The theme for the day is "go with the flow" ... and it was insanely hot here. The plan for today was to work in the morning until about 3 this afternoon, take showers and head out to the Ninth Ward for dinner with the Mt. Nebo community. Kim & I heard from Charles Duplessis last night that we weren't actually having dinner, but lunch with them! After some quick shuffling (and a few moments of destressing) we changed plans for the day and "went with the flow"!

The group split in two today ... 10 people went to work in Gentilly on painting and scraping a house. The rest of us went to Apex Youth Center, where again we had to "go with the flow". Our contact and main coordinator at Apex, Lisa Fitzgerald, had to go to court with a couple of her youth (who were swept up in front of Apex along with some youth who were holding some drugs and weapons last night ... the youth were actually waiting to go into Apex for evening programming!) so her husband Dan quickly tried to figure out what work he had for us. Once again, God was a part of all of this ... we worked two hours because of our lunch commitment, but we also only had two hours of work to do today because of the situation at Apex. Plus, because it was 96 today, our outside work was extremely difficult and tiring. Thank goodness that Apex is also air conditioned. Our time there allowed us to see some other needs, and we anticipate a run to Home Depot for a few supplies to tackle some of the bigger challenges they have for us.

Our time in the Ninth Ward was wonderful, but hot! The food was amazing ... fried chicken, catfish, rice & beans, potato salad, hushpuppies! And lots of cold beverages to keep us hydrated. Most of the group got a walking tour from Charles and a meaningful explanation of what had happened and is happening in the neighborhood. I will be anxious to hear everyone's thought tonight during devotions ... to see how the experience was processed. I hope to get people from each work site to comment later. Thank you for all your prayers and support!