Were Back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Merry Christmas! We truly enjoyed ourselves being back home. We were with family and friends there that we had not seen in a while. God truly blessed us by just being able to share the holiday with our family and son. Our youngest son was able to make it for the holidays. Our oldest son had to stay in New Orleans and work. But I give God the glory because he is doing well and safe.
We are back and we have two teams coming in Saturday. We should have about 60 people here if not more. It is teams that have been here before and are excited about coming back again. We seem to have a full house this month. We have the East and the church filled with volunteers. God is Good! I am very excited to have teams again. I will have pictures of our teams as soon as they get here and you will be able to see them.
We will have a wedding this January also. It is Jessica and Mark's wedding. Joel is so excited and there is a lot to do so keep them all in your prayers. I will keep you updated on the wedding and events as they arise.
I pray for you all and until next time.... lots of love from Allen and Dovie

Reflection on the Holidays..

Hi Everyone. We have not had any teams in this month so there is no picture to show you of any teams. However I do have an update about Marguerite's house. She has officially as of yesterday had the gas turned on in her home. She now has electric, hot water, and stove hook up. She is so excited! I feel bad because she has not moved in all of her stuff but she is just excited that she can now take a bath in her house if she wants to. She is so looking forward to just taking a bath and relaxing. She said it has been so long since she has been able to do that. All you women reading this know how she feels. She won't be in her house for Christmas but she doesn't mind because she has waited this long a little longer will not matter to her. The way she describes it is God has given her a home back and one more day will not will not change that she now has a home. She goes into it in the day time and listens to her radio or TV. All of her family is in Texas and will not be here with her on Christmas so please pray for her.

We will be going home to visit family for the holidays and are excited so please keep us in your prayers too. As soon as we beg back we will be helping Marguerite move into her home. We will be making that our number one project. I will take pictures of everything and put them on the blog.

I would ask that you keep in prayer our son's who are having a struggle right now with some situations. It is hard sometimes but with the grace of God we keep going forward. I thank God for the Love and Understanding when dealing with family and loved ones. His wisdom compares to nothing else. I hope everyone remembers the Love and Joy of the holidays. If you need to be reminded click on this web link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY
It is about a 12 year of boy who has amazing insight. You wont' be disappointed.

We will keep you all in our prayers and until next time...lots of Love..from Allen and Dovie

A Beautiful View.

Hello Everyone. I know it has been a few weeks and I am sorry but we have had no teams and a lot has been going on family wise. However I have not forgotten about you. I do think of you a lot and that is why I put these pictures on the site. I thought you might like to see St. Louis Cathedral down town. I have never been in a Catholic church before and this one was beautiful. It has high ceilings and really big columns holding the second floor up. The ceiling has pictures on them and it amazes me how hard it must have been to paint them. They had a choir this evening praising the Lord and they were awesome. They have different singing events all though out this month until after New Years.

The first 2 pictures are of main street here in New Orleans. It is all lit up too with so many lights. I just love lights. It is very beautiful this time of year. I just wish everyone that sees these light get reminded of why we celebrate this holiday. I know the Catholic church does but I just hope that when people see the lights around the city they remember the reason for the season. I hope we all remember.

Well I hope peace for everyone until we see each other again. Show your families your love in this holiday season. Until next time... Lots of love from...Dovie and Allen

A Wonderful time of sharing..

Well the team from WA has left but will not be forgotten. I really miss them, they were wonderful. The pictures above are of them working on Friday getting things together for the home owner. It is 2 separate houses they are in. One house is almost ready to move into and the other as you can see is getting the drywall sanded down. They worked very hard on both.

Well the holiday was a good one after all. I was a little saddened because this was the first Thanksgiving away from our son Alex. But it all worked out. He was able to be with a family on Thanksgiving. A friend from his fraternity invited him home for the holiday. Alex said he had a wonderful time and the family made him feel right at home. God is go good! He had it all worked out. I even had a wonderful time with our team and the team from WA. We all had a big meal and fellowship together. Our other son Paul was able to be with us and we all ate entirely too much. God has truly blessed us so much and I am truly thankful.

