Bad attitude

I had an amazing weekend this past weekend! I went home for two weddings, for one of the weddings I was a bridesmaid. :) I also just found out that one of my best friends from Auburn is pregnant! Congratulations Alyssa and Carl!! God has truly blessed me with a content heart right now. It would be hard being happy for my friends that are getting married and having babies if I wasn't content with what is going on in my life and where I am. Even though I am so excited to be at Lagniappe for the summer, I've been having trouble staying positive.
When I came back from my wonderful weekend, there was a group here that has pretty much taken over Lagniappe. This team that came in, Group Works, is an organiztion for youth groups from all over the country to come together and help others. They are practically renting out Lagniappe for the next month, and things have been a struggle. There seems to be an extreme lack of communication on their part and our part. They have their own interns that were meant to be doing our job and I don't think they knew that us, Lagniappe interns, were already here doing those jobs. Needless to say, some people's toes are getting stepped on.
Even though I don't usually show my frustration on the outside, in my heart I am not a happy camper. Please be praying for me to remember that God loves me in spite of what a wretched sinner I am so that I can show that same love to these volunteers. And please pray that the staff here will continue to encourage each other and remind each other that we are here not only to minister to the community but also to the volunteers that walk through our doors.
To end this blog on a happier note, One thing that I am excited about is that the girl interns have decided to start praying together in our bunk house each monday and thursday night before we go to bed. We prayed together for the first time last night and it has really helped me feel closer to these girls and I am excited to know that they are praying for me throughout the week as I am praying for them.

Some pictures of the facilities

These are 3 of our 8 volunteer bunkhouses that are located on Lagniappe's facilities. Behind the last bunkhouse is the tool shed, where I work.

Just some bunks in the bunkhouses. Each bunkhouse houses about 44 people.

This is actually the guys restroom (I did not take this picture, it's from the website), but this is what both bathrooms are like. Bathroom stalls are up front and shower stalls are in the back. Showers are operated by pulling a cord to let the water out. :<

Here is a bird's eye view of half of the tool crib.This picture is from Lagniappe's website and was taken a while back so the tool crib is actually much more cluttered than this. We are looking at getting more shelving/storage.

Breaking Away

This week is my Saturday off and I decided to come to Fairhope, AL to stay with my grandmother, Mormor, and to visit my Aunt Elsa and Uncle Vince. I absolutely love Lagniappe but sometimes I feel like running far away. It becomes overwhelming with all the volunteers and the messes they leave behind. However, no matter how far I run away, I always find myself running back. One of the reasons I love Lagniappe is because it is a place for broken people. At Lagniappe we don't have to pretend we are perfect people, we say to each other "Its ok that you aren't ok because I'm not ok either". I think this is also a reason I go running to family. True family already knows that you aren't ok and loves you in spite of it all.

Wow, we've been checking in teams all weekend and the number of volunteers this week is going to be around 250. Next week we will have a full camp (350 volunteers) and camp will stay full until the end of July. I'm glad the numbers have slowly been increasing because it is hard getting used to so many people being here. It isn't that stressful during the day when teams are at their worksites but it is when they are all trying to check out or check in tools and when everyone is trying to shower or get ready in the bathrooms.

Monday nights we get a little break when we go to Bible study at a staff member's house. We are going through the book of Galatians, but won't be doing it this week because most of the staff is gone to general assembly in Memphis. Last week we studied Galatians 2 and discussed that the purpose of the law is to show us our sin and make us realize how much we need God's grace. I often think that I am generally a good person and forget how great a sinner I am. I am constantly needing to be reminded of my need for grace!

Weather Channel

http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=6815&collection=videocoll26&nav=141&from=abramsandbettes%20
Lagniappe was featured on the weather channel this past thursday night! The whole feature was about Bay St Louis taking the hardest hit from hurricane katrina, how the city is recovering, and what the people's mindset is as we head into another hurricane season. I hope this video gives y'all a better idea of what our facilities look like and what the town looks like.
Just a little extra info, only 70% of the Bay St Louis residents have moved back since hurricane katrina.
Please be praying that God will give the full time staff and us interns the energy to keep up with the teams that are coming in on a weekly basis. Help us to also remember that we are not perfect and that we are broken people helping other broken people.
*I just fixed the link so it should take you straight to the video. Sorry about the confusion.

Funny story

So, Sunday night I helped orient a team from Westminster Presbyterian and didn't think anything of it until this afternoon. We have so many churches named westminster that come to Lagniappe. Anyways, you'll understand when I tell the story.
Yesterday, Us tool shed girls were washing and cleaning out the Lagniappe church vehicles when a frazzled Katie Rhea drives up, jumps out of her car, and shouts, "why doesn't anyone around here answer their phones?! I have a kid in the emergency room with a screw through his arm". Of course, I drop everything I'm doing and follow her into the office while she looks for his insurance card information. The first question I then ask is "what's his name?" which she then responds... "Joel May". What?! Then it all clicks. The church that checked in last night is indeed the Westminster Pres. where Tom May is pastor. For those of you who don't know the May family...Tom May was assisstant Pastor at my home church, Community Presbyterian, a little over 7 years ago. Funny thing is I talked to Joel in the lunch line right before the incident happened and for a split second thought he looked familiar but didn't think anything else of it after I walked away. By the way he is 14 years old and taller than me by far. Little Joel is so grown up. Scary!For those of you interested in how the screw went through his arm, here's the story. He was working on hanging drywall with his team and had a screw on the tip of his screwgun prepared to work, when he saw a wasp. Joel tried to dodge the wasp and in doing so bent the arm with the srewgun and forcing the screw into his other arm. Luckily, even though the screw went all the way into his arm, it just pierced through the skin so he only had to get a tetnis shot and bandage it up a bit. This was the first accident this summer but I'm sure I'll have more stories like this to come.

Heat!

This week I got to use a blow torch! I love working in the tool shed! We have been learning all about the tools. The first couple of times we were getting tools for the teams we had to ask them to come into the shed with us so they could show us which tools were which. And then on Saturday we were shown how to use a blow torch! We cut a bunch of rebar for a team that is working on laying a foundation and now all we have left to do is bend the rebar. It was so fun using the blowtorch! I felt so powerful!
Sunday we went to the beach after church and I got burned even though I put on SPF 30. The fun thing about Lagniappe is that we are a little over a mile from the beach and from downtown Bay St Louis. There aren’t many shops open downtown, but there are several cute ones that I hope to visit. Most importantly, there is a cute little coffee shop that we got gift certificates to on our first day here. There are some bikes in the back of the tool shed and one day when we aren’t so busy, I want to ride bikes downtown.
I'm trying to make myself go to bed by 10:30 so I won't be tired all day, but it is hard. I am much more of a night person than a morning person. All this to say, it is past my bedtime and I'm making myself go to sleep. Night Night!