Below are the daily updates from Team Alpha and Team Bravo.

May 6, 2006 - Team Bravo - Day One, Saturday

Today has been a travel and orientation day. We arrived in New Orleans airport at about 11:00 local time (12:00 NH time). Most of team Bravo is here; Kelsey Charpentier and Brian Mazur fly in on Tuesday evening, so keep them in your prayers as they finish work, and then travel.

As we drove in from the airport we passed by areas of New Orleans that looked pretty good, and then areas of severe devastation. Entire streets of houses that were just lifted off their foundations and half the house reduced to matchsticks and rubble. It is surreal to drive by those houses and imagine that the water completely covered the roof of the house and that people were trapped, sometimes for days, in the attics and on the roofs of these houses. Being here makes it so real!! We are seeing the same things that were shown on tv, but it's not the same because on tv you have an emotional distance, but here it's so much easier to imagine real people on these roofs.

There are signs of hope and life returning, too. We knew that Home Depot would be open, because the February team reported that, but now Walgreens and Walmart are open too. (Walmart is still partially in a tent in their parking lot, but they are open!) It seems so trivial to think about the stores that are opening up, but with these changes, people can now get food, and prescriptions filled, and toiletries – the things that need to be available before people can move back into the area.

We are staying at camp Premiere, which is considered military property, so no pictures for today. But picture big green army tents with 14 cots per tent. Its not bad - the tents are air conditioned, and there's plenty of room. And if we are tempted to complain, we can just remember how truly blessed we are!!

Prayer requests for tonight and tomorrow. Health and safety for all our team. There is supposed to be a major thunderstorm coming tonight and we would love it to blow by overnight and not interfere with work on Monday. But we will continue to thank God in all situations, whatever he brings!! And a final praise - our BCC van just arrived (3:30 local time) and so those drivers can rest and relax and join in with the group. Thanks to God for keeping them both safe on the roads, and for being a blessing to our whole team by driving our tools and supplies down!!

May 6, 2006 - Team Alpha - Day One, Saturday

Greetings from Chalmette, LA! Most of us (the air travelers) arrived here around 10:45am local time (we are an hour behind you all) and the drivers in the van arrived around 4pm (they left NH at 4am on Friday!) We all had a great flight/drive and have spent the afternoon getting acclimated to camp premier. The camp is basically a city of tents! There is a large dining tent, a recreational tent, trailers with showers and bathrooms and then many tents for the sleeping quarters with about 16 cots in each. All in all, it is a very comfortable place and will certainly meet our needs for the next 7 days.

We are now post dinner. The sun is setting and the camp is filled with people playing card games, conversations over cups of coffee and lots of laughing. That’s about it so far. We are all looking forward to the church service here on the campus in the morning and will be thinking of all of you worshipping back home. Not too many specific prayers requests yet, but please keep the prayers coming. We can all feel them and are so appreciative. Lots of groups are coming into the camp tonight and tomorrow and many of them are not Christians. Please pray for opportunities to share. We love and miss you all.

May 7, 2006 - Team Alpha and Bravo - Day 2, Sunday

Today both our teams were able to spend the day together. We had a worship service in the morning at Camp Premiere in the mess tent. It was inspiring to worship with 100+ other workers who are down here doing the same thing we are doing – loving our neighbor and being servants for God. And today it started to really feel like these are our neighbors. After a brief orientation to the "gutting out" work we will be starting tomorrow, we headed off campus and down to the 9th ward. On our way, we stopped in a neighborhood that once was beautiful and wealthy. The hurricane did not discriminate – every house on the street was either demolished completely, or needing major work. We met a great couple, Tina and Tommy, who have moved back to their property and are living in a FEMA trailer. They shared their stories of tragedy and hope. Most of their neighbors have decided to sell their houses and move, rather than rebuild. But Tina and Tommy see so much improvement on their street already (although it was hard for us to imagine what "improvements" they saw), and they are excited to meet new neighbors and create new memories. They told us the story of one house on their street that floated, foundation and all, down the street about 200 yards and crashed into a house on the other side of the street. We couldn't believe that a brick house, with a concrete foundation still attached, could have floated that far. But we were looking at it!

