I wanted to take a moment and pass on some news about Charles and Judy Dillon. Most of you know them, but for those of you who may not, Charles and Judy run the Carpenter’s House ministry in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. We have been working together with them for a couple of years now. Carpenter’s House is a multi faceted community outreach center, providing food, clothing, household goods and many other needs too numerous to list here. Charles also runs the volunteer teams that work in New Orleans on rebuilding homes.

A few weeks ago Charles was diagnosed with a very rare and untreatable form of Leukemia. He had been suffering from various ailments recently such as back pain, skin disorders, tiredness and other pains. It turns out all of these are symptoms of this disease. There is some experimental treatment he is looking into.

On Monday Judy was told by her doctor that she has bone cancer, and yesterday they confirmed that she also has lung cancer. I do not know how far it has progressed, but because of a trip they had planned her doctor told her to go and enjoy herself. He said it wouldn’t make much difference if they started treatment now or later.

Needless to say they deeply need your prayers. You would be hard pressed to find two people more dedicated to helping the needy in the name of the Lord than Charles and Judy.

The trip they had planned was a 61 day adventure starting Sept. 7th to raise awareness of hunger in America. You can read more about it by clicking here, but to summarize, Charles will be starting at the mouth of the Mississippi in Lake Itasca, MN, and canoeing down the great river to New Orleans. He will be stopping each night to hold meetings about the need to feed the hungry. The medical news that they have received has not dissuaded Charles from attempting this, and after talking with her doctor, Judy has decided to drive along as planned, meeting him at each stop with her parents motorhome. Pray for strength and protection for both of them. Charles’ canoeing progress can be monitored on the Facebook page “Mercy Flows.”

Let me point out first that I am back from Oregon, just in case you were wondering. The drive back was fun but tiring. It was a great blessing to receive my parents’ Safari Van as a gift. It took a lot of needs of off our list (much of our needs list was populated by repairs to our existing Astro Van). We were also blessed by our friends at Montavilla Baptist who filled up the van with all kinds of food items and other needed stuff, even treats for Joel’s dog.

I wanted to share with you some of the ways that we are trying to keep the ministry at Faith’s Hope and its friends connected. We have not been current on our newsletters (both the ministry’s and mine and Terri’s personal one), so we are working on getting back into a regular pattern with that. But we have also started some other methods that will help you to stay connected to what is going on here on a regular basis.

First, there is Facebook. If you are on Facebook you can become a “Fan” of our Faith’s Hope Page. On this page you can get info about us and more importantly get regular updates on the goings on down here in Louisiana. For those that have been involved with the work here there is also a Facebook Group for Faith’s Hope. Terri and I (Michael) are also both on Facebook, so you can send us a friend request if you like.

Next, we are now on Twitter. If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, well, so am I. Simply put it is like a mini blog. It is a way for me to give little (140 characters) updates on what is going on. Some of these Twitter updates will go through to the Faith’s Hope Facebook page, but not all of them. So if you are on Twitter, begin following us today.

We have also started a YouTube channel for Faith’s Hope. We have one of our promotional videos posted there now, and we will add more videos periodically. Some might be more production ones like the one there now, but others will be more candid videos that we think you would enjoy seeing. You can subscribe to our channel and YouTube will notify you whenever we load something new.

And lastly, one that you are obviously familiar with, this blog. The focus of this blog will be shifting slightly from what it has been in the past. We have usually written about our personal aspect of the ministry and our lives here. We are going to focus this blog more on Faith’s Hope as a whole. We will be starting another one shortly that will give us a place to focus on our family and things. The address of that blog will be sweetlandfamily.wordpress.com but it is not yet in operation. I will make an announcement on this blog when it is up and there will also be a link in the side bar.

I hope you will utilize these methods to stay connected with us as we try to stay connected to you. You are all our partners in ministry and the more connected we are the greater God can work through us.

Michael and Joel are in Oregon for a short time.  They left Louisiana 10 days ago and have been busily helping Michael’s folks with a garage sale and move.  They head to Portland today and will be attending Montavilla Baptist on Sunday.  Our former Sunday School class is hosting a potluck lunch after the services.

On Monday, Michael and Joel start a long drive back, hopefully arriving on Friday.  At which time, Michael can ‘relax’ by preparing for the first week with teams we’ve had in a while.  Please be praying as they travel.

While they were gone, the other kids and I have been staying active–caring for Joel’s dog, dealing with Nancy’s dance recital, and helping (in Michael’s place) with the team on loan from Trinity in Covington which was doing advance work and hosting a block party for Faith Bible church in a neighborhood close by where we have done some work on homes.  They were a great group and  Nancy and Aiden have many new friends!

