Link to my China blog!

http://kyleschinaadventures.blogspot.com/

dance camp, volleyball, fishing, lessons learned, and home sweet home

Here's Jenny, Canal Street's awesome administrative assistant, and her husband Michael. And just in case you were wondering, they're not that tall! We were on the church steps and I was about 2 steps below them.

Pastor Mike himself giving me one final sermon before I took off for the airport!

Ever since Mikey got bit by that spider he's never been the same... oh yah and that's Rusty in the middle - the volleyball player and fisherman that provided me with a healthy break from the 50+ hours a week of interning. He's a champ!

Probably the best intern picture we took together. Mike actually smiled!



Well my time in NOLA came to an end Tuesday afternoon as I departed from the New Orleans airport gripping my forehead as the plane left the runway and praying that the steak burrito I had just inhaled for lunch from Juan's Flying Burrito wasn't going to end up in my lap. As usual I felt nauseous and tired during most of my 5+ hours in the air, but I thankfully held down my food. (This motion sickness deal will be interesting when I go to China considering we have 5-6 flights within a 2 1/2 week period.)

Anyways, the last few weeks of my time spent there were busy but enjoyable. The second week of dance camp thankfully ended up being a lot easier than I expected. It was a smaller group of older kids who didn't need as much supervision as the group of 30+ grade schoolers did the week before. Our primary role as interns was to take care of check-in/check-out, share with the kids a devotional based on the dance instructors' themes for each day, and to make lunch for about 50 people. Therefore we gave devotionals on the themes of Identity (in Christ), Family (of God), Rebuilding (house/life on a Rock instead of sand), and Faith (in God's faithfulness) and made spaghetti, clucks and fries, hot dogs, red beans and rice, and pizza. Everything went smoothly and almost every day we had the exact amount of food necessary which was awesome. We also fortunately had a lot of help in the kitchen from Jenny, the church secretary, and some other "mom volunteers" from the congregation. Aside from those roles there really wasn't a lot of other responsibilities we had so we spent some of our time writing thank you notes to all of the people who helped and provided meals for us during the summer, and made "Interns 2008" T-Shirts out of puffy-paint (boy did I feel like a girl but they turned out cool!). Oh ya and we told the kids we were professional dancers and taught them a "very difficult" dance routine which consisted of three moves to this video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOxR7rTYuSI
It was great.

I also concluded the "volleyball side of my summer" victoriously. I was given the opportunity to play on a coed 6's volleyball team during the Friday night league all summer at Coconut Beach with Rusty and his wife Cassie, Jenny and her husband Michael, and a girl named Krista. We played on the second most competitive net on the beach - Court #2 of about 15 courts. Our win last Friday night secured us "Best of the Net" which means that I should be getting a champions t-shirt in the mail here shortly. =P Furthermore, I also played in a men's doubles tournament on Saturday from about 4pm-10pm. I played in the AA bracket which had 13 teams (I usually only play in the A bracket) with a 20 year-old guy named Nick who I had met through Rusty. We had never played together but our similar style allowed us to gel well together. We went undefeated in pool play and battled our way to victory in the play-offs where we played 3 tough games - 2 of which we only won 25-23 and 25-22. As a prize I took home $110 pair of Bolle Sport sunglasses and a thankful heart for God's faithfulness in giving me the grace to play the sport I love for this brief season of my life.

Sunday morning's church service was also an important part of my last few days down there. Pastor Mike had asked the other interns and I to share with the congregation what we had experienced and what we had learned during our 10 weeks of serving. I spoke for about 8 minutes and talked a lot about how a theme for me this summer was really about looking for Jesus in the eyes of the people we served as Grant, the intern from last summer, had encouraged me to do when he was down there with his home church during our first week in the field. I can honestly say that I was able to understand what Jesus meant in the parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25 when Jesus, talking about helping those in need, said "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." The look of gratitude and joy I saw in the people's faces was what kept me focused and kept me going amidst exhaustion. After the service we ate cake in the fellowship hall and said our fair wells to people in the congregation. Soon after, Candace and her boyfriend Lindo and Anna and her parents took off for home on their 24 hour road trip back to Colorado. I, on the other hand, stayed until Tuesday and spent some quality time with my host family and with Mikey before heading home.

On Monday Mikey and I got the incredible opportunity of going on a fishing trip with Rusty on his 22-foot fishing boat. We woke up at 3:45am and after an hour drive and a 15 minute boat ride we were fishing literally in the area where the eye of the storm hit from Katrina in 2005. We primarily fished in the marshes in about 2-5 feet of water and experienced what Rusty said was probably the rainiest and windiest day he'd ever fished. The winds were at times blowing at 35-45 mph and the rain drenched us multiple times. With just board shorts on, mother nature delivered the coldest weather I experienced all summer long. Thankfully I could sit on the side of the boat and keep my feet warm in the murky 85 degree water while I casted. We used raw shrimp for bait and ended up catching over 150 fish, though many were small salt-water catfish or red fish that were too small to keep. By the end of the day we had 6-7 red fish keepers which were 2-5 pounds each. This for Rusty was considered a horrible day, but Mikey and I were just grateful to be out on the water and had a blast fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Finally, while I'm pretty sure this experience will be one I continue to learn from as the Lord reveals things to me (right now it in some respects just feels like a really long dream), here is a list of what I learned:

• I gained a fuller understanding of what true sacrificial hospitality looks like. As I have mentioned before, the host family I stayed with had 2 boys – 16 and 18 years old - who gave up their air conditioned room for 10 weeks and slept in the basement that was gutted after Katrina (no lights/sheetrock/AC/etc) which is basically like sleeping in an old musty garage (3rd John 5-8 comes to mind regarding their hospitality)
• I learned to eat cereal fast. For if I didn't, the 85 degree kitchen warmed the milk and ruined the bowl.
• I learned to delegate tasks to teenagers and adult leaders that I hardly knew, and to improvise when things “weren't going as planned"
• I have began to grasp the challenges and the tension that exists in a small Presbyterian church (around 40 members) with a tight financial budget and differing views on church government and procedures. (my home church growing up was 1500+ people)
• I learned that the “strawberry” and “wedding cake” syrup flavors mixed together with ice and creamy ice cream in a snowball makes any bad day better.
• I learned to establish friendships quickly with people on the various work teams. To pour myself out and genuinely care for them and try to get to know them with the full knowledge that in less than a week I would say goodbye to them and likely not see them again until we reminisce in Heaven of our week serving Him together in New Orleans. (This was challenging because one team of 25 would leave Saturday morning and 10 hours later a team with 45 new names and faces would arrive.)
• I learned (and will continue to learn no doubt) to be flexible and patient. I had no car which greatly limited where I could go and when I could go there and leave there. I also learning to be frugal. Living on a ministry budget helps differentiate between “needs” and “wants” quickly.
• I learned to see God's sovereignty in the midst of brokenness. I saw how families and friends are uniting to work on each others' homes, and how the body of Christ from churches all over the United States are continuing to be Jesus' hands and feet helping those in need.
  

