Just for Andrew

Tonight's blog is a special blog just for Andrew McGinnis who is 3 years old(maybe 4?). He reads my blog everyday with his mom and I cannot wait to go visit the whole McGinnis family when I get back to Auburn.
Andrew, I hope you are enjoying your new baby sister and are having a fun summer. Thank you for praying for me and for the birthday card! When I come visit we will have to make a trip to the park. I love you and can't wait to see you!!

Some funny things

Here are some funny things that I've noticed while working at Lagniappe:

1. You know you are dirty when you rinse off in a mud puddle and actually feel cleaner!-- Yes, this has happened to me many times and probably to anyone else that has worked at Lagniappe.

2. You know you're dirty when you're showering and the water coming off of you is browner than the water coming out of the faucet!-- I know you're thinking "duh". I'm serious however. The tap water here at Lagniappe is a dark tan color. It is completely drinkable, but a little slimy.

Canoeing!

Saturday, Lagniappe paid for all of the staff and interns to go on a 4.5 mile canoe trip so we could have some time away from the worksites in order to rest (somewhat) and have fun.

We parked our cars and then were shuttled up river where our canoes were. During the bus ride, the driver told us that we will pass under two bridges and on the right after the second bridge is where we would be picked up at 3:30. We proceeded to get off the bus and into our canoes and headed down river. This picture is from the first time we stopped because some of the boys were enjoying dumping people out of their canoes. :)

We continued to head down river and continued to be dumped out of our canoes. Next we stopped for lunch on a sandy bank, but we soon heard thunder rumbling in the distance and decided to proceed down river, passing the first bridge. Not much later, we had to pull onto an embankment because it was storming too hard. There was lighting striking all around us and rain pelting our skin. The storm soon eased up, we got back in our canoes and continued down river, stopping for a couple of rope swings along the way.

After we stopped at the 2nd rope swing, it was close to 3pm, still sprinkling, and we figured we should hurry and try to find the 2nd bridge where we were supposed to get out. We were paddling furiously and singing to keep a good attitude, but we were always expecting to see the bridge around each river bend and it just wasn't appearing. 5pm came around and we finally saw the second bridge! However, our rejoicing came too soon. There was no sight of a spot for them to pick us up at. We all pulled over and one person had a phone that wasn't soaked by the rain and/or dunking and we called the canoeing company. They told us that we had passed our pick up spot by about 10 miles!! Luckily, instead of having to paddle 10 miles upstream they had another pick up spot 2 miles downstream and would be there waiting for us. In the end, we paddled about 16 miles over 6 hours and were sore and worn out, but it was a blast!

"A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

Proverbs 17:22 (ESV)

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.

I am ready for the week to start! Sunday we have 300 volunteers coming in and they will be here until Friday night or saturday morning. This past week was a semi calm week because we only had 110 volunteers. All of the volunteers were gone by this morning so I was able to put their tools up, go shopping, and then head to the beach. We also have 2 interns from last summer that came back to help in the tool crib so this week is going to be smooth sailing. :)

Lagniappe has about 400 active work orders (meaning we are in the process of getting material and workers for these jobs) and another 400 work orders in our computers that we will hopefully get to soon. Lagniappe is also building several houses fully funded and worked on by Lagniappe volunteers. We have started building 3 of these houses. One is being framed this week and the other house is getting a foundation. Our third house just got approved so teams will be clearing the land to prepare for the foundation. It is so encouraging to see these houses coming along!

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.