The Wesley Foundation

Day 1

Jay Hinton

Sunday, March 1, 2009

We congregated at Cullowhee UMC/Wesley Foundation around 4:00pm and by 5:15am we were loaded in a 15 passenger van and the CUMC bus. The trip was pretty uneventful until we driving through Tuscaloosa, Alabama and it began to snow. It snowed and snowed and snowed. I began to wonder if we were going to have to stop and get hotel rooms because the roads were getting bad. After several hours of cautious driving, the snow let up and we were able to get back on our desired pace. As we got closer we noticed a field off the side of the interstate where thousands of FEMA trailers were parked and deemed unusable due to formaldehyde somehow contaminating them. What a shame. They were just sitting there for years unusable.

We arrived at Aurora United Methodist Church in New Orleans around 5:00pm Central time. We unloaded and shortly after went out to a local dinner called “Applebee’s.” You’ve probably never heard of it but it was pretty good (I’m just kidding, I know you know what Applebee’s is). After that, we were back to the church and off to bed to get ready for our first day of work.

DAY 2

Corey Benfield

Monday March 2, 2009

Hey my name is Corey Benfield, a sophomore at Western Carolina University. This was my first experience down to New Orleans and a widespread tragic disaster. So when we were driving to the worksites, it was just overwhelming of how much to take in from all the damage that is still here from four years ago. It just really changed who I am as a person of coming down here and seeing how much LOVE many Americans have in this darken world. God has called us to share His gospel and be Christ-like and be a light in this world that is in complete darkness of sin.

When we got to the worksite we just started working right off the bat and helped everyone out with the project that one group was on. We just had a great first day working for this stranger that we are showing love to and it just made my day just giving me the experience of helping the less fortunate out and the people that has been effected by Katrina. Then when we were eating lunch (PB&J’s) and the homeowner drives up in the driveway. Jay and I just walk over to where she was and she just came out of the place where she was with a smile, a big smile. Her name was Janice and she was probably the nicest and most loving person I have met, besides my grandma and mom. She also offered to take us out to eat for lunch and was just talking to us for a while and was just so full of life and just full of love. She seemed like the queen of the street and the light in the neighborhood. After that we got back to work and had a productive rest of the day.

When we got back to the church we had an awesome dinner and the Bible study/Devotion. In the devotion it was just so much love and happiness of the day that was felt during the time of devotion. God has placed all of us here for a reason because our calling this week is to share our love and be a light in a community that really needs a light shone and really needs God’s hand placed on it. This day was a great start to an amazing Spring Break of LOVE. Janice is AMAZING!!!!! If you read this Janice Wesley Foundation of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina LOVES YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE A BLESSING TO US!!!!

Day 3

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Haitham Dawuid

This is the best trip ever, period.

I wanted to start with that since that’s how I feel. I had a little bit more time this morning than yesterday morning to eat breakfast. It was really good food. We left about 9:10 A.M. this morning; it was fairly easy on the highway. We had to put some bathroom tiles at our site, I had to mix some more cement today. I did that yesterday too but we didn’t use it. Then we had the most delicious food in New Orleans. Janice, very nice lady from here, took us to a local restaurant where I had my white beans and rice with fried chicken. It was awesome. I think everyone enjoyed their lunch.

After lunch, we got back to our site and decided to but some doors up since we were done with the tiles. We started to cut the door frames, but them up. Manning was putting some baseboard in the closed room, Alicia was helping him. Carol and I helped David to do the doors thing; it was really educational to me personally. I learned many things. I had the opportunity to enjoy few days with great friends, and meet new ones. Like Marin and Stephanie, share some stories, worship, love each other, and help other people just because it makes us happy.

There is one more thing I’m going to learn probably tonight or maybe later on. It is the Scrabble game. I think Alicia is going to teach me, or maybe Stephanie or Jennifer. I think that’s all I have for tonight.

God bless us all.

Thanks.