CSF Katrina Trips

KATRINA TRIP 6

2008-07-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

MARCH 13-21, 2009

It's official - CSF is headed back to the Gulf Coast this spring for our 6th Katrina Relief Trip! This time we'll be working with and staying at a church in one of the New Orleans suburbs. Jobs probably include roofing, drywalling, mudding, taping, and/or painting, depending on what the needs are at the time. Feel free to invite lots of friends - the more the better!

We will be driving down and the trip will include a day of sight-seeing. The cost for the trip is $300 plus meals on the way down and back. There will also be some options for fundraising by cleaning Ridder Arena - dates to be announced closer to the trip. For more details or with questions email Amy at brow1876@umn.edu.

POSTED ON 7/10/08

No crawfish were harmed it the making of this blog

2008-03-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Dearest fans,

It's Amy back again to report on the day's happenings. It was our last day of work (boohoo!), and we sure went out with a bang. On Isaiah's house, our team (the Browns, the Katies, Steve I, Scott, Micah, and Lauren) sanded and put in another layer of mud, leaving sanding and painting for the next team. Let me tell you, sanding down mudded walls in tiny rooms with no ventilation made us all feel like we were going to die. And by the time we were done, we were all covered in a layer of white dust that made us look like we were ghosts or had aged 70 years in an hour. But after we got over that little hump, it was free sailing to get that last layer of mud up. It was utterly amazing to see the inside of that house be transformed throughout the week. When we first got there on Monday, the three rooms were not rooms at all. You could see from one end of the house to the other (just studs, no insulation or anything), there was a hole the size of a bathtub in the bathroom, and everything seemed rotted and dark. When we left today, there were three rooms (with walls!), all the floors were solid, doors up, and it was bright and cheery. The work went fast today, which meant that as a reward for our efficiency we got first dibs on showers.

The Tree Guys (as we affectionately call Tim, Steve S, Anthony, and Nigel), returned to Beryl's house. They spent the morning playing baseball, while waiting for a trailer to arrive. Once Brad brought them the appropriate tools and they used their studdly muscles to pull up a stump, and finished clearing brush. They got treated to lunch for all the hard work that they did, and had the awesome opportunity to spend time with their homeowner. From there they headed over to the other other team's site to help out.

The other other team (Zeb, Sam, Derek, Sarah, Ben, Emmy, Jenny, Conner, Liz, Mike, and Puva) were working on Leeanne's house again today. From the sound of it, they did A LOT of miscellaneous yet productive things. Conner, Sam, Liz, and Sarney slaved away tiling a bedroom, while Mike walked by frequently commenting on how nice it looked. The tiling left quite a bit to be desired, the describing statements were "tumultuous, trying, and frustrating". Outside, they installed a door, moved a washer inside and installed it, and rocked out putting siding up. After the Tree Guys joined them and helped out a bit, Nigel and Tim crafted a crude but accurate cricket bat, and Tim took a few lessons in the art of the sport. The consensus is, that even though it was a hard day, it was also very rewarding and fun.

So here we are, chilling at base camp, enjoying the final moments we have before being locked up in vans for the next 24 odd hours. The sun is shining and the temperature is hovering some where in the high seventies. We will soon be piling our sore, sun burnt, tired bodies into the Great White Vans, an event that none of us are looking forward too. Until then, it's a few more episodes of the Office, sloppy joes, and some final cat naps.

See you when we surface...

Now

French fries, french tender, and once again the French Quarter

2008-03-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, Nigel Bennett here.

Well today has yet again been a successful day down here in New Orleans. Isaiah’s house is really looking like a liveable place again which is very rewarding. We finished putting up the sheet rock at last and the rest of the finishing team mudded up the walls and sanded everything down. The other team continued cleaning up the wood mess at the old lady’s house. They accomplished clearing a wood pile the size of a small bus. Tough work and all beat at the end of the day. But since this is New Orleans, most of us went to the French quarter to have dinner and socialize again. The owner of the place where we stayed came round to say hi. He kindly took me and Scott (Micah’s Dad) for a short tour of the area. Wow, we didn’t have to drive all the way into the city to see the damage caused by Katrina. The houses around here sustained five feet of water causing absolute havoc. Houses built up along the lake and swamp edge were just washed away. We saw one of these houses just sitting in a clump on the side of the road still untouched. As you know the folks down here like their seafood and pack it all into big deep freezes. Well as you can guess when the flood hit and the houses were evacuated, this stuff began to rot and became putrid seafood. It’s apparently the most disgusting smell on earth and causes one to throw up instantaneously. Volunteers would come in to help gut the houses. Being hot and summer, someone would out of natural instinct just open the fridge to look for a bottle of water, only to throw up immediately. To solve this problem, the freezers were the first to be taken out of the houses. Gutting the house even included taking the sheet rock off the walls and removing the insulating foam. About 12 people are needed to complete gutting one house in a single days work. More than twelve people and everyone starts to bump into each other. The walls, floors and ceilings are sprayed with heavy bleach and later sprayed again with mould protector. So altogether it’s been a long road to recovery. However, even today, almost three years later, there are still houses all over the place that are condemned and have not even been touched since the flood waters receded. Truly a humbling experience as to the power of water.

It was a productive day, and tomorrow is the last day...

Midterm Evaluation

2008-03-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we have just passed the midpoint of Spring Break 2008. The third day of work has come and gone, and it is safe to say that we are all still alive and well. We woke up this morning to some claps of thunder and rain pouring down, unfortunately, in some cases pouring through the roof. Nothing a couple of buckets couldn't fix. But as rain down here does, it came and it went, and by the time we left at 8, the raindrops slowed and let us have a day free of sogginess. Half of the team returned to Isaiah's house, where we continued hanging sheetrock, mudding/taping, putting in window sills and so on. The rest of the group headed over to North Shore Relief's headquarters to lobby for a new work site. And they were successful. Four of the boys were taken over to a house that had a yard strewn with fallen trees, and were entrusted with chainsaws to clear it out. The others have been assigned a house in need of a new roof, some new interior walls, and other miscellaneous jobs. They didn't get much done, after waiting to find out where to go, going there to check out the situation, and then going to get supplies, it was time to head back to our base camp.

As Dale from our host organization had suggested, we took half the day off today. The afternoon was filled with a nice relaxing lunch, a quick run to Goodwill, and then a self-guided tour to the 9th ward. For those of you who may not remember, the 9th ward sustained the worst damage after Hurricane Katrina. Being lined by levees, basically lumps of land seperating habitable land from canals leading to Lake Pontchartrain, the 9th ward is in a very venerable position. A pastor of a church that we drove past told us that flood waters reached over 24 feet in some places. Even now, 2 and a half years later, the neighborhoods look devastated. It's hard to tell what the real damage is by looking from the outside. We don't know the stories of all the people, nor how bad things are on the inside. As we drove through, there would be a house almost fully recovered with people living in it, next to a completely abandoned one, next to one in the process of being recovered. We stopped to get out, and as we were walking around, we noticed several houses had large official-looking red X's. Each one read: "Involuntary Demolition". These were houses that were "seemingly abandoned" that were condemned to be demolished by the local government. Across the street was an old mansion, that some of our team decided to check out. This may not have been the smartest decision of the trip, considering it was private property and one of the locals called the cops on us. Brad talked to the very nice sheriff, who pointed out areas of the city with the greatest damage for us. When asked if there was some sort of monument to commemorate the floods, he said to look at the water lines that were still prominent on many houses. Thus concluded our trip to the inner city.

After eating a delicious dinner, we decided that it would be a nice evening to go to the beach. We are on the Gulf Coast for crying out loud. So we piled everyone into the vans (once again...), and hopped the border into Mississippi. We soon stumbled upon a roadside beach, parked the vans, and piled out to stick our toes in the Gulf. There followed a bonfire, which took quite a while to get started considering the overwhelmingly forceful wind. Alas, boy scout skills proved useful, and before long there were hot dogs and marshmallows out. Unfortunately, with Nigel's guitar out of commission, there was no singing, but we stayed entertained with friendly conversation. The tide was low, so many of us ventured out into unknown waters and sandbars. All and all what a way to end the day, but to gather with a bunch of friends around a fire on the beach.
We definitely appreciate all of your prayers and support, so thanks for that. And more than anything we need prayer to have the strength and energy to keep going.

Sorry for the absence of pictures again, but the hour is late and we have a full day of work tomorrow, and the internet here lacks the speed to be able to upload pictures in a decent amount of time...

...So until next time, this is Amy Brown signing off

Don't worry, no trips to the hospital....yet

2008-03-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

Well another day has come and gone in the beautiful city of New Orleans. We were all still working on the same house, and made GREAT progress. The roofing half of the team made a fantastic finish today (woohoo!), and will hopefully be assigned another work site tomorrow. The sheetrockers have almost finished with hanging the sheetrock, and should be moving on to mudding and taping sometime tomorrow. Since we slacked yesterday and didn't offer any visual stimulation for all the words in this blog, today you will get an extra dose....So sit back, relax and let your eyes do the work.