Alright I think thats all I will say for now. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this blog. As of today I have 3 weeks to rest and recuperate until China comes and provides a whole new definition of "culture shock." So if you're in the Seattle area please call me or text me so we can catch up! I will definitely be blogging during China as well and I will either keep this blog site or provide a link here for my new blog.

Kyle

My friend Kristen and I were waiting for a train to go by behind this beautiful truck. I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture to portray the loose regulations Lousiana has for "tying down your load." If you look closely enough you can see a washer, a red car bumper, and an air conditioner window unit amongst other random items.



Here's a picture of the interns out on Rusty's boat soon after my foot was impaled by the boat cleat.



Here is a picture we took with Miss Bobby and Mr. Alfonso. We've probably put in around 1000 man hours at their house with the various work teams this summer.

This is the side of Miss Bobby's house after it received two fresh coats of paint.

VBS, painting, and a puncture wound

Time has gone by unbelievably fast down here and it’s crazy to think that I’ll be heading back to Seattle in a little over two weeks. Before I talk about heading home however, let me summarize the last week and a half or so.

As I mentioned in my last post, the group of 46 from North Carolina has proven to be our most challenging group to date. It was just a lot of people and organization of the entire team was frustrating. Yet looking back now, I can see that it was a rather successful week. The Vacation Bible School went smoothly and the numbers stayed constant around 40 kids each day. Also, by the end of the week, seven kids made a commitment to Christ and I believe that seeds were planted in others which will later be watered to fruition. Furthermore, the exterior of 2 houses were almost completely painted! The work teams were troopers in the sizzling 95 degree weather and worked their tails off. One of the highlights of the week that happened on my worksite was when the group’s bus driver, who worked for the charter bus company and had no connection with the church, began to help out painting the house. He was an older gentleman (probably 65) named Al who was only required to drop off and pickup the work teams which meant that him and his wife (who was along for the ride) had 6 days of vacationing to themselves in New Orleans. Yet Al, who used to run his own painting business, saw that we were all rookies at caulking windows so he spent a day and a half doing that for us while his wife helped paint. This was a big help and it was just cool to see them give up some of their time to serve with us.

This group took off last Saturday morning and a group of 9 adults from Colorado Springs got in Saturday and left Friday the 25^th. While the Charlotte group was our hardest group, the Colorado Springs group was probably our easiest. They were all apart of the 1^st Presbyterian Colorado Springs’ “singles group” called bridges and ranged from 18 to 35. There was a plumber named Jim who we kept busy all week running around to multiple houses and a contractor named Mike who worked well with our Mikey teaching the group how to mud, tape, and float drywall which I have learned is quite an art. We spent the week working on Miss Bobby and Mr. Alfonso’s house. They are this cute African American couple in their 70’s who were trapped in their home in 8 feet of water during Katrina. Miss Bobby is one of the nicest most grateful ladies I have ever met. She also has a gripping story of how her and her husband were rescued in the storm. The short version is that she and Alfonso were trapped up in their attic for three full days in the middle of the atrociously hot August heat where they managed to get in contact with their two sons just before their cell phone went dead. Her sons, who had access to a boat, were able to navigate through the devastated neighborhood that was under 8+ feet of water which took 2 hours because there were so many obstacles (cars, houses, street signs, etc) to maneuver around and because the names of the streets were underwater. When they finally found the house they had to tear through the roof to get them out. (This brief description doesn’t do justice to the way Miss Bobby tells the tale and explains how God’s providence allowed everything to work out, but you get the idea.) Anyways, we spent the week finishing the exterior painting and getting a significant portion of the drywall done. Unfortunately we only have one more work team in for the summer so we won’t be able to complete the entire house, though Mikey (who lives down here full-time) will be able to get most of the work done within the next few months with the help of a few friends.

This next week should be very interesting as it will be our first week of “dance camp.” There is a group of 12 dance instructors from a professional dance studio who will be here for two weeks teaching neighborhood kids how to dance. Accompanying this group will be a group of 15 (11 high schoolers and 4 adult leaders) from Lookout Mountain Presbyterian church in Colorado who will be assisting the camp and also doing some relief work as well. As much as I know I could use dance lessons, Mikey and I have decided to lead the work team while Candace and Anna will stick around the church to help run the camp. The following week, however, there is no work team coming and Mikey and I will be “forced” to help out at dance camp. While I can already envision how embarrassing it might be, perhaps my future wife (Lord-willing) will appreciate it!

Life outside of work has been awesome also aside from a recent injury I incurred (that I’ll explain eventually). I have been fortunate enough to go out twice on the 22 foot fishing boat that Rusty (the 27 year old guy I play volleyball with) owns in the swampy Louisiana rivers and lakes. The first time I went was on my day off two weeks ago. I went with Rusty, his sister Katie and two of her friends from Michigan who happened to be in town and wanted to go for a ride. We went through a bunch of fishing camps (cabins along the river that are only accessible by boat) and spotted 4-5 alligators during our adventure. The second time I went was Friday afternoon after work which was with Rusty, his other sister Jenny (the church secretary) and the other three interns. We took a similar tour of the fishing camps and then went out into a large lake where we decided to swim in the warm, muddy lake water about a quarter mile off shore (Rusty’s thermometer literally read 85 degrees which makes sense considering the entire lake is 6-8 feet deep!). It was here that my rather painful injury took place. This is how it happened: Rusty and the other three interns and I were standing on the bow of the boat before anyone had jumped in while Jenny was taking a picture of us all. Once the picture was taken, no one really wanted to go into the murky water first so Rusty gave me a forceful push and the bottom of my heal basically got bayoneted by the cleat on the top of the boat which left a nice half inch deep gouge in the bottom of my foot. It hurt like hell but I still swam in the swampy water for about half an hour (probably not the best idea with an open flesh wound). Once we were done I got some gauze from Rusty’s first aid kit and monitored the bleeding until we got back to the boat launch. Now of course Friday night is the night of our volleyball league and there’s no way I was going to sit out. It turns out Cassie, Rusty’s wife, is a nurse and so when we got back to Rusty’s house with the boat, she rinsed out the wound with peroxide, put some Neosporin over it and bandaged and taped it up to keep the sand out. I popped 3 Tylenols and played. Jumping hurt a lot but I was still able to jump high enough to hit a guy in the face with my spike which helped keep me motivated. =) It was a really close match and we came back in the third game from an 11-7 deficit to win the match 15-13. Afterwards I rewashed the wound with peroxide and bandaged it up. On Sunday it wasn’t looking too good so I went to an after-hours clinic and got a tetnus shot, some anti-biotics, and some ointment. I figure the best way to look at the situation is that I’ll now probably have a nice scar to remember New Orleans and Rusty by.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, my time down here has flown by. And while I know there’s a whole new adventure that lies ahead of me with my trip to China, I really have grown to love it here and will be sad to leave. I’m doing my best to “live in the moment” to “be present” and “breathe it all in” because I don’t know if the Lord will lead me to Louisiana again.

Well I’ll update in a few days about our glorious dance camp and my unpleasant puncture wound. I’ll also get some pictures up once those crazy girl interns decide to upload them. Ah… the frustration of not having a camera.

