April 8, 2010 by MarkH.

 ”For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power.” 2 Timothy 1:7

The YOAMers were treated to a late night thunderstorm that brought on cooler weather and a soothing breeze to our Thursday morning. We arrived on the work site today and the roof over our house (which was completed the day before the thunderstorm) was sparkling with some new roof sheen. A Mennonite group had been feverishly working on the roof for the last 2 days and completed the roof with incredible speed. Their work was needed in order to protect all the water sensitive drywall going up inside.

The “gorilla” crew featuring Zathy, Adam, Will, and the Austins hopped out of the car and started hanging drywall before the car had a chance to stop. The combination of laughter, tune-skies (good music), and hard work a huge transformation came over the house. In the matter of a week Crew D and Crew F have transformed the studs and skeleton of a house in distinguishable rooms with insulation and drywall hung. We have built relationships between our two crews and with our homeowner who visited us today. Check out the group picture!

The evening brought a night out at Ryan’s Buffet where we all ate too much of everything, followed by a Thursday night service led by the newly formed (tonight actually) YOAM Praise band, with a message from Zack and Will.  It was a moving awesome message about being  servants.   We were all then privileged to hear from Pat Lee and Eric Labram about their recent trip to Israel, Jerusalem and Bethlehem among other places. Pat surprised us with a gift hand carried from the Holy lands.  It was an awesome moving experience, in which we anointed each other with oil that had been blessed at the Holy Sepulcher  in the Holy Lands , we were annoited with the oil as as servants for God.  One scripture that thought related to our mission is:

“Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I Cor. 15:58

Tomorrow holds a lot of work, fun, and growth among this group of Youths on a Mission. God Bless and hello from Slidell from Crew D!

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April 8, 2010 by MarkH.

We started off our day working at the job site, until around twelve. Then we got the opportunity to go to the French Quarter in New Orleans. We learned about the culture and way of life of the people of NOLA (New Orleans LousianA). The trip was a chance to nap and get lost..okay so we missed a few turns at first…But once we arrived, we split into separate groups and explored the French Quarter. For dinner, each group went to a local restaurant and embraced the good New Orleans cuisine…Crawdads, shrimp, Gumbo…and more.

This is the Saint Louis Cathedral on Decatur Street

in the French Quarter

There were many local artists around Jackson square and great galleries in the French Quarter. The cross above was found at a local gallery - it represents the type of expressive art that the New Orleans people tend to create. This cross is made out of scrap tools.  Everyone had a great afternoon in NOLA and made a few purchases, enjoyed the local culture, and ate of the diversity of foods available.

One member of our work “crew” that is hard to get a glimpse of is Kyle…above Mr. Mark happened to catch a glimpse of Kyle taking a picture of Meagan and Colin by the Mississippi River.  Good night…signed some wandering yutes

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