Ministry To The Hurting...

Hey, this is Sandi! I finally have the time to take a couple minutes (yeah, right...I know my posts are never only a couple minutes long :D ) to talk about the stuff that really matters to me here. The ministry...

Each day as I make my way from one applicant to the next I am trusting God to order my path. I ask Him to place me in the right place, at the right time, to speak to the right people...Divine appointments. He says He will in His Word (Psalm 37:23 AMP and Proverbs 3:6 AMP), so I remind Him of it.

Yesterday my first appointment was with an elderly woman who had a couple trees still on her house. I knew when I first met her that she was a Believer. You can just tell... As I started talking with her and her 16 year old granddaughter whom she'd raised from a small toddler, the Holy Spirit began moving.

We'd talked about the way God had done a healing miracle in her granddaughter's life after a severe child abuse incident as a 2 year old had left her paralyzed on one side. Now as a teenager, she was walking with just a mild limp and was involved in Junior ROTC in high school. I listened as the young woman shared how God had challenged her and transformed her life to overcome the disability and the poverty of the area in which they live. I had tears streaming down my face almost the whole time she was speaking.

By the time I was done with my inspection we were "havin' church" right there in my App's living room and God opened a door for me to pray with both of them. The 3 of us were crying, laughing, and praising God for His faithfulness. My Applicant looked at me and said that she "just knew" that God had sent me to her and was so grateful for me coming. Little did she know that I was the one who got blessed by meeting them!

A few weeks ago I did an inspection for a single mom who has 5 teenage+ kids. She herself was back in school pursing a Medical Assistant degree. I had been talking to her and two of her children about their dreams and goals in life. Her one son wanted to pursue a career as an architect and I'd seen some of his drawings. They were really good. I saw a Bible laying on the counter, so before I left I used that as an opening to just simply say, "I'll be praying for you."

That opened a door, and she responded by saying they could use all the prayer they could get. I asked if she'd like for me to pray with her before I left and her face brightened. The thing that was so awesome was that her two teenagers reached out to grab my hand to pray with us, so we all gathered in a circle and I got a chance to pray for each of them. We were all hugging and crying. God was just so awesome!

I've seen countless incidents where God's placed me in the right place at the right time. Case in point is one day last week. I'd made a decision to walk to Denny's for dinner and take a taxi back to the hotel since it was going to be dark by the time I got done (home girl don't walk in the hood in the dark!). Anyway, I always try to let the Holy Spirit guide me as to which road I walk down.

I looked down at the ground while I was walking, and there was a gas company credit card that someone had dropped. I picked it up and called the toll free number on the back to report that I'd found it. The lady at the credit card company was so amazed that I had turned it in, and it was a good feeling knowing that God had used me to keep someone from having their card stolen. If I had taken a different street someone else may have found it that may have misused it. God is good!

To all those back home, I send my love. I don't know when I'll be back, but I want to encourage all of you with the same encouragement that I give to myself...only those things done in the Spirit and for the Kingdom of God will stand for eternity; so, no matter how the economy or the election or anything else looks, "keep your eyes on the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ" and press through to finish the race that we are running. Fight the good fight of faith.

A friend of mine wrote to me the other day and voiced the thought that he couldn't wait to get to Heaven...and I agree...I'm longing to hear my Heavenly Father tell me, "Sandi, you made me right proud! Come on home!," and to see the countless lives that I'm believing God to touch through my life.

Until then, Daddy, let me touch one more life for you...

A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath, But A Harsh Word Stirs Up Anger

Well here we are... Houston, after what seems like three weeks. We are here. Jed just cussed out a lady on the phone at PaRR, right now I am more than a little concerned that she is going to cause us more trouble. Yes she was being unreasonable, but Jed needs to learn to keep his temper in check. If his little outburst costs us the chance to work here, then he better hope I have better control of MY temper. After all this I am swearing-off ever going out working for PaRR again.... but then again everyone does, each time they leave the field. And somehow they always come back. It’s like getting Malaria, it never really goes away, but with the right medicine you can control it, and mask the symptoms.

Other than these little bits of excitement the trip here from New Orleans was uneventful, which is a blessing. After the three months we battled through Katrina, we have much appreciated the traveling and mechanical mercies God has granted us. Well for now I guess this is all. We shall see what happens from here. We arrived to Houston with a third tank of gas and about 80 cents between us. If we are able to get the quick pay through, then we should have some money in about 4 days, but somehow we have to survive between now and then. As I said we'll see…

On The Hunt

This is Troy. Well it started off as a pretty straight forward morning. Waking up in the Explorer... trying to stretch and get the kinks out of my neck, then realizing that I'm 6'1" and the Explorer is a foot and a half narrower than I am tall. Then you begin to notice the rain. Heavy rain, and of course we have the windows half down. So it dawns on you that you’re wet. The sun roof is leaking, despite the fact that we have a large silver boat strapped over it. Jed is sitting there wild haired, with my laptop checking game scores. It’s of course Saturday, game day, and he is all about the games.

Well I'm still sore and more than a little hungry. so of course I make the obvious suggestion, "lets find some sort of sports bar where we can eat some cheep wings {one of my favorite foods in the world} and drink free ice tea refills all day, and you can watch your games on the big screens. seemed very simple, but in the end it cost us nearly two hours of peoples misdirection’s, to places that had been closed for years to places that weren’t even wing joints.

Finally in the end I was so annoyed I said, "Frick it, I’m pulling in the next place and asking for better directions. The next road veered of to the left, I turned down it and was upset to see no store for a ways, and I considered turning back but kept forward. Pulling in I saw the sign. "Wow, World of wing! Cafe and wingery." Yeah it was a beautiful thing.

