The things we’ll do to save money! Yesterday (Saturday) we flew from Pittsburgh to Dallas and from Dallas to New Orleans, and believe me, that’s the long way around! On the first (small) plane, poor Zach Start had to sit with his head tilted to one side.
Gary Lyon won a long argument with the staff at Alamo car rental (”But that’s what it says in our contract, which I have right here!”). Although we missed the kick-off, we arrived at our motel in Covington, Louisiana in time to watch the rest of the Steelers game, for what it was worth.
Sunday morning we doubled the attendance at the Covington Presbyterian Church contemporary service at 9 a.m., and were warmly welcomed by the pastor and members. Built in 1848, and enlarged much later, the sanctuary had a modernistic stained-glass window in the chancel, created by the son of a member. Due to certain technical difficulties involving cameras and cables, we may have to wait to put a photo of it on the blog after we get home. We were also fascinated by the humongous tree out front, with the longest branches we’ve ever seen held up by a series of poles and braces.
Sunday was an extraordinary day to be in New Orleans, as the Ohio State (red & white) & Louisiana State (purple & yellow) fans had descended en masse for tomorrow night’s BSC Bowl game, all proudly wearing their team colors from head to toe. THOUSANDS of them. Besides ordinary tee shirts, we saw wigs, furry boots, beads, tiger ears, pennants and flags, socks, pants, you name it! Gary Lyon caught a string of gold beads thrown from a white limosine. In spite of the throngs, we managed to eat shrimp & catfish, enjoyed a walking tour of the French quarter (Royal Street full of art galleries, Bourban Street full of bars & music, etc.), had beignets at Cafe du Monde, and watched the paddleboat Natchez pull into the Mississippi.
We arrived in D’Iberville in time to lug our stuff to the tents and get in line for dinner. It was leftovers night, with 2 kinds of soup, beans, cabbage (with meat or vegetarian), carrots & potatos, chicken, sweet potatoes, cooked apples, “twice-baked-potato-salad”, bread & rolls, and a huge assortment of desserts. You never go hungry here. There are 110 people in camp this week, who arrived last week or Friday or today. 45 or so from Lend A Hand (Carlisle Presbytery), including students from Elizabethtown College, about 20 from Sheridan, Wyoming, 3 from North Carolina, and so on. There hasn’t been such a crowd in a while, so Irene (McIntosh) is working out a shower schedule!
ATTENTION KISKI GROUP: During devotions, Gary and Lisa were excited to hear that one of the teams is working on Marie Ralph’s house, putting in windows & doors (Ron’s crew roofed it). They said that FEMA recently told Marie they’re taking her trailer back in March. She responded that her house may not be finished by then, so FEMA told her they’d relocate her. She told FEMA that not only would she not go, but she’d live in a tent under the house if she had to until it’s finished!!! (Her house is up on stilts.) We plan to take photos this week so you Kiski folk can see the progress of the homes you worked on.
Looks like we’ll start our work week by tearing off a porch roof (then putting up a new one) on one house and painting the exterior of another house. We’ll keep you posted, of course.
We thank God for travel mercies, the “spending money” some of our friends back home slipped into our palms that paid for our parking in New Orleans today, for meeting old friends from Synod School & previous trips to D’Iberville, and for your prayerful support.
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