Ministry of any kind is filled with its high points and low points. Nobody is surprised by this, probably because life itself is no different. Still, they are there and we must take the good with the tough.

I had a really unexpected, encouraging several days this week. It started on Monday when a pastor, Todd, from a church that is sending a team this summer came to town to meet us and see what we do and what the ministry is all about. I had a few hours with him and showed him some of our past work and some of what is going on now. But the best part was telling him the stories of what has taken place and our vision for what is to come. I was able to share with him our passion for this work and this area and all the amazing opportunities that God has given us for reaching this area. I was able to see him get really excited for what is happening here and what his team was going to experience. At the end of that time I realized that I was feeling more energized about the work than I had been in a long time.

I went right from meeting with him to meeting with Chuck Whipple. Some of you may know him. He was the FBC member that ran the rebuilding effort before I came. I took over for him when I got here because he was moving to Florida. He was in town for a couple of days and we had planned to have coffee (well, I had tea). It was a great time to talk about some of the early days of the ministry, and to share with him what we think God has in store for this work. I was also able to recount some of how God brought us here. We talked for a few hours, and again I felt so encouraged and energized when we were done.

Tuesday I had a meeting with another organization that we partner with. We had a time of prayer and short devotional and a chance for each to share what had been going on the previous week in each others lives. There were some great praises and some serious struggles shared, but even the struggles were an encouragement as I saw how the group dealt with them in prayer.

Wednesday I had a really great impromptu talk with our Associate Pastor Jeremy. Just a great time talking about church and ministry stuff. On Thursday I had another unexpected conversation that gave unexpected encouragement. It was with the Project Manager for Northshore Disaster Recovery, an organization that we are part of and often work under on projects. We just started taking because I thought I had a meeting there, but it was apparently cancelled. I talk with him often but it is always business and short. This time we got into some of the struggles the people here are facing and how we can help and a lot about the miracle of the whole volunteer effort and what we have seen and the impact it has made. It once again reminded me of why I do this and how much there is still to do.

Those were obviously the highs. The lows were primarily around one thing that was building throughout the week. Like every month we were struggling to find the money to buy groceries and pay bills, waiting each day to see how much support came in the mail. But this month is a little harder because Joel and Nancy both have birthdays and of course there is Mother’s Day. Terri had been trying so hard to find gifts for Joel (his comes first, the ninth) with limited resources as well as baking a cake. At the same time she is planning for Nancy’s (the 15th). With all this work she was doing along with the constant stress of planning meals with little to nothing to work with, I really wanted to do something for Mother’s day. I knew it couldn’t be much or she would not except it. I just wanted to take her out for a barbecued shrimp Po Boy and a movie. A friend had sent some money to us this week that was made out to us directly rather than to Faith Bible Church, so I thought that since I could just cash that without her knowing I would use that for Mother’s Day. The lowest point of the week came when it became necessary for me to use that money to pay our water bill to keep it from being cut off. I did have enough to get her a card and cards from Nancy and Aiden (David and Joel were able to pay for their own).

It becomes increasingly difficult for me to continue this work as I see my family sacrificing so much. Maybe that was why God gave me the high points this week to remind me of why we are here. Without those recent and intense reminders, I might give in to my thoughts of giving up on what we are doing here.

I really hate to share these downer type of blogs, but people say they want to know what is going on. Well, that’s what is going on. It is an ongoing daily struggle for me to figure out why we are doing what we are convinced God wants us to be doing, and yet we can’t even care for our most basic needs. Please continue to pray for us.

Exeter team that worked on our house returned to visit

I have been wanting to write this for a while. We were recently blessed by a team from Pennsylvania that returned again this year to work. Some of them came last year and blessed us by helping us to get our current house prepared for occupation.We made a real connection with this team during that time, so we made plans for them to come to our house one night while they were here this year.

The owner of the house that wanted us to live in it was stressed by the condition that the house was in due to a little bit of storm damage and a lot of previous tenant damage. Michael could see it’s potential but I had trouble seeing past the mess. This team saw it at it’s worst and were eager to do what they could to help me see what it could be.  They gutted the house similarly to what was being  done with Katrina damaged homes with the exception of tearing out walls.  They did an amazing amount of work in a few days even down to scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms with bleach.  Michael brought me by to see them near the end of the week and I could finally see the potential.  There was light and space in the rooms. They had cleaned windows, cupboards, and more.  All the trash had been hauled away.  They had even started working on some weak spots in the floors.  (Ask them who fell through and where!)  They were truly a blessing to us.  Some had even helped with providing childcare while I was taking David to visit doctors that week.