The ninth ward was pretty sobering. Lot after lot was just empty – the houses completely gone. We were standing a short distance from the levee that broke and it was easy to imagine how fast the water took over the neighborhood, and how difficult it would have been to get out alive. It becomes clear how important the eternal things are – you just might not get much time when a tragedy strikes to decide how you feel about God and Christ! There was a memorial of found items on one foundation –most of the things looked like they had belonged to a little boy.

After that, we lightened things up a little by going in to the French Quarter and Bourbon street for a little "fellowshipping and team bonding". (OK – we were being sight-seeing tourists!) The French Quarter looks great and everything is cleaned up and back open. It was strange to spend time shopping and eating and then drive less than a mile back into the devastation. We think that must be a difficult transition for the residents who are back already – heading off to work where everything might be back to normal, and then heading back to their FEMA trailer at night.

Prayer requests – for Tina and Tommy as they rebuild. For our residents whom we start serving tomorrow. For each team members' health, and our tolerance of the heat. And a praise – yesterday we asked for prayer to avoid the storm that was headed our way, and it never hit!! Thank you for covering us all in prayer!

May 8, 2006 - Team Bravo - Day 3, Monday

Today we started working! Our resident is named Iris Cook. He currently lives in Washington state, so we won't be able to meet him, but please keep him in your
prayers. We got about 2/3 of the way through his house today, so we'll hopefully finish it tomorrow. We mucked out his house, which means we pulled out every piece of furniture, clothing, and knick-knacks that he has and put them out at the curb to be carted off. It's an incredible honor to serve someone that way - think about how you would feel if someone went through all your cupboards and drawers and had to carry out everything you owned. Then we started gutting the house, which means removing carpet and drywall and ceilings - everything back to the studs so that he can start over. It seems really sad and tragic when you are doing it, but the residents down here see it as a sign of hope - that things are starting to look better. We learned today that 25 times more debris has been hauled out of this township alone so far than was hauled out of the World Trade Center!

The heat is a challenge for our team, and we are relying on God, sometimes on a moment to moment basis, to get us through. All your prayers in this area are so appreciated! We were blessed today with occasional breezes, some times of overcast weather, and a big
shade tree on our worksite. We thank God (literally and sincerely) every time a strong wind blows and cools us down. It's amazing what we are thankful for! We certainly forget when we are home in NH what a blessing a daily shower really can be!!

Our prayer requests today include:
-Pray for John from Team Alpha who had a tough time with the heat today. He's feeling better, but has to face it all again tomorrow.
-Pray for Kermit and Lisa (and all of us really) as we struggle with the oppressive Tyvek suits we have to wear.
-Pray for Karen, who has had a headache for two days (and yes, Mom, I'm drinking enough water!)
-Please keep Iris in your prayers too!

May 8, 2006 - Team Alpha - Day 3, Monday

"Dirty" is the word of the day! I don't think you truly know the definition of the word until you've cleaned out a home flooded with water and mud, 8 months after the fact. We started the day with worship and devotions which was a great way to prepare our hearts and minds for what was ahead of us. Words can't describe the scene that played out before us as we walked through the front door of our assigned home for the 1st time this morning. Right away there were glimpses into the life of the family that once called the dilapidated structure their home. A tiny, pink dress-up shoe, a stuffed dog and a green sliding board peeking out from beneath the debris told us that there were children who lived there...young lives changed forever. It's hard to even process that. Your mind tries to play out the scene of what it must have been like for them the day they had to leave their home. Was it in the middle of the night? Did they have time to gather up a few precious items? Did they have somewhere safe to go? Did they have other family and friends in the area they were worried about? Where are they now?

We would love to meet the family, but did not get that opportunity today. We don't know if they are in the area or not. We made a lot of progress today in their home and will probably be done with the house by noon tomorrow and onto the next house. Everyone is tired tonight, but spirits are high. We got a chance to get together with everyone at the camp tonight to share stories about the day. It was pretty cool to hear the different experiences of all the teams. There is a full awareness that we are all here doing something of eternal value and that feels awesome!

Please pray that God will allow opportunities to talk with people in the community...it is such a devastated, hurting place...they need hope. Pray for strength for our team. This is hard work and it is hot here. We need a supernatural strength and we could use some supernatural weather! You guys are awesome and we feel the prayers. Thank you. We love you and feel privileged to be representing you all here.

