We were blessed!

Has it really been a week since we left Henderson?

It only seems like yesterday.

Eleven individuals, representing three United Methodists Churches from Henderson County.

We just wanted to make a difference in someone's life.

Did we ever?

Beginning with all eleven of us.

We developed relationships with Christian brothers and sisters that we had never known before.

We worked together, laughed together, cried together, built together, hung drywall together.

We were blessed with uneventful travel to and from New Orleans. Praise God, we traveled over 1,450 miles and didn't get involved with or even see a fender bender.

We were blessed by the visitation of three homes that the FUMC team B worked on in January. Mary Lee & Lee Obenchain took us to these homes where we met a lady that had recently moved back in to her home. When Mary and Lee knocked on her door, she screamed with joy to see them and thank them.

We were blessed by the fact that some team in recent weeks had built bunk beds for future teams. We were able to leave our air mattresses in their boxes and sleep on foam mattresses.


All the guys know who snores and who doesn't............WE ALL DO! Not a blessing!


We were blessed with beautiful, warm (not hot) temperatures, low humidity and just a little rain to cool us down.

We were blessed with the presence of Bud Hill, hereinafter referred to as "The Bud". His knowledge and skill in carpentry and remodeling are remarkable an his patience to teach and ability to teach each of us to measure, cut, break, nail, screw, hang, tape, and apply mud is astounding.

We were blessed by the people whose homes we helped reconstruct.

Ms. Ida Perry and her daughter, Kathryn with their contagious laughter, their enthusiasm for life, their faith in God all blessed us that Monday that we worked on their home.

We hung drywall in 2 bedrooms and 2 closets, installed insulation in those same rooms.

Here we learned a little of what was to come the rest of the week as we worked on Silas Dillon's home.

We were blessed by Silas Dillon and his story of survival during the storm and ensuing flood. He was asleep when the waters began to surround his bed. When the water touched his hand he was awaken and, he waded to the safety of the flood wall behind his home where he was rescued by helicopter.

And we were blessed by the many jokes, stories and events of the week.

The team: Barry Denton, Karen and Bud Hill, Beryl and Lester LaBruyere, Charles Lander, Mary Lee, Lee Obenchain, Debbie Sides, Kevin Stevenson and me (Paul Herron), have been blessed to have spent time together in New Orlean, Louisiana serving God through his people.

What happens in New Orleans, stays in New Orleans? Don't believe it. We brought a lot of it home with us. Thank You Lord for the Blessings.

They're home!

The mission team arrived home safely around 6 p.m. Saturday. They'll tell us more soon here, but from what we heard in the parking lot as they unpacked the trailer and put luggage and tools into their personal vehicles, it was evident they had been blessed.

They worked hard (bringing home drywall dust in their clothes). They met homeowners such as Silas and Miss Ida with whom they bonded while helping them rebuild. They formed friendships with fellow Methodists and fellow Hendersonians they hadn't known before. They came back with sore muscles but with smiles about funny incidents. "What happens in New Orleans," one of them said, "stays in New Orleans!"

Particularly touching was how, as they prepared to drive to their respective homes from the First Methodist parking lot, they said their goodbyes. People from Chapel Hill United Methodist Church hugged people from Bennett Memorial UMC, and people from Bennett hugged people from First UMC.

They had not only help rebuild homes. They had built new Christian relationships with people from back home.

Amen.

Now, if we can just get them to spill the beans about some of what happened in New Orleans!

Great news

Those of us back in Henderson this week received gratifying news after some of the mission team members who had been in New Orleans on earlier trips drove out to New Orleans East on Sunday afternoon to see if there had been any progress on homes we worked on in January.

Understand, we have learned not to expect quick gratification. We have worked for hours, days, to remove the wretched, molded contents and walls of houses, then returned months later to find nothing else had been done. Nothing is certain in New Orleans. All we can do is provide a little hope and demonstrate our Christian love and compassion.

But praise God, some mission team members returned Sunday to Gloria's house in N.O. East -- and found it had been salvaged and Gloria was living there again! We understand that Gloria, a widow, was delighted to see the mission team workers again and invited them inside for a visit. What a blessing.

We are still awaiting blog updates from the combined church mission team in New Orleans. It isn't easy. In a city where more than half of the population has vanished, luxuries such as high-speed wireless Internet service are tough to find. But we remain hopeful.

In the meantime, friends, kindly pray for the team and their safety.

They are in New Orleans

Chuck Stinnett reports:

We have a cell phone report that the NOLA mission team arrived in New Orleans around 6 p.m. Saturday. We saw them off at 6 a.m. today. Spirits were good, and a nice turnout of folks from previous mission trips from First and Chapel Hill Methodist churches were present.

Here's a group photo after church services at Aurora United Methodist Church on the West Bank in New Orleans on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006:



We look forward to reports from the team itself. Links have been made from the First Methodist and Chapel Hill UMC web sites to this blog.