New Orleans

mad chat time by matt and chad

So today is sunday so that means we missed ACC :( which is unfortunate, yet we still could not escape from Josh. Anyway here is how the day started.

Crazy people (like chad) woke up early at 8 and went to cafe du monde to drink coffee and have donuts. We (Chad and other crazy people) made snowmen out of the powdered sugar. Something like that. Then crazy people went back like crazy asian people usually do (in large annoying groups) and crawled back into bed for another two hours. 

Okay so if you were a normal person here is what really happened. So josh bugged you at 8 o clock. You roll over and say “%@*#” 

Well the group then filled out into the momobile (moses was driving the van) at 10.15 to catch the 10.30 service at the Journey church which was located in a AMC theater. 

So we get there late. Seeing as 15 minutes is definitely not enough time to move slow people (matt and normal friends) in efficiently. We miss the first couple of songs and they start to do a testimony about how to manage your finances. It was depressing because it felt like a commercial for a book. And this is a book you would not want to read; just in case you were wondering. Like it was kinda cool seeing how this person got out of debt. um. yea… Okay on the message. We went over a passage in romans 8. Chad doesn’t remember this because he was sleeping. Okay maybe that wasn’t the reason because the message really devoid of the true meaning of the passage. He just talked about waiting and gave strange short examples of waiting. We just waited for him to finish up. 

-Karen walks into the room 

*sfx heavenly chorus*

Okay taking a break from reality. IT IS NOW TIME TO CHAT WITH MATT AND CHAD MADLY + karen (also known as fun times with kattwick).

Okay so first order of business. MOEnames: Momo, Moester, Moomers, Choses, Moseph, and Mosiff Klashlovic (If you are russian)

Momo drives the momobile and drinks mojuice from his moebottle and he is our momodel. We <3 moses.

-Live interview with our guest Momo

“So Momo would you rather have a live koala on your head for the rest of your life or would you rather have earthworms as your fingers”

“Dude can I have koalas as my fingers (moses punching air) and they could type for me and that would be so sweet. They can like use their two arms and punch the keys and I would be very fast.”

-interview ends

-Round two interview with the matt chung

“Hello my name is karen and my next guest is matt. So matt how are you doing”

“grar”

“Okay matt…so would you rather wear cosco clothes for the rest of your life or would you rather never be able to work out again?”

“Wait so I can never walk into a gym again?”

“yes?”

“Does that mean that I’ll be fatt?”

“yes.”

“No banana republic?!!!”

“That wouldn’t be bad. You’d be like me”, says chad

“…” ponders “I don’t know. This hurts my head”

-end live interview

Karen leaves the room. Music turns off. And matt and chad are alone again and back to real life. Kiss sweet ground.

After church we went to lunch at about 1.00. My (chad) table started talking about squeezing logs, punctuation (.), natural gasses, and how girls are clean animals. I ate ribs. And Spain won the Euro cup. We are sad (okay maybe just matt) and chad is wearing a muscle shirt. It is Hott. too hott. ow ow ow (initials).

After we ate lunch we played push-up poker with the interns. We did a lot of pushups. The interns could barely do 20. nubs. The girls tried to make fried rice for the Alabama team. It ended in an epic burning failure. It was cool (If you like bad food). So Michael took over and made fried rice for the Alabama team and then we all went to Mcdonalds to avoid it. 

Man thinking about it we didn’t do any work today…

Okay the guys did their fair share of push ups. So for all the other lazy bums who didn’t do any work. I think they were dead weight to be tossed out into the sea. Maybe not that bad, but after some heavy lifting they were good paper weights. Except for emily who was violent while talking to peter ni-goo-gen. parents beware.

-live action replay

emily walks into room

emily kicks james

james falls down

*slow motion*

james cringes

emily lifts leg

james screams

emily curb stomps james in the butt

james cries for his mom

emily’s foot goes farther into 

-end replay

So after a while, as the paper was not flying away, we shifted to a team meeting. James played worship with bells and guitar. It was quite excellent. It ended with a mad rush to the showers because we had 10 minutes before the toxic gas in the bathrooms was released. It was an evil plan that took years of intense preparation to stop out awesome heroes. Luckily matt and chad saved the day and created world peace as the terrorist (oriana) threat was neutralized. It was a good day. World peace is good. Almost as good as maps.