Kyle

Critters, water fights, and paint

So last week ended up going great despite the fact that only 5-7 kids showed up each day to basketball camp. This meant that on Monday we had about 12 leaders from Indiana (who were expecting about 40 ballers) and only 5 kids came! Thankfully 5-6 of the leaders were flexible and Anna and I ended up switching off taking them to a variety of different worksites throughout the week where we worked alongside them until the other half who stayed for basketball camp joined us in the afternoon. On Tuesday we did demo work on Dennis’ house who is an older widow that I have been working with throughout the summer. Parts of his roof blew off during the storm and water came in and rotted the walls (which happened to already be probably 50 years old). It’s been neat to see the progress we have made with the multiple work teams who have helped him out.

On Wednesday we went to City Park and did yard work all day. We pruned trees and pulled weeds. The thunder and lightning tried to scare us away before lunch, but we waited it out beneath a large plastic tent that was once used for weddings before the storm. One exciting discovery within this tent was hundreds of Antlions. These crazy insects dig small holes in the sand known simply as “sand pit traps” which they use to capture their unfortunate prey – usually an ant as their name implies. When one of the high school boys identified one of these pits, we all of a sudden had free entertainment for a solid hour as we ate lunch and waited out the weather. We found multiple victims consisting of ants and spiders and dropped them into the “Pits of Doom.” They scrambled for their lives, but were often sucked under and eaten alive by these ferocious creatures. It was epic. Once the storm subsided we worked for another hour or so but were again bombarded by bad weather. We waited it out for about 45 minutes under a rundown bathroom shelter as the thunder roared only a few miles away. When it was nearing 3pm we decided to call it a day. It was during our trek back to the bus (oh I forgot to mention that the Indianans brought a school bus…well they did) that I foolishly got myself into a water fight with some of the high school girls. I must admit that I got pretty drenched, though I’m pretty sure I won the battle when this 6’5’’ tenth grade boy held captive one of the girls while the pastor’s oldest son assisted me in dumping the remaining half of a 5-gallon water jug that was half full of ice and water on top of her head. (just picture a football coach getting dunked after winning the super bowl). = )

On Thursday I was able to take the day off. This meant that I got to sleep in, though I spent half the day writing my “Mid-Term Reflection” essay that I am required to complete as a part of the Lilly Summer Internship Fund. This was actually kind of enjoyable and beneficial as I reflected on the first half of the internship and thought of how the next month or so should play out. I also got to play some competitive double’s volleyball with Rusty (my friend from the church who helps out with the youth group), and some of the best players out at Coconut Beach. Even though we only played an hour and a half, this made my day. On Friday we went and painted at the schools again with the group from AmeriCorps. It was interior work and therefore air-conditioned which made it amazing.

On Friday night we joined the group at church for dessert, and Mikey and a couple of his friends led the team in worship in the sanctuary for about an hour which included a time of praying aloud for the city and the church. We concluded it with the whole team of 24 laying hands on the four of us interns and praying for us – for the rest of our summer here and our futures. This was a powerful and intimate experience. (The first group from Chicago also had done something similar to this where just the leaders laid hands on Mikey and I and prayed for us when we came to see them off the night before they left.) We also were each given one of the shirts they had made for the mission trip which was pretty cool. Overall this was one of my favorite groups thus far. Both the leaders and students showed genuine interest in interacting with us (the interns and I) and getting to know us, and I was able to have some great conversations with a few of them.

On Saturday morning this team left, and less than 12 hours later a group of 46 arrived on a charter bus from Charlotte, North Carolina. This group will be our largest (thank God). Over half of them are putting on Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids, and the other half have been doing relief work. Thankfully our attendance for VBS has been much better than basketball camp. We have had a pretty consistent group of 40 little kids. My job this week has been to be in charge of about 10 of the work team volunteers as we have been painting the outside of a house and shed for a man who lives alone with his cute German Shepherd puppy. This has included scraping off chipped paint, caulking the siding and windows, and painting two coats. The siding is a plain white and the window trim and awnings are a deep royal blue. I’ll try to get a picture soon. This group is proving to be our most challenging group yet, partially because of the size, but also because some of the leaders are total control freaks who have a million questions that I unfortunately can’t answer. To give an example of their controlling mentality, lets just say that they somehow commandeered a church map of all the rooms and had walked around throughout the entire church and set up signs and air mattresses for who will be sleeping where before we even gave them our tour of the facility telling them what can and cannot be used. Don’t get me wrong, I do admire their efficiency, we just would have liked them to wait for us to give them the rundown before they took action. Anyways, they haven’t been too bad and we have gotten a lot done on the house and will likely finish painting both it and the shed by tomorrow.

Alright that’s all for now. I’ll probably post some lessons I’m learning or random stories/highlights this weekend or early next week.

Here's a picture of some of the work team from last week. I unfortunately have yet to take action photos. I'll have to convince Anna to bring her camera out to the job in the next few days.



Here's a picture of half of the workers we had at City Park from the Indiana group. We were waiting for further instructions from the Park Supervisor. That sombrero works wonders for keeping my head cool when I'm in the sun.

Pensacola, waterslides, and lessons in patience and flexibility

You know those really awkward senior pictures by trees and lakes and fences and stuff? Well this was our attempt at reliving the glory days.

Sorry if these white sandy beaches make anyone jealous... perks of ministry work I guess? =)

As I mentioned in my last post, the interns and I were given the opportunity at the beginning of our week off to head to Florida for a few days to relax on the white sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast. This brief excursion was filled with multiple new experiences. Unfortunately Mikey wasn’t able to partake in them due to his spider bite, and therefore I was forced to endure 8 hours in the car (4 there and 4 back) listening primarily to loud rap music as we made the trek through Mississippi and Alabama. Along the way, there were a couple of interesting sights worth noting that confirmed we were now in the Deep South. First, right after we crossed the Alabama state line on our way there, I looked out my window to see a full-grown cow eating the grass on the side of the Interstate about 30 yards from the far right lane with nothing to prevent it from meandering its way into 4 lanes of traffic. Then, about a half an hour later I saw a 5 by 10 foot Confederate flag flying 50 feet in the air about 40 yards off of the highway for every car to see. This was my first encounter with such blatant bigotry and it left me thinking about what a horrible first impression that creates for anyone who happens to stop in that town and meet its residents. Finally, I knew we were in the Bible Belt when we came across a 7 by 10 foot sign that said “Heaven” on top with a picture of blue sky and fluffy white clouds and “Hell” on bottom with a picture of flames and dark smoke, and a caption in the middle which read “It’s Your Choice.” Needless to say, this isn’t my favorite approach to evangelism.

We arrived in Pensacola on Friday night around 7:30pm and enjoyed the last hour of daylight on the beach where we ate a healthy dinner off of the Burger King Value Menu. We headed to Gulf Breeze Presbyterian after sunset where we waited for the pastor to let us into the Youth Room which turned out to be well-furnished with couches for beds. We watched part of a movie on their TV and then crashed. In the morning we got to the beach around 10am and spent most of the day lying out. The girls of course loved this, but I on the other hand am not much of a passive vacationer and found myself needing to do something after about half an hour. There was a volleyball net set up a couple hundred yards down the beach so I decided to check it out. The group there was playing men’s and coed doubles and I considered asking if I could get a game in but decided otherwise after realizing that they already had 4 teams of 2 that were rotating games. I watched for about an hour and then rejoined the girls.