This is our house. Well, okay Isaiah's house, but we're taking it over for the week.

Katie K is ready to work, nice muppet gloves!

The first day of work involved lots of neck straining for the sheetrocking team. Back rub anyone?

Mr McLellan (this year's construction guru) and Lauren show that wall who's boss.

Gosh Brad, sitting down on the job again...What will we do with you?

Look at them go! The roofing team prepares for the next day of shingling.

Anthony and Tim work hard to get those shingles going. Keep up the good work boys.

Time for a break!

Derek spends half his days playing old-fashioned photographer, and the rest of his time helping us out. His pictures won't be available until some time is spent in the dark room after we get back. That's right, FILM pics, baby.

Oh, by the way, today was Tim Roser's 20th birthday, so we took it upon ourselves to make sure he would remember it for a very very long time...

Why yes, they are nailing him to the roof...

Woah, Steve, getting a little close are we?

And to top it all off, a black caulk smiley face. Happy Birthday Tim!

narrated by csf's one and only amy brown

We've been workin all the day long

2008-03-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is interim Amy, Sam and Zeb. We hope you are having a good day. We have had a great one here in New Orleans. It was the first day of work and the team was ready to get started. In Slidell, LA, the town which we are staying, we drove to the Methodist church this morning to get our assignments for the week. It started with a really interesting speech by the head of United Methodist Relief Committee on Relief for this region. He said that Slidell itself is currently 85% restored, and they planned to be done by August with the Slidell area. Following that encouraging bit of news he also gave some news that was not as heartening; New Orleans itself was only 5% complete on their total repairs. This means that after Slidell repairs are complete it will focus more so on the city itself. He also said that they report all our hours that we are completing this week to the state which reports it to the federal government. The government is giving Louisiana just over eighteen dollars per hour per person to pay back the federal government. With this so far this has generated over nineteen million dollars. It is encouraging that our work will be doubly received by the people here…thirdly if you think of the spiritual nourishment this is providing as well. On our end, the spiritual nourishment it is providing us is worth it as well.

...Back to the trip, the assignment we were given, interestingly enough was all at the same house. It needed roofing, drywall, structural, and some insulation work. Both the teams were able to work on the same house. This worked great today and we already made great progress. We still broke up into two loose groups and started the work as soon as we got the materials. The person whose house we were working on was named Isaiah. He is a very kind old man who loves his game shows. We are going to try to have lunch with him tomorrow and get his story of the storm and some more information about his past. In other news, the food is great thanks to the hard work of Amanda and Leah. The sunburn hasn’t completely set in yet for us so that is well as well… but we are using plenty of sunscreen to make sure that doesn’t happen too quickly. They also recommend that we drink eight bottles of water a day to battle the pretty intense heat.

All in all, it was quite a productive day. As would be expected, we got off to a slightly slow start, but the afternoon was full of hard work. 24 people working on a small house is a little tight. But we've been trying hard not to step on each others toes too much. Having lots of people does make the work speed along, though. We'll keep you updated on the events of the week....so stay tuned.

So, do to some minor minor technical difficulties, there will be no pictures for your viewing pleasure. But do not fear! There will be a flood tomorrow...

Lazy Sunday?

2008-03-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Blockbuster worship, alligator adventures and a stroll through the historic French Quarter. Not exactly the lazy Sunday we might be accustomed to on spring break. So here is your quick update from the first full day in Louisiana for Katrina Relief 08!

This morning we got up at the crack of 8ish and prepared for a jam packed day of events. The group grabbed a quick fruit based breakfast and hopped in the vans to go to church. We attended Journey Christian Church for Palm Sunday. The church is located in a movie theater and the service was rocking! The most comfortable seats I have ever sat on for a church service in my opinion. On a freaky prophetic note Brad and I discussed the passage of scripture that was the basis for the message earlier that morning.

After church everyone was free to select the fast food restaurant of their pleasing. Taco Bell was the most popular selection but a small few ventured elsewhere. The weather outside was sunny but a tad windy yet it was still a great day compared to what we would be experiencing back home.

After lunch we went on a Katrina Relief traditional swap tour. This is basically us riding a boat around a swamp and checking out all the cool alligators and other various wildlife. NEW FACT: Marshmallows are the weapon of choice when attempting to attract the attention of the local alligator population. Our guide was funny and very knowledgeable and the boat ride was fun but most of the gators were doing nothing but basking in the same wonderful sun we were.

The last leg of our fun filled day took place in the French Quarter of New Orleans. This famous section of downtown was loaded with all kinds of shops and restaurants. The weather was warm early on but got chilly as the sun went down. Earlier in the day a performer asked for my assistance with mounting his unicycle. Other members of the group did a bit of shopping and everyone got some dinner, mostly seafood but some Italian food was consumed as well. After some random wandering everyone managed to get some beignets from famous Café Du Monde. All in all there was some cool statues, parks, street performers/musicians and architecture to been viewed. OBSERVATION - balconies are considered commonplace and were a part of many buildings.

Tomorrow is an early day for us as we attend orientation for this week and get the run down on what we will be doing. Hopefully we are all well rested and prepared to begin our week of work tomorrow. Until then here are some pictures to give you a visual insight to some of today’s events.

Everyone getting on the swamp tour boat

Taking in the sites of the swamp

Lazy Sunday for the gators

Lauren and Katie enjoying the sights and weather on the boat

Micah revelling in the messy aftermath of those delicious beignets (french doughnuts)

This post was written for your reading pleasure by Jon Brown

We made it...at long last!

2008-03-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings family members, friends, and anyone else reading this post...

This is not Rebecca Lehmer, as the name may suggest, but rather a mere fill-in in her absence. (We miss you Rebecca!) This is Amy Brown reporting on the events so far of CSF's Spring Break 2008.

Well, we have safely arrived in Slidell, LA, a suburb of New Orleans. After 24 hours of van travel, we are, to say the least, exhausted. But mostly in high spirits as we embark on CSF's 5th trip to the South to participate in Hurricane Katrina relief work. The team this year consists of 26 hopeful workers, 11 women and 15 men. It is worth noting that this is perhaps the first major CSF event with a majority of males. We'll be split up into two work teams, one flooring team and one painting/finishing team, while Amanda and Leah will be staying back to cook for the rest of us. I don't think we have our specific assignments yet, but we'll find out soon enough.

The trek down from the north was fairly uneventful. We passed through too many states than we could keep track of, hit a couple of rainstorms, and lost all feeling in our behinds as we bumped down the highways. Kudos to our valiant drivers who made sure we were safe as we drove all night Friday and all day Saturday. The ride was broken up by periodic stops to fill up the vans and stretch our cramped legs, besides that there's not much to report.

While it may be below freezing in our hometown of St Paul, it is a balmy 74 degrees at 8:30 this evening in Slidell. Our dwelling for the next week is a refurbished limo rental place, that has been used as volunteer housing since the hurricanes hit. While forced to sleep on couches, air beds, and the floor last year, we are living it up on bunks this year. It is a cozy little building with a pink common room filled with seven plush couches, two tvs, and several tables. The kitchen is sizable, the bathrooms adequate, and the company wonderful.

Here are a few pictures to visually represent the trip so far...

Here we are, pre-take off.

Are we really going to New Orleans?! Really!?

24 hours in a van? No biggie...

Yes, we did indeed find a Sonic...

Micah is such an intense driver.

Stay tuned for our next post, where an alligator makes friends with Jon Brown on the swamp tour...

KATRINA TRIP 5

2008-03-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

It's almost time! In just 2 short days 26 students, friends, family, and CSF staff will be piling into two awesome yet cramped 15-passenger vans and starting the long drive down to our final destination of Slidell, Louisiana for our 5th ever CSF Katrina Relief Trip! We're in the midst of a flurry of filling out forms, gathering tools, and packing our bags and I know everyone is so very excited for D-day on Friday (March 14). As we finish our final preparations, we would appreciate your prayers for:

1) safe travel, especially since we are doing a lot of our driving during the middle of the night
2) new friendships to be developed, as many people who are going on this trip don't know each other very well, if at all!
3) our team to bring hope and encouragement to the families that we are able to work with

Check back soon for more updates - we'll do our best to post lots of pictures and stories during our trip!

(posted by Rebecca on March 12, 2008)

Home Sweet Home!

2007-03-19T17:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for reading our posts and keeping up on our trip! We arrived home on Saturday night, March 17, about 9 pm. It was a long ride home, but we were still all a little sad to get off the bus and return to the life of classes and work that is our normal, everyday existence. Our trip was truly a success in every way - great friendships built, meaningful work done, and lots of fun had by all. Personally, it was hard work being a cook, grocery shopper, clothes washer, and mom to 24 college students (and a couple adults too!) but it was one of the most rewarding things I have done in a long time!