So here we are, using our giant, ripped arms to bang on this keyboard to create words. Well I hoped you liked this man-post from the men on this team (putt-boy and boomer) Signing off in:

3

2

1

-end transmission

"putty boy" owes "the fuse" a put-up

hey guys! this is “the fuse” reporting on another eventful day in beautiful new orleans. :)

this morning we had yet another early wake up (poo)….but nobody (at least in the girls’ room) actually wakes up until ten minutes before we are supposed to meet. which therefore delays the time we depart. we were supposed to leave at seven thirty this morning but ended up leaving at about seven forty-five….

on the hour-and-thirty-minute drive to the site everybody fell asleep except for me and “boomer.” which means bella-chad bonding yay! except not because i think “boomer” fell asleep too. the van drives are definitely one of the best parts of the whole day :) when you cram 15 people into a van together, you learn a lot about each other. maybe even too much through countless games of “truth or truth” and “would you rather….”

when we got to the worksite we had to split up into two groups. one group stayed at the original site and painted while the other team went to another site and gutted another house. the best part is that we got to work with pete again (from two days ago)! we also got to work with interns mike and jerry from boston and the other team from alabama. exciting :) the painting team (which included me) was lucky enough to work in a house with air conditioning, which means we got a break from sweating as much as the past few days. but the demolition team still had to work in the sweltering new orleans heat. :( 

andy and sharon and ricky and JAMES :) came to visit us at the worksite today and brought us gatorade. it was very nice. :D 

it was so encouraging to see pete again and get to know him a little more. his story will hopefully continue to encourage us and stay with us when we go home :) 

after that we went to the flea market, but most of the vendors were starting to close up shop just as we started to browse. :( but it was fun for the short time that we were there. then we went to eat at acme oyster house. where we waited for a very long time. but it was definitely worth it. i am definitely going to miss the food here. after dinner, we walked to ricky, sharon, and andy’s hotel where we hung out in the lobby and talked and prayed and hung out. team bonding rocks my socks. :D 

thank you for your prayers! we will be seeing you guys soon.  

and now i’m here, blogging at 12:10 AM. after a short mafia game, it’s time to go to sleep.

good night!

“the fuse” wu. :D

Beta Starfish! We love God!

Hello! How is everyone doing? This is Prayer Group Team Beta Starfish! We are here to report an amazing day five of the New Orleans Mission Trip. 

So we began rather normally with a ridiculously early wake-up call which only “T-Bar” and the men were able to respond to. Everyone else slept in, trying to sneak in that extra one minute of blissful sleep. It did not help much and instead we were all hungry with an especially grumpy “Anchor.” 

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at Audobon “Autobot” Nature Preserve. There we were met by a team from AmeriCorps and Ms. Colleen, one of the only remaining volunteers to stay with the mostly barren and destroyed preserve. Together, they gave a quick orientation of the park and astounded us with some fast facts:

- During Katrina, the preserve was submerged in salt water and 90% of the forests died 

- All of the research buildings (museums, facilities and planetariums) were destroyed

- The preserve was submerged for three weeks and could not be pumped out because the power was down and the water could not be pumped out. 

We were then given our task: to destroy the Chinese Tallow Trees which were invading the land and pushing out the native species. Ironically, this proves to be a fascinating coincidence. These trees are remarkably resilient to heat, flood, salt and nuclear blasts. So we had our work cut out for us!

Wielding purple herbicide, loppers and saws, we were split into teams of four with an AmeriCorps leader. With four teams at four different locations, we each set of into the jungly underbrush of thorns, five types of venomous snakes, stinging caterpillars, alligators and creepy bush men. Luckily, against such opposition, we had God, our bolstered hearts and a LifeLight emergency helicopter on call.

Praise Him we did not lose any important people. We only suffered through scratches, scrapes, mud and some sunburn. There was also an enormous amount of sweat. “Beamer” sweated brown! He wants to mention that. 

It was incredibly satisfying to preserve nature by destroying nature. It was a time of bonding among our groups where we sweat together and “lopped” one another! Probably one of the most awesome experiences, though, was to meet the AmeriCorps members who give up 10 months to travel throughout the US and volunteer. Many of us were able to sit with them and just talk about their experiences and their motives for being so selfless. God has been blessing our team so much by placing people who live for others in our midst to learn from. Watching Pete’s selflessness from yesterday and these AmeriCorps folk today has truly been inspiring. God is definitely at work here in New Orleans as such love emerges! 

