We’ve been in Covington for a week now and I (shawn) thought I’d post a few quick thoughts about our time down here so far…

• This is tough work. It often seems like the hard work is out in the field – the people who are removing trees from people’s houses, cleaning up debris, mucking out houses (that’s what we calling emptying and gutting a house), etc. Indeed that work is hard – very hard, but equally hard is the work here in the office. Having to tell people that we can’t help them because they’re not in an area that we’re focusing on, or having people deal with us like we’re a government agency – upset that we haven’t gotten to them yet, or having to figure out logistics in the face of something that is SOOOOO large of a project. It often seems overwhelming, but then we see a life changed, a marriage saved and/or hope brought back into people’s lives and it reminds us why we’re here and that it’s all worth it.
• This is rewarding work. Hearing the amazing things that are happening everyday is one of the coolest things about what we’re doing. And knowing that for every story we hear there are multiple more that we’ll never hear about. This week a team helped clean up a guy’s property, mainly using chainsaws to cut up numerous large trees that were down all over his property and then a Bobcat to take all the cut up logs and brush out to the street to be picked up. As a team member was talking with him, the guy shared that he thought his marriage had just been saved. Upon further inquiry, it turns out that they (the whole family) had returned after the hurricane and the property was such a mess that the wife was overwhelmed with it to the point that she couldn’t handle it and took the kids and left. The husband was left to try and figure it all out on his own, the wife doubtful that she’d return. The team cleaned everything up and the guy talked to his wife and she agreed to come back.
• We have a place to live! On our way down here, we found out that my cousins just purchased a second house that they’re gonna work on fixing up over the next 6 months or so and are letting us stay there while we’re here! The closing is set for Dec. 23, so we’ll hopefully be moving in there after Christmas. Until then, we’ve been staying with my cousins and it’s been awesome getting to know them better and help them out however we can. Last night we "babysat" the 4 kids but it was too much fun to be called babysitting.
• We’re going to Washington for Christmas. Many of you know that Danielle has been working on her immigration process for several months now. (She’s from Canada in case you didn’t know) The day before we left Rockford, she got her Work Authorization and Social Security number, but she still can’t cross the border to go home until the whole immigration process is complete which could be a long time still. So, we’re hoping to find a place in WA to stay so that her family can come down to WA and it’ll be almost like being home for Christmas.

That’s all for now. Thanks to everyone for the emails and comments – keep them coming.