As I close out my reflections on this year's trip and start looking forward to next year's (that's right, you better clear your Spring Break '08 calendar right now!) I'd just like to say that it seems to me that we are never more fully alive than when we are serving others. As Gandhi said, "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" and I guess that makes sense if loving God and lovings others is what we were created to do. My hope and prayer is that whether you were able to travel to New Orleans with us or not, the stories and pictures chronicled in this blog will remind you once again of the great beauty and joy found in fulfilling the call that God extends to each and every one of us to love and serve one another.

Until Next Time,

Rebecca
Posted on March 19, 2007

Fun Pictures

2007-03-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

News From the Last Team

2007-03-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Sorry we missed blogging last night, but due to some unexpected bus trouble (easily fixed) and a late night exploring the French Quarter, the blogging had to wait. Today, Taylor and Andrew will be sharing with you about the adventures of our third work team:

Our team started off the week by deciding on a sweet name. "Team Sheetrock Your Mom" consists of Noah, Ben Babcock, Andrew, Taylor, Holly, Glenise, Tim, and Denny. Tim narrowly escaped being tossed in the site dumpster because he forgot his Tyvek flight suit.

Aside from dumpsters and pigeon-baiting, we sheetrocked a house for a woman named Ann. Her house was gutted a year ago after it was flooded to the ceiling, and was just now being restored. Ann and her family had lived in the house for 15 years, and she told us about how God had always provided for them, and how excited she was to redesign the house - she sees every disaster as a possibility for blessing.

When we arrived at the house the plumbing and electrical work had been mostly completed and sheetrock had been started. We had much to do in this one week at hand. As we started working we realized that we would be hanging sheetrock on the ceiling first, but we quickly found that toolboxes and folding chairs would have to take the place of ladders. Two teams out of our group sheetrocked while Glenise and Taylor got started puttying the finished walls and ceilings. Over the course of the week, Ali joined us to take some shots for the Minnesota Daily. By the end of the week, all the sheetrock had been hung and a first coat of putty was well underway for another team to continue.

Yesterday, we worked a half day so we could go on a swamp tour and then to the French Quarter. The swamp tour was amazing: we saw a bazillion alligators which were all named Boudreaux by the tour guide, who also passed around a baby alligator and an alligator snapping turtle, and shot marshmallows to the myriad Boudreaux with a wrist rocket. Afterwards, we stood around while our broken-down bus was fixed. Then, we ventured to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. Favorite features of the French Quarter were Cafe du Monde and the beignets, which are like puffy clumps of funnel cake with a metric ton of powdered sugar, and the live music pouring out of cafes and clubs into the streets- to which we danced the electric slide... and other people actually joined in. That was pretty much the whole day. Regards, Taylor and Andrew.

Thanks so much for reading our blog - our work is over for this trip and we're just finishing up a celebratory turkey dinner and are getting ready to climb on our bus for at least 24 straight hours. Minnesota here we come!

(posted by Rebecca, Taylor & Andrew on Friday, March 16, 2007)

Pictures of Taylor & Andrew's Team

2007-03-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

More From New Orleans

2007-03-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

Today was another hard day of work. Listen in as Lindsay and Melinda share a little about their experiences on the roofing team:

The roofing team is currently working on a house owned by an 81 year old retired nurse named Montreal Farve. Her husband bought the house with his GI bill and they have lived there for 54 years. Her son Andre is currently taking care of her in their FEMA trailer due to a recent broken arm, and he has been telling us many stories about his life growing up in that neighborhood. Their home is one of among 80,000 that had at least eight feet of water. Seeing the water lines on the home that we have been working on was a great reminder of the true devastation that this city has endured. It's been eye-opening to hear of their difficulties in recieving aid and the stories of their moment during Katrina's arrival. Their departure got off to a late start because they were waiting to hear the path Katrina would take. They ended up at the Hyatt hotel in downtown New Orleans, which itself took a great beating.

After witnessing several people throughout the community express their gratitude towards our team for all of our work, it has become very clear that these wonderful people down here are a great example of how we should live our lives. After everything that they have been through and everything they have lost, they have maintained the most amazing spirits. We expected to come down and help raise the spirits of the home owners that we were working with, but in fact they have encouraged us through their willingness to move forward and have a positive outlook on life.
While working on the roof we have heard many car horns and thank yous from neighbors and people in the community which has shown us that after almost two years, they appreciate everything that people are doing for them and don't let a single job go unnoticed.

God has granted us safe travels throughout the trip, despite a few mishaps on the bus. Our bus driver Corey has been a very good guide and he has even taken it upon himself to become involved in the teams' work.

Since St. Patrick's Day is upon arrival, the church planned a themed dinner for all of the groups that they are housing this evening, but our late arrival forced us to opt for Papa John's pizza instead. At the end of the evening, everyone was satisfied. During the service work, the Lord has provided great fellowhip opportunities for us to get to know each other and grow in our relationships with each other and God. We have also gotten to know other groups who have taken their spring breaks to come down and serve here as well.

Our roofing team is led by Bennis the Menace who is a professional roofer. Our team is composed of Ben, Melinda, Ross, Devin, Emmy, Zeb, Sarah, Lindsay and Jena. He has successfully led a group of people who have no experience or knowledge as of how to do anything on a roof to de-shingle, and re-roof a house in three days. Many laughs have been shared while getting abused by the sun and are sure to be continued throughout the rest of this trip. Everyone always has a job and is more than willing to get it done with a good attitude. Every bit of work that gets done on the roof is recognized and becomes a great motivator to get this house done for Montreal.

Check back tomorrow for details about our last team and to hear about our adventures touring New Orleans!

(posted by Rebecca, Lindsay, and Melinda on Wednesday, March 14, 2007)

Pictures of Lindsay & Melinda's Team

2007-03-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Our Rebuilding Experiences

2007-03-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

Our time here in New Orleans is flying by! We just finished up our second day of work and our teams are doing a great job. I thought you might like to hear a little about what each of our three teams are doing and the homeowners they are working with. Today Amy & Katie are going to tell you a little about their experience drywalling:

We're working on a house in a neighborhood that was hit pretty hard and sustained quite a bit of damage. Our homeowners are Angie and Richard who are engaged, and her 12 year old son Dennis. Before the storm the house was one story with 2 bedrooms and 1 and a half bathrooms. When the storm hit the water reached 8 feet, nearly to the ceiling, and remained at 4 feet for several weeks afterwards. As you can imagine everything inside and outside the house was pretty much destroyed. When they came back after about 4 months they decided to rebuild. Now there is going to be 2 stories with 4 bedrooms and 2 and a half baths. Angie inherited the house 8 years ago from her mother, who had always wanted to expand to 2 stories. The couple has lost $17,000 due to crooked contractors. After the first rain since being re-roofed, the ceiling leaked and ruined the brand-new sheet rock. So here we find ourselves with the privilege to be the drywall crew for these amazing people.

Our team consists of our fearless leader Ben S. who is so good that other team leaders feel they need to call him for further instruction. He is assisted by the peons: Brad, Anja, Erin, Amanda, Nick, Amy, Katie and our bus driver/construction guru, Cory. Our days consist of the installation of insulation, the meticulous science of measuring and cutting, holding slabs of sheet rock above our heads for minutes on end, drilling in screws like there's no tomorrow and visiting the local hardware store to use the bathroom. Our progress is rockin'! With 2 and a half rooms down, the forecast for the rest of the week is looking pretty good. Although talent does make up for the hang-ups, we have encountered faulty framing, a lack of supplies and being too short - well, for some of us... We're having a blast though, and Angie promised to send pictures of the final product.

Today we got to meet Angie's neighbor Miss Janette, and her husband Mr. Roosevelt, who live down the street and graciously lend us the use of their trailer's toilet. They recently moved back into their house and were excited to show off their new floors and counter-tops to us. Miss Janette told us stories of some of the aftermath of the hurricane and showed us pictures of the damage it left behind. We couldn't believe the difference in the before and after, you wouldn't be able to tell it's the same house. Even though the neighborhood as a whole sustained some severe damage, most of the neighbors are planning to come home.

Even though we've only been working for a few days, it's already starting to look like a house again, and we're hoping to finish as much as we can so that Angie and Richard can move in as soon as possible. And with a kickin' team like this it looks very doable. Boo ya!

Check back tomorrow for updates about the other teams!

(posted by Rebecca, Amy & Katie on Tuesday, March 13, 2007)

Amy & Katie's Team Working Hard!

2007-03-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

We've Arrived!

2007-03-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

We've had a couple long days on the road, but we've finally arrived at Aurora United Methodist Church in New Orleans and are getting settled in! We ended up pulling out from St. Paul about 7:15 Friday night and spend a grueling 16 hours straight on the bus, pulling into Memphis about 11 am on Saturday morning.

Saturday was our day to be tourists, and we listened to some music at the Rock-n-Soul Museum, ate lunch and did a little shopping on Beale Street, spent some time at Graceland and ended up at our favorite BBQ place (a local restaurant we stumbled upon during last year's spring break Katrina trip), where we ate some awesome BBQ ribs, sandwiches, and turkey legs. We were all pretty tired out by that point in time, so we headed to the suburbs to Collierville Presbyterian Church, where an amazing group of people welcomed us to their church and showed us lots of southern hospitality!