Unfortunately, work ended rather fast and by noon we were all ready to roll out…autobots. “Hacker” is a good driver! Props to him, the roads are very confusing. After a quick stop at an ice cream shop, we arrived back at base.  We followed up with a quick shower, and the team reconvened to the Audubon Aquarium.  Fish, sharks, turtles, stingrays, SEA OTTERS, and jellyfish were all part of our wonderful underwater adventure. God’s creations are a beauty…but still kind of funny looking. After a hard and sweaty morning, the aquarium served as a relaxing outing for the team. Many team members got a chance to touch stingrays and sharks (oh my!). But don’t worry, only one person got eaten.

Dinner time was yummy and Mike and Jerry (the new interns at ONNO) were able to join our conversations (along with ROB!).  It’s a blessing to meet new people who also love to follow God.  Post dinner there was a team meeting + worship and hi/lows.  Suddenly, Josh became shady and forced us to go downstairs and skip our group prayer?! Turns out, we had a surprise! visit by Sharon, Ricky, and James Tam, as well as Andy Lee!!! We were all really glad to see their faces.  They will be coming to work with us on the construction site tomorrow.

We ended the night with an amazing Beta Starfish Prayer Group bonding, sharing, and prayer time.  Praise GOD for each other and how He coordinates our synergy. We love each other and GOD!

We love each other so much that we broke bread together!

Last but not least, the night was completed with two games of Mafia. Our team won.

All in all, we’re tired and sleepy, but always on the watch for new post-it notes from God.

Thanks for reading, we love all you back home, and hope you’re safe!

“Hacker” Chao, “Beamer” Feng, “T-Bar” Lee and “Anchor” Huang

poetry, paint, pudding (actually gelato, alliteration is hard), and party

hello faithful readers! it’s “hammerhead” and “wrecker” aka helen and emily. 

the day began with most of us tired and groggy, however our moods changed quickly when ronald, a man crippled by a car accident at the age of 14, freestyled to the girls a poem called “the power of love.” after he finished, “hammerhead” followed him outside the community center and he freestyled another poem for her moleskine, and soon afterwards he asked if she could gather the whole group. after discovering we would be painting all day, he proceeded to freestyle a poem called “painting”. in all his poems, God’s love was the center. here’s the poem he recited to “hammerhead”: 

“the power of love is so wonderful to me

i feel the power of love when the air flows

it’s like the wind all over again

all Your love is for sure

i thank You everyday by putting a smile on my face

by waking up so that i can see my friends and their smiling faces

Lord You are wonderful and true

i thank You for blessing me 

and keeping me from you know who, lucifer. “

then we drove for an hour to one of the more damaged parts of louisiana. there we met pete and jake. jake was the owner of the house we were helping to rebuild, and pete, his friend, was helping him along with us. first “wrecker” and “hammerhead” pulled out nails from used wood, so pete could reuse them to make a door frame. it was so satisfying! every nail pulled out of the wood, was made into a cluster we called “pile of nails for Jesus” :] we had a lot of fun serving alongside God and our team today. He has blessed us with happiness, laughter, and team unity despite the heat. pete is truly an inspiration! during lunch, he played us two songs that he wrote, one during a spiritual high, and another during a spiritual low. we enjoyed both tremendously. you think that’s incredible, just wait, his music skills are just one of the ways he worships the Lord. pete told us that he gave up himself for the sake of helping others. pete has gutted over 200 houses and helped rebuild over 60 houses and moved in 12 families into new homes. he is not a non profit company, he simply just gave up his life to help others-moving from house to house helping where he can. financially pete is not funded by any organization, he simply asks different groups that he has worked with to bring his story back home so that others that feel convicted can contribute. besides pulling out nails, we painted a few rooms. after praying together and snapping a few group pictures, we headed home but not without stopping at mcdonalds (we ordered sundaes, chicken nuggets, and a double cheeseburger off the dollar menu :]). 

evenings here in new orleans have been a lot of fun. it’s a nice way to unwind after a tiring day of work. tonight was especially fun because we ate at a 100-year-old ice cream parlor. most of us got gelato. we shared a cannoli, which was disappointedly not as delicious as we hoped for, therefore we fed it to a trash can named mosey. however our gelato did not fail us. cheers to ice cream! on the walk from ice cream to the bowling place, we chatted with one of the interns, Rob. he’s a really cool guy from ohio. we are trying to turn him yellow. here are some of the things we put on the checklist for him: 

1. take fob pictures. (peace signs and big smile!!)

