Just to catch you up since we last blogged……. Tuesday night, we were just getting ready to fill our plates with the spaghetti dinner we had prepared, and there was a knock on the kitchen door. There were some kind folks from the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Belle Chasse that had brought dinner for our team and the other team. We quickly decided that our spaghetti would keep until the next night……Crawfish Etouffee would not!! You would have thought they were feeding an army there was so much food. Let see…..there was salad, red beans and rice, shrimp fettuccini, grilled chicken, bread, cookies and of course, the Crawfish Etouffee! Delicious! This is a ministry that this church started sometime last year, because this is not the first time we have benefitted from their culinary specialties!! What a blessing they were to us. They stayed and visited with everyone while we ate and were all ready to share their stories about life before, during and after Katrina and answer any questions we might have.

 Wednesday, we were fortunate to return to the church from working just a little early. We ran into our old friends, Paul and Carolyn Sylve and their daughter, JeanMarie. We ended up going with them out on the bayou to see their new house that has been built for them by the Mennonites out of Pennsylvania. All that remains to be done is for the power to be turned on and then the HVAC needs to hooked up. SO close and yet so far!! Carolyn was so proud to show us her beautiful bathroom. Home Depot made a mistake and sent a jetted tub instead of just a regular garden tub….by the time they discovered the wrong tub had been sent, they said “Never mind…just keep it!”  Carol can’t wait to soak in that wonderful, big tub!

 On our way back to the church from the bayou, we took a little detour down Diamond Road, so that we could see Miss Leona Bartholemew’s completed house. This is the house that our youth team framed last summer. It’s taken this long to get her in the house! Her house was just dedicated last week and she was able to move in. When we pulled in the drive, she was standing out on her front porch (the little trailer she was living in is gone!). Don and Laura got out of the car and told her who they were and she immediately invited us in to see her house! What a joy and she is soooo proud of her house. She remembered our youth and adults and just kept saying again how the Lord was going to bless us for all we did for her. He most certainly already has!!