After spending the night in the church and convincing a local YMCA to open up to let us shower (we were all pretty smelly by this point in time) we went to church with our new friends at CPC and then hit the road again. Supper was at Sonic, a drive-in restaurant (with the BEST cherry limeades) that many of us Midwesterners had never experienced before. We finally pulled into New Orleans about 9:15 pm and it never felt better to reach our final destination!

Today is our first day on the job site, so check back soon for more details about what our work teams are doing and hopefully even some pictures to prove we are actually working! For now, you can check out the pics below of some of our adventures on the road.

(posted by Rebecca on Monday, March 12, 2007)

Traveling Pictures

2007-03-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Getting Ready to Go

2007-03-05T16:02:00.000-08:00

It's almost time! In just 5 short days 28 students and CSF staff will be piling into a coach bus and starting the long drive down to our final destination of Algiers, Louisiana. We're in the midst of a flurry of filling out forms, gathering tools, and packing our bags and we are all so very excited for D-day on Friday (March 9). As we finish our final preparations, we would appreciate your prayers for:

1) safe travel, especially since we are doing a lot of our driving during the middle of the night
2) new friendships to be developed, as many people who are going on this trip don't know each other very well, if at all!
3) our team to bring hope and encouragement to the families that we are able to work with

Check back soon for more updates - we'll do our best to post lots of pictures and stories during our trip!

KATRINA RELIEF TRIP 4

2006-12-22T13:03:00.000-08:00

MARCH 9 -17, 2007

It's official - CSF is headed back to the Gulf Coast this spring for our 4th Katrina Relief Trip! This time we'll be working with and staying at a church in Algiers, LA (an eastern suburb of New Orleans). Jobs probably include roofing, drywalling, painting, cleaning and/or sanitizing, depending on what the needs are at that time.

We will be taking a coach bus and stopping in Memphis for some sight-seeing. The cost for the trip is $300 plus meals on the way down and back and if a lot of people come the cost per person will decrease some. There will also be two options for fundraising by cleaning Ridder arena on January 27 & February 9.

This event is made possible, in part, by a University of Minnesota Coca-Cola Community Initiative Grant. Feel free to invite lots of friends - Brad's goal is to fill the 47 person bus! For more details or with questions email Rebecca at heyrebecca@csf.net.

NEXT CSF TRIP

2006-08-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Touched by the stories and pictures you read and saw here? Want to help out? Then keep open the week of the University of Minnesota's Spring Break '07, which is when Christian Student Fellowship will be heading down to help out again. The tentative dates are March 10-18, 2007 and we'd love to have you join our team! Please contact Rebecca at heyrebecca@csf.net for more details.

(posted by Rebecca on 8/14/06)

New Orleans - August '06

2006-08-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Back Home in MN Already!

2006-08-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

We're back home in Minnesota! I can't believe how quickly our trip went and I just didn't have enough opportunities to update our blog because of the busyness. However, I'll do my best to bring you up to speed on the last couple of days of our trip. Thursday and Friday were both half days of work and we used them to sand the first coat of mud on Michelle's house. It's not that big (3 bedroooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and kitchen), but it was messy, difficult work. Because of the humidity, we would sweat 24-7 and then the dust falling off the walls would stick to us and form kind of a white paste that was everywhere on our bodies. However, with a little hard work and lots of water breaks, we were able to finish all the sanding and leave the entire house ready for another crew of volunteers to put up the second coat of mudding (the whole mudding/sanding process needs to be done three times to create the smoothest walls possible).

While we were sanding, we also got a little taste of what life is like financially for many hurricane victims. One morning there was a knock at Michelle's door and someone walked in and handed me a slip of paper. After reading it, I realized that it was a notice saying that the water was going to be turned off if several months of back pay were not paid in two weeks time. Michelle shared later that making ends meet since the hurricane had been hard. Not only did she need to pay the mortgage on a house she couldn't live in because it was too damaged to occupy, she needed to pay utilities for both that house (so she could rebuild) and for her trailer (which luckily she doesn't have to pay for because it came from FEMA). Michelle's dad Carol also shared that like most other people affected by the hurricane, Michelle did not have flood insurance, so she received no money from insurance even though her house needed to be totally resheetrocked. Our team really wanted to help Michelle, and after consulting our budget we realized that we had enough money left over from the generous donors who helped make our trip possible to leave enough with Michelle to cover her water bill.

Thursday afternoon and evening we spent in New Orleans. One of the volunteer coordinators at Aldersgate took us on a tour of the 9th Ward and St. Bernard's Parish, two of the communities hardest hit by the flooding. The whole experience was amazingly eye-opening. We drove and walked through neighborhoods that looked like the hurricane had just occured yesterday. For blocks and blocks we saw houses that had been lifted up by the water and placed back down again off their foundations. The insides were full of all kinds of personal items and furniture that had been lifted up by the flood and then deposited back down every which way. What was left of walls and ceilings were splotched with mold and mildew and there were large piles of trash everywhere. There was even a 40 foot barge still in the middle of the street in one neighborhood a mile or so from any water! It amazed all of us that one year after Hurricane Katrina there could still be neighborhoods that looked this way. Most of the residents had not returned and those that had were living in FEMA trailers in the middle of what looked like a war zone. We heard that New Orleans is predicting that it will take 5-10 years to rebuild and I was convicted anew of the importance of volunteers and the great need that still remains in hurricane-affected areas.

On Friday afternoon we packed up and left for Pensacola. My flight from Pensacola to Minneapolis flew out Friday night (with lots of delays because of bad weather and all the security issues) and everyone else followed Saturday morning. All in all, it was a great trip: our team was very unified and had a great time hanging out together, we worked hard, and we learned a lot. I guarantee that the same would happen for you if you decided to head down south and help your brothers and sisters in need!

(posted by Rebecca at 8:17 am on 8/14/06)

Pictures of Us Working

2006-08-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

Another Update

2006-08-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's about time for another update! The last two days have been days of learning our way around our home for the week at Aldersgate Methodist Church in Slidell, Louisiana. Tuesday we got trained in on drywall finishing (mudding, taping and sanding the sheetrock that other teams have installed) and we were introduced to the house we will be working at for the rest of the week. Our house belongs to Michelle and her four children. It is in a lower-middle class neighborhood that didn't expect flooding because it has it's own levee. Instead, the water came up over the levee (Michelle's house was flooded to about 5 feet) and then when the water started to recede a couple of hours later, the levee caught the water and held it for a couple of weeks in Michelle's neighborhood until they could figure out how to drain it. Most of the people in Michelle's neighborhood are rebuilding, because they have mortages to pay off on their houses and they can't afford to move away.

Michelle got her name on the church list asking for help last October, and they were finally able to start on her home in June. By the time we got there, a couple of teams from North Carolina, Illinois and New York had already put up the sheetrock and done about half of the first layer of mudding. It's hot, sweaty work, but after two days we have finished the first layer of mudding throughout the whole house. Tomorrow we will be sanding!

Michelle's dad Carol, who is also from Slidell but suffered no damage in the storm, and Michelle's 13 year-old daughter Amanda have been spending quite a bit of time talking with us as we work on the house. They all evacuated a couple of days before Katrina came through, but by the time they returned, the mold had taken over the house and so the drywall needed to be stripped down to the studs and treated with bleach up to about 8 feet off the ground. Michelle and her two youngest children are currently living on a FEMA trailer in their front yard and are hoping their home will be finished and they can move back in by October.

Tomorrow is another big day so I better finish up, but please keep praying for us! We will be heading in to get a tour of the 9th Ward in New Orleans tomorrow (one of the districts that was hit the worst in the flooding) which we have heard is an eye-opening experience about how bad things really still area in some areas down here. Check back for more details soon!

(posted by Rebecca at 7:59 pm on 8/9/2006)

Pictures from Linda's House

2006-08-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

(posted by Rebecca at 8:48 pm on 8/8/06)

WE'VE ARRIVED!

2006-08-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! I am writing from the hot and humid state of Louisiana, where we arrived bright and early this morning. The past couple of days since the arrival of our group of five in the Deep South have been busy. Our plane from Minnesota touched down in Pensacola, Florida right on time, at 11:42 am on Saturday morning, after a short layover in Atlanta. A very friendly man from 1st Methodist Church in Pensacola met us at the airport with a large van that the church has generously lent to us for the week. He gave us a short tour of the church (where we will be staying on Friday night) and then we were off to the beach! Pensacola is famous for having the whitest beaches in North America and we were lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of hours on Pensacola Beach on Santa Rosa Island, which is a small island made up of four beaches just off the coast of Pensacola.