Remember the Thanksgiving baskets that I was putting together well it went great. Sherry from the team helped me put them together. My goal was to put 4 baskets together, well the food needed was not coming in. I prayed and told the Lord it was all up to him that I could not do anything but talk to him. He whispered in my ear that everything would turn out. Well right before I was to put them together a friend of ours Rhonda who works at a bank did a food drive and brought several bags filled with things. She had announced it to her co-workers 3 days prior and was blessed by so much. So with the stuff she brought I still needed more things. Then a women called that wanted to bless us with things because we worked on her grandmothers house a while back and her grandmother was spending the holiday in her house now. She asked me for the list of things I needed so I gave it to her and she supplied every thing that was on the list. It was a long list at least 25 items. Every thing we needed for 4 baskets we got. You think that would be it, but no, God was not done yet. Another women that is a member of the church, came an brought more stuff and we ended up making 5 baskets! Yes 5 baskets! A man showed up out of nowhere asking for a food because him and his family had nothing so he got the 5th basket. He was going to try to carry it 10 to 14 blocks back home but Pastor Larry drove him back to his home with the basket. All the baskets that were delivered went to people who had nothing. Just to see the smile's on their faces and the love they gave us made Sherry and I cry. It truly was a wonderful day and I thank God he allowed me to be a part of it.

I do hope everyone had a good holiday hope that you got the chance to tell the people that you love just how much you love them. Cherish every day like it is your last.

Until next time...Lots of love from Allen and Dovie

What a way to start the Holiday!

Wow what a night! We just got back from serving Thanksgiving dinner to college students at Tulane University that can't go home for Thanksgiving. They were mostly international students from all over the world. The WA team was having a lot of fun also. They worked all day then got excited about serving food to others. They wore smiles all night. I truly enjoyed talking with so many different students. I made friends with Monique and Jan (it is actually pronounced Yan). They are from Germany and are her for a semester. They will be going back to Germany Dec. 23rd. They were so nice and I learned a lot from them about Germany. They will be looking at the blog and I will be looking at theirs. They are the couple in the picture above. The other picture is of our group and WA group and serving pie.

I also met Yamini from India. She has just graduated from Tulane and now works with a firm here in New Orleans. She is living here now for at least a year until she decides if she is going to graduate school or not. She is very sweet and her and I will be communicating a lot more and becoming friends. Both Yamini and Monique and Jan said I could come to their country and stay with them. Boy it should would be nice to see their country. On day in the future God may send me there to help, who knows.

It just amazes me some times how God puts things together. Here I was serving food to college students who would not make it home for Thanksgiving and my son Alex will not be with us on Thanksgiving. I often thought this evening of what I was doing and asked the Lord to make sure he was provided for on his campus. I know I have said it before but this being our first Thanksgiving not being together is a little sad. I will count my blessing though because he is healthy and I will see him next month. I guess the first time is always the hardest time.

I will be extremely busy tomorrow getting the Thanksgiving baskets ready to distribute to those who have nothing. Then Thursday is Thanksgiving and I have to cook so I may not be able get back to the blog until after Thanksgiving, so for this I am sorry.

There is something from my heart I want to share, I don't normally say this on the blog but I have to do it. I would ask that you keep us in your prayers and if the Lord puts on your heart to bless us with a financial love offering, it would greatly be welcomed. Thank you and we will keep you in our prayers as always.

This is the holiday season and everyone is busy with family and shopping but please remember to take time to tell your loved ones how much you love them. It is something I believe we need to do more of.

Well until next time have a wonderful holiday and lots of fun....... lots of love from Allen and Dovie

Washington is here!

Washington got here Saturday night and is working hard. I take my hat off to them, they are going to be here through the Thanksgiving holiday. They have left their homes and family to be here with us. It warms my heart so much. I will have more pictures of them later this week.

We are busy right now trying to get the things needed for Thanksgiving baskets ready. We are collecting food for Thanksgiving to give out to people that won't have anything for the holiday. We will be doing this for Christmas also so anyone interested in sending any donations is most welcomed. Everything really is coming together, it's just a matter of putting it in one place to sort and put in baskets. I love to give things to people. I don't care what it is it always feels good to give. They will get all the fix ens for dinner to share with their family. The team and all the staff here will be serving dinner tomorrow to international students that can't make it home for the holiday. We will be working with two very wonderful people from Ki-Alpha who have a ministry here. It is a ministry directed toward college students. They do a wonderful job getting the word to the students. I will let you know how it all turns out.

Suzanne will be traveling home for Thanksgiving tomorrow so please keep her in your prayers. The rest of us will be here doing what we always do, that which we love to do.
Until next time....lots of love from Allen and Dovie.

CA is gone and will be missed.

California left this morning with smiles on their faces. They did so much while they were here and we all appreciate it. They were wonderful people. I do hope they come back again I had so much fun playing games with them.

This will not be a long blog today and I am sorry. I pray for everyone and hope you all keep us in your prayers. We love you all.

Allen and Dovie...

They are hard at work!