Until tomorrow...

May 9, 2006 - Team Alpha - Day 4, Tuesday

once again our day started today with a worship service. what an incredible way to start the day! it's so motivating to be reminded that everything is in God's strength.

we finished up our first house around 1:30pm today. what an incredible process and what a feeling of accomplishment. we never got to meet the owners, but a few of the ladies on our team (and the bravo team - we've been working in the same neighborhood in case i forgot to mention that before) got to meet one of the ladies in the neighborhood. her name is trina. she was very interested in what we were doing and what organization we were working with. she has really had a rough time...broken hip while cleaning up her own home after katrina, now unable to clean up her own house, living in a trailer, has been taken advantage of financially by a private clean-up group...and her story goes on and on...heartbreaking. the girls were able to share with her a bit and gave her a bible and a walmart gift card. it was a pretty emotional experience for them.

WOW!! as i'm writing this, i just got a really cool update from adam. apparently the girls also gave trina the phone number for samaritan's purse. she called them today and we just found out the sp is going to go by her house tomorrow and assess the clean-up she needs done. they might actually let us be the ones to do it this week god is working. keep praying.

anyway, we left that site and are now attacking a new home. god has been so good and faithful and we felt his supernatural strength come over us this afternoon when we felt like we could not go on. there is so much i want to share, but that will all come when we get home. just know that god is working in us as a team and people around us are noticing what we are doing. we still want more opportunities to share and to meet our home owners. please pray for that.

no injuries, no sickness...just supernatural strength and an excited, pumped-up team that wants to make a difference in the lives that we come in contact with.

love to you all.

May 9, 2006 - Team Bravo - Day 4, Tuesday

Thank you so much for all your prayers!! Today was supposed to be hotter and more humid than yesterday, but most of us felt cooler today and were able to handle the heat better. Thank you for prayers for John, Lisa, Kermit, and Karen - we all had much better
days today!

We were able to finish Iris' house today - it was really exciting to accomplish that and know that when she comes back her house will look so much cleaner to her. We will try to include a picture - if it looks like an empty house with lots of studs, that's the right picture! We almost didn't finish, but an hour before quitting time we just geared up and made a final push and got it done. We can feel that when our strength is at an end, God is there to carry us through. (" . . . the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." 1 Cor 1:25b)

We also started a new house today - it's next door to the one we were finishing. Actually, Tom and Charlie went to town on that house and got it almost all mucked out - we are so grateful to have these iron men on our team! We can't start demo on the walls of this house until a tree is removed that crashed into the roof of the house. So tomorrow a tree crew will come remove it.

This morning we started worship with the song "Blessed be your name", and the lyrics say "You give and take away, but my heart will choose to say 'Lord, blessed be your name'". This song is so powerful and true down here. Some of these residents have lost
literally everything they own, and yet they still talk of hope and of their faith and love in Christ. Our own faith is challenged by their examples - that when they are left with nothing, they can still say "God is good". Amen!

May 10, 2006 - Team Bravo - Day 5, Wednesday

Today's theme was animals.

Dogs - We met the sweetest couple who live next door to the new house we are working on. Elia and Dutz who are 74 and 81, and their three dogs: a pug, and two shih tzus. Lisa and Megan were in heaven playing with the dogs! Eliza LOVES her Fema trailer, and is not in any rush to move back into her house (she says its easier to clean the trailer!). But they had good flood insurance and so are able to pay for people to work on their house. Please keep they in your prayers.

We also met Carlos, who lives in the neighborhood and was one of the people rescued off his roof by boat. He said that in 15 minutes it went from water seeping in under his door and around the foundation, to water starting to rise into the attic! He only had time to rescue his two dogs and get them into the attic with him before the water rose! He had a very hard time finding shelter after being rescued because he refused to abandon his dogs. He needs prayer because he is in a battle with his insurance company.

Rats -we found a family of rats living in the closet of the house we worked on today! There were two larger rats and then a bunch of babies. We all were very amused by Lisa and Kelsey screaming and dancing around the room! Kermit rescued the baby rats and put them out the window, and Lisa and Kelsey were brave and just went back to work (even though the Mama rat was still somewhere in the house).

