Monday, October 19, 2009

We Have Arrived -- New Orleans Mission 2009 Day One

We arrived yesterday and I had troubles with the computer. I actually typed a blog entry and then pushed send. It was only tonight (Monday) that I realized that it did not go. DRAT!

So here's a brief update of yesterday's entry.

Kathi, Patty and Joyce made the trip with relative ease. Our only surprise came when we were ushered off the interstate (along with everyone else) at Festus MO. It was probably an accident ahead. (Hopefully no one was hurt too badly). The GPS that Pat Hayden loaned us was going nuts trying to get us to make a U-turn and get back onto the interstate. We had to put it to sleep for a while and try to find an alternative route back to the interstate. We found a county road that was about 10 miles south and about 10 miles back to the interstate. (When we turned the GPS back on, it told us great annoyance, that one couldn't get there from where we were!!!) The problem with our route was that it had hairpin curves and steep ups and downs. Trees were canopied over the highway, and it was quite beautiful. It took us about 45 minutes to make that little detour, and Kathi did a great job in managing the road. We all thought we heard dueling banjos at times, so it was good to see the interstate ahead and to be able to get back on.

We stayed overnight at Batesville, Mississippi. This is the place where we stayed last year. This time we did the motel thing and then went for Sunday worship at the Presbyterian Church there. It was a really good message. The pastor talked about how Christ did the sacrificeing for us and became a mediator of God's love for us. We are called to mediate that love for others, which means attempting to understand them. It reminded us that this is what we are doing here in New Oreleans--attempting to understand what others are going through and bringing God's love to them and to experience it for ourselves in the process.

When we arrived here, Greg and Betty showed up soon. Debbie is staying to see Melissa for the week. We have about 45 people here, and there are groups from Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and us from IL. We got our chore assignments and they did a brief orientation.

After supper I had problems with the computer, but I thought I had gotten on and sent my blog--NOT. A guy from Oregon who works with computers helped me to get things straightened out. He made several suggestions, and now it is running quite a bit better. Hurray!

OK. It's about time for supper, so I will close for now and report a bit later about our first day of work. Check back later this evening.

Take care. Joyce

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