Well, John has been here and gone and a full and busy summer is on deck. It was great to have John here and it was especially good to have someone to make the long trip home with me. We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot. His wit never ceases to amaze me and as I said before, we have so many hysterical quotes that came out of that trip and his time here.

We arrived Tuesday night and settled in. John slept on a cot in the "living room" of my trailer and it actually worked out pretty well.



Wednesday and Thursday he worked on one of our job sites with a few of the guys from EFCA Crisis Response. Perhaps he wasn't busy all day :) but I am sure he saw what hard work rebuilding this city can be. It was tremendously hot both days, although they keep telling me that it isn't hot yet. I can only imagine!

Thursday afternoon we took a tour of the city and I showed him the lower ninth ward where one of the levees broke, we drove through part of Gentilly to see gutted homes and some reconstruction and made our way up to Lake Ponchartrain and back past two of the largest cemeteries in town.



Friday John hung out with me and, because we didn't have teams in the city or on the northshore, he watched cartoons online while I did some work and then we made a trip to the printers and had lunch at a two story McDonalds that may be the sole reason John would love to come back to the city!

Friday night we went out to eat at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville in the French Quarter and John was "disappointed" that Jimmy Buffett was not actually there. We got a good laugh out of that one. Then we did a little touring and walked along the river. It is very full due to much of the rain so many of your are experiencing up north but it was a great night for a walk. After that we headed to Creole Creamery, arguably one of the best ice cream shops in town. Then we headed off for a walk at Audubon Park where we acquired plenty of funny videos of John chasing wildlife. :)



Saturday morning was an early one as we wanted to be at the airport in plenty of time because John had never flown before. But we found that without checked luggage it was a breeze through check in and he made it through security, onto the plane and off to Kansas City safely.

Our first high school team has arrived for the summer and they are in full swing. It is definitely going to be a different atmosphere from the last eight months, but I am learning to make adjustments. I still keep thinking that one of these days I am going to walk into the Yellow House and Ms. Jeri will be cooking away, John and Emily will be on their computers at the table and Daniel will be supervising it all. Making the transition is hard but I know that God has much in store for this new step in this journey of service.