Reconcilers

**Wednesday, February 21, 2007** (Written by Michele)

It's mid afternoon and the sun is out and 75ish? Got my feet up and ice on my foot. I unfortunately (conveniently?) pulled a tendon in my foot the first day….Wink Wink. God has given me a blessed excuse to mingle with "The Guys"…..

I spent the morning cooking in the kitchen with Lenny for "the Guys" in the treatment facility, us and whoever else showed up. We as a team were soooo blessed to be invited to eat with "the Guys" everyday around noon. Now I know it may scare some of you who know me well that I was allowed to cook. But the Creole smothered okra turned out pretty good. Ask the members on our team….I payed them all well. I was soo awed to find Jesus in a small, airless, never pass the health department in normal situation kitchen; with the true south gospel on the radio, sweating and cooking with an ex-drug user and who knows what else. I truly left a large part of my heart in that kitchen. I pray each member of our team left part of there heart with the people we encountered and I am pretty confident they did.

Despite the loss of such a vital team member on the project…the team persevered and made great progress on the demo and construction!!

We apologize to all of you that there wasn't/ isn't time for every team member to blog…so you are stuck with only my (Michele's) narrow view. There doesn't seem to be words I can find to accurately describe all that we have witnessed, shared and been blessed with…life long relationships that seem to form in moments. People who have given us more of the love of Christ than we could give them no matter how hard we tried. And we saw Jesus working through us everywhere ... From hanging out with "The Guys" at the treatment center…to the intoxicated man at the bar in the restaurant we ate in.

During a short lull in the construction, Brandee, John, Tony, and I went to the Reconcile Café…

Café Reconcile is a non-profit collaborative project. The St. Regis Hospitality Program was founded by Fr. Harry tompson, SJ, and Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church. The hospitality program not only provides on the job training in a working restaurant, but also teaches critical life skills and lands students social service agencies and helps with job placement.

After Katrina, they launched a construction training program, utilizing the same "hands-on" mentoring model and life skills training, which teaches the students building and construction skills on an actual job site. This exciting new program was developed with a number of partners; Crossroads Missions and Jericho Road, and will help provide low cost housing in local neighborhoods.

Quote of the Moment:

"The levee broke. And that was bad. But the levees between the churches broke too..and that is good." -a pastor we met at the Reconcile Café.

Please…talk to any or all of us from the team that came down….we are so anxious to share all that God has blessed us with on this trip.

We miss you all!!!! and wish we could bring back every moment in full sound, color, smell(ok maybe not every smell), and feeling.

Gotta go move my chair back into the sun and the masseuse is here for my massage. J

Same day…Later.

We are stuck in unbelievably aAwful traffic…bumper to bumper… standstill….

Nate, Brandee, Keith, and Michele rode together in Keith's van …they opened the side doors and talked to people and shared the pocket crosses. This team redefined 'street evangelism!!! Some of the other team members were a few cars behind the van…all of a sudden a truck pulled up next to the van and the guy had a pocket cross from our brothers a few cars back…great minds think alike!!!! Nate tried to trade some trail mix for a chicken leg….go Nate!!

3Hrs later we were thankfully back at Trinity.

The day ended with a phenomonal sharing time with people from the community who had come to the weekly "community dinner." Teams who had been working on various projects had invited the homeowners to join us for dinner. Afterward we sat stunned by the stories from people who had lost everything as a result of Katrina, including hope ... but, they are seeing the true Church, which Jesus said He would build, in action ... reconciling people to one another and to God. What a joy to be called reconcilers!