The team is working hard on a home. This is a home that has totally been built by volunteers. The gutting the mudding the roof, drywall almost everything. We couldn't do the plumbing or electricity but most everything else. This team is moving fast and do a great job. It is funny because sometimes some of the teams come in with so much on them, I wonder are they getting more on them or on the walls. It always shows that they are having a great time in what ever they do.
They will be working in a different home tomorrow. There are more people to help than their are volunteers but with God at least we can help some.
The holidays are right around the corner and I am a little sad because this will be the first time our son from college will not be with us. Hopefully we will see him at Christmas God willing. This actually will be the first time we wont be in our home in Delaware but things change and we will be with our extended family here which makes me smile. I think of all the people here that have lived in the trailers for the last 2 years and my spirits lift because blessed me with the ability to be with my son's the last 2 years. We never truly remember how blessed we are until God reminds us of others who have less. Please keep all the people here in your prayers. Until next time...we love you all.. Dovie and Allen

Welcome another team from California!

This ia them being crazy!

Hello Everyone. Well we are welcoming another team from California. We have had quite a few from CA. They are all wonderful people and have a big heart. This team is no exception and are really fun. They all love to play games and the leader of the group loves to loves to play the game "Sorry" Anyone that knows me knows that is my favorite game of all times. We played 3 games tonight and I had a great time. I did not win any games but it was fun getting to know them.
They have been here since Saturday and have been working in a couple of different homes. I will have more pictures of them tomorrow. They have been doing mudding and some drywall I think. I will have the scoop for you tomorrow.
This is their first trip here and are making every minute count.
Not much to say this evening because I am tired so until tomorrow...Lots of Love from Allen and Dovie...

P.S. Dorie I got your message and have tried to email you but it keeps coming back to me . Please email me again with your email address. Thanks.

We had a blast!

Kayla and Allen the "Fire Starter's"

We had a blast! We made it back from our camping trip in one piece and with much needed relaxation. Everyone had a good time and a relaxed time. The fellowship and quiet time was truly a blessing. The cabin was beautiful and the inside was so spacious. It had a loft with a queen size bed and a twin bed and a huge round window to look out of. The girls had one cabin and the guys had another. We were right on the lake and the geese would swim right up to us so Jen threw bread to them. The lake was beautiful and so quiet. Allen and Kayla made the fires at night and had a lot of fun doing it. I like camping and I think the only way to camp is to stay in a cabin, not really, I like camping in a tent also.

I got up early every morning and saw the dew was coming off the lake. It was something watching it lightly dissipate into the air as the sun arose. Just the quietness of it all made me think of how God is such an awesome God to have thought of all this beauty around us, and sometimes we forget what it is like because we get so busy in our everyday life. It reminds me that event thought we are building homes and lives for people here to take time to smell a flower or look at a sunset. God is in everything that is created and yet sometimes we miss it. Needless to say the Lord spoke with me in everything I saw while camping. I would like to say to anyone reading this to take time out of your busy day and look at the beauty around you.

Until next time we love you all.... Allen and Dovie

Open Mic Night

Hi Everyone. Sorry it has been a week since the last blog. We have no teams right now but one will be coming in on Saturday. Kayla put on an "Open Mic Nigh" here in the coffee shop a couple of weeks ago for teenagers and young adults. It went very well and we had a lot of fun. She did a great job putting it together. Here vision is to give the teens here a place where they came come and have some fun and be safe. On open mic night you can sing, dance, do drama, whatever you want as long as it exemplifies God. Here are some pictures of some of the people that got on the stage. The first pictures are of James his two daughters and his son who are members of the church. He also volunteers his time to help cook on Sundays for the congregation. They sang as a group and sounded good. It really touched my heart to see a father and his children sing gospel songs praising the Lord. It was great.

The next picture is of Wayne a teen who sang a song but, his greater ability is dancing. We tried to get him to dance but he wouldn't do it. He does hip hop, pop and lock and jazz dancing. God has truly blessed him in that area.

The last picture is of Brett who works with Teen Challenge. He did a rap song and none of us knew he even rapped. He was awesome and blew us away. We as God's people have talent but keep it hidden and I just challenge anyone reading this blog not to hide what God has given you. Be proud and share it with others.

We are preparing to go camping this weekend. The pastors are taking us on a volunteer retreat. Allen and I are excited and it seems everyone else is excited too. It is much needed rest and relaxation with our team. Time for us to bonding as a team. I thought to my self we are pretty well bonded right now but with God there is always room for more. All we have to bring is ourselves and everything else will be provided. I was told that I will not be cooking, now imagine that me not in the kitchen. I am going to try not to intervene and just relax and get what the Lord has for me. There will be a time of worship and praying together so I know God will have something to tell me. He always does no matter where I am. Don't you just love the Lord for that? He is always showing us things even when we are having fun. I will have some pictures of the trip when we get back.