Cat - we unfortunately found the owner's cat in the closet of one of the bedrooms where it had obviously gone to hide during the storm. The owner has been afraid to return to her house because she didn't want to be the one to find her cat. This was a sad and difficult moment for some of us, but at least we were able to provide that service for her.

Prayer requests - we are all doing fairly well and the week is now more than half over. We have minor muscle and back aches, some heat rash, and some mild sunburns. We are trying to stay ahead of the sunscreen but we sweat SO MUCH that it comes off as fast as we put it on. Please continue to cover us physically in prayer - God has been a gracious and caring Father in the way He has watched over our bodies this week. We love you all and are so appreciative of our families who have made the sacrifices to have us be away this week.

May 10, 2006 - Team Alpha - Day 5, Wednesday

"you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, lord, blessed be your name"...how many of us could say that if we lost everything we own? on every street you go down there are piles of trash, but they used to be someone's treasure. how quickly "things" can be destroyed!

we met the owner of the home we were working on today. what a great guy! he is a firefighter. he evacuated his family from the area before katrina hit, but he stayed behind and was on the frontlines of the initial search and rescue teams. he had so many incredible stories. he really wants to see this community rebuilt and was thankful that we had come down to help. his wife is coming into town on fri. night and he wants us to meet her. our prayer is that he understands that it's because of god's love in our own lives that we have the desire to be here and help.

we finished his house this afternoon and will begin our third house tomorrow morning. we understand that it is a two story duplex...that sounds like a lot of work at the end of a very hard week! please pray for an extra boost of strength for the team. actually, i think we could use a mental boost as well. we got a little down today thinking about all the work that still needs to happen here. it is overwhelming to think about the big picture. we have to stay focused on the house in front of us that we are working on and not the hundreds of homes around us that haven't been worked on yet. please pray that we would be encouraged and know that god knows the big picture and is in control.

i'll leave you with something cute that happened this afternoon. we were riding through a neighborhood to go look at our next house. i guess first, before i go on, you have to understand that this is a bit of a ghost town right now. not too many cars are driving through these small neighborhoods. so, anyway, our entourage of vans was pulling around a corner. on the corner were two men standing outside there homes talking. as we drove by, i heard the one guy say, "look at the traffic...chalmette's comin' back!"

we're so grateful we get to be a part of building hope again in this community. no, we can't understand the big picture, but, again, we know we are doing something of eternal value.

oh yeah...one more sidenote...remember that lady i mentioned with the broken hip? well, sp set it up so that we can go by her house first tomorrow morning to do some yardwork for her. she is so excited! should be a really encouraging morning for us.

love to all our friends and families back home!

May 11, 2006 - Team Alpha & Bravo - Day 6, Thursday

i am writing a combined update tonight because the bravo "blogger" is having a well deserved evening out with friends doing a little site seeing.

we all had a great day. it started as usual with worship and a devotional. there seems to be a theme song this week..." how great is our god, sing with me, how great is our god, and all will see how great, how great is our god". those words can't be any truer and it is our fervent prayer that those around us see the greatness of our god in spite of the destruction that surrounds this place.

team alpha started a new home today. i mentioned yesterday that we needed a little supernatural boost as we had heard it was going to be a "doozy" of a job. it was a duplex ( not two story as we suspected) but it had not been touched at all since the storm...completely closed up, windows and all, for 8 months. let me see if i can translate better...ummm....STINKY!! the task seemed bigger than us and it was, but nothing is bigger than god. he has been so faithful to us and he gave us the extra boost we needed. we almost completely finished the home ( actually two, because it's a duplex) in one day! we were so psyched up at the end of the day. god also did something else in each of us today. he instilled a sense of peace about what we are doing here. we got a little caught up in the big picture yesterday and felt frustrated with the slow progress of restoring this area. i really believe that all of us on the team learned a great lesson about serving our lord and savior this week. that is our calling... to love god and others and to serve god and others. he will take care of everything else. we don't have to worry about any of the outcomes, we just need to be obedient.

the bravo team had a really cool thing happen to them. they were working on their house and the homeowners were not there, but the neighbor was. they asked the neighbor if the homeowners would have wanted them to look out for anything special while gutting the home. the neighbor said that the homeowners have a little boy who loves baseball and was hoping they could find his baseball glove. as they were cleaning out the home, back in one of the bedrooms not only did they find his glove, but also a bat and his batting helmet. they said those items were basically untouched, while everything else in the home was unsavable. we serve a god who cares about the things we care about and maybe a little boy in louisiana will realize god's love for him in a new way through a baseball glove!