After spending the afternoon in Pensacola, our two-hour drive took us through Alabama (where we stopped for a bite to eat at IHOP) and on to our final destination of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. We stayed overnight there with a wonderful woman named Linda, who I met on my first trip to Ocean Springs in January. At that time, a group of CSF students worked on dry walling her daughter’s house, which was heavily damaged from winds and flooding during hurricane Katrina. When I returned with a second group of CSF students in March to Ocean Springs, we worked on putting up and painting all of the indoor trim, and so I got to see Linda and spend time with her once again. This time, the five of us also met her daughter Nesha for the first time. Nesha was just able to move back into her house for the first time 2 weeks ago (the house still isn’t finished and there isn’t much furniture on the inside, but at least it is livable finally). We also got to meet Linda’s sister Gilda and her two pre-teen sons, Jordan and Nigel, who are currently living in a FEMA trailer on Nesha’s property.

Sunday morning we joined Linda at her church and then we rolled up our sleeves and got in our first half-day of work painting the outside trim around Nesha’s house. It looked like a small enough job, but by the time we got it all painted and cleaned up it had taken us about 5 hours. It was fun to see the nice, cleanly painted results though! After we finished working Linda cooked us up a HUGE meal of BBQ chicken, ribs, coleslaw, potato salad, watermelon, and sweet corn soaked in butter. It was so amazing!! (And I haven’t even mentioned the biscuits, eggs, bacon, and cheesy grits that she cooked us for breakfast yesterday and today!). Then we spend the rest of the evening playing PlayStation with Jordan and Nigel and visiting with Linda and Nesha. It really was a great day of both work and fun!

This morning we got up really early, had another big, tasty breakfast soaked in butter, and were on the road by 6:30 am. We arrived at Aldersgate Methodist Church just a little before 8 am, spent a couple of hours grocery shopping for our food for the week, and then headed out to our first assignment – putting a tar-like sealant on a leaky tin roof that covers the front porch of a little trailer home that belongs to a sweet old lady named Rose. Rose had water rise under her trailer to just below her flooring. This caused all of her flooring to buckle so that when you walk inside of her home you have to be careful not to trip on one of the dips in the uneven flooring. Unfortunately, the $2000 she recieved from the government was only enough to replace the water-damaged living room furniture and freezer and since she recieved no money from her insurance company, she has no plans to replace the flooring. Furthermore, the layer of sealant we put on her porch roof is actually only necessary because an earlier volunteer team put on the roof incorrectly (they didn’t layer the tin enough, causing the water to leak through the cracks whenever it rains). This illustrates another common problem faced by people trying to rebuild – even when area churches are able to offer help, it is often help provided by well-meaning but inexperienced volunteers who do a job incorrectly that needs to be fixed later on. After an afternoon of hard, hot, and extremely dirty work, our tar-covered crew headed home with the promise of slightly cleaner work tomorrow - mudding and sanding drywall.

Overall, things are going great. The heat and humidity is pretty oppressive, so please pray that our team (Brian, Eric, Lisa, Rebecca & Zeb) can stay hydrated and not get heat stroke or any other heat-related illnesses. We are also pretty tired, so we would also appreciate your prayers for energy and strength. Finally, please pray for Linda, who suffers from various health problems due to blood clots, and her daughter Nesha, who is going through a very tough time of uncertainty and depression related to a difficult job situation (on top of the fact that she has been staying with friends and trying to get her house rebuilt the past year).

Thanks so much for prayers and your support and please keep checking back for more updates and some pictures (coming soon)!

(posted by Rebecca at 7:13 pm on 8/7/06)

Summer Relief Trip Update

2006-07-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

We're getting excited! In just a couple of weeks, 5 of us will be leaving for the Gulf Coast to continue CSF's committment to hurricane relief work. Our plans have changed a little, and this time we have decided to head about an hour further down the coast and work in Slidell, Louisiana (an eastern suburb of New Orleans) instead.

As we are starting to gather all the supplies that we need, making our final preparations, and trying to raise the rest of our support, there are a number of things that we would appreciate prayers for:

*friendships to develop among our team (some members haven't met yet!)
*for God to prepare our hearts and minds for the things we are going to see and the people we are going to meet
*for full financial support for our trip to come in
*for the homeowners that we are going to work with, that we will be able to help them and be an encouragement to them in very real ways, and that they will see God in and through us

(posted by Rebecca on 7/24)

KATRINA RELIEF TRIP 3

2006-05-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

AUGUST 5 - 12, 2006

CSF is now officially in the process of planning our 3rd Hurricane Katrina Relief Trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi. This trip will follow a similar pattern as the two we took this past school year and we will be engaged primarily in rebuilding jobs such as drywalling, mudding, taping & painting. Also, we will be flying this time instead of braving the 20-some hour trip in vans!

The cost for this trip is approximately $400 (which includes airfare, lodging, & food) and we will be raising support as a group to go towards covering these costs. If you are interested in being a part of this relief team, please contact Rebecca at heyrebecca@csf.net for more details.

BACK HOME AGAIN!

2006-03-21T16:59:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe how quickly our time in Mississippi flew by! We arrived home Sunday, March 19 right at noon (minus Brad & Rebecca, who flew home on Friday and Saturday, respectively). From what I heard, the trip home was much faster than the trip there, mostly because everyone was so tired they slept most of the way!

A couple days have passed now since we have been back and we have had a little time to process some of the things we experienced. Already, some of the students have had phone conversations with the homeowners that they worked with. It's fun to think that some relationships have been built that will most certainly last beyond this trip.

This time something that really hit me about the trip was the fact that in the world and especially in the family of God we all need each other. We were created to live in community and when storms, disasters, and hard times come upon each of us (as they most certainly will at some point in time) God has given us the gift of each other as one of the ways to help us through. I went down to Ocean Springs thinking that I was there to help others, and found that I was helped in my own time of need. When I had my own personal storm, it was a homeowner named Linda who we had helped on both of our trips who then came to my aid, and it was the students who were there to help the residents of Ocean Springs who also helped me. I want to give a special thanks to each of you who went on the trip for allowing yourselves to be agents through which God's love flowed to me!

There is still much to be done in Ocean Springs and in the coastal areas of Mississippi and Louisiana. I drove through New Orleans on the way to the airport on Saturday and I was shocked to see miles and miles of flooded out, wind-damaged, unoccupied homes. Even in Mississippi, where the rebuilding process is much further along, it is estimated that it will take at least 5 years to get things fairly close to the way they used to be.

Once again, I encourage each and every person who reads this blog to consider the needs of the hundreds of thousands who have been affected by last summer's hurricanes and to arise to meet those needs in any way that is within your means. If you can go, then go; if you can send money, then send it; if you can donate supplies, then donate them; and if you can pray, then pray. I have been shown anew that each of us needs to do our part to give hope and help to all of our neighbors, near and far.

If you would like to know some specific items that are needed, organizations that you can donate supplies or money to, and people that you can be praying for, please contact Rebecca at heyrebecca@csf.net. Also, we may be planning another relief trip this summer, so keep checking the blog or talk to Rebecca for more details!

You can also check out some pics from our Katrina Relief Trip 2 on the CSF Photo Site. Thanks for reading our blog and God bless!

(posted by Rebecca at 4:59 pm on 3/21/06)

Another Update

2006-03-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

We just got done with another day of hard work! We had people at several different houses once again doing a variety of different tasks. Most of our teams have had the opportunity to interact with their homeowners pretty extensively over the course of the week, so it has been fun to get to know them better. It's also been fun because many teams are nearing the end of the jobs they have been working on. One team finished the roof it was working on today, another team finished up a couple of jobs that they have been mudding and sanding for three days in a row, and another team finished cleaning out and sanitizing several houses they have been working on the past several days. It's fun to be at a point where we can look back and see all the progress we have made in our short time here!

Tonight we also had a BBQ in the big community tent. We were honored to host John and Dot (the homeowners whose roof we have been repairing), Ray (a homeowner we are working with who lost his wife during the storm) and his friend Les and Burt, and Linda (the homeowner we met last time we were working here through First Baptist Church and whose house we have been working on in the evenings). It was a fun time of eating and talking together. We also sang some worship songs and Tony shared his story of how he became a Christ follower. All in all, it was a great evening!

I'm getting ready for bed tonight with mixed emotions about tomorrow being our last day of work. We are all tired out and ready to sleep in our own beds again, but it's hard to leave when there is still so much work to be done. Once again, I am compelled to tell others about the true situation down here in Mississippi and how the need is much greater than you can imagine. If you can come and help, I hope and pray you will do it soon!

(posted by Rebecca at 9:17 pm on 3/16/06)

Wednesday's Update

2006-03-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I seem to have lost the blog I posted here on Wednesday. I'm going to do my best to recapture what I said the first time, but it might not be quite as thorough!

The weather today was in the high 60's, which was just great. Monday it was almost 80, which was too hot for most us Minnesotans, especially those working on the roofing team. We were told the the weather in Mississippi has an endless cycle of getting hot, raining, cooling down, then getting hot again, then raining again, and then cooling down again. The rain came on Monday and Tuesday night, and the cool weather followed. The only time we aren't quite as thankful for the cool weather is at night, when it has been a little hard for us to stay warm!

