[LSF-Announce] spring break "Hey Y'All!" from Chelsey

[Nicole Kooistra]

Hello from the Bayous of Louisiana!

I'm sure many of you are off on your own Spring Break adventures this week,
but I wanted to send a little update from the Refuge crew way down south in
Chauvin, LA.

Our group of 13 (Matt, John, Steve, Will, Shea, Kevin, Pastor Marty, Liz,
Rachel, Melissa, Courtney, Michelle, and Chelsey) departed from Immanuel
Lutheran Church in DeKalb, Illinois, around 9am on Saturday. We spent two
days making our way across the country to where we are now. Thankfully, the
thermometer climbed steadily as the miles and hours passed and we traveled
farther away from the winter weather of Northern Illinois. Our midday lunch
break was so graciously hosted by Refuge alums Brad and Sabrina Urlaub in
St. Louis, Missouri. Brad gave us a tour of the seminary where he currently
studies (we even got a button for making it all the way to the top of the
narrowly winding staircase of Luther Tower!) while Sabrina finished
preparing our meal (which was fantastic!).

Later that night, our kind hosts at Hernando First United Methodist Church
in Mississippi provided us our first taste of that renowned Southern
hospitality with dinner, breakfast, cots to sleep on, and Sunday morning
worship service. Since their musicians were held up by snow somewhere, four
of our own Refuge students were asked in the middle of the service to play a
song, and just jumped up, got a guitar, practiced for five minutes, and
sang. What a great bunch – always ready to serve when and where the need
arises!

Sunday took us through Mississippi, into Louisiana, and all the way south to
the bayou country. So far we've spent about half of our five days here in
Chauvin working with Bayou Grace, an organization focused on helping the
communities affected by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Currently we are
staying at the Rec. Center in Chauvin and spread out around multiple sites
in the area. One group is scraping, priming, and painting a house. Another
is doing interior painting, re-doing siding, replacing windows and door, and
building a wheelchair ramp at a second location. A third group is building
framework and doing construction. Another group finished demolishing a house
yesterday. We meet up for lunch together every day and hang out, have Bible
study, and (of course) eat great food during the evenings.

Along with the relationships strengthened within our Refuge group, we have
had the opportunity to interact with college students and people from all
over the country and the world. We're working most with others from Purdue
University and Minnesota. It's amazing to see how "small" the world is when
you get such seemingly diverse groups together. As I write this, Pastor
Marty is chatting with a woman from the same town back in Illinois about
people they both know. Pretty crazy!

Well, I have to wrap this up because I'm needed back at the house to slap
some more paint on the walls. Everything is going great and we're making
fantastic progress on our projects. The people we are serving are so
grateful for the assistance and it's just fascinating to hear each of their
stories. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that I'm so glad to be
spending Spring Break '08 here, reaching out as Jesus' hands and feet by
serving those in need.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support this week and always. I'm sure
we will have plenty of stories to share when we return home!

Blessings,
Chelsey Newcomb
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