Hi
I'm building furniture for rich people. I've been living on cheeses, exotic salads, humus, and lamb. I just wanted y'all to know I'm alive and well! I feel great and finally have some good projects to work on.

I've been staying in a loft apartment overlooking to stone walled herb gardens and private lake. I have no Internet access at my apartment and very minimal cell signal. It is so nice! All there is to do each day is build stuff and play with Moose.

I've also gotten back into working with autocad. After Mississippi it was the first work to surface. It is good to be drafting again! I've also gotten four calls this week from employers. Some pretty good opportunities. We'll see if any of them work out all the way. This is not a good market for job hunting. I'll be selling a kidney soon just to make ends meet.

Alright, back to work.

I need a bailout

I can't find a decent job that pays even remotely enough to live on or offers benefits. Goodnight.

For Beth

Alright - I'm not really in the mood to write a blog. But, due to pressure from friends... I shall make a brief post.

I'm alive, first and foremost. About two weeks ago I put in my notice to leave Lagniappe. As most of you know, the church was making a transition to phase two which leaves the majority of us in a time of major transition. But I was the first one off the ship and so here I sit. At my parent's kitchen table in PA, trying to find whatever work I can get my hands on. What can I say, children first; Moose has to eat.

The trip home went well. I took a few days and toured around Eastern Tennessee. You win Henry Paris. The area certainly is beautiful. Maybe I should buy your house.

Options on top of a job? School, Kenya, Oregon. Who am I kidding - those of you know know me know that I probably have a ton of ideas spinning around in my head. Oh, come on. You love it!

That's not it at all, but that's about all I feel like writing right now. I'm feeling quite a bit better. I imagine that a year of stress probably played a large role in the pain I've been battling with since October. Time with my family has certainly helped that!

But yes - I'm around. Moose is well. We're figuring out what's next and as I know that I'll keep the world posted.

Peace

Zen and the art of "what the heck now"?

What a journey! For those of you who are un-aware, Lagniappe is preparing to move into phase two of its original plan as a mission church. We’re unsure of the face that this transition will ultimately take, but as of May ’09, we will be closing down the construction portion of the church – which will effectively end my time on the Mississippi Coast. The exit is bittersweet. I know in my heart that I’m tired, that my soul needs a chance to go rest – but I see the amount of construction that still needs to happen and this just makes me feel like I want to stay. It is interesting to need to find grace to come to the coast, to spend more than a year finding grace to stay, and now searching for the grace to leave.

I can’t say even to as where the road will take me. I have a number of options including going back to work for myself, going back to school, or even moving to Kenya to supervise the construction of hospitals there. I’m not sure what doors are going to be opened up to me – but I’m sure there will be an adventure that is worth pursuing through each one.

I’ve been home for a bit over a week now, trying to find relief from pain, visiting doctors, and trying to just be at peace with not swinging a hammer. The doctors have found no evidence of a serious pancreatic issue through this process and are encouraging me to just continue to search for patterns or anything that might give more evidence to where this pain originates from. I will say though, that even now as I sit at the airport, I am in far less pain then when I flew up here.

I was able to spend the majority of my time just taking it easy. This included spending time with family, seeing a few friends, and a lot of time just sitting in a coffee shop near my parent’s house and reading while they were at work. If you’re ever in the Harrisburg area, be sure to check out Saint Thomas Roasters in Linglestown. They serve excellent coffee, all roasted in house. And having me say that means a lot considering how much of a coffee elitist I have become!

I’m on my way back to the coast right now. I’m excited to see Moose and have the down time to just figure out what is next. I’m planning on a lot of fishing and hanging out on the beach so I can just have the time to talk with the Lord and see what’s next.

Thanks for checking in on me! You can be praying for me as I look for the next step in this journey!

Much Love

Prayer

Please keep praying for me regarding my pancreas. I just finished booking a flight home so I can see my doctor. I'll be landing in Baltimore on Thursday, about mid-day. Please continue to pray for my healing, that God's peace and love will minister to my heart, even through the pain and the medication. Also, please pray for my family. As you can imagine, this brings up many of the same fears we struggled with when this issue put me in the hospital before. Both of my parents are having a tough time with worrying about me and my health. I can't say I blame them - I'm worried too.

All that to say - please just be praying for me and my family. Thanks for your love and support.

Tiime for a Shorty

Alright. Construction is going well. We're almost done with a few houses! More on that at a later date though.

I really need prayer right now. My bout with chronic pancreatitis has re-flared up. I was in the hospital last night as a result and will be spending the rest of this week taking it really easy. For those of you who have walked with me through this process, thanks for your prayers and support.

