
Earlier this month we had the pleasure of working and enjoying fellowship with a group of volunteers from Pine Creek Church in Kittanning, PA. Even though they could only be with us for five days, we thoroughly enjoyed every moment, and saw a multitude of work accomplished within the New Orleans area.
We were blessed to have many willing hands, and a few skilled men in the areas of carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and general construction too!

Some of you may remember Mr. Dave and Mrs. Carol Arnaud. Its been a long haul to get them back into their house, and you'll pleased to know that with this crew, we were able to completely gut their house, install hurricane clips thoroughout the house, install insulation, and begin the work of installing drywall.
Both Mr. Dave and Mrs. Carol were elated with expectation and joy at seeing their home, which has been sitting untouched since Katrina until recently, finally being fixed up and catered to.

With the help of this crew, we were also helped Ms. Jane Wilson in the city. Ms. Jane's home was flooded after Katrina, and her house had been gutted by a previous group of volunteers. During that time, they moved all of her belongings to the backyard and put tarps over them where they remained until now.

We were able to construct a large shed in her backyard to house her belongings. As a bonus, the group trimmed some of her dead trees (the house looks a lot better now!), began repainting her wrought iron porch railing, and do some minor electrical and plumbing work in her house. All of these were a surprise to her and she was very encouraged!
Some crew members had the chance to visit two of our partnering organizations in the city:
Unity of Greater New Orleans, and the
Community Center of St. Bernard.

Unity of Greater New Orleans exists to aid the homeless in finding temporary housing, and over at the warehouse Mr. Joe takes in volunteers to help create starter kits. Starter kits have the necessary supplies for a previously homeless person to immediately be housed, with such things as blankets, towels, kitchen supplies, and hygiene products. While we were there, we were able to help make 15 starter kits for Joe to use for that next week!

Another group headed over to St. Bernard Community Center, which provides aid to many people throughout the year, providing food, clothing, computer services, etc. While there, our group assisted with the food pantry and clothing store on site. They had a lot of fun helping people get fresh produce and canned goods to take home.
On our home base, Sovereign Grace Fellowship, some of the gentlemen in the crew helped to fix up and reinforce one of our gates on the side of the building. What a blessing!

To cap it all off, we acquired three chickens and a coop for our property. Part of our mission is to be self sustaining and teach others to do the same in an urban environment. In conjunction with growing our own produce, we can now add fresh organic eggs to the mix!

Even though they were only here for a short time, we were incredibly encouraged by the amount of work that was accomplished and the joy of getting know them all!
We pray to see you all again soon!