Day 2 - Working hard for da people!

Today the roofers continued and finished their roof, Stacy, being a true trooper joined Judy, Mary and I and did installation in another house. We actually finished a whole house from start to finished before we took a lunch break - what can I say, we rocked!! We have Kitchen duty tonight so I gotta go get ready for it. I have included a photo of Judy and I doing installation since I realized I had not had her picture yet on here. Need to include one of Chuck as well. Will do that later tonight. Oh we had fun last night playing catch phrase.

Cheers, Lisa

Day 1 - the mission has begun!!

Well, we got up early and I had a leaders meeting while the crew enjoyed breakfast - don't feel sorry for me, I still got to eat! Some of us install installation and others replaced a roof in the same neighborhood. We are tired now - great day nobody got hurt! we plan to check out the city tonight.
The pictures here are of the following:
The Diver Darlings with brother Brad
Pastor Lisa (me) and Mary in our NASA suits
and finally the roofing crew, notice George thinks he is popeye!
Will update tomorrow!
P.S. - Chuck got in fine!
Cheers, Pastor Lisa

What A Crew!

We visited Two Sisters restaurant and met Florence, she has worked at this lovely place for over 40 years and lost her house in the hurricane and still lives in a FEMA trailer, she was wonderful to us and thanked us for coming down to the area to help in the rebuilding.

Today we went to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets at breakfast and walked a bit more around the city. Weather was perfect today! We checked out of our hotel at noon and headed to Gulfport, we stopped for lunch at the Cracker Barrel, one of Judy Duvalls favorite places and got a table for 12. We arrived at the habitat village and checked it. Buck beds in a trailer, in a stadium with our very own running track. Don't get any crazy ideas, but we did do a few loops around the track. We met this evening with the other groups here and had a chance to talk to Brad who will be our job site coordinator. He is Mary's son and Stacy's brother and a member of Lisbon UMC so this is extra special for us. Keep us in your prayers tomorrow as we start working on our job site.

In Christ, Pastor Lisa

We're Here!!

Greeting Loyal Readers :)
Well we had a wonderful flight. Judy our flight attendant kept us entertained, or maybe we entertained her. We ran around the city yesterday and some of us got caught in the rain and then we did a walking tour of the french quarter, that was awesome. Joe was a wonderful tour guide. The under 50 crowd stayed out till after 1 and experience Bourbon Street. We evangelized in a few local watering holes.
Today we are looking forward to a traditional New Orleans breakfast and heading to Gulfport around noon. This lovely picture is of some of us at Jackson Square in front of the oldest active Catholic Cathedral in America - St. Louis Cathedral.
Keep reading!
Wish you were here, Pastor Lisa

Count Down Mission Control !!!

Major Tom? No, just me, 4, 3, 2, 1, Earth below us drifting . . . Oh well, loved that old eighties little ditty. The count down has begun for our mission trip, we taxi out of BWI tomorrow morning at 8:15 AM and land in New Orleans after 10 AM there time. I ask for your prayers this week, for safe travels, for the opportunity to help our neighbors, I pray that we may be what the body of Christ can be at its best. I worked this week on a little packet of daily devotions for the group to do and I hope they find it helpful and meaningful to them.

I will keep you updated on our trip because I will be taking my laptop and camera. What this blog for info!

Blessings, Pastor Lisa

Passover 2008: Get Down with Moses

Having a sense of humor is a wonderful blessing. Thanks to Pastor Chuck Leger for sending this to me. REMEMBER: always carry a big old stick to keep the pharisees off your back so you can dance. Happy Passover to all!

RUN REV RUN!!

OK, NOT a big jerry springer fan am I.
In fact, I think I would rather watch the book review channel than the Jerry Springer show.
However, the other day as I was trying to keep myself on the treadmill for just a few more minutes I frantically flipped through the stations for something to take my mind off my huffing and puffing I came across something interesting. As I was channel surfing I came across the end of Jerry Springer and his advertisement for his website. He has a video game on his website entitled, "Run Rev Run" well of course this caught my attention and I had to check it out when I got back on my computer.

How many times is a Reverend the hero in a video game???

It seems silly enough as video games go, however, there does seem to be an eerie connection to real life in the pulpit.
The hero, the Rev, is late to get to the Jerry Springer show to do a wedding.
He must avoid clowns, tires and flaming barrels to get to his destination.

Surreal, when you consider the clowns in our church worlds, that are always jumping around in front of us, taking up all our attention and just plain "clowning around." Then you have those gosh darn rubber tires bouncing toward us trying to distract us that we must avoid constantly. Then add the barrels coming at us on the road of life with manholes just waiting to gobble you up if you don't see them. Crisis after crisis!

The only way to avoid certain death and still make it to your destination is to jump on the Bible and fly above and past them safely.

Is scripture the true way to salvation? Is it central to our faith? Is this a Wesleyan doctrinal statement with a Springer twist?

Please check out this http://www.jerryspringertv.com/games/run-rev-run and do your best to help the Rev make it to the chapel, I mean the Springer show on time! As you go pick up some loot for the offering plate or gift for the happy couple.

Thanks for reading! Have a peaceful day,
Your Running Rev Lisa

Go on and drink the kool-aid!

Well, it is a little after 10 PM on Saturday night, I need about another 300-600 words to make my sermon complete for tomorrow and I can't think of a thing more to say about this scripture without going in another direction with it.

But this little reflection is not about my sermon, it is about the Baltimore Orioles, I watched a little of the game this evening while I was on the treadmill. It looked a little scary that first inning but we held off those Yanks even though they were in scoring territory.

Anywho, I just turned it back on to see the last inning and we sweeped them!

I can't believe it, I know it is too early to get excited but maybe, just maybe this is the year of the Oriole! That would be awesome.

Oh also, watching the first and last innings of a game work well for me! It reminds me of Nascar, just want to see them start that first loop and see the checkered flag come down at the end.

OK, go O's and now that I got that off my chest, I'am going back to my sermon.

Cheers! Lisa

One Year Ago Today

Time does go on even when we can't imagine it can continue. I find it hard today not to be thinking about the students at Virginia Tech and how one persons sickness can effect so many others lives permanently. School should be a place that is safe for students to experience learning and fellowship, growing in understanding of their connections in this world. A college campus is like a small local community where you know everyone and eat together like a family and stay up late talking about life. Some of the most important experiences in life happen when we have the safety of our surroundings and safety of friendship. Does that make sense?

I pray that folks out there in our world, like the gunman in this tragic event find the help they need instead of acting out in this manner.

Sorry to be so deep this first reflection, just where my head and heart is today.

God's peace, Pastor Lisa