Home Visit

This week I get to start doing home visits to people who Lagniappe has helped. I am so excited about this! Our goal when doing these visits is to follow up and maintain relationships with the people in the community. And seeing as Lagniappe currently has over 800 work orders, there are more and more families that have been helped by Lagniappe, thus a growing need to maintain these relationships. Here's one story of a relationship that God has blessed me with:

Two weeks ago I was in Wal-Mart getting pictures developed and while I was in the craft section, a woman that worked there started a casual conversation with me (how are you? Where do you work? Where are you from?). After I told her that I work at Lagniappe and am volunteering all summer she began to tell me how thankful she and the whole town are for all of the volunteers and the work we are doing. She then proceeded to tell me her story of how she survived hurricane Katrina and broke down in tears while doing so.
This whole community is still hurting from the storm. You can see the pain and weariness in the eyes of people around town. Most are thankful for the volunteers, but some are bitter and can’t get over the fact that such a thing would happen to them. No matter what the people’s attitudes are, I love talking to the locals and building relationships with them. One of the things I like to do to get involved in the community is going to a local coffee shop and visiting with the owner and the regular customers. I also enjoy going to 2nd Saturday (all the shops downtown stay open late on the 2nd Saturday of each month and have snacks for the customers, everyone is excited and there are many opportunities to talk to the shop owners).
Last night I had to go get some things at Wal-Mart and I stopped by the craft section to visit my friend. Please be praying for my relationship with her to grow and that I would be a source of encouragement for her while she is facing these hardships.