We are actually staying in big plastic army tents. There are 30 of us in the girls tent - 21 from our group and 9 from Tennessee. Our tent has 10 sets of bunk beds in it and each bed is three bunks high. There are no mattresses however - all that is on the wood frame is a thin foam pad, so it's not quite as comfy as home!

Our bathrooms are mostly port-a-potties (or port-a-lets as they call them here in the South) although the church does have a couple of bathrooms that we can use and our showers are in big tents and trailers set up behind the church. All in all, it's a lot like camping, but we can't complain too much. In a couple of days, we get to go home, but all the people who lost their homes to the storm and are now living in trailers have lots more days ahead of them in their cramped quarters.

Overall, things are going well. I have been really impressed by the hard-working group of students on this trip. For the past couple of nights (including tonight) groups of students have been working during the day, coming back for supper and devotions, and then going out to work for a couple more hours at night. They have been trying to find time to work on Linda's home. She is one of the homeowners we worked with through First Baptist Church last time and this time we are putting up & painting her trim. It's so cool to be able to continue that relationship with her and she is so grateful for our continued help!

That's about it tonight - more tomorrow!

(posted by Rebecca on 3/15/06)

Pictures of Us Working

2006-03-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

Check the CSF Photo Site for more pictures of our trip.

Working Hard

2006-03-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

Just like I promised, today in our blog we are going to tell you more about the people we have been privileged to meet and the ways we have been able to help people rebuild their homes. The CORE (Christians Organized for Relief Efforts) camp put us to work right away yesterday morning (our work day is from 7:30 am - 4:30 pm). Because we are such a large group, we actually broke into 5 teams. 4 of those teams are working through CORE and 1 is working through the D'Iberville Community Volunteer Corps (a local organization that is partnering with Presbyterian Disaster Relief Services). The reason we chose to send one team to work in D'Iberville is because during our Christmas break trip we spend a good amount of time in the Biloxi suberb of D'Iberville. Much of the city has been destroyed by a 30 foot wave surge out of the Back Bay of Biloxi. Our hearts were touched by this little suberb and because of that we committed one of our teams on this trip to that area.

Since our team broke into so many different work crews, the best way to give you a little taste of what our groups experienced is by letting a couple of the students tell their stories. Here's what a couple of people had to share:

"Just seven miles from camp we drove along a road with many houses still intact, but no one was around. Many of the houses suffered severe flood damage being only 1 mile from the Gulf coast. Ray is eighty years old and as sweet at can be, a team of us worked with him to rebuild his home. It is amazing to see how someone who has lost so much can be so committed to moving forward. Not only did the flood waters reach the top of the tall windows in his house, but Ray lost his wife during the storm. Over lunch he shared with us his traumatic experience and how he has found hope. He is so grateful to all of the people who want to help and feel called to come to Ocean Spring’s aid. His house was stripped down to just studs and has been rebuilt on the inside. One day at a time sheetrock, mudding, painting, and furnishing is taking place and we have had the privilege to be part of it. Our team is blessed by Ray every time he smiles. Thank you for your prayers, Elizabeth A. & Amy F."

"Today five of us worked on cleaning and sanitizing two houses. The second house that we worked on had not been cleaned out since the hurricane. The owners stopped by while we were working. They were a young couple. The wife had just started school one day before the huricane hit. So after the huricane they moved to Texas where she is now going to school. I really felt like we were helping them because the husband said that he had gotten estimates of what it would cost to clean it up and he could not afford it." (posted by Alamanda)

"Since I am also a part of Team Brute Force with Alamanda, I worked on the house owned by the same young couple. Having just bought a house myself I realize what a huge financial stress it can be. As I listened to this young couple talk about having to start over in Texas, I thought about how difficult for me to make my mortgage payments and I still have a house to live in. These people still have to pay the bank back for a house that they can't even live in and when they sell it they won't be able to get any where near the amount of money that they still owe the bank. So as they are beginning their life together they will have to tackle this burden of paying off a mortgage on a house they won't even own. I'm glad that we could be here to help them and hopefully they will be able to get more money for their house when they sell it and not carry as much debt with them into the future." (posted by Amanda)

"Team SheetRock Your Face has had a pretty interesting but productive two days so far. We've actually been working through the CIty of D'Iberville. This was the city that we drove around in last time; with pretty much everything washed into the bay. They gave us name badges and sent us out. It has been a different experience for me, having been on the earlier trip, to get to a job and sort of figure out for ourselves what needs to be done and what supplies we need. The first day, we had to go to Lowes and buy some stuff, and figure out how we were going to do the tasks: finishing up a garage and some ceiling patch-jobs. Ben got to crawl around in an attic and cut pieces out of the ceiling; he seemed pretty happy with that. We didn't really get to talk to the homeowners until the third day, when there wasn't much to do but we got a chance to talk and go for a drive with Emile. He had wanted us to help him take out his furnace, but our fearless leader, Brad, and his consultant, Ben, decided we shouldn't mess with freon lines and other stuff. So, we helped Emile move some stuff so he could get more work done around his house. He showed us his tank with the fish he kept alive while riding out the hurricane, and told us about playing bass guitar with his sons- he plays their Metallica if they'll play Lynyrd Skynyrd with him. Sine their wasn't much else to do, he got in the van with us and showed us around D'Iberville. We also went to look at the destroyed bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs- it really put the storm in perspective to see something made of concrete and metal crumbled like a stale cookie. Anyhow, please keep us in your prayers as we continue to help out. God bless, Taylor and Team Sheetrock Your Face"

"Our team has spent the last two days roofing. The house had already been gutted and a half block down the street houses were completely destroyed. We ripped off the old shingles since we didn't have to worry about water leaking on the concrete slab below. It's awesome to be down helping out however we can, but the thing that drives us is how it affects the people of the area. Dorothy, the homeowner of the house we are roofing, has been incredibly appreciative of us being willing to come down from Minnesota to help her out in her situation. Susan, Dorothy's daughter, said that this is the most excited Dorothy has been in a long time. When Susan was talking with her mother, Dorothy had said to her, "I've seen beautiful oceans, and beautiful sunsets but going to my house and seeing 12 people on my roof is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." That's why we're here, not to rebuild homes, but to rebuild lives." (posted by Noah)

I actually got to spend the day visiting some of the same places we worked during our first trip to Ocean Springs. I went to the Distribution Center to drop off some blankets and sheets. One of the volunteers gave me a tour and I was shocked to see the warehouse looking much emptier than just two months ago. She told me that because of lack of supplies they are not sure how much longer they can stay open. I also got to see and talk with Linda, one of the homeowners we worked we in January. It was fun to see that more progress had been made on her home since we left. However, she had been unable to get anyone to come in and put up her trim, so tonight after supper and devotions a group of dedicated students headed over to her house to work late into the night putting up and painting her trim. We're so glad to that we can do something to continue helping out our friend Linda!

Thanks again and check back tomorrow to hear more about the camp we are staying in and the fun things we are doing every night!

(posted by Rebecca at 10:18 pm on 3/14/06)

Pictures of Us Being Tourists

2006-03-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Check out the CSF Photo Site for more pictures of our trip.

WE'VE ARRIVED!

2006-03-13T16:52:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! Thanks so much for reading our blog and keeping up on our trip to Ocean Springs, MS! Even though we have only been gone 3 days, I feel like a lot has happened. Let's see if I can give you a good summary of everything we have seen and experienced.

We started packing up our three 15 passenger vans and our trailer on Friday night at 6 pm. After just an hour, we were ready to load up our group of 24 students and 8 adults and leave for our first stop - Baton Rouge, Lousiana. Spending 26 1/2 hours straight in the vans convinced us that we are EXTREMELY slow travelors (apparently it was only supposed to be a 19 hour trip)!

The Christian Student Center at Lousiana State in Baton Rouge providing housing for all of us and we picked up Matt at the airport there to bring our trip total up to 33 people. We split up into 5 different groups and stayed in the Student Center and in staff and students' houses. Thanks so much LSU Christian Student Center for your great hospitality!

On Sunday morning we woke up early to meet at the 8:15 am South Baton Rouge Church of Christ worship service. We experience something that was a first for many people - a non-instrumental church service, which apparently is more common in the South. We also heard a great message about loving and serving others, which I thought was a perfect start to our week!

Sunday was a full, fun day as we headed from Baton Rouge in the direction of New Orleans. First we stopped at Evergreen Plantation (www.evergreenplantation.com) in Edgard, LA for a plantation tour and then we headed on to LaPlace, LA for a swamp tour with Cajun Pride Tours (www.cajunpridetours.com). The swamp tour was a big hit and our tour guide was completely crazy - sticking his feet in the water as the alligators swam by, dropping food into their mouths, and telling lots of great stories about the swamp and all the friendly (and not-so-friendly) creatures that live there. We also all got to hold a baby alligator, and luckily no one got pushed into the water or got bit (even though there were a couple of close calls!).