2. eat shaved ice/bubble tea (he has not heard of either.) 

3. play video games (good to go)

4. online talk offline. (ftl, lawl, jk, idk)

to be continued…

after the walk, we arrived to the bowling place and were greeted with cajun music. while the guys bowled, the girls got their groove on. don’t be too disappointed faithful readers, we were able to get the guys to dance the last dance (kind of, if you can call swaying awkwardly dancing. we love you boys!)

after a team meeting, girls came upstairs, prayed together, and experienced a successful group hug (“hammerhead” has attempted numerous times to get everyone to participate however “the putty boy” has been stubborn and refuses to partake in the festivities of embracing one another. which is strange. coughmanlovecough). 

we apologize sincerely for our lack of blogging abilities. we are nearing delirium as the clock moves closer to closer to 6:30 am (when we have to wake up tomorrow) 

thank you for praying for us, please continue to keep us in your thoughts. God is doing incredible and amazing things here! 

love, peace, and the grace of God,

“wrecker” and “hammerhead” 

ps: we would also like to make an announcement: you are cordially invited to attend the wedding of “wrecker yang” and “hammerhead wang”. location and date tba.

Fantabulous Day #2

Hi everybody,

The Waterboy here! Today our team split into two different groups =[. 

Half of us went to Bywater Church to work with elementary school kids while the other half went to St. Margaret’s nursing home to help the elderly. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum!

I was one of the people that worked with the elderly. At first, I was a bit anxious because of the stereotypes people have about nursing home residents. However, our guide named April gave us a tour around the facility and quickly dispelled those myths. We met several people who may be physically less capable than we are, but had hearts that matched or exceeded the amount of love that we had. April introduced us to a lady, Ms. Pat, that was one of the more social people there. She showed us her 50th wedding anniversary picture and talked to us a bit about her life. It was one of the high points of my day. She also told us that her husband had died on March 9 of the same year. I was really surprised that she was willing to talk about such a painful subject with complete strangers. The way we were appreciated was truly touching.

We started out by playing a game of Bingo with some of the residents (Ms. Pat was there too.). I never knew they could be so enthusiastic about such a simple game. I had the honorary position of being number caller and was immediately fascinated by the contraption that spit out random ping pong balls with numbers on them.

After about an hour of doing that, we cleaned up and prepared the residents for lunch. While wheeling some of the residents down from their rooms, I had some very good conversations with them and got to know them a lot better. By talking to them, I felt that life was a bit of an upward-pointing parabola in terms of faith. As a child, you have so much child-like faith and don’t doubt the goodness of the Lord. As you get older and become more “mature”, you start losing the child-like faith and start having doubts and let the storms of life start to batter you. However, when you get to a certain age, this child-like faith start returning and you start to become more dependent on God. It changed my perspective on life in general. It was one of those “lightbulb” moments where I thought to myself, “So, that’s how it is.”

Afterwards, we served lunch to the senior citizens. Looking at the special needs on the dietary cards, I felt so much compassion for what they have been through and what they are going through right now. Many of them have probably lost family members in the storm and still have not fully recovered from grief. As I served every one of them, I was sure to look them in the eyes and just thank them for allowing me to have this experience. Many of them were not sure how to respond, but that is all right. =].

Later, the other team walked over from where they had been working (Bywater Church) and shared with us what happened during their day. Many of them also had intriguing experiences with over-active kids. But it sounded like they had a lot of fun. I praise God just for letting us being able to take a break from hard manual labor and still be able to serve Him in an important way. 

After we cleaned up, we had another quick game of Bingo. Watching the residents’ faces when they won was something that made me feel warm fuzzies inside.

By the end of the last game, my throat was getting a little sore. However, just knowing that the residents enjoyed and truly appreciated our work was more than enough to compensate for any ailment. 

