We made it home.  Here are some of the photos of our last days.  What a great trip we had!  We did have a 'sickness bug' circulate through some of us.  As a result, Ann ended up taking Annette to the ER at LSU where they spent most of the day.  It was a lesson in patient endurance.  Even Annette says she was blessed by having to let those in the group take care of her and pray for her.  She is doing great today.  The Lord was with us and he really, really blessed us and Urban Impact, too.

Karen and Tim and Cody on the Trolley

Windows from demolished buildings made a monument.

Terry, Karen and Pastor John

Louis Prima

Strange characters on Bourbon Street

Is it a horse or is it human?

Bill Tice on the drywall crew

Hang onto your mask, Ruthie!

The high water line is right under the windows.

Gumbo

The new entrance area

Administrative Office Spaces now ready for paint.

All was nice and neat by the time we were done.

Water break

Pastor Mike from Iowa sprayed the texture.

Justin Bartz and Pastor Mike

Jeanne was high on the ladder, painting

High on the lift, putting up lights

Sheet rockers

The work site looked a lot better as we left it on Thursday. The little church on the property will eventually become the 'hip-hop church.' It needs a LOT of work.

Living Witness church in the Central City of New Orleans. In this part of the city, the elevation prevented the water from rising so many of the houses remained in tact.

Super Dome was about a mile away from our jobsite. Thousands of people were evacuated to, or walked to, the Super Dome after the hurricane. It remained surrounded by water for .... a long time and there was no electricity.  18,000 of them were eventually evacuated to the Houston Astrodome.

Good Morning!  It's 4:45. We're packing the bus at 5:15 and leaving New Orleans this morning at 6 AM.  I can hear the alarm clocks (cell phones) going off now.

Yesterday, Thursday, was our last work day.  We really pushed hard and accomplished a lot. We finished up our painting jobs, completed the drywall sanding in the administrative portion of the building and sprayed texture on the walls in 9 rooms. Wow. Blight crew cleaned and mowed several more lots. The electricians put up the lights in the sanctuary and we did a lot of cleaning and sweeping.  The place looks much different than it did when we started on Monday morning.

A bunch of us took a bus tour of the ninth ward after our workday.  We saw where the levies were breached and we saw the monument erected to show how fast and how high the water rose in the ninth ward.  At one point it was 17 feet deep!  I'll post pictures of some of that tour later but for now, I'd better get packing and get on that bus.  We have a long day of travel ahead of us.

Thanks for reading and for caring!