We tanned (or so I thought until I got back to the church that night and realized how red I was… apparently putting on 50 spf twice wasn’t enough) and body surfed in the warm waves all afternoon. The only other exciting (or treacherous) event worth writing about was when I got viciously attacked by a jelly fish! I was gracefully body surfing in the warm waves minding my own business when all of a sudden my left elbow began to sting and I felt as if I had just received ten red fire ant bites all in the same golf ball sized area on my arm. It began mildly swelling and when I told the girls, Candace offered to pee on it. This obviously wouldn’t have been appropriate and so I kindly declined the offer and decided to lay down for awhile to rest. After about half an hour I was restless once again and since I was still feeling the sting, I decided to go for a walk along the shore to get my mind off of it. I walked down the coast about 20 minutes as the waves gently crashed against my feet before turning around and heading back. I was only about 5 minutes into my return journey when I came across a group of three ambulance EMT’s from Alabama who were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes together at the waters edge. As I was walking by, they struck up a conversation with me by asking me my name, where I was from, what I was doing in Florida, etc. I explained how I was an intern at a church in New Orleans and a student at Seattle Pacific and that I was just in Pensacola for the weekend. They asked me how I liked the beach and I said I liked it besides the jellyfish sting I had suffered about an hour earlier. That was when one of the EMT’s stood up with his beer in his hand and said “Here. Pour some beer on it. It will make the stinging go away.” I hesitated for a second unsure if he was joking or not, but instead of asking I remained silent and held out my arm. He poured a generous amount of Budweiser on my elbow and within seconds the stinging sensation went away! From there I sat down and talked with them, told them of Louisiana and Seattle, and listened to some of their scariest ambulance emergency stories. During our conversation they offered me a beer and a cigarette (true Southern hospitability no doubt) which I declined, and after about 20 minutes I headed back to Candace and Anna who of course were still sunbathing where I had left them. Who knew that relief from a jelly fish sting would come in the form of beer from three random Alabamans? What a creative and merciful God we serve. =)

A final story I’d like to tell about Florida was our interesting experience at the church service on Sunday morning. Since we were only there for a day and a half, we would have liked to have simply skipped church altogether, gone to the beach, and podcasted a sermon or something on the way home, but the pastor had invited us to go to their “contemporary service” at 8:30am and we had agreed to attend. This turned out being one of the most interesting church services I’ve ever been to. Let me explain. The entire church service from the music to the sermon was about American freedom. Now I understand that the 4^th of July was yesterday, but this service was quite over the top. The pastor, who also happened to be the head of the worship team, led the congregation of about 60 in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which happens to be an American Civil War song, and some other silly song about American independence and freedom. He then gave a 15 minute sermon where he read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 and in my opinion (and Candace and Anna’s) took the passage completely out of context to preach a politically charged sermon about the freedom we have in America and the fact that our country was founded by God-fearing men and now God is disappearing from our government and schools systems and how we need to do something about it. He read a quote from Jay Leno and about 5 quotes from various former US Presidents and political figures during the early years of our country and then pulled out the banjo to lead us in “This Land is Your Land” (yes I just said that) in celebration of how God has blessed America. Now obviously there is a place for humbly thanking God for our country’s freedom and how we have been financially and materially blessed, but I think the pastor missed the whole point of the 2^nd Corinthians passage. The point, as Candace, Anna, and I agreed on is that we have freedom in Christ and that freedom allows us by the Spirit to become more and more like Jesus as we are being sanctified! Ahh the Bible Belt – what will we ever to with you? Anyways, I could probably rant forever (especially about how ridiculous it was to sing “This Land is Your Land” in church) but this blog post is already too long.

The rest of my week off was quite relaxing and low key. Movies are $4.75 in theatres any time Monday-Thursday so we saw Wal e and Hancock. We also got to go to Blue Bayou – Baton Rouge’s equivalent of the Wild Wave’s water park in Federal Way. Let me tell you, there is nothing like walking through warm, slimy puddles of water that have been invaded by the foot fungi, sweat, and sunscreen of the hundreds of people who venture through them on their way around the park. Thank God for gallons of chlorine. Anyways, the park ended up having some pretty awesome slides and the best part about it was that Whitney Alexander, the Youth Director from 1^st Presbyterian Baton Rouge, bought the $35 tickets for us as a way of saying thank you for an awesome week of serving together with his middle schoolers the week before. The 4^th of July wasn’t anything too special. We were too late getting down to the Mississippi River to see the entire fireworks show, but we saw some of it from the car as we drove around the French Quarter (downtown New Orleans) looking for parking.

I also just wanted to comment on how I’ve been learning patience and flexibility with everything down here. First of all, everything is simply slower than life in Seattle and being a business major who values efficiency, this can be a bit irritating. However, I’m learning to “go with the flow” and enjoy a slower pace of life. Furthermore, I was fortunate enough to have a car during most of high school and two out of my three years at SPU at my disposal to go where I wanted when I wanted. Down here, I am completely at the mercy of Mikey and Candace and three or four other friends (with cars) I’ve made from church to get anywhere. This can at times get frustrating when I really want to go somewhere or desire to leave a place earlier or later than my ride. Yet, it has also humbled me and made me grateful of both my friends who are willing to give me rides and the car I get to drive in Seattle.

Finally, last night we got a team of 24 in from Southport, Indiana. Half of them will be running a basketball camp for 8-12 year olds from 9am-12pm this week and working in the afternoon, and the other half will be putting up drywall at a house with the contractor that they brought with them all day. Anna and I will be in charge of coordinating the basketball camp. Hopefully I can remember how to ball! I’ll update more at the end of the week. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for enduring yet another lengthy blog… I love and miss you all!

Kyle

PS – feel free to leave comments on any of my postings. I’d love to hear from you guys! You can just make it anonymous and sign your name at the bottom of the post. Thanks!

Here is a picture of Mikey and I playing in the volleyball tournament at Coconut Beach a few weeks ago. Unfortunately my photographer wasn't the greatest at taking action shots but you get the picture.















Here is a picture of Anna, Sir Lancelot, and I while we were eating our delicious snowballs after a long day of pulling weeds. This kid was amazing!

Cultural differences, middle schoolers and spiders

I have officially been here for three weeks now and over that time I’ve come to recognize some distinct cultural differences between this city and Seattle. First of all, I must clarify something though. As multiple locals have told me, New Orleans isn’t really “the deep South” as one would stereotypically picture it. It is part of the “urban South,” however most people have told me the city is really kind of its “own country.” Instead of having thick Southern draws when they talk, they have a “Yat” – instead of saying “Where are you at?” they say “Where YAT?” with a mild Southern accent kind of strewn together with an East Coast accent. Some cultural differences have come as quite a surprise. For instance, I heard just today that New Orleans is one of the rainiest cities in the nation. I wouldn’t buy it at first, but after googling it I found that it receives the 3^rd highest amount of annual rainfall a year! I can see why after experiencing some of the rain-filled thunder and lightning storms down here. As it pours, lightning strikes less then a street block away – in fact it even hailed in the 85 degree heat storm today. Nuts, I know.

