And then there was one......

As of this morning I am now the sole resident of the Yellow House, well, sort of. This has definitely been a season of change with many staff ending their committments here and moving on to other things. Jon and Emily left last Friday. Jon will be attending grad school in Philadelphia and Emily will be living in Lancaster, PA where she is still waiting to hear about a job. Please pray that God will provide for her exactly what she needs, as I know he will. I already miss the laughter shared with these two and keep expecting to see Emily at the office one of these days.

Next was Ms. Jeri and adopted Yellow House resident Mishona. These two left yesterday morning. Ms. Jeri has been our cook for two seasons but has felt God calling her to be closer to her grandkids and family in Wisconsin. It is already strange to have her gone as she seems to have been the one constant. There will be no more feeding animals, sudden outbursts during prayer or late nights watching Law & Order or goofy movies. Mishona stayed on the Northshore most of the time, but was a frequent guest and sometimes resident at the Yellow House. She and Ms. Jeri are on a roadtrip to Dallas and Denver and will then be heading back to drop Mishona in Illinois before Ms. Jeri heads to Wisconsin.

And then Daniel left this morning. He has been the expert packer as people begin to leave and precisely packed his van as well. He will be missed for his sense of humor and often rolling eyes.

And then there's me. I will be leaving tomorrow for a long roadtrip home to Iowa, about which I am very excited. I am welcoming the challenge of driving 16 hours by myself and I am also looking forward to 16 hours to be alone and begin to process all of the changes as of late. As many of you know or have read, 2007 had one word "change." I am still processing through many of the losses of last year and have now added several more losses to the list. While they are not life and death losses, I am losing routines, friends and familiarity. When I return to New Orleans June 3, everything will be different.

Our summer interns arrive May 30 and soon thereafter we begin hosting teams of high school students which is a totally different environment from our usual work teams. All of the staff that I interacted with on a regular basis in things outisde of the office will be gone and it will be unearthly hot. Even with all the change, I wouldn't trade this next year for the world. I love this city. I love this neighborhood. I love this ministry. And I love that God has placed me here for such a time as this.

Please pray for adjustment to these changes and the strength to continue the hard work of making new friends as staff and teams change. Please pray for safe travel for all those who have left and for me as I head to Iowa. And please pray for this ministry as we continue to work to create a neighborhood where kids can ride their bikes.

Saturday Daniel and I took a roadtrip to southern Louisiana. We didn't go with much of a plan and as we were driving we saw the lights of what appeared to be a stadium. It was, but it was also an old fort, Fort Jackson. According to Heritage Preservation Services, the following is a description of the fort during the civil war:

Early Union plans had called for the division of the Confederacy by seizing control of the Mississippi River. One of the first steps in such operations was to enter the mouth of the Mississippi River, ascend to New Orleans and capture the city, closing off the entrance to Rebel ships. In mid-January 1862, Flag-Officer David G. Farragut undertook this enterprise with his West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The way was soon open except for the two forts, Jackson and St. Philip, above the Head of the Passes, approximately seventy miles below New Orleans. In addition to the forts and their armament, the Confederates had placed obstructions in the river and there were a number of ships, including two ironclads, to assist in the defense. Farragut based his operations from Ship Island, Mississippi, and on April 8, he assembled 24 of his vessels and Comdr. David D. Porter's 19 mortar schooners near the Head of the Passes. Starting on the 16th and continuing for seven days, the mortar schooners bombarded Fort Jackson but failed to silence its guns. Some of Farragut’s gunboats opened a way through the obstruction on the night of the 22nd. Early on the morning of the 24th, Farragut sent his ships north to pass the forts and head for New Orleans. Although the Rebels attempted to stop the Union ships in various ways, most of the force successfully passed the forts and continued on to New Orleans where Farragut accepted the city’s surrender. With the passage of the forts, nothing could stop the Union forces: the fall of New Orleans was inevitable and anti-climatic. Cut off and surrounded, the garrisons of the two forts surrendered on the 28th.

Apparently the fort used to be open to visitors and included a museum and gift shop. When we pulled in, however, it was completely abandoned and crumbling. It was also closed down so we were not able to go inside. We did some exploring and after many bug bites and a bunch of pictures, we moved on.
There isn't much along the road to the south. There are several "towns" I guess, but I can hardly call them towns. Perhaps there is a small gas station or convenience store. Most city offices were in trailers and most homes were not livable. Most people seemed to live in either in moblie homes or campers. I am not sure if it was Katrina damage, damage from other storms or general neglect and abandonment but it was a sight to see.

As we got down to the end of the road there was some flooding as the Mississippi is high here from all the rain up north.

