusty and Colleta the owner

More Power, John!

Trevor and I knocked out the siding, straight as an arrow

Puppies!

Kyle and Speedy Steve

Heres the group, including Luke, Judge Rusty and Hannah (L to R)

We’re wrapping up breakfast and ready to get back to it.  We are excited to see what we’ll be workin on today.  We do have a storm advisory in the area, so please pray for good weather.  Have a wonderful day in Michigan!

-Kyle

Today was a solid start for what I believe will be an awesome week.  Our first project for the majority of our group was to put up siding for the home.  It’s a nice two bedroom home with a light yellow/tan siding.  It’s really awesome that somthing like Habitat exsists for us to help build a home for someone who needs it.  What was even better than that though, is that we were able to meet the future homeowner, Khaalida,  at the jobsite today. It was a blessing to see who our hard work would be helping.  She is a young working mother of a two year old boy, who works at a juvenile facility and also is in the military.

What I didn’t know, and I’m sure a lot of people don’t, is that Habitat doesn’t just hand these houses out.  The homeowners have to meet criteria which includes paying off a zero interest mortgage, and 300 hours of volunteering with Habitat!  Colleta has 20 hours left to go.  Colleta’s house was a Bond, Break, and Badge house which meant that a member of the judicial system would be apart of it.  We got the opportunity to work side by side with a local judge named Rusty.

UPDATE: Kayla has now joined the playstation baseball game watching party. (Trevors winning 18-16)

Tomorrow we work at a different house but it is only a street away.  Our construction site supervisor, Hannah,  has five houses being built in this block.  In an area of stray dogs and untreated sewage water leaking into the streets, these houses are a ray of light.  It’s really amazing to see the transformation through the efforts of volunteers and Habitat for Hummanity.  If I could tell anyone one thing about helping Habitat, it would be DO IT.

Winding down and getting ready for bed after our first day of working, I can see a huge difference in the closeness of our group.  I’m super excited for what this week will bring! Whether its bonding at the jobsite, watching Trevor and Kris yell competivly at the TV screen, or driving to Taco Bell AND Sonic…….fifteen minutes after dinner.

Thanks to everyone who’s following and goodnight…and Kris just won the video game.

_Bre’Elle

Psalm 9:9

I tried to post this video last night but YouTube was being a cranky franky, so I’ll post it for you now.

Last night I gave Trevor a quick tour of the men’s sleeping area and I thought you’d like to take a peek into our world for the week.

We are running to Sonic right now and I am uploading more photos, so there will be another post shortly.  Also, there may be a guest writer posting a blog this evening……… so you will have to wait patiently in suspense for that!

-Kyle

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER
Lord, I believe in you: increase my faith.
I trust in you: strengthen my trust.
I love you: let me love you more and more.
I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.

I worship you as my first beginning,
I long for you as my last end,
I praise you as my constant helper,
And call on you as my loving protector.

Guide me by your wisdom,
Correct me with your justice,
Comfort me with your mercy,
Protect me with your power.

I offer you, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on you;
My words: to have you for their theme;
My actions: to reflect my love for you;
My sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory.

I want to do what you ask of me:
In the way you ask,
For as long as you ask,
Because you ask it.

Lord, enlighten my understanding,
Strengthen my will,
Purify my heart,
and make me holy.

Help me to repent of my past sins
And to resist temptation in the future.
Help me to rise above my human weaknesses
And to grow stronger as a Christian.

Let me love you, my Lord and my God,
And see myself as I really am:
A pilgrim in this world,
A Christian called to respect and love
All whose lives I touch,
Those under my authority,
My friends and my enemies.

Help me to conquer anger with gentleness,
Greed by generosity,
Apathy by fervor.
Help me to forget myself
And reach out toward others.

Make me prudent in planning,
Courageous in taking risks.
Make me patient in suffering, unassuming in prosperity.

Keep me, Lord, attentive at prayer,
Temperate in food and drink,
Diligent in my work,
Firm in my good intentions.

Let my conscience be clear,
My conduct without fault,
My speech blameless,
My life well-ordered.
Put me on guard against my human weaknesses.
Let me cherish your love for me,
Keep your law,
And come at last to your salvation.

Teach me to realize that this world is passing,
That my true future is the happiness of heaven,
That life on earth is short,
And the life to come eternal.

Help me to prepare for death
With a proper fear of judgment,
But a greater trust in your goodness.
Lead me safely through death
To the endless joy of heaven.

Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Again, keep us in your prayers.  We’re amped to dive into work today and build houses!  Habitat told us they build 25 a year, we’re planning on having that many done this week! We’ll show Louisiana how we do things in Utica!

Have a good day, and stay classy, Michigan.

-Kyle