Another cultural difference I have noticed is that some women wear curlers in their hair around town. The interns and I were shopping in the grocery store and there was an African American lady wearing like 30 aqua blue curlers! It cracked me up for sure. Also, some people down here tag their cars with big brand name logos. One would assume that the owner was getting sponsored to drive around the car, but Mikey informed me that they just do it to get looks – so that people pay attention to their hot ride. For instance, we saw someone driving a new orange Ford Mustang with the Cheetos logo painted all over his car. To me it just looked goofy but I guess it’s a big deal down here. Another thing that is different from Seattle that affects me daily is this whole concept of air conditioning and keeping doors closed in order to keep it from escaping into muggy un-air conditioned parts of the church or house. For example, I’m always going in and out of my room at the Thompsons and every time I leave – even to go to the kitchen for a glass of water – I shut it to prevent my precious cold air from leaking into the hallway. This is just weird sometimes because although privacy is nice, I typically like to keep my door open. Hence, sometimes I feel as if my host family might think I’m secretly dealing drugs outside my bedroom window!

Some of the food down here is of course another big change for me – a pleasant one to be sure. My favorites thus far have been jumbalaya – a spicy dish with chicken, sausage, rice, garlic, and tomatoes; shrimp Po Boy’s – a sub sandwich loaded with fried shrimp, lettuce, tomatoes, and tartar sauce; mufalattas – an amazing sub sandwich with ham and other meats and a thin layer of an olive and onion sauce on top; snowballs – a snow cone on steroids that is served in a styrofoam cup and is stuffed with vanilla ice cream that is a taste of heaven on any hot humid day (my flavor of choice is the wedding cake and strawberry combo); and of course authentic sweet tea which was served with jumbalaya when the interns and I went over to an elderly couples’ house for dinner awhile back. My next goal is to get my hands on some crawfish before the season ends. Finally, I must say the fast food customer service down here is subpar – one truly understands “Louisiana time” when standing in line at a Taco Bell or Wendy’s and watching the pace of the employees. Unbelievably slow!

This week we have had our only middle school work team of the summer here from Baton Rouge – about an hour drive away. Needless to say, middle schoolers are quite different then high schoolers, and this is clearly evident in the general work ethic of the different age groups. On Monday, which was the team’s first work day, we worked in the lower Ninth Ward where we were clearing (weeds/brush from) resident’s empty lots all day so that they wouldn’t be fined by the government. Typically our high school groups would work all day resting to get water when necessary, but working fairly constantly for the whole day. In less than 10 minutes, the middle school boys were picking up long weeds they had pulled and running around hitting each other with the dirt clumped roots on the ends of the weeds like a bunch of hooligans. The middle school girls worked harder than the boys at times, but had to ask the leaders to make the 20 minute drive to the bathroom like 4 separate times. Then, in the afternoon between 1pm-2pm all but 5 of the 25 person team were sitting in the vans or in the shade of the trees seemingly exhausted after their first morning of work. Clearly motivation and focus was a problem. For example, I gave a kid a can of ant-killer and he walked around for over a half an hour looking for random fire ant hills to demolish. Or take the time when I gave a kid a pick-axe to chop down a tree. He and 10 of his middle school friends spent half an hour watching one another hack at a tree. Geez, these kids really need to learn about effectiveness and efficiency. There was also the time yesterday when I was scraping the paint off of a house on an extension ladder quite high (I’ll leave the actual height out of it for my mother’s sake) off the ground and the kid who was supposed to be holding my ladder simply walked away to go and talk to a friend. That fall wouldn’t have been too fun.

Then there was Lance. This scrawny soon to be seventh grader happens to be the most attention-needy child I’ve ever seen. There are many stories to tell but I’ll limit myself to two. On Monday, when we were pulling weeds, Lance comes up to me ten minutes after we have started working with a bottle of sunscreen in his hands and in an innocent and sincere voice asks “Hey could you put some lotion on my legs for me?”. Dumbfounded, I paused for a few seconds wanting to make sure I fully understood what had just happened – a middle school aged boy just asked me for assistance applying sunscreen to his legs. I mean if we were at the beach and he needed it on his back or something I would understand. But his legs? Strange. Anyways, I held back a laugh, suggested that he sit down on the curb and put it on himself (I’m that mean I know), and Anna, my fellow intern who had overheard his request, proceeded to lather up his legs as he helplessly stood amongst the weeds. A second “Lance moment” happened Wednesday morning in Fellowship Hall when I was telling the team what we would be doing that morning. I was warning them about the poison ivy that we would run into in City Park, and Lance eagerly raised his hand to comment. In front of the 25 of us, he first proclaimed that not everyone was allergic to poison ivy. Then, to make sure we believed him he proved it to us by telling a brief story: “This one time my brother and I were swinging on a poison ivy vine and afterward he got poisoned and I didn’t!” Evidently not everyone needs to fear the dreaded poison ivy. (I’m working on getting a picture of Lance, it will be coming shortly don’t worry.)

Finally, another big event that happened this week was Mikey got bit on his right calf by a poisonous Brown Recluse spider last Friday. Initially he thought it was just a large bug bite, but then the pain and swelling came. He waited two days hoping the swelling would go down but after limping around on Monday morning at work, he got to a point where he couldn’t even walk and had to sit in the truck the rest of the afternoon. When we got back to the church, Mikey ran into Sam Thompson (the father of the boys I am living with) who was working on the church. Sam happens to be a registered nurse. Sam told him he needed to be in the hospital yesterday and quickly took Mikey over to our house where he got a sterilized safety pin and tweezers and popped a hole in the epicenter of the bulging bite. I’ll spare you the details of this painful purging but basically a lot of poisonous pus was removed as Mikey let out multiple yelps of discomfort. Afterwards he said that this hurt more than the multiple times he had dislocated his knee playing soccer. Ouch! While this little operation did help the swelling go down initially, Mikey woke up the next morning and couldn’t walk. He ended up going to the doctor who gave him a bunch of shots and antibiotics and told him to stay off of his leg for the next three days. So Mikey’s a little under the weather to say the least, though on Thursday he was feeling much better. He goes to see the doctor again tomorrow, and our hope is that he will be able to accompany us to Florida tomorrow night.

Oh yah, I forgot to mention we’re going to Pensacola, Florida for the weekend as the start of our week off! It’s about a four hour drive, but I look forward to white sand, naps on the beach, and body surfing. Maybe there will even be some volleyball nets. Unfortunately we won’t have a pool because us poor college kids on ministry salaries can’t afford hotels and are staying in a local church’s youth room, but the possibility of “pool hopping” is definitely an option.

I’ll update more after our adventure in the Sunshine State. = )

God truly has a sense of humor...

(I'm miserable at short blog posts... sorry!)

