Prayer Request Updates

From my friend who went down to Baton Rouge over the weekend:

Hi all,
Thanks again for your prayers for our trip. I really felt that God orchestrated everything perfectly. I wanted to fill you in on the details, but I apologize if this e-mail is incoherent...I'm exhausted!

The three of us (my roommate L and her boyfriend K) left at 3AM Friday morning. We each took a 6 or so hour driving shift, and arrived in Baton Rouge at 10 PM (they are on central time, an hour behind the east coast). K was born and raised in Baton Rouge, so he was able to find us a place to stay with one of his friends, and he was a great navigator in our endeavors.

On Saturday we woke up early and went to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, where we became part of the "Chainsaw Brigade" that went to Covington, LA, 40 miles north of where the storm hit. They still don't have power there, and who knows how long it will be before they do. Trees and power lines were down everywhere you looked. It was a mess that can't possibly be cleaned up anytime soon. We worked for 6 hours in the hot Louisiana sun, clearing trees from a woman's driveway. She had a huge tree fall through her attic and into the second story of her home. We had a crew of about 15 people, 4 chainsaws, and a tractor, and it still took us all six hours just to clear her driveway. I was exhausted and a bit dehydrated, despite drinking 12 bottles of gatorade/water during that time. But it felt good to work that hard. Afterward, a man from the church made us jambalaya and gumbo. I had never been that far south before, and had to be educated on the difference between the two. :) They were both delicious!

Sunday morning we went to Broadmoor Baptist Church, K's home church, for the service. They are hosting 120 Red Cross disaster relief personell at their facility. Afterwards, we went to Florida Blvd Baptist Church, a major distribution center in Baton Rouge for hurricane relief efforts. They serve meals every day, and hand out supplies/clothing. We helped sort clothes, and helped some of the evacuees find the clothing they needed among the boxes and boxes of donations. We met one woman who was staying with her cousin in Baton Rouge in a small house with 17 other people and only one bathroom. Baton Rouge's population has more than doubled to 1.2 million since the storm hit, which made traffic a bit slow, but we're used to that kind of thing. :)

Monday morning we volunteered at the makeshift animal shelter at LSU's agricultural center. They are housing 1100 animals. We walked, fed, and loved on lots of dogs. They expect the shelter to be open for at least another month. We left there at 10:30 AM Monday and made it back this morning at 8:30. We slept for a few hours, and then Laura and I headed back to work this afternoon. The trip was definitely worth the exhaustion, but pray that we recover quickly.

The greatest thing to see there was how so many people came together to help out. There were lots of local folks, and many from far away (Montana, Oklahoma, Alexandria VA). We met a lot of great people. Those affected by the hurricane are going to need help for a long time to come. Please contact your local Red Cross to see how you can help. Thanks to those of you who have already contributed your time, efforts, and prayers to those in need.

And from my friend's wife who was ready to have her baby already:

Yo, man. You probably saw the text message, but just formally wanted to let you know that we welcomed Joshua David into our family on Thursday evening last week. He came home saturday, and we've been adjusting and not sleeping since :)

Thank you for your prayers.