More about his time in New Orleans

There were 7 men and 4 women from our church who went to New Orleans last week. They left at 5 a.m. Sunday morning and returned home Saturday at 1 p.m. They stayed in a church in a bad part of New Orleans. The first floor of the church had been completely under water. There were two other crews there to work. They all slept on the second floor that was pretty much undamaged. The other crews worked on the main floor putting in a drop ceiling and doing trim work. Bob's crew worked on the pastor's roof until Wednesday or Thursday and then split up and did other jobs. Bob helped put a new floor in the pastor's father's church. He's 81 years old and has quite a story.

There were 29 people sleeping on cots in a small area. The women all slept in a 10x10 room. The four of them had very little space in that room. There were two toilets (a women's and men's) and one shower for all of them. They had to wait in line for a 2-minute limit in the shower! They always had hot water but had to have the water turned all the way to hot to get it!

I'll let Bob tell you more. You can always call and ask him to tell you about the trip. He loves to talk about it!

9th Ward

The damage was so great here and still almost 5 months later, the debris is mostly just pushed off the streets. A lot of houses were on the streets and those streets are still not opened up. This was very sobering time for the crew. The barge is the one that came over the levee.

Bob didn't take a lot of pictures, but the rest of them did. We will get a CD with everyone's pictures on it. Anyone who wants to can call and we will be glad to set up a time when you can see them all. We should have them all before this Sunday.

Garden District

Bob didn't take pictures except on the first day and then the last day when they went sightseeing. This was the garden district and he loved the huge houses. He said they stay in the family. They never sell them. If no one wants to live their, the family money keeps it up until someone in the family wants to live in it.

A better picture of the pastor's house

New Orleans Trip

This is the pastor's house where Bob and the 6 other men worked at putting a new roof on. This area didn't get much flooding but the winds tore shingles off and water got in. It's a much better part of town than where the church was that they stayed at night.

A week of single parenting

Bob left at 5 a.m. Sunday morning for a week of hard work in New Orleans. He will be back around noon this Saturday. That leaves me spending a week as a single parent. I got up and took him to where he would meet the others on Sunday morning and saw them off, went home a slept a couple hours and then went to church all alone (the kids came a little later than me). It really felt strange being there without Bob! The big adjustment for the week is having to make all the decisions and handle any discipline issues all by myself. I can talk to him on the cell phone--he has a good signal, he said--but don't want to interrupt him so I'm letting him call me as much as possible.)

I'm praying that nothing breaks down or stops working while he's gone. I'm also praying that he has a great time with lots of divine appointments and times of seeing God's glory in the devastation. He said he's in a pretty bad part of town (right in New Orleans) and it's so devastated. It was quite a shock to see it in person. Some of the guys were ready to turn around and go back home, it was so shocking.

He's got the digital camera so I'll be posting pictures when he comes back for all of you to see.

Official students and a sermon

Bob and I are official students in the In Christ's Image Training as of Thursday last week. We are both enjoying it so far. The material is very inspiring. I find myself saying, "Yes!" a lot while I'm listening to the teaching CD's and underlining a lot in the chapters we have to read. It's two chapters a week and two 20 minutes sermons/lectures by Francis Frangipane.

Bob spoke a sermon on New Year's Day at our church. He told me I was to stand up there with him while he asked me a few questions. I didn't have any idea what the questions would be ahead of time. It was very powerful and I was crying by the time I got done (about 5 minutes of his sermon). He asked me like Jesus was asking me questions like, "Marla, will you follow me no matter what happens?" "Will you feed my sheep, teach my people?" Bob said that as my husband, he was commissioning me into what God had for me this year and he wanted to support me as much as he could as my husband.

Bob spoke on Joshua 3 about crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land. Then he talked about us taking up the sword of the spirit and being ready to follow the Lord across our Jordans. I had a lot of people say that they were impacted by his sermon. I'm looking forward to what God has for us and for our church in 2006. I feel like we are on the brink of entering the Promised Land of rest and work.

Bob is going to New Orleans the end of January for a week with a group of men from our church to gut out 5 houses, put a drop ceiling in a church there, and possibly re-roof the pastor's church. It will be a good experience for him. Everyone who has gone says how they are impacted by the devastation there.