When Michael had his heart attack a couple weeks later, we called members of this team to be praying.  They had become close to our hearts as they worked to exhaustion with joy because they were ministering to us to help us keep going in our ministry.  We were blessed again by them this year, because they returned!  We were thrilled to have their 20 people in our home to see how it had changed.  They were as excited as we were.  They toured from room to room.  David and Joel’s room was the cleanest it had ever been! Nancy was excited to have so many people to show her treasures.  We shared and laughed and prayed and ate together.

We hope that all the other teams who worked on this house–many while Michael was recovering  and unable to oversee the project–are able to come back and visit us to see what they helped accomplish.  You have all been a blessing and encouragement to us.

We never like talking about these things, and you must know that we are extremely grateful for all our supporters and feel deeply for the tough situation many are in. However, things are getting desperate  for us and we felt it was necessary to make it known.

Despite starting the month of February a little ahead (donations in January had allowed us to keep some money in reserve) we had less money come in for February than we usually have to pay bills and buy food.  This month is even more dismal. We start out this month without enough money to cover health insurance and rent. Which means we don’t have any money for food, utilities, diapers, fuel, or prescriptions.

Beyond that, we have medical bills from last year that we have not been able to pay. Medical bills from this year we have no money for.  Our van has needed new shocks for over two years.  At least one tire is dangerously worn.  Michael needs new glasses–our medical doesn’t cover optical.  We are defaulting on student loans because we’ve never had enough money to make those payments.  We praise the Lord for a program called the Tooth Bus that takes care of the kids’ cleanings, fillings, and fluoride treatments.  David, however, needs his wisdom teeth removed. We are eligible for a program where we could have it done at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, but we would have to pay for an evaluation appointment and panel X-ray.  Joel has an extremely crowded mouth which is causing him a lot of hygiene problems resulting in lots of fillings.  They say that time with an orthodontist and braces might help.  All of this costs money we don’t have.

As important as all those things are, right now we are mostly concerned with paying bills and feeding our family. We were aware going into this work that a missionary’s life isn’t easy–especially financially.  We also know that God provides in amazing ways, and we have seen much of that.  For example the medical test that I had to have done this year is much less than what they had projected our portion would be.  Still, $600 is a lot of money even being 1/3 of the amount we had been told to expect to pay.

We are going through a time of direction seeking regarding the future of the ministry and how it will continue.  There is still a lot of work that needs to be done here, and we still expect to be partnering with FBC as this work continues, but a big part of our direction seeking has to do with the question of whether we can afford to continue doing this.  We are seeking God’s plan in this and hope that you will pray with us. If you want to know how to support us, you can click here for more information.

Sometimes when you are involved with an ongoing work of God you start to forget about noticing His hand in things. You start to get used to seeing amazing things happen, you begin to expect Him to come through with provision for something, so it doesn’t surprise you anymore. This can be a dangerous position to be in because you stop thinking about Him all the time, then you stop relying on Him. But sometimes you get little reminders that He is still there and still directing all His work.

We are entering a period of nonstop volunteers for about 6 or 7 weeks. It has been a long time since we had that many weeks in a row with workers, and some of these teams are large. So to prepare for that, Dave (one of our long term volunteers) and I spent the day lining up new jobs. We discussed the upcoming schedule in the morning and then planned to go out and check on some jobs. Before we left, though, we prayed together that God would lead us to the people he wanted us to help and that we would follow. 

We headed out and checked on the progress of a couple of existing jobs, then check on a lady that needed a handicapped ramp built. We then drove through some neighborhoods that we had worked in before to see if we could spot anyone that needed help. We began talking about the house that burned near the church (I mentioned it in my last post) and that I still haven’t heard from the family. We had made contact with the father of the homeowner, but not the young couple themselves. I asked Dave if he had seen the house yet, and since he had not, I said I would show it to him since it was just around the corner. When we got there, the man that owned the house, Ogdon, was there with some workers cleaning it out.

We introduced ourselves and he was happy we stopped by. He had lost our number that we had his dad pass on, and he went to what he thought was our church and was just given a list of other organizations that might be of help. Of course, it wasn’t Faith Bible that he went to. We talked with him for a while and prayed with him. He is still fighting with the insurance, but we told him we could have people out there first of next week to finish the clean up and remove the roof and rafters. We looked over the house and feel that it is salvageable, so we told him that we could provide the labor needed to rebuild his house. He was so excited. 

