Today was a great day. My mom arrived around 9, minus her luggage, and we headed off to the Yellow House with the promise that the luggage was on the next flight and would be delivered sometime today. It finally arrived around 5 p.m.

I showed her around the house and my camper, it was a short tour. :) Then we were off to the work sites to visit the teams and take some photos. We then headed to a birthday lunch with some friends and a fabulous "cake" made by my friend Carla.
The afternoon was spent visiting more work sites in the Gentilly area before returning home to wait for the luggage to arrive and finish some office stuff. We stopped by dinner with the team before heading to Bible study. We were looking at the story of the rich young ruler and it is always amazing to me that you can hear a passage hundreds of times and still get something new out of it every time.

I am so glad to finally have her here. You will no doubt hear that many times in the next few days as we explore the city and have time to be together. I think this is the first extended period of time that we will have had together for several years and I am greatly looking forward to the next several days! :)

After an unexpected overnight stay in St. Louis :( my mom has finally arrived in New Orleans! It is sunny but cold (50) and we are off to visit teams and have a birthday lunch with some friends. I'll be posting pictures soon!

Saturday night we were back on St. Charles for more (dry but cold) parades and let me tell you, it was a blast! Two of the girls who are on EFCA Crisis Response staff on the northshore made a sign that read, "Our first Mardi Gras" and attached a box to the bottom and affixed the whole deal to a broom handle. They got more beads than they could carry. Some float riders even made a game of it as they tried to rip the box from the sign by hurling beads at them. And these weren't just a few strings of beads, these were entire bags of beads.

Sunday after church we went back out to see Davonte, one of the guys from the neighborhood, march. There were two parades which lasted about two hours. There were quite a few kids from the neighborhood, staff and church members that came out and we had a lot of fun. Sherlise, pictured with me above, is a master bead catcher and got me some really cool ones. As you can see, I came back with a ton of them which are now hanging from every available surface in my camper. I must say, it is very festive!

On another note (Yay!) my mom will be here tomorrow afternoon! I am so excited to welcome her to the city I love so much and cannot wait to show her all that I have been doing these last four months. We'll tour work sites and the neighborhood, she'll get to take part in Super Friday and we'll probably do some shopping as well. I am also excited to take her to some of the parades, three of which take place on my birthday. :)

Last night in the midst of pouring rain and very chilly temperatures I attended my first parade of the Mardi Gras season. Sherlise (below) turned 19 and for her birthday we decided we'd go to the parade and then go back to the quad (where Mission Year lives) and have cake and play games.

The parade was supposed to start at 6 p.m., however, we have all lived here long enough that we should have assumed it may start late. And late it was, by about an hour. We are fortunate to be located very close to one of the main parade routes, St. Charles Avenue, so we didn't have to drive and find parking, but we did have a few blocks to walk in the rain. So we set out with Sherlise and I under one umbrella, Jenn and Teryana under another and Drew, Matt, Devonte and Edward fending for themselves. We made a game of it as we jumped over large puddles and ran under rain pouring off rooftops. By the time we got to a place with an awning where we could watch the parade in a relatively dry manner, my shoes were squishy and my jeans were wet almost to my knees. Then add a little wind and it makes for a chilly, chilly night.

And when I say we found a place to "watch" the parade, that may be a little deceiving. This is a full-on, totally involved sort of parade "watching." You do exactly what you are told not to as a child, run into the street as a float comes by because the closer you are, the more likely you are to get beads or throws, which may be anything from cups to stuffed animals.

I should probably also mention that this parade, as are most on St. Charles, was family-friendly and contained nothing of what many people think of when they think of a Mardi Gras parade. I had so much fun laughing and playing around with everyone and even getting soaking wet. I learned a few lessons about how to get beads and throws and I am ready for our next parade tonight!

I have spent the last several days getting used to a new office. That's right, I finally have an office! And a corner office with a window at that! Call me a nerd, but organization is one of my favorite things so I have been in heaven these last few days as I am finally able to have a place where all my work can be in one spot. I have put together binders with lots of lovely dividers for all my different areas, dug out my grammar books and have acquired all of the necessary desk supplies such as red pens and PostIt notes. :)

The move has been part of a greater effort to centralize all of our media and communications into one room. The "media room" now houses Laura (our other communications guru) and I and will soon be home to a beautiful set of shelves for all our DVDs, brochures, newsletters, remit envelopes, etc. We are also purchasing a new computer which will be used solely for media projects. We are streamlining our communications process and one of my pet projects has been a giant bulletin board which will have all staff newsletters posted for others to see. The reasoning is twofold. One: It allows all staff to see who is where in the writing process and (hopefully) will help us all hold each other accountable and two: it allows staff to see what others are doing and communicating with their supporters.

My hope is that this room will also be a place for me to display some of the many photos I take to keep staff connected with things going on in other areas of ministry and with our building projects.

Welcome new readers! I am so excited to have so many of you joining me f0r the first time from ReliefCast. This has been a place for me to share with my supporters, friends and others who are interested in what is going on in New Orleans. God has blessed me so much in the four months I have been here and I hope you are able to see many glimpses of that on these pages. Feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line, and Welcome to New Orleans!

This afternoon I took a step back in time with a few friends from work and our neighborhood as we went roller skating. I can't honestly remember the last time I roller skated but I think it must have been high school.