today is don mill's birthday, so megan and some others just ran out to walgreens ( the only store open around here) to try to come up with a sweet birthday treat...probably twinkies or something! but we're gonna celebrate as if we had a beautiful cake. god is forming a family with this team and while we are all anxious to get home to our biological families, we are a little sad to see the week coming to an end.

thanks again for your prayers. today was an absolutely beautiful, breezy day. your prayers are working. please know that and know how grateful we are to have you covering us with those prayers. pray for our final day here. we are open to whatever god has for us...not our agenda, lord, but yours.

i'm off to go to a birthday party. ( we are working really hard, but we are also having a blast together!)

talk to you all tomorrow.

May 12, 2006 - Team Alpha - Day 7, Friday

well, it's friday at 5pm. we just got back to camp from a long day's work for the last time. we all showered, packed the van up with our boots and sleeping bags, prayed and sent charlie and kermit on their way home. i know they would appreciate your prayers over the next 24+ hours for traveling mercy. the rest of us are getting ready to go into the debriefing time we have each evening. it's always great to hear the different stories.

we were able to meet the homeowners of the first home we did on mon. and tues. they saw the bible we left them in their house and sent a note to the church. they were at their house today and the bravo team called to let us know ( they happened to be working in a different house on that same street). some of us took a little break and drove over to meet them. what a lovely christian couple...butch and carol. they have lost so much, but they are still thankful for what they have...the kind of things that aren't replaceable like family and friends and their faith. they could not say "thank you" to us enough. butch kept saying " now this looks like my home again". it was simply the concrete slab with all the framework and the roof, but he was just so happy to see it cleaned out. they have a 4yr. old granddaughter that had lived with them prior to katrina. they don't know if she will be back to live with them or not. she is out of the area right now. you could tell that was one of the biggest heart breaks of this whole thing for them. they had just redone a room for her in their house. remember the pink dress-up shoe i mentioned in one of my entries? that was madeline's shoe. i told them today that we would be praying for their little madeline. ( butch and carol- forgive me if i am getting her name wrong). they said they sent us a picture of her to the church. can't wait to put that up on my frig. to remind me to pray for her.

and that's just one story. so many more to tell. not enough time to do it this way. we love you all and can't wait to see you tomorrow night. we just want to talk about what we've seen and experienced down here. hope god is preparing all of you to be good listeners!! we'll be talking about this for a long time.

once again, thank you for your prayers. don't stop yet. we have the trip home and then the re-entry into real life!

see you very soon!

May 12, 2006 - Team Bravo - Day 7, Friday

Our last work day - it's incredible to believe we are going home tomorrow. The last two days have been so much better weather-wise that some of us are really tempted to stay another week and keep working. Don't worry, we are coming home. But it's so difficult to leave when there is SO MUCH left to do down here. We finished four houses in five days, and we are satisfied in that, but then you look around and realize how many thousands more there are to go. The only way to make peace with it is to remember that God is in control, and His plan continues on even though we have to leave.

Today we had a beautiful God moment first thing on the work site. We were praying before starting the work day and we had just been praying for peace with the fact that we haven't met any of our residents. We were asking God to show us anyone in the neighborhood today that He would want us to reach out and talk with. Right then a man named Robert pulled up in his white pickup truck. He got out, leaving his truck running on the side of the road and asked to join our prayer circle. He just said he felt the need for prayer today and appreciated what we were doing down here and wanted to join us. We prayed for him, and he prayed for us. His house was in the neighborhood and he lost his house. He is in a Fema trailer with his wife and two young children, and today was his nine year old's birthday. It seemed fitting that we had one last walmart card to give out, and we gave it to Robert. Please pray for him and his family - raising a family with young children in a trailer and trying to get his home repaired is alot on his shoulders.

We're just finishing up our final team meeting and telling "Dana stories". You'll have to ask for an example when we get home! We are coming home with new friends, and many of us with new hearts recommitted to Jesus and to our new "neighbors" in Chalmette!