They bought that house because their old house was completely ruined by Katrina. This one had much less Katrina damage, so he was able to fix it. Then, it burned down. They are trying to stay strong, but it is unimaginably tragic. Please lift this family up in your prayers, especially as we begin to work with them next week.

But the real exciting part for Dave and I was that God answered our prayers, and we hadn’t even had lunch yet. He didn’t waste any time showing us where He wanted us to be, and it reminded me that He is still working and far from done with this ministry.

New years always bring changes, some desired some not. Some are big some and some are small (like having to remember to write 2009 on the checks). We face changes all the time, but they seem to draw more of our attention during that time when the calendar changes also.

As some of you already know, I changed how we do our blog this year. A few of the reasons were for greater accessibility for both Terri and I to post to it, and to make it easier for others to leave comments (the old one was giving us problems). Another reason for me was to have better stats on the blog: how many people are reading it, what days are stronger, how are they finding us, etc.

Part of me wishes I didn’t have that information now. Writing a blog can be a lonely process. You write much of what is on your mind never knowing for sure if anyone is even out there. In the past I could imagine that there were, now I know that there aren’t many. But I am thankful for all of you that are there (love to have a comment from you once in a while).

The work here has been an ever changing adventure from day one. Some of what we are facing now is a down-turn in volunteers, greater work shift from Slidell to New Orleans, changing roles amongst our team. Most of our ongoing team has had to back out of being involved with the work because of other life demands. Most of them have been involved for a long time, and some from the very beginning, so it has been very tiring for them.

We are also looking at this ministry moving from a “Disaster Relief” work to a “Community Rebuilding” effort. What does that mean? Well, not a great deal; we will still be concentrating on repairing the damage from Katrina, but it opens us up to help with other areas as well.

Two examples in front of us at this time: 1) A young couple with a 2 year old son were victims of a house fire in the neighborhood right behind the church. We are talking with them to see if we can be of help to get their house back. 2) we met an elderly lady that is bedridden. Her old house is in very bad shape; floors falling in, kitchen cabinets falling down, electrical problems just to name a few of the things. Her health caretaker (who informed us about her) said it best, “just because she is 91 she shouldn’t have to live like this.” Her kids might be able to come up with some of the money that we will need, but probably not enough. It is doing a lot of the same things, just different.

We press on, trying to adapt to the changes, all the while hoping and praying for more to see the need, not just here but in every city all across the country.

This church in Mississippi needs our prayers. Here are two links on the story.

Rebuild Lakeshore

Pray for Lakeshore

The St. Tammany Public Library’s 2nd Annual Lego Competition drew 20 competitors on Saturday, January 10th.  David and Joel were two of four in the 11-17 age group.  Though it took longer than anticipated, I believe that the guys were pleased with the results.  David won first place in the design competition and Joel won the People’s Choice Award!  The design competition was judged by retired space engineers (Slidell is not far from Stennis’ Space Center) who interviewed each child as part of the judging process.  All attendees–even Nancy–were able to vote for the People’s Choice award.

Joel typed up a report about the Eiffel Tower to bring with him to explain his inspiration.  I believe that his was the only design that took up the maximum height allowed.  Previous inspiration made the Eiffel Tower his choice to build.  We learned many interesting facts about it while researching it and looking for a detailed photo online.

David's 1st place design--a scorpion

      David’s idea to build a scorpion came from a creative process much like that of some of the inventors he enjoys reading about.  Initially, he had thought about a Star Wars inspired project.  But when challenged to think more creatively, he decided to attempt to build a spider out of Legos.  Lacking the pieces necessary to make a round body, design dictated another change.  Thus a scorpion emerged!

Nancy is eagerly hoping that they will change the rules for next year’s competition so that a six year old will be able to compete!  She has really enjoyed Lego time with her big brothers this past year and especially so since she was given a set of her own for a Christmas present from those same cool guys.  

Though Aiden was happy to run around the library, play with puzzles, and look at books while we waited through the process, his favorite part seemed to be sitting with friends and siblings to watch the award presentation.

Since then, we have welcomed several long-term volunteers back to Faith Bible Church and made preparations for the renewed flow of teams.  We are very excited to be getting back to the work that brought us here, though we enjoyed having more time with Michael at home during the lull between teams.  I am still involved with the women’s Bible studies at Faith Bible Church and looking forward to getting them going again.  Also, I am excited to be part of scheduling the volunteer teams and seeing God provide the workers needed to continue helping those who have lost so much.