While this internship has me working a crazy amount of hours – 55-60 most weeks – we thankfully get the entire week of the 4^th of July off and also enjoy a few long weekends. This past weekend (June 13-15) happened to be one of those long weekends. Our team from Chicago left Saturday morning and the Yakima team came in Tuesday morning. Therefore, since I knew we would have both Saturday and Sunday afternoons off, I decided to ask Mikey, the 25 year-old intern I work with, if he would want to go play volleyball at the local beach by Lake Pontchartrain that he had told me about during one of the first days I was here. Now I hadn’t told Mikey or the other interns how much I had played over the past couple of years, and for those reading this who haven’t heard or who have forgotten, I was quite the volleyball junkie.

To refresh your memory, I was the kid who played indoor volleyball 3-4 times a week during my sophomore year and spent all last summer networking my way up the ladder at Alki Beach and Golden Gardens by playing 5-6 days a week after work. This meant that I was playing oh, around 25 hours a week! Yet as far as volleyball was concerned, the time invested and dedication to the sport did pay off in regards to the fact that I won two tournaments at Alki Beach, and towards the end of the summer was playing with the most elite beach volleyball players in Seattle over at guys’ houses who had spent around $30,000 to put sand courts in their backyards.

Throughout last summer I had multiple friends confront me with questions like “Kyle, do you think you should be playing this much volleyball?” or “Kyle, where are you serving the body of Christ?” Each time I would confidently explain to them that I had a “ministry of presence” on the volleyball court which in some respects was partially true, (I did have some discussions about my faith, Jesus, the Bible, etc.) but the fact of the matter was that I had taken volleyball, something morally neutral, and made it an enormous idol in my life. I had taken a good thing and made it an Ultimate thing. I didn’t fully come to grips with this until Steve Sakanashi, with the help of a couple of sermons from Matt Chandler (!), ended up tearing me apart with Scripture (For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow – Hebrews 4:12) one night early last Fall after I had told Steve my plans to play 3-4 times a weeks with the beach players. One of the big things Steve said was that in the story of Abraham and Isaac, I was like Abraham and Isaac was like volleyball (bear with me with the simile), and just like Abraham was willing to sacrifice to follow God, I must lay down volleyball. So make a long story short, the Holy Spirit convicted the heck out of me and I ended up surrendering volleyball to God by stepping out in faith and trusting that He would have something better for me that would bring Him glory (as opposed to me), or He would give the sport back to me. In doing so I had the most amazing nine months of spiritual growth ever and ended up pursuing this Louisiana internship – neither of which would have happened if I had played volleyball all year long and into this summer in Seattle.

So, now jumping back to last Friday when I asked Mikey if we could go check out the beach the next day, it turned out that there just so happened to be a doubles tournament going on at 4pm on Saturday afternoon that he wanted to sign up for (he has played a little indoor and outdoor 4’s and 6’s but not a lot of doubles). Now initially I hesitated because I hadn’t played in nine months and I was a little nervous about falling back into idolatry. But then I remembered Steve’s words about surrendering volleyball to God and stepping out in faith and trusting that He would have something better for me that would bring Him glory, or He would give it back. And, while I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, I felt like one day of volleyball wouldn’t hurt (after all I was making this decision on my birthday, Friday the 13^th!). So Mike and I went to the beach to sign up on Friday night, and since I had never been there before I didn’t know what to expect. When we got there I was immediately blown away! It turned out being a volleyball complex with 22 courts that had lights so that you can play at night, and the best part about it was that it was free to the public. Plus the complex had beautiful imported sand, was protected from the wind, and the nets were always up (in Seattle I had to bring my own net and lines, the sand was grainy and hard on the feet with bottle caps/broken glass/sticks, and the wind was often blowing). This complex, called Coconut Beach, happens to be the largest lighted beach volleyball facility in the entire United States!

Anyways, Mike and I showed up on Saturday about an hour before the tournament started and I used the time to coach him on a bunch of tips I had gathered from last summer (I actually was a true student of the game and had a few pages of “tips and techniques” I had learned saved on my computer). There were 8 teams in our division and we played 3 games to 25 in the humid weather. We won all three – one was a blow out and the other two were within 5 points. Then we played in the semi-final and fought back from an 11-16 deficit to win 25-20. By this time the sun had gone down and we played for the championship under the lights which was a match – best two out of three. We won the first game by 4 and the second by about 10! As prizes we both got our choice of board shorts, shirts or a $45 King of the Beach volleyball. Mikey picked a shirt and I of course had to go for the ball (this was ironic because I really debated whether or not to bring a ball from home down here when I flew in, and had decided against it).

So I’ve written all of the above because I believe that I have really experienced the faithfulness of God in this area of my life. Volleyball to me was Everything and it was becoming more of a lifestyle than a fun pastime. At the end of last summer I was already worried about how I would be able to get an internship this summer that would enable me to get to the beach by 4pm each day so I could meet my 25 hour a week quota. But instead of worrying about that, I stopped playing altogether and chose to pursue Christ and His will for my life, which led me to take an internship thousands of miles away from the only place I thought I would be able to play this summer. To my surprise, I have found myself living a 10 minute drive away from the largest lit beach volleyball complex in the US where more than 4,000 people play per week! This time around, however, God has drastically altered my priorities. Last summer it was almost no ministry and 25 hours of volleyball a week. This summer its 55-60 hours of ministry and a few hours of volleyball. Last summer, I lived with my hand clutched tightly around volleyball telling God that He could do whatever He wanted with my life, but volleyball was a nonnegotiable – something I wouldn’t give up. This summer I live with volleyball in an open hand, knowing that it is a good gift that God has given me for this season of my life, and also knowing well that it will be taken away when I head to China for 3 months this Fall Quarter. Furthermore, the beauty of it is that my situation has a built-in anti-idolatry plan – I’m working so much that I will only be able to play a few times a week, and even if I wanted to play more I don’t have a car and therefore have no way to get to the beach. So in surrendering my will for God's will and trusting Him with my life I have found that He provided an awesome internship that allows me to serve Him in being His hands and feet doing relief work in a hurting city, but He has also provided a healthy dose of my favorite sport on the side! Comical if you ask me. :)

One team down, seven to go...

Our first church work-team from Palos Park, Chicago left us this past Saturday. I know they were only the first team, but I was bummed to see them go. Their leaders, high school kids, and cook were incredible. I had over 30 of 38 names down and had had individual conversations with most of the group. One of the most beneficial and important conversations I had was with one of their leaders named Grant who was the group’s worship leader and actually had done the internship down here last summer. He gave me some advice that I will hold onto and at times cling to during this summer. He said something along the lines of:

“Remember your purpose and vision – look for Jesus in the eyes of the people you are serving – look at those people and remember what Jesus says in Matthew 25:34-40 –

34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Remember this or you will lose sight of what you are serving for and it will be a long, hot, sweaty summer. Also, learn to love people. Learn to love each team. It will be hard. There will be teams that will want nothing to do with you but you still have to work with them. Learn to love them regardless of how they treat you.”