Finally, we drove into New Orleans and had supper in the French Quarter at Acme Oyster House. We tried lots of good southern cooking like jambalaya, gumpo, and boiled crawfish. We finished out our time in New Orleans by visiting the legendary Cafe du Monde for their world-famous Beignets - a small, square donut covered in powdered sugar. They were a big hit with our group and we were glad we spent the extra time trying to find them (we almost gave up but Brad's persistance paid off!).

We arrived at St. Paul's Methodist Church CORE tent city in Ocean Springs, Mississippi at 10:30 pm last night and met up with 3 more students for a grand total of 36 people. We had a short orientation this morning and then broke into 5 work groups and spent the day at various work sites drywalling, sanding, mudding, roofing, cleaning, and sanitizing (check the blog tomorrow for more details about our work and stories about the people we are working with).

We are off to a good start and looking forward to a great week of working and helping. We're just excited to be used in any way we can to bless everyone we have the blessing of coming into contact with! Please keep us in your prayers and keep checking the blog for regular updates (there is wireless internet here at the church, so I should be able to put up new posts pretty regularily this week). Have a great night!

(posted by Rebecca at 7:37 pm on 3/13/06)

KATRINA RELIEF TRIP 2

2006-03-06T19:36:00.000-08:00

After an amazing first trip to Ocean Springs from 12/28/05-1/5/06 to help with relief work, we have decided to organize a second relief effort. We will continue to partner with Woodbury Lutheran Church here in MN, and this time we will stay at and work St. Paul's Methodst Church in Ocean Springs cleaning out houses and yards, putting up sheetrock, and just helping out any way that we can.

We are so excited to currently have 35 people signed up for this trip. We would appreciate your prayers as we are in the final stages of preparation. You can also pray for us while we are in MS, that we would have safety in travels and in the work we are doing, that we would be able to bring help and hope to many needy families, and that everyone who goes along would be able to make some great connections and build friendships with each other.

If you want more details about this trip, contact Rebecca at heyrebecca@csf.net. Partial funding for this trip has been provided by the University of Minnesota Community Initiative in partnership with Coca-Cola.

(posted by Rebecca on 3/6/06)

Final Thoughts

2006-01-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

Well, it took me awhile to get to this blog again, but we did make it back safely from Mississippi about a week ago! I think it's going to take a long time to process everything we saw, but at our team meeting the night before we arrived home, we did come up with a couple of things that we want everyone reading this blog to know about our trip.

First of all, we were shocked and amazed by the amount of work that is left to rebuild the towns affected by Katrina. In some areas, it looked as if the storm had just hit yesterday, and yet we were told that even in those areas much work had already been done. We all agreed that sending money is great, but for a lot of these tasks, people are required. This trip moved us all in regards to the importance of being the hands and feet of Christ. We hope you will learn from our stories, catch our passion, and go to help yourself!

Secondly, our day at the Distribution Center in Ocean Springs showed us that there are many families who are still without the basic necessities. If you can't give your time, please do consider sending some blankets, towels, sheets, pillows, or whatever else the Distribution Center is requesting. I can arrange to have these items sent down on a continual basis (at least through the end of this summer) with Woodbury Lutheran Church so please email me at heyrebecca@csf.net if you want to help in this way.

Finally, we were excited to see how one positive thing that has come out of this tradegy is that it has really served to bring people together. We watched those neighbors that remained in the areas we worked in come together to share tools, ideas and skills. We volunteered with people from several different states and from Canada to clean and repair several homes. We worked with a Lutheran Church, a Baptist Church, and several other churches in Ocean Springs to co-ordinate relief efforts. We spent time serving with and helping people of all different ages, races, economic statuses and religious backgrounds. It was fun to see barriers that might normally have been in place crumble because people were focused on the urgent needs at hand. This experience reminded me once again of the truth found in Romans 8:28 that somehow God is capable of bringing good out of even the greatest tradegies.

We hope you have enjoyed this blog and benefit from hearing about our experiences. We are in the process of looking into planning another CSF Katrina trip soon, so please email me at heyrebecca@csf.net if you are interested. You can also check out some pictures of our trip by clicking the photo link on the right side of this page and read a Pioneer Press article about some of the work being done during our first trip by clicking the Pioner Press link. Furthermore, we would be happy to come and share about our trip with any churches or groups who would like more details. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to get more people interested and concerned about our brothers and sisters in Mississippi!

(Posted by Rebeccat at 3:01 pm on 1/11/06)

More news

2006-01-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

I'm using my library card once again in order to be able to sit down and write my last blog while on Mississippi soil. I've decided it's a good thing I got a card though, because after all we've experienced I definately want to come back!

Yesterday half our crew spent the day cleaning out a lot in D'Iberville for our friend Mike, his wife, and their two little girls, Jessie and Pebbles. They carried a dishwasher, clothes, silverware, lots of shingles, a large tree and even two whirlpool bathtubs off the lot that his friend is lending him to park his trailer for the next year while he saves up money to build his own house. Mike and his family were previously living in a rented house in the same neighborhood, but the landlord wouldn't allow them back on the land, so he had to find a new spot to park the trailer that he has acquired since the hurricane for him and his little family to live in. We were so glad to have the opportunity to work with this family. I truly believe that God led us to them - they said that nothing had gone right for them since the storm until we showed up to help!

The other half of the team finished up some drywalling for Ken and his wife. Neither of us made it out to Linda's house as planned yesterday, but most of the team went today to finish up the mudding and sanding and to work on her brother Herb's yard. While the house will still need a little more work before it is ready to paint, it's getting really close! Linda stopped by the church tonight to give us all a big hug and a kiss and to thank us again. It's been such a blessing to us to be able to help her as well!

The few of us who didn't go to Linda's today brought the rest of our blankets and towels and some children's toys over to the Ocean Springs distribution center, which is run by Christos Victor Lutheran Church. We stayed to help distribute items to the families who came to wait in line and it was a a good thing we were there, because it was crazy busy! From the time that the center opened at 9 am until it closed at 4 pm, we estimated that we helped about 350 families. They came mostly to get the basics - food, water, hygiene items, and cleaning supplies. We also handed out Christmas presents to children (although we had boxes more for girls than boys thanks to a girl scout troup from Tennessee), diapers, blankets, towels, and whatever else we had on hand. I was amazed to see the 5 boxes of sheets and blankets that we brought disappear in under an hour. By about 2 pm the distribution center was completely out of sheets, blankets, towels, and pillows.

Working at the center really opened my eyes to the great needs that are still present in so many family's lives. Even though it has been over 4 months since the storm, many, many families are still at the point where they need to wait in line for up two hours to get the basic necessities. When I asked one young mother if she needed anything else, she shared that she was simply struggling to get her family of five enough food to eat at this point in time. Turning people away for lack of supplies was really tough, and people would respond differently - I saw a couple of women crying in their cars and others would get angry. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for so many people still, and today at the Center we saw much of the need and and pain and grief that is still fresh in people's lives.

Tonight we are packing up our car toppers and getting ready to leave for Minnesota again. It's been a great trip, but we are looking forward to coming home so we can tell all of our families and friends about what we have seen and experienced. We hope y'll are gonna listen to us and come on down, ya hear?

Some pictures

2006-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

We have received incredible southern hospitality from FBC!

Alamanda and Liz helping Linda with much needed yardwork.

Andrea and Noah cleaning out the girls room in the parsonage at FBC. (Actually, it's a house that had previously been condemned.)

Another Long Update!

2006-01-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

As I write this update, it is 77 degrees, sunny, and humid. I'm already loving Mississippi winters! I am sitting in a little coffee shop in Ocean Springs named "Coffee Fusion." It's the first internet place I have been able to find open in two days with the holidays and the fact that the "Deep South" seems to close down almost entirely on Sundays (except for big franchises)!

We had a fun New Year's Eve, spending the day on several jobs such as sheetrocking, mudding and taping. A team stayed at Linda's and another team starting working on the same kind of jobs in another house. Our final two teams were involved in yard clearing and a house mud out. I worked on the house, which was originally an amazingly beautiful mansion right on a little bay. The first floor was completely flooded and the water rising up from below made the floor cave in to the crawl space under the house. We spent the day in that space pulling out appliances, clothes, books, wigs, dishes, canned food, and everything you can imagine. 4 people even combined their strength to pull out a huge kayak full of water, which must have been blown in from the water and was wedged on the side farthest away from the bay. There were no owners at this house while we were working on it, but we learned from the neighbors that the original owners had already lost a house and a hotel to Hurricane Camille in the 60's and after this loss they decided to give up on hurricane country. We were cleaning out the house for the new owners, a young couple who bought it even though it was originally condemed by FEMA, but had gotten permission to rebuild.