Hours and hours later, we headed out to find our couch surfers place. Whew that was fun; they live two blocks off Bourbon St... well if you know anything about Bourbon Street that means is a heck of a thing to get to it on a Saturday night at 9:00 pm thousands of drunk college girls wearing a speck of thread and a thought. Stumbling around running into an equal amount of completely smashed rednecks. Throw in a few hounded transvestites strutting around in about the same thing as the college girls. And even a few dozen midgets and some people that looked like they stepped of the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh yeah, and cops... lots and lots and LOTS of cops.

Finally we were able to find a parking spot a mere 8 blocks from our destination. When we got to our home for the night, we were greeted by Heather and Casey, a couple of extremely friendly and happy hosts. Their house was full of their art, from paintings of Jafar and Cruela devil in the stairwell to many beautiful ceramics upstairs. Later we were lead down to a comedy club that performs freeform comedy, which was incredibly funny, I would recommend it to anyone. It’s called "Yo’ mamma’s." All in all a great night, and a nice break from the annoying life of a parking lot dweller.

We were sitting in the living room, and I was playing guitar, and singing into my amp like at the Drainage canal the night earlier, when it hit me. "We are two blocks from Bourbon Street! What am I doing here; I should go make some money! Well it was already 1:00 in the morning at this time, but I grabbed all my stuff, and of course at 1:00 there are still 20,000 people stumbling around. So I sat on the corner, and actually made 16 bucks.

But it was cool. I had a lot of people gathering around me and listening. Then after it was all over and I was walking home, I heard a familiar style of guitar slicing through the night, I turned to see Bill Gregory, a guitarist whom I had the honor of seeing three years earlier, playing on the stage of a club I was passing. I walked in and he saw me and smiled walked over to my corner of the stage and proceeded to pretty much show off, because he remembered me.

I personally think he's is one of the greatest guitarists out there…period. And as a semi-professional musician and a perfectionist, I don’t say it lightly. Here is a link to a video I found of him on YouTube...it really doesn’t do him justice, but it’s still pretty amazing. We walked home together and watched each others back from getting mugged, until we parted ways on St Louis Street. Wow another freaking cool night. And hey, now I can say I have been a street performer on Bourbon Street. Now that’s paying your dues! LOL!

Just another reason to never ever come back to do this again... Just like all the other times I never came back...

Today I got a shock.. Yup, I lost it too. When going to go check into the base camp as usual, I got a phone call from PaRR. It seems now, 13 days after I drove up to Winchester VA to get my FBI fingerprints and background check done--Which was supposed to come back in 48 hours}, it had finally come back, and low and behold.. It was "Not favorable" so after 6 1/2 years of working as an inspector, and no problems, and busting my bust for FEMA, they tell me Ii can’t work for them. Of course they won’t tell me why. They just say, "Go back home." Too bad I had to borrow money to get here in the first place, and now I don’t have enough to get home. We have been waiting for them to give me the go ahead, so we could request a Quick Pay which basically advances us enough money to live off for the next couple weeks till our real pay comes in. Plus the entire time we were there I was supposed to be getting paid a per diem each day. It is a large per diem, and would have actually made it worth while. Since you can be sitting there for a week waiting, but then I was informed that not only were they sending me home, they were not going to pay me the per diem. But rather a very small lump sum which was smaller than one day of the per diem. And no matter if I was sitting there for one day or two weeks they hadn’t planned on paying anymore than that.... Now hundreds of new inspectors are being paid the per diem to sit around the hotel and await their FBI results... Be me, a 6 year veteran. I get shafted. Yup, sounds pretty normal from PaRR

Flooding In Houma, LA

Well I got to Houma a lot later than I meant to. I passed flooded areas along the way and when I got to Houma I realized that many areas of the city were already flooding. I found my way to my first applicant's house, and the street was flooded. I'm in an SUV right now (A Chrysler Torrent) so I wasn't concerned about driving in it, because it wasn't that deep.

Southwest of Des Alemands...



It WAS a mobile home...



Just dock your boat at the front of the Family Dollar and come on in to shop...



Starting to flood from the backwash of Ike...



By the time I got done with my inspection, the water had risen about 2 inches. I don't know how high it's expected to get, but I heard someone mention waist deep water in places. I'm camped out in my car for the night in the parking lot of the Days Inn (that has no room in the Inn...) They said I could use the restroom during the night if I need to. It's a beautiful night with a lovely breeze. Almost no mosquitoes...

I had Chinese for dinner before parking here. I'll share my two dinner buddies with you...Crawfish and Frog Legs...Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!



Oh, I actually prefer that my food DOESN'T stare at me while I'm eating it! LOL!

From Pearl River, LA...

9/10/08 I’m sitting in Pearl River, LA at Pearl City Seafood (64207 Hwy 41, Pearl River, LA 70452) eating Crawfish Etoutfee. It is really good. When I pulled in I thought this was a restaurant, but it’s just a store. BUT, the lady was so sweet…she pulled out a folding chair and pulled over their “garbage can” that they use to store sugar, so that I could sit and eat. I love the food in Louisiana, and wish I could come sometime when it’s not following a hurricane, just to do a “food tour.” I want to find some Boudan sausage this time. I got addicted to it when I was here after Katrina.

So glad that the level of destruction out here is not like after Katrina. One of my applicants out here today lost everything because of Katrina. Not to downplay anyones losses with Gustav. All losses are still that...losses.

More later...