Grant’s words hit home, and Jesus’ message in Matthew will stick with me throughout the remainder of my time here. Apart from getting some sound advice, I was also really trying to hone my Chicago accent. Joking around with the girls who say “hot” like “haot!” was hilarious. Their impressions of my “accent” were even funnier. Every time they tried to impersonate me they just sounded like a polite British woman.This next group coming in tonight is from Yakima, WA. There are 25 of them so it will be smaller than Palos Park’s 38, but we will still have our hands full. Thankfully after an extended weekend I am rested and ready to roll.

Finally, I must say the thunder and lightning storms are crazy here. I was attempting to sleep in on Sunday morning before church, but was rudely interrupted well before my alarm was supposed to go off by an eruption of thunder that literally sounded like a bomb had just exploded a block away. I rolled over to look towards the two windows in my room which are about 5 feet from my bed. The blinds over the windows prevent me from seeing anything outside, and only let a couple of slivers of light in. When the lightning hit however, it was like a camera flash had somehow dispersed and slipped its way through the 3-4 millimeter slivers to light up my room. Three times I began to count to see how far away it was, and three times I went “one thous…” BOOM! I couldn’t even count a full second before the explosions came and I felt like our neighborhood was being bombed. So much for sleeping in on my Sabbath!

Monday was our first day actually doing relief work. I got to the church around 7am to meet with Candace, Anna, and Mike in order to plan for our day and run through some general information we needed to announce the to group before heading out to the site. A few things we stressed was the importance of not only working hard on what we were doing, but also taking the time to engage with the victims we are helping. To listen to their story, sympathize with them, and pray with them if appropriate. We talked through general safety with equipment, what to do in emergencies, and probably most important the necessity of drinking loads of water. I guess last summer some people got heat stroke and a girl fainted on a ladder (she was okay). We didn't want any repeats and we reminded people to work at their own pace and to take breaks when necessary.

After our little spiel we had some volunteers help us load up all of the tools (shovels, rakes, weedwackers, a lawnmower etc) and we headed out. Our task for the day was clearing out 3-4 foot high tall grass and shrubbery for full street blocks at a time that once were houses before they were almost completely underwater 3 years ago when a barge slammed through the canal wall only a few hundred yards away causing water to gush into the entire city district. This area, called the lower 9th Ward, was where many of the Hurricane's 1700+ fatalities occurred as people were unable to escape the enormous tidal wave. In order to do the work, we teamed with a local organization called NEMA that is trying to restore this area. The primary reason for clearing all the grass and shrubs is because if the homeowners (now lot owners) don't keep up their property the government has the right to fine them and eventually seize the land.

Some obstacles and distractions we ran into in the process were fire ant hills, wasp nests, and lizards. In the middle of the thick tall grass we came across 5-6 ant hills which housed thousands of these tiny red ants. If one of these little buggers happen to find their way onto an arm or leg, they will sick their teeth into you which is surprisingly painful and leads to hours of itching and a relatively big lump that looks like a pimple. I bravely (or foolishly) was in charge of eradicating these hills with ant killer spray and ended up with 5-6 lumps on my arms and legs. It really wasn't pleasant. Another problem was wasps. Someone would be peacefully pulling weeds and suddenly out of the ground a handful of hornets would erupt and fly among our group. I wisely delegated the eradication of their nests to Mike who did wonderfully and no one was stung all day (though today, Wednesday, three of us got stung out in that field including myself!) Lizards, on the other hand, were really harmless but distracting to a bunch of testosterone-filled high school boys.

Monday was also the first feeling of being "cold" or getting the shivers since I've been here. It was one of those freak 3pm rainy thunderstorms common in Louisiana that was there for 10 minutes and then gone, but it was enough to remind me of home. By the end of the work day we had successfully cleared almost 7 house lots with our 40 workers and saved those homeowners from fines or loss of property. With the high grass and shrubs gone they can now maintain their property by simply mowing it a couple of times a month. The other interns and I will be taking work teams to the lower 9th Ward all summer.

On Tuesday we split the group up into 4 groups. One group went and installed insulation into a large house, another group did some work at one of the church members houses (yardwork, moving furniture, etc) as well as work at our church. A third group painted and scraped some hardwood floors that will be refinished, and my group painted the outside of a house and helped a church member named Dennis (the homeowner) do demo work on his kitchen. This included moving out old furniture from his living room and a variety of things from his storage room and rotting timber from his back yard into a large dumpster he had rented

I think all of the groups enjoyed this work better than yard work A. because yard work can just suck sometimes especially when you're under the hot sun, and B. because they had personal contact and discussions with the tenants who were being helped. In fact, I was over with the people who were scraping floors at the beginning of the day when our church's relief ministry contractor named Jerry Dickson (an awesome African American man who is a pastor of a small church in Mississippi on the weekends and a contractor in New Orleans during the week) was showing them what they were doing that day. While I was there, 3 of the homeowners who happened to be family members were home (living in the unaffected upstairs). They were very grateful and probably said how much they "appreciate y'all comin' down here to work" probably 10 times in ten minutes! They wanted to take some pictures with us and so we did and later on I heard that they stayed to help do some of the work as well.

Today, Wednesday, we were back in the lower 9th Ward picking weeds. It was a pretty successful day though many of the kids were much more tired then they were on Monday so it went slower. We also ran into a thunderstorm on our way back to church and it rained harder than I've ever seen it rain probably anywhere. Thankfully it was a warm rain and once we got back, the high schoolers were out sliding around in giant grassy mud puddles having a blast. I opted to go home and take a shower instead.

Alright, I'm off to have spaghetti at the church. I'll update more later in the week!

Week 1 - Getting "Orientated"

Alright so I promise to not be so long-winded and detailed in other posts, but I thought writing so much was worthwhile to explain the first few days! Bear with me.

So I left on a plane for New Orleans on Thursday June 5th at 8:10am after a night of saying goodbye to my sister and close friends in the SPU dorms and around campus - many of whom I unfortunately won't see until January 2009 because I will be in China in the Fall. I said goodbye to the parents around 6:30am, and surprisingly my Mom didn't sob and make a scene by the security gate - good job Mom! After waiting in the terminal for about half an hour, I popped a Bonine to help prevent that good old nauseated motion sickness that accompanies me while flying.

When I got on the plane I was excited to see that I scored an exit row with plenty of leg room. I also happened to have an aisle seat and there was only one other passenger in my row who happened to have a New Orleans Saint's sweatshirt on. This 27 year old guy named James turned out to have grown up in New Orleans out on a swamp, but had lived in the Queen Anne area the past 3 years. We began talking and I instantly had a connection with him since he was in SPU's backyard, and he also was a huge fan of English futbol (something I have gotten more interested in this year).

Anyways, we ended up talking for the majority of the flight to Houston and he gave me some pointers on where to eat, what to eat, and where to visit. He also told me of his hunting days where he and his friends captured and or killed water moccasins (poisonous snakes) and on one occasion snagged an alligator with a fishing rod (which didn't turn out too well).