I'm going to be taking it really easy for the next few days - so if you'd like a more personal update, please call. We don't have internet at our house so email and skype will be very difficult for me to get access to. Also, please pray for the Lord's provision through this time. I need grace at work - but grace for myself also. Additionally, my insurance is underwritten for anything with my pancreas (stupid pre-existing conditions) and thus this entire expense will be out of pocket. Finally, the medication they have me on really messes with my head. I will be spending the next week struggling with depression, discouragement, and nightmares. These are the side-effects that this medication hits me with. Thanks for your support and your love.

Oh... and Moose is doing well.

Another day, another...deck?

Well, it is Saturday and I suppose I have nothing better to do than to sit at the Mockingbird Coffee House and blog.

I had a successful week out on the site! We're still working at the same house as last week. This week I had thirty volunteers total, only ten of which were I directly responsible for. It was a small group from William and Mary college. Two of the student had been interns on staff here at Lagniappe during previous summers. I was good to have them with me because the rest of the team had little to no experience. Nonetheless, we hung drywall on Monday because the finishers were coming in to work on Tuesday. Lagniappe found it is cheaper and easier to sub-contract out the drywall finishing than it is to do the work with volunteers. I'm pretty thankful for this because in Pearlington, when a house was ready to be finished, it was a three week job, nearly fifty buckets of mud were used, and the jobs were never finished very well. More than once I just got tired of three weeks of sanding to just remove the globs of first-coat that was put on by inexperienced volunteers and would just have them paint it as it was.

Back to Lagniappe.

Tuesday we jumped in on deck building. Unfortunately Tuesday was difficult because it turned into the team watching me as I cut and hung stringers for the stairs, and got posts cut off the right height. Some jobs it is just better if I do them then try to teach someone else how to do them.

Wednesday I lost all my volunteers to another project. They were taken to another site and started building a house there. The neat part of this project is that it is a house that we took down this summer. Piece by piece, it was taken apart, labeled, categorized, and move to another site. Once at the new site, every part of the house was gone through, all the rot was replaced - and on Wednesday this team worked with a local contractor to start rebuilding this house under the shade of a huge live oak down near the water. I think it is a pretty great project because the homeowners were willing to spend the money to maintain and restore a little piece of the history that is Bay Saint Louis.

Wednesday night the team took me to New Orleans. We went to dinner at a local BBQ shop (I wished they had asked me where to go. Then maybe we could have eaten somewhere that the food is actually good). Once in New Orleans, we went to an old German bar on Bourbon St. It was a fun environment, the music was alright, and a Sprite cost me $5. We didn't get in until late and I was exhausted the next day for sure!

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. I think Moose was having a bad day both days, because she was being a real bitch. Nearly every time that I would call her or tell her to do something, she would just sit or lay down and watch me. It is pretty frustrating when she does that. Especially when she's stopping traffic because she decides to have her defiant moments in the middle of the road. Oh well, I forgive her.

Overall, it was a pretty good week. Some bumps in the road but nothing worth writing about.

Ok, funny story just happened. Right now.

I'm over at the Mockingbird Cafe, drinking coffee. I may or may not have passed gas a few minutes ago (I'm claiming nothing) but magically, there was suddenly a very ripe stench that appeared around me. Well, just moments after the owner of the coffee shop came in and walked over behind me and reached over my shoulder to remove a poster that is on the wall next to my table. My favorite part of this is that I have a picture hanging on the wall in front of me in which I can see my reflection along with the things going on behind me (for those of you who want to be international spies, you understand how important spotting your perifs are). Well, she hovered over me for a second, made this contorted face of disgused, reached up and held her nose while she was removing the poster off the wall. Also, she may or may not have thrown up in her mouth. I would have missed the entire show if it had not been for the picture on the wall. As a result, I feel the need to give a shout out to CSW Photography. Thanks for trying to sell your pictures here at the Bird.

And I apologize to those of you who did not find humor in that story at all. I know Janice did, so Janice. That one's for you.

Tomorrow I'm leading worship at the Church. our normal worship leader is off on some unspeakable adventure and which makes it my duty to fill in. I'm excited. I think we have a good set and we certainly have a great group of musicians. After church I have a birthday party at the local bowling ally for a five year old who's house I helped build in Pearlington. I'm looking forward to that - I think it will be a really great time! I love that this job gives me the chance to be a part of people's lives in such a personal way. Each house, each family, and even each day just gives me the chance to live the gospel toward others. I've learned a lot about how to love people. Yet there is so much more to learn!

As always, thanks for your support and prayers. Please continue to pray for this area, and I could personally use prayer for my personal finances. I love what I'm doing but it does not pay much and with the pressure of school loans, the cost of the road trip home for Christmas, and just the everyday expenses of living in this country - money is always extremely tight. So pray that I either win the lottery (after Mississippi starts having a lottery that is...) or that I can just continue to learn how to trust the Lord that He knows how many hairs are on my head and is able meet me and take care of me where I am. Empty wallet and all.

Until next time. Peace!