Oct. - Nov. Grand Isle Trip Update # 5

It's weird. I was driving home today and had the strangest sensation that something, somewhere was just "not right". I didn't know if it had anything to do with the Grand Isle trip or if it was one of my kids or another family member, or if it was just my wild imagination, but in any case, I prayed, asking God to intervene and provide whatever wisdom and guidance was needed. Brian called about an hour and a half later. I mentioned to him the weird feeling I had experienced and asked if everyone there was OK? He said was a little surprised and said that about an hour and a half ago he had an incident with some men from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) who had come around asking if our crew had steel toed boots, etc. Apparently they had come around yesterday asking questions as well. It could have turned into some trouble I suppose and possibly interfered with the group's mission if they were not allowed to work there. Brian was about to really lose it with the guys but began instead talking to them, asking if they had been involved in 9/11. It turned out that they had done some work in 9/11 and that one of the men had lost some friends on that horrible day. The man began crying as he talked about losing his friends and the horrors he saw in NY that day and in the days following. That gave our team an opportunity to minister to him. God again turned what could have been a troublesome situation into something good. He's amazing like that.

A personal comment from Brian Hitsman:I'm just here trying to help out as much as I can. I'm really humbled when I'm here working with the places that we're cleaning up. Just to see people's personal effects and belongings as we dig through a good foot, two foot of debris. We're cleaning up gazebo areas that are part of the community's area where people can go and just sit there and look at the beach. They have about 10 of them here on the island and we're just cleaning them up.

As we go through the personal effects, there's fishing tackle; I found a tackle that was completely blown up and there were three or four pieces of tackle still inside of it. I thought of the person that actually used that and their livelihood. We found other very personal items. It's just humbling and as I go through this stuff it's almost like I'm going through somebody's house. I'm really looking forward to continuing the work and doing the things God wants us to do while I'm here and that's to help other people.



Here are some more pictures that came in today:

Rick working. Proof!! He says, "hi dear and kids - love you!"

















Sophie and Donna working???

















Flag flying battered yet proudly symbolizing a broken communitys hope.


















Tim and Shalynn (the mayor's secretary) but where's Debbie?? (Debbie was sitting on the floor just below Tim but somehow didn't make it into the picture.)



















Jay Lafont, a City Councilman and our contact person there















































Baywatch?? Rick and Brain at the beach. I thought they were supposed to be working there??

















Brian H. Talking to a lady working for community development. She said our work is key to the economy-because tourists come to Grand Isle for the beaches as well as fishing and water sports. One older woman collected aluminum cans to pay for the gazebos we are working on-she thanked us for the extremely necessary work.