After two seconds in the front door I realized that all rinks are the same. They all have you pay in a little lobby and wait to be let in. You then walk up to the counter behind which are perhaps hundreds of skates and select a pair that may or may not be too big and may or may not have laces that are not broken. Putting your foot in a skate that hundreds of others have worn before you is never an altogether lovely experience and, for me, neither is that first trip around the rink.

Today was no exception. I wobbled and weaved and flailed and managed to stay on my feet and then needed to take a break. Thankfully, there were a few games and different things that required us to be off the skate floor and that allowed me some time to have a little chat with myself about how I was not going to wimp out on this.

So, after everyone was allowed back out onto the floor I was back at it, taking it slow and praying that nothing happened suddenly in front of me. After a couple laps I got the hang of it again and it was a lot of fun. James and Shamore lapped me more times than I can count, but it was definitely something I'd do again. However, I can safely say that I'd much rather be ice skating. :) Toe pick!

Tonight we were treated to dinner by a team from Dixon, Illinois. We decided to branch out from our standard French Quarter suggestions by going to Acme Oyster House in Metarie. I planned to order something familiar and had already checked out the menu before we went. However, one of the team members ordered fried oysters and, giving in to peer pressure, I tried one. Above is the evidence of my first taste. Yes, I did manage to finish and swallow, but I can't say that I'll have that experience twice. :)

On another note, last week when my head hurt so bad I said to someone here that we should start praying for a team member who was a massage therapist. I kind of forgot about the comment (and never did pray that prayer), until tonight as we were leaving the restaurant and we found out that one of the women and a massage business in her home. Praise the Lord! We came home and each got a 10 minute chair massage. What a blessing! I have been needed and wanting that for so many weeks now. God is so good to provide those things that we may not necessarily need, but makes life a life abundant.

It is Monday, January 14 and we have already had 10 murders in New Orleans. Several of these, including one at 5:30 p.m. today, have been in Central City. Please pray for revival in this city, revival in hearts and lives. Please pray for safety for all of our staff and especially our teams as they make their way through unknown territory each day. Please pray that as Christians we would let our light shine in dark places as we look into the face of the Father and radiate his glory.

5:30 a.m. Friday - My alarm goes off and I realize it's way too early to be up, so I hit snooze, a few times actually.

6 a.m. - I am dead asleep and I wake to the sound of barking. My head was still a little fuzzy, but I knew there was something not quite right about it. Certainly it's not a surprise to hear barking around this neighborhood, but it wasn't until I heard more barking in the distance that I realized what was going on.

6:01 a.m. - I roll out of bed and peer out my window, and low and behold, there is a man from one of our teams standing on the back step (20 feet from my bedroom window) barking like a dog over and over and over again. Who does that?

6:02 a.m. - As quickly as it started it stops when he has several dogs in the neighborhood barking back. He laughs and goes back into the house leaving me lying in bed staring at the ceiling wondering what in the world just happened. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up!

"Therefore, if any man is in Christ he is a new creation.
The old has gone, the new has come!"
- 2 Corinthians 5:17

PRAISE GOD! Sunday after church we welcomed a new brother into the Kingdom! After many years of prayer by people in the church and ministry here, James received Christ with Pastor John and his friend Dingo on Sunday. What an amazing testament to the continued work that God is doing here through this ministry!

I got to know James not long after being here as he spends a good deal of time at the Yellow House with Sara and Ms. Jeri. He is the owner of Snow, the puppy I kept in my camper while he was getting approval to have it in his apartment and he is the one who found Golden Girl, our other sweet puppy who we miss having around! What a blessing it is to be part of his life, if even in small ways, and to see how many people have been encouraged by this commitment.

I just thought it appropriate to show a little pride as New Orleans is being overrun by a plethora of Ohio State fans. I didn't, until very recently, realize that the big game was taking place at the Superdome, which is only a 10 minute walk from where I live. As I was out exercising today and walking down St. Charles Avenue I felt a little bit like I was in a zoo with tourists and sports enthusiasts everywhere I looked. I feel the need to be wearing purple and gold. While I have never been a fan of a school other than Iowa State, I feel a deep sense of pride in supporting the Tigers. I don't know why it is different from the Saints, but somehow it is. I came here an Indianapolis Colts fan, and hold true to that allegiance despite being overrun by Saints paraphernalia everywhere I turn. So, as we say in Louisiana, Geaux TIGERS!

On other business, we welcomed 67 people to the city tonight from Wyoming, Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico and my favorite, Iowa! The Iowa group is from Summit, which is a town I can honestly say I had never heard of. For those who don't know, it's near Storm Lake. We are all excited because we have a lot of skilled workers in this bunch and are excited about what that means for many of our current projects. I am hoping to be able to get out and work with the teams Tuesday and Wednesday if possible.

Life has been good, but cold, since I returned from Christmas break. We have had two days in the last week that were below 35 degrees and the first day the propane ran out in my camper. Let's just say that when you wake up and roll over and your pillow is freezing, that's not a good sign. I was thankful my electric blanket was on, but it shut off not long after I realized the heat was out because it is on a 10-hour timer. It was too cold to get up and turn it on because when the propane runs out it continues to blow cold air until it gets replaced. So there I was, laying curled up in a ball trying to think of where I left my sweatshirt and how fast I could find it and get in the house to get warm. It was in the high 20s outside that morning, and equally as cold inside my camper. Oh the joy of living in an RV! It's always an adventure.