Tate Lucas

We finished working yesterday and I am amazed at how fast this week went! I feel like I just got here. The habitat staff told us yesterday that we more than exceeded their expectations for how much work we got done. I am thankful we could really help them get the houses closer to opening. (we will post pictures of the work site when we get home)

Tate spent most of the work destroying a badly built deck and then re-building it. He finished with 30 minutes to spare! The deck is beautiful and he is now more sure than ever that we will probably pay someone to build ours I was on the interior finish crew and we got three houses ready for carpet. One actually was carpeted during the week and, after a lot of touch up work, it is finished! It was really fun to get to work on almost complete houses. They are really nice. I am glad the people that qualify for a habitat house get a good house.

Today we hang out in New Orleans until 2 then we start the long drive home. I can’t wait to see most of you at home!

Also, I will try to post more stories and pictures from home where the internet is easier to use. THANK YOU for prayng for us. We could feel it.

This is Fats Dominos’ house. He was rescued by helicopter after Katrina but claims he won’t come back because Katrina was too bad for him. They just finished restoring his house. Tate and I are thinking of doing something similar to our house.

This is an example of the fields I was talking about. This used to be a full, bustling neighborhood. This is the lower ninth ward which was the neighborhood that was washed out by the canal that burst. There was about 10 feet of water in this neighborhood for 6 weeks.

This is one of the totally green houses that Brad Pitt is building!

The square on this house means that there was a body found in this house. 3 years ago.

Musicians villiage - It is three blocks of bright houses just like this. The houses that we are working on look just like this. The homeowners get to choose the colors.

More pictures to come…

Sorry it has been so long since we have posted. We can only use the internet in the lobby because our hotel charges $14/day to use it in your room. Not suprisingly this has hindered our ability to update the blog. So what has happened since Sunday…

Monday morning we went on a bus tour of some of the devastation. I have watched documentaries on Katrina but seeing it with my own eyes was a whole other story. There were fields with one house in the middle and weeds growing over 6 feet tall. Our tour guide had to keep reminding us that No LA is a city surrounded by water so pre-Katrina there were no empty lots in the city. So the fields we were seeing were neighborhoods that had just washed away. Imagine Oakley with only a few houses left - unbelievable. And it is three years later!

Our tour giude is a native N’walins-ian and she told her story as a part of the tour. She is from a middle to upper class family and she lost everything. They had just torn down her family home becasue they couldn’t save it. It added a whole new level to hear her personal stories and the stories of her friends. It made it more real. It also made it more real the idea that some of these houses had been in families for generations. People from here say they can’t come home and when your family has been living in the same house for 5 generations and that house doesn’t exist anymore I can see why just coming to the city doesn’t do it. I am glad we took the tour before we started work. It helped give context to our trip.

The first day of work was beautiful. Seriously, your prayers are working. It was low 80’s and there was a stiff breeze. The houses on our work site are very close to completion. It is cool to see what the finished neighborhood will look like. Tate started out by tearing down a deck that had been poorly built by the group before us. He is becaoming very proficient with a crow bar and slegde hammer! I am working inside with a finish crew. We (aka the dudes) are putting in base molding and cabinets. I spent the last day and a half painting doors. Since I have been indoors most of the time and Tate has been outside his tan is getting very close to passing mine! I will have to get outside tomorrow!

Every night we get to explore the French Quarter and enjoy amazing New Orleans food. I feel like I am on a sweet vacation with some hard labor during the day! Tuesday night we went to Preservation Hall to see a native jazz band. Awesome. It was my favorite live concert ever. There were 75 of us cramed into this tiny room and a 6 member band played for just under an hour. I would go back every night if I could.

Tonight we are heading out for a cruise on the Mississippi for dinner. I love boats so this shoudl be awesome. Thanks again to all of you for prayng for us - between the mild weather and lack of injury - we can feel it!

Well it is Monday morning and we are all here and in one piece. The overnight bus ride wasn’t nearly as bad as promised and I think Tate and I both got a good few hours of sleep. We were making great time so we got to take a long break for breakfast at Crackerbarrel. Way better than my expected McDonalds.

After breakfast we drove to Franklin Avenue Baptist Church for church. We got there during the Sunday school hour and they way they do that is in about 8 areas of the sancutary they just group up and one person lectures each area. Basically there are 8 people teaching simulatneuosly - and we were seated right in the middle of them. Church started about an hour later and it was awesome. Huge choir, lots of yelling from the pulpit but exactly what I would want from a southern baptist church. I started to realize how tired I was when even though this was one of the highest energy level churches I have ever been in, I was slowly falling asleep. It was also intresting just how much Katrina still factors into to everyday speech down here. The church is now in three locations (another one in Houston and a third in Atlanta?) since they were all scattered after the storm. The church in No LA has only been in their building for 4 months because there was 9 feet of water in the sanctuary. It is hard to fathom that this is reality for so many people.

Next we checked into the holtel (so nice) and went looking for lunch. We ended up at Mothers and I had the best oyster po-boy ever. If you are ever in New Orleans, go there! Then we showered and took a long needed nap.

Dinner was in the 16th floor ballroom. Because there are 300 of us we get to eat in the room that looks out on the whole city and I am sure has been the site for many a wedding. The food wasn’t bad either. Our go group ventured out to the french quarter after dinner to explore, grab a beer and chat.

So far it feels more like a vacation than a mission trip. I am sure that will change this morning when we tour the ninth ward where we will be working. We drove through parts of it on the way to church yesturday and it is amazing how every third or so house is still in total disrepair. Many houses still have the infamous X on the front with the body count displayed below.  The reality that it has been 3 years and there is still so much to do is starting to sink in.

Well I am off to eat breakfast and get ready for the day. THanks for praying for us!

You made it to our New Orleans blog! We hope to keep you all updated as we sweat in the Big Easy. Today we need to pack and make sure we have enough sun screen. Luckily for my sweet tooth I (Christy) have churned out 8 dozen cookies for the ride down - cookies = happiness when you are stuck in a bus for 18 hours! Make sure to check back for more updates.