The descent into Houston was pretty rough. I nearly lost the granola I had for breakfast but rapidly chewing gum and constant prayer was enough to hold on. Once we were on the ground in Houston I felt nauseous, light headed, and hungry so I solved the problem by enjoying some good old Texas BBQ. I only had about an hour layover to brace myself and my stomach for the next short flight to New Orleans. This flight was only an hour but it was also a little choppy and the descent almost forced me to exhale the $5.50 pork sandwich I had recently inhaled. A combination of gum and Jesus pulled through again.

Once in the airport I got a phone call from the three other interns who were there to pick me up in baggage claim. To be honest I was a little nervous about first impressions considering I had gotten 3 1/2 hours of sleep the night before, no sleep in the air, had felt nauseated for the past few hours and would soon be walking out into the humid 90 degree weather. Thankfully, however, Candace, Anna, and I had been sending messages over face book over the last week and so meeting them wasn't awkward at all. We already had some inside jokes and even Mikey, the other male intern, was in on them.

I had arrived around 5pm so the first place we headed was out to dinner at a fast food restaurant called Po Boys. I quickly learned that Candace has her car down here all summer which is both a blessing and a curse. It obviously is essential for us to do our job, but on the other hand it means that Mikey and I are stuck listening to loud rap music the majority of the time in the car. At least it has air conditioning!

Po Boy's ended up being a staple fast food joint specializing in fried chicken and rice and beans and "Po Boys" which are traditional Louisiana sub sandwiches. The food was fatty but my system welcomed it after the flying. Next we headed to my host family's house. The Thompson's live literally about a 3 minute walk from the church which is going to make for a marvelous commute at 6:57am. The family has two boys. Greg is 16 and David is 18. When we arrived, we got a brief tour of the house and they showed me where my room was. It turns out the boys were willing to give me their room for the summer and will sleep in the basement. This means that I have the only air conditioned bedroom in the house and they will be sleeping downstairs where 4 1/2 feet of water from Katrina forced them to tear out all of the sheet rock and carpet because of the mold. Four days in, I'm sure not what to think about this. Their hospitality and sacrifice is amazing and humbling but I feel like a jerk by kicking them out of their own room. The other interns reminded me that they offered to host me and for that I am very grateful. Perhaps on the extremely humid nights I will convince them to come sleep in the A/C. (To give you a picture of how hot it is in the house, I started to glisten just sitting around, and when I was unloading my luggage without the AC on around 11:30pm I was nearly dripping with sweat. Even the chocolate chips in my trail mix melted - not quite Seattle and 60!)

When I first arrived, their eldest son David was up in Washington D.C. for the week but Greg was around. We immediately hit it off and we are already joking like we've known each other for years. David just returned today from D.C. so we just met but I'm excited to get to know both of them better. Their parents, Jeannette and Sam are also great people. Sam works construction and is very sarcastic and its hard to know when to take him seriously, but he keeps me on my toes and I enjoy his humor. Jeannette is a librarian at Tulane and I have had some good conversations with her so far about college advice for her sons, among other things.

After dropping off my luggage at the house we headed to the church. The four of us interns have our own room which is where they hold children's church on Sunday mornings. It has a great air conditioner that I have already grown to love. After briefly stopping by the church we headed over to the house where Candace and Anna are staying. They live in a newly remodeled basement with their own rooms, bathroom, and kitchen, and built in air conditioning. The house is pretty awesome. It even has a gate around it and an intense alarm system. The couple that owns the house is probably in their early 30's and they have a three year old son. Furthermore, the girls were house sitting until yesterday. All went well until the Friday night which is when "Fishy" the 1 1/2 year, ten cent gold fish jumped out of his tank during the night and died! The host family was legitimately not pleased, but we all find it hilarious. They bought them a similar looking fish and Ronan (the 3 year old), shouldn't know the difference

Anyways, this night we also went to the heart of the city which is French Quarter. Here I enjoyed a beignet (an amazing french-style pastry with powdered sugar) and their signature Cafe Au Lait coffee. We also walked around the city which is quite happenin' at night. I'll explain more later.

After this my fellow interns returned me to the Thompson's where I crashed after a very long, eventful day. I slept a much needed 9 1/2 hours and woke up refreshed and ready to be "orientated" (this is what Anna accidentally said when trying to say "oriented") which is what Friday mainly consisted of. It was here that I got a full tour of the church. I also learned here that the church, which I thought would be about 100-200 members was actually only about 50! Quite small compared to Westminster Chapel and Mars Hill from back home. The girls ran me through most of the basics for the job. Most of which would be tedious to write out. As I've told most people, basically we are in charge of lining up work for the church groups that come down every week to do relief work. It turns out the gym has a basketball court as well and so we will also be hosting a basketball camp and a week of Vacation Bible school which will be mixed in with the work the church groups will be doing.

Also on Friday, Mike and I took one of the church's trucks and helped a missionary family move some furniture. Paul and his wife had three young boys and they were living in a trailer by a church for 19 months that was literally 25 yards away from the interstate. It was insane how small it was. Their new house was ten times better but still about a third the size of a normal house. Nevertheless, they were very grateful to move and thankful for our help.

On Saturday we did some prep work for our first work team who arrived at 8:30pm. They are from Chicago and have a team of 38 and will be our second largest team of the summer! The work teams sleep in the upstairs of the church on air mattresses that we provide for them. Most teams bring their own cook who utilizes the church's kitchen. The other interns and I introduced ourselves to the group and Candace, who is the Team Leader because she was an intern last year, led them on a tour of the church. We answered their questions and then left them for the night. (This team had been here before so they knew what was going on.)

This morning the Chicago team put on a huge pancake and sausage BBQ on the front lawn of our church which is right on Canal Street - a fairly busy street with three lanes of traffic on either side. Their high school students made signs for free pancakes and we served probably a good 400 pancakes and 200 sausages to church members and people in the community who saw the signs and wanted a free meal.

Church started at 10:30pm. With the 38 volunteers with us, there were probably about 90 people who attended. Just before the service started I finally met Pastor Mike Hogg who had happened to be out of town the past three days. We talked briefly and he said we'd get coffee this coming week, and then he introduced me to the congregation at the beginning of the service. The service was fairly traditional. They have some modern worship but also sing hymns throughout the service. Pastor Mike is simply preaching through the entire Bible and the congregation all uses the Daily Bible which is a version that has everything in chronological order from beginning to end. He was preaching through 1 Kings this morning. Another neat thing at the service was that they took about 10 minutes for people in the congregation to share what God was doing in their lives and then another 10 minutes for people to pray aloud as they were led. Definitely different then the churches I grew up going to but very intimate and genuine.

After church we took the work team on a disaster tour which was primarily led by Candace, but in the weeks to come will also be led by myself and the other interns as we become more familiar with the facts and the stories. I will write more of this in the time to come. Tomorrow we will tackle our first day at the job. It looks like the weeks will be exhausting, as Candace told us today that we (the interns) typically work from 7am-6pm. We meet an hour before we join the church group to plan and pray and then will be busy until dinner time. I'll clarify specifics later as well. For now I'm just glad I have done 2 summers of concrete construction because I know the endurance I had there will be needed here for 11 hour days!