I am in New Orleans right now, waiting for Megan to get out of the shower. Today we did the dirtiest, mundane, disgusting work, but I loved every minute of it. We spent the afternoon at the New Orleans Mission, a homeless shelter for men. Today and Saturday we are renovating it. We started out working in the bathroom. First we had to prime the walls around the urnals to be painted. DISGUSTING!! These walls were soaked with pee and we, girls that didn't really have a part of the mission, had to clean it up. Then we moves on to the floors. We had to crawl along the floors, scraping gray paint off the cement. Only to prime this too. Later we moved onto the backyard, tearing it apart in order to build a garden on Saturday. That backyad probably hadn't been touched since the hurricane, so I will leave it up to you to imagine.

Why, you might ask, did I do all this work? Why did I take a week off work without pay, pay 500 dollars for a plane ticket, and come down here to work for free? Because I love it. It is a way that I acn make a difference in Gods Kingdom. I can do this work back at home, but when I'm there, I feel like I have the wrong motives. Like I'm doing it for personal gratification, with the people that I know all around me. In New Orleans, the only person I know is megan...and we share this love of service.

(The previous part was written in New Orleans, but the following was written in Saginaw.)

When my hands are dirty, don't give me funny looks. When my clothes are covered in paint, don't ask me what I was doing. I was working. When I'm quiet, it's because I am thinking, reflecting. See, I am just a servent. I am a servent who is after Gods own heart, and if it takes scrubbing pee soaked walls to help me find it, then by golly, that is what i'm going to do.

do you wanna know something?

welp! Summer is flying by my friends! I can't believe that it is already July. A few things have happened since my last post:

1) Today, I ran my first 10k race. I've run 5k's and even a half marathon, but nothing inbetween. It was fun...the race of choice was the Volkslauf in Frankenmuth because it is HILLY!!! I was up for the challange.

2) I cut my hair off for locks of love. 10 inches! It is SOOOO short now...like to my chin. I do not think my hair has ever been that short.

3) this news is BIG! I got into AmeriCorps NCCC for the winter class...January thru November 2008. And I told my parents. I am officially moving in January!

Short post, I know, but I have to pack. I'm going to New Orleans again on Saturday!!

Picture time:

This is me with my little group of first graders at Bible Camp. We all like to make silly faces!

from left to right: Joey, my helper Kayla, Emma (you can't really see her), Noah, Sydney, Kaitlyn, me and Laren. What Fun!!

see y'all on the flip side!