Yay! We made it to the southern most point in Louisiana! We didn't know there would be a sign but it was pretty cool. There wasn't much to see, mostly a boat dock and some old boats and bayou. It was cool to say we had been there though.
It is lovebug mating season and at times it sounded almost like it was raining because there were so many bugs hitting the windshield.
Here is something random: fire hydrants in the middle of tons of water. Hmmm...they were all along the road as we traveled and just seemed really odd.

It was a great trip and it was a lot of fun to go somewhere new and learn a little bit more about Louisiana history.

We are staying on Pensacola Beach, which is an island just off the coast from Pensacola. So on one side of our building is the gulf and on the other is a bay. The view above is from the bay side. Today we spent several hours walking along the shoreline looking for wildlife.
I saw this crab running along under the water and as he saw me coming and buried himself under the sand. I called Chris over and we got him out of the sand with a flipper. Then Jon and Chris followed him and got him into a plastic bucket. You probably can't see it from the photo, but he was very blue and, once we put him down, he got pretty defensive.
We also found a lot of hermit crabs. We still have the one Emily is holding as he was a rather social character.
Tonight we ate at Flounder's, a seafood restaurant just down the road. I had some wonderful mahi-mahi, my new favorite fish. And as you can see from the photo, I am not sunburned! Two whole days in the sun and I'm doing great. Life in the sun has never been this good!

We all got up 5:30 a.m. this morning to see the sun rise on the beach. This is what we got. Clouds. :) Five friends and I are spending a few days in Pensacola, Florida at the condo of a friend's cousin. We spent today on the beach and beside the pool and it was so good to relax and refuel! I decided to not repeat previous trips to Florida during which I get terribly sunburned so I loaded on the SPF 45 this morning and am feeling great tonight. I'll write more later and add some more photos tomorrow!

So, here's a funny story: Yesterday I was having a generally frustrating morning. Things just weren't going my way, nothing I pulled out of my closet fit the way I wanted it to, or at all, and I was ready to go back to bed and start over. So I get home from church and go to change my clothes and find that the zipper on my skirt was stuck. So I pulled on it with one hand, and then the other. I tried to pull it apart and I tried zipping it up and then back down, to no avail.

So then I had this idea that perhaps I just didn't have a good grasp on the zipper and I should use a pair of pliers to get a better grip. So I get out the pliers and proceed to use them only to have them slip and leave the mark you see on my hand below. Awesome.

So I went into the house to put ice on my hand and wait for some assistance from Ms. Jeri. She tried all the same things and a few unique things, such as spraying the zipper with WD40. So now I am still stuck and I smell like grease.

In the end we had to cut the zipper out of the skirt to get it off. Thankfully I only paid $1 for the skirt because it was on mega clearance some two years ago but it was still a very nice piece of my wardrobe that is perhaps now worthless. What a fitting end to quite the morning. But the good part is that at least I have a funny story.

Sherlise, center, listens as she prepares to show

her new home to those gathered to

celebrate with her.

Some time ago I wrote about Sherlise, one of the young women in our neighborhood. She attended many Carnival parades with us back in January and February and since then has been around from time to time, but she told me several weeks ago that she was moving into her own house.

I believed her, but she didn't really provide any details and I more or less wrote it off. Then a little more than a week ago she invited me to a housewarming party which took place Tuesday at 10 a.m. Honestly, I wasn't planning to go, however, she called me Monday night as I was picking up a friend from the airport to remind me about it and I told her I'd be there.

Tuesday morning I scrambled to find a small gift and be there on time. I was very surprised to arrive and find more than 30 people gathered around her front porch. You see, this was more than just moving into a house. Sherlise, I just found out, has been in special education and is moving into transitional housing. This is a big deal. Never before has this happened that a student who is attending a New Orleans public school taken this step. Her teacher, Ms. Wilkins has been extremely instrumental in making this possibility a reality. She has done the hard work of working with many different organizations, finding funding and making sure all the t's are crossed and i's are dotted.

This "housewarming party" was a celebration of freedom and independence for Sherlise. I watched her as she mingled and hugged each new arrival. I could see on her face how excited she was. Representatives from the school district, McDonough 35 (her school), supporting organizations and Entergy (our local energy company) were all in attendance and each one spoke of their role in this process and about Sherlise.

Then her teacher spoke about her church, Castle Rock Community Church, and the part we have played in her life. Then, imagine my utter surprise when she said, "and we'd like to have the representative from Castle Rock come up." Ahhhh! That's me! I'm still not exactly sure what I said, but I feel that God has been preparing me for situations such as this one and while I was shocked, I wasn't nervous. It has been a blessing to know Sherlise and it was an extreme blessing to be with her on this momentous day. She has a beautiful home and so many people who love her and are looking out for her.

I can't even tell you how refreshing it was to see her teacher, and several other teachers, who were truly excited about their jobs and the progress that is being made. So often we hear about the atrocity of education in this city and it is so encouraging to know there are good teachers in our school system who are making huge, life-changing differences in the lives of their students!