Katrina Mission Trip - Slidell Day One
Greetings from Slidell Louisiana!
Our group is now here at Aldersgate United Methodist Church, after having various adventures, good and bad, on the way. We arrived in dribs and drabs beginning at about 5:00 pm on Sunday and ending at about 9:30 pm Sunday, and all got to our respective bunks in two locations, one classroom near the Kitchen and a mixed gender dorm. We were thrilled to all arrive safely, and excited yet apprehensive to get to work having witnessed some of the devastation on our arrival. Just click on any of the pictures here, to see the full-size image in a new window.
After a welcome speech by one of our two leaders, Patrick, and a devotional which consisted of among other things a recitation of Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, we managed to get to bed, and adjust to sleeping in our new surroundings.
Our first night was a bit uncomfortable as we all adjusted to different lighting, different sounds, and different bathroom locations than we are all used to! But when the sun rose, we were all awake, and in good humor!
We wandered in small groups to the John Wesley building for breakfast. Karen and Carol had put out all kinds of goodies for us to pack our own lunches and as we were packing those, they prepared scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage for us. Of course there was plenty of coffee to kick-start us.
Job assignments took a while, as we first had to get an orientation from our construction gurus, and figure out which people with which skills would be best suited to which job!
We were quite impatient to get started, but of course, as in so many other situations, we were not in control, so we did plenty of waiting! We were divided into three groups, and sent to three different job sites, where we worked until late afternoon!
More tomorrow! Keep us in your prayers!