New Year's Eve we spend touring Bellingrath Homes & Gardens (www.bellingrath.org) and then we went into Mobile, Alabama to watch the fireworks at midnight over Mobile Bay. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that once the fireworks started to go off, all we could see was the fog changing from red to blue to green. At least we could say we had been to Alabama though, which made our trip an 8 state trip!

Yesterday (Sunday) we attended church at First Baptist and then we had some free time in the afternoon to do our laundry, make a Walmart run, and go out to eat at a Chinese buffet. We wanted to try some local food, but the locals all close on Sundays, so we didn't have too many options!

We also spend a couple of hours in the town of D'Iberville, which is a little suburb just north of Biloxi. D'Iberville was hit extremely hard by Katrina - most of the houses in the neighborhoods we drove and walked through had only the foundation left. We heard that the water had risen over the top of the electric poles, so every house was completely flooded. The people in this neighborhood lost just about everything they had. Luckily, some parts of D'Iberville were considered a flood plain, so many of the residents in the neighborhood we spoke to had flood insurance. However, nearby neighborhoods that were just as affected were considered outside of the flood plain, so many were not as fortunate.

We got to speak to several of the residents as we went from door to door (or rather trailer to trailer, since most people who are still there are now living in trailers that are set up on their lots) and offered people the blankets and pillows that we had collected. We also had several Christmas presents for children to hand out, but we quickly found out that there weren't many children left in the neighborhood. Many had been sent to live with relatives or in other places so that they could continue to go to school. Most people also had all the blankets they could fit in their little trailers, so we will take them to the distribution center tomorrow (where we have heard that there is a need for blankets) to hand out to people who are further along in the rebuilding stage and may need them for their new houses.

This morning our team broke up in two different groups, with half finishing a house in Ocean Springs and half working on cleaning up a yard in D'Iberville. We are cleaning up this yard (or maybe I should call it a lot - the house is gone, and we decided you probably need a house to call something a yard!) for a young couple we met yesterday as we were asking people about their needs in this neighborhood. The lot isn't really theirs, but for some reason they have not been able to get back on their land yet, so they are being allowed to use it to park their trailer on. They need to get it cleaned up quickly because they have two little daughters (a one year-old and a two year-old) who can't come outside until they clear the yard of all the glass and debris that is lying everywhere. Yesterday we say the little girls waving to us from the window of their trailer and we really want to give them a place to play!

This afternoon we hope to have time to head to Linda's and finish up the last coat of mudding and sanding, which will mean that her house is finished to the point of painting. It's great to know that we have helped bring her house this far! She stopped by the church this morning as well and we were able to give her lots of bedding, blankets, towels and even some pans to furnish her new house. Sometimes it can feel like the collective need is too great to do anything about, but when you are able to help just one or two people individually, it does feel like you can make a difference.

I think I have written enough - more soon and hopefully I will figure out our picture situation shortly as well. God bless and keep praying for us and for the people of the beautiful state of Mississippi!

(posted by Rebecca at 1:21 pm on 1/2/06)

Our First Day In Mississippi

2005-12-31T08:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a very busy day - so busy that I didn't even have a chance to add to our blog! I finally got a minute at the church's computer this morning, so I can get in another update!

After two days in the car, we were ready to get out and work hard! First Baptist Church has been heavily involved in helping cleaning up and rebuild their town since the very beginning. All of the jobs that we worked on and will be working on are simply people in Ocean Springs or neighboring towns who call asking for help. They need assistance with all kinds of things - tree removal, cleaning out houses (some haven't been touched since the storm), sheetrocking, painting, debris removal in yards, etc.

We split up in the morning and Jill, Katie & Taylor went with some of volunteers from Woodbury Lutheran to start sheetrocking a house, while the rest of us went on a yard job. The yard job turned out to be already done (which happens occasionally if a homeowner is on several lists for help and a different church or volunteer group gets out there first) so we all joined the sheetrocking crew at the house they were working on. The homeowners who we were working with were Linda and Herb. Linda's dauther owns the house and Herb (Linda's brother) owns the house right next door. Linda and her daughter have temporarily relocated to Atlanta since the hurricane, but she came back for a couple of weeks to work on making her daughter's home liveable again. Linda's own home is in Slidell, Louisiana, which is just outside of New Orleans, and she suffered severe damage there as well. From what I understand, neither her nor her daughter have insurance to cover the damage, so she was extremely grateful for the help we gave her.

Linda's dauther's house is about 2 blocks off the Gulf, and the houses in this neighborhood were all flooded. Many of the houses were completely wiped away all the way down to the foundation. The outside of this home withstood the storm, besides a hole being blown out in one wall and the porch supports being blown away. The inside, however, had to be completed gutted and pretty much everything was lost. Another team had helped clean out the inside (which is what "mudding out" is) and so the home is now in the process of being rebuild. The old sheetrock was torn out to about 5 feet high (which is where the water came up to in the flooding), so our team broke into two with half helping inside with sheetrocking, taping, and mudding and the other half helping clear large amounts of debris from the yard. I worked on the yard crew and it was amazing what we found - old pictures, lamps, clothes, pieces of roofing, bathroom tiles, large branches, bricks, children's toys, and so much more littered all over the lawn. We threw it all in huge piles on the curb and from what I understand members of the National Guard come through occasionally with big trucks to clear it all out.

After our work day was over, we hurried back to the church to prepare for our evening Celebration Service. We were in charge of planning and leading most of the service - Noah played his guitar, Leah, Alamanda & Annie sang along with him, Rebecca, Liz & Andrea read Scriptures and lead a short prayer time, and Jon prepared the food for the reception! It was a great time of worship and fellowship and we were able to visit with the other volunteers, church members, and people in the community who the church has been helping. It was amazing how many people the church has helped and I talked to many people who were so grateful for the volunteers and the good work the church is doing to help people rebuild.

After all of this, we ended our day with devotions and prayer right on the beach, which is only 6 blocks from the church we are staying at. A group of boys were setting off fireworks right over our heads, which was fun, but also a little scary! All in all, it was a great first day of service, worship, and fellowship!

(posted by Rebecca at 11:55 am on 12/31/05)

WE'VE ARRIVED SAFELY!

2005-12-29T16:38:00.000-08:00

I am happy to say that I am writing this update from a small library across the street from First Baptist Church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. I am feeling quite at home already, as I now have my own Ocean Springs library card (the only way they would let me use the computers)!

Our team of 12 arrived safely about 6 pm after spending approximately 23 hours packed tightly into a 15 passenger van with our luggage either stowed under our seats or crammed into the two car toppers we managed to strap on top! All went well with the drive and we were only slowed down yesterday with a little rain (and lots of bathroom breaks). We arrived in Cape Girardeau, Missouri last night about 11 pm and stayed in the St. Andrew Lutheran church's Activity Center, complete with a basketball court, rec room (with foosball, ping-pong and air hockey) and big screen t.v!

Right now we are getting ready to find something to eat and then will be headed back to First Baptist Church, where we just unloaded all of our luggage and will be using as our home base for the next 5 days. We are sharing the space with the group from Woodbury Lutheran Church and another group from Pennsylvania (as far as I can tell in the midst of all the activity there are about 40-50 of us total). Our team has a busy schedule already tonight - after supper we have an orientation meeting and then will be meeting with another group from Minnesota and a group from Pennsylvania to plan a Celebration Service for tomorrow night. We are inviting all the families that the church has been able to help so far and we will be pretty involved in the worship side of things, it sounds like.

As far as work goes for tomorrow, the plan is to "mud out" our first house - more details to follow tomorrow on what that means! Thanks so much for keeping up on what we are doing by checking this blog - and please continue to keep us in your prayers as we finish out a busy night of meetings tonight and begin our first day of work tomorrow!

(posted by Rebecca at 6:53 pm on 12/29/05)

Hurricane Katrina Relief Trip

2005-12-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

December 28, 2005 - January 5, 2006

CSF is very excited to be sending 12 people to help with hurricane relief work over Christmas break in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. We are partnering with Woodbury Lutheran Church here in MN, and will stay at and work with First Baptist Church in Ocean Springs cleaning out houses, serving meals, and just helping in any way possible.

If you are interested in supporting our trip, there are a couple of ways you can be involved. First of all, you can pray for us - for safe travel, for team unity, for our students ability to pull together money for gas and van rental, for a positive impact and experience in Mississippi, and for our acts of service to clearly show the love of Christ to those affected and hurting right now. Secondly, you can contribute financially. If you are interested in helping in this way, please email Rebecca at heyrebecca@csf.net. Finally, you can take part in our bedding drive. CSF is in the process of collecting NEW blankets, sheets, pillows, pillowcases, and towels for adults and children in Ocean Springs. These items can be dropped off in the front porch of the CSF Center (1337 Cleveland Ave. N, St. Paul) any day of the week between 9 am and 5 pm.

Thanks so much to those who are going and thanks also to those who are supporting us! Please continue checking this blog, especially once we leave on our trip as we will be doing our best to update it daily so that you can get a taste of what we are experiencing as we journey south and do our part in helping rebuild communities and lives.