After all the other residents had gone, Ms. Pat made a pot of coffee and invited us to come have a cup with her. I have never felt so bad about disliking the taste of coffee in my life. Something about other people working hard to make our lives better and us being unable to utilize their services just tears at my heart. Thankfully, because the Lord is good, Marilyn joined Ms. Pat and a few of the remaining senior residents in a coffee party while the rest of us chatted. She told us that she had many good conversations with them and that eased my guilt tremendously. 

When Marilyn finished, we said our goodbyes and left the nursing home. I pray to God that He will not let me forget the experiences I have had here and the joy I felt throughout the day’s activities. 

When we returned to the St. Jude Community Center, James, Chad, Matt, Moses, and I played Truth or Dare. I know. Lol. However, since none of us was willing to do a dare because of the previous day (Example: Matt was dared to spill a girl’s drink.) it ended up being more like Truth or Truth. xD. We had some good male bonding time. 

After a scrumptiously prepared dinner, our team went out to Café Du Monde for coffee and beignets (french donuts with lots of powdered sugar). By that time, I was feeling kind of burned out, so I just ate one from a plate I shared with James. We got silly Krispy Kreme-esque paper hats and took pictures in them (Stubber will have available soon). 

Then, after a bit of souvenir shopping, we headed back home. After an excellent worship session led by James, we washed up and here I am now with Oreo (Stubber) - with her exceptional typing speed, writing down the mediations of my heart. 

Good night everybody!

~ The Waterboy ~

Tired, but always ready to Worship.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry, but this post will be short because I, Stubber, am very tired and no we didn’t have time to assign the blogging to anyone for today =. I apologize in advance for any writing mistakes or sentences that don’t make a bit of sense.

First, I and the team have some prayer requests.

• Bella was not feeling well today. She was experiencing nausea and headaches. Signs of dehydration? Indeed. She was able to rest at the St. Jude Community Center where we are staying and recuperate. However, we took her to a open clinic to get checked out. Better to be safe than sorry. It seems she was dehydrated and may have a virus (eek). Please pray for Bella - her health and recuperation. 
• Tomorrow’s work. Tomorrow morning, we will be splitting into teams. Matt and Chad will be helping out at a home that needs a repair job to some wood floor trimming. The rest of the team will split into two groups and help at the St. Margaret’s nursery home and at a kids camp.

I bet you are wondering what we did today. I’m sleepy, so I will try to give you a quick summary of the day.

Today, we did demolition at the old St. Margaret’s building. It was nearly fully covered with flood waters - as we could tell from the mold that had grown all up and down the dry wall. We also used the bathroom facilities at the new St. Margaret’s home and I was very glad to see that these elderly people of New Orleans have such a nice place to stay. I’m glad they’re safe.

Demolition included knocking down walls, cleaning up debris, tearing up wood flooring, and scraping off tile flooring. We had to wear masks, goggles, and gloves for safety (don’t worry, parents! We’re covered!). The masks were not fun at all due to sweat and other moisture collecting inside. Goggles even began to fog up from the inside due to our perspiration. Oy!

However, we praise the Lord for filling us with joy. As Josh noted in a team evening meeting, he did not hear one complaint. 

After returning home from a  long day of work and driving around town, we were able to worship as a group. Thanks to James for playing the guitar and leading us. Brian, a team member from a church group from Mexia, Texas, was also able to join us and pray with Emily and I. Worship in any form, but in this case: music, is a blessing and a spiritual food that I crave for. Thank you, God, for worship.

Thank you for all your support once again. Please pray for the team.

P.S. We went to Ro-Bears today. It served a cup of deliciousness called a Snow Ball. It is from New Orleans and features a fantastic combination of shaved ice (the good kind) and ice cream inside the shaved ice. Yum!

Here and Hungry.

First off, praise God for safely delivering us to New Orleans!

The first flight was rough and caused some people to feel nauseous for awhile. But we are OKAY! The second flight went well and we were picked up from the airport by Denise (who gave us a quick tour of the St. Jude Community Center - where we’re staying) and James. 

On the way here, we realized how tangible this trip has become. Passing tent communities on the way to the center and seeing the destruction of homes and other development that still exists was a surreal experience.

It is now dinner time - yay! Tonight we plan to take a walk around the city and really take in what God has in plan for us here.

Thank you for your prayers and look back for more updates and pictures!

Howdy!

Welcome to the New Orleans ‘08 Missions Team blog!

We’ll keep you updated with how we’re doing over in Louisiana and let you know what things you can support us with in prayer.