If anyone has a prayer request please email it to me and we will pray for you. Until next time we love you all... Allen and Dovie

Fall Fun Fest!

Well the Fall Fun Fest went good. All the children had a wonderful time and so did the adults. The coffee shop was full of people. We had hot dogs, nachos, cookies, cupcakes, and lots of candy! We had open mic from 6-7 p.m. and I was so busy I did not get a chance to take the pictures. It was so cute seeing a little boy of 6 years old singing Jesus loves me. By the time I got my camera he stopped and wouldn't do it again.

Well we had some hero's show up like superman, spider man and several angels were in our presence. We even had a king show up but again I missed the opportunity to get the picture. There were a number of other's that I don't quite know what they were but it was very interesting. There were children who just loved being here to get a good meal, and of course the candy. They didn't have to worry about being out on the street.

All throughout the evening we had some homeless people come in and enjoy the food and the music. We fed them and loved on them while they were here. I thank God for allowing us to share the word with them.

Between 7-8 p.m. we had games. It was so much fun! We played "bobbing for apples" which is my favorite game this time of year. There is a certain individual (who I will not mention) that said no one would play that game. Well let me tell you it was the hit of the night! That person was wrong. Everyone played even the adults who acted more like children then the children. No body cared that they were getting all wet.

We played the Bible game where I tell them a scripture and verse and the first one that finds it and read's it gets a prize. It was so funny to see everyone scrambling to find it and read it but at the same time what they read often made them think and ask questions. Some of the leaders from Teen Challenge came and helped out and even did the bobbing for apples.

God truly blessed this evening and all had fun. I am just thankful that he chose me to be here to witness his blessing on all the people.

Until next time, we love you all... Allen and Dovie

Sorry no pictures

Hi Everyone. Sorry there has not been a blog for a few days but we have been busy. Both teams left Saturday and we miss them already. They did a wonderful job on the houses they worked in.
We are having a Fall Fun Fest here at St. Luke and at N.O. East tonight to give an alternative to halloween. I believe it is important for children to have an alternative to halloween. Joel, Suzanne, Kayla, Papa Dufor and others are coordinating one at the East. Me, Allen, James, Patrice and others are coordinating the one here at the church. We will be having hot dogs, nachos, cookies, candy and games. We will also have bobbing for apples. I love this game! I remember when I was a kid playing this game and I was always good at it. I don't know if I liked getting all wet or if it was the prize I got for doing it. Either way it was a lot of fun. We have a lot of work to do today to get everything accomplished so this blog will be short. I will have pictures of the event tomorrow to put on the blog. Keep us in your prayers and we will keep you in ours.

Lots of Love...Allen and Dovie

Iowa is going strong!

Hi everyone, this is the Iowa team at work in Janice's house. It still needs trimming, painting and doors. We are trying to get this house completed but it is a slow process. This Iowa team went to work in this house and did not stop. They were putting in doors, molding and so much more. They got a lot accomplished. This group is a more mature group in age with a lot of experience. They got up at 6 am had devotions at 7:30 am and out to work at 8 am. I could not believe there energy and drive. The one picture you see is of a wonderful woman who is 82 years old and is still swinging a hammer. I talked with her several times and she just amazes me. She, at 82 is still volunteering to help rebuild homes. I pray that at that age I have as much energy that she does. They are such a wonderful group and a delight to work with. They will be leaving tomorrow as will the California team and we will miss them all.

I would like to ask everyone to keep the CA team in your prayers because they have family and friends in the CA areas that are burning out of control. Yet they are here working with people to get them back in their homes. Truly that is a heart of God.

We have met so many people through this volunteer effort that it just amazes me and makes me humble before the Lord because he allowed me to be a part of this. I truly have gained so much respect and love for everyone that comes here to volunteer. Thank you to all who have been here and will be coming back.

Until next time...we love you all and will continue to pray for you. Love Allen and Dovie.

Hi. Well last night was a night of fun for the teen group from CA. You can see in the pictures that there are 3 different teams. Each team had a pillow case and went around the living quarters and filled it with what ever they wanted. The game had 4 judges (the leaders of the group) who named off things they had to show. For example if they said a bar of soap and a team did not have a bar of soap they had to come up with something else and try to convince the judges that it was better than a real bar of soap. It was hilarious! These teens came up with some crazy and creative things for the judges and we laughed so hard. I am glad I was not a judge because it was so hard to decide which team should get the point. I think the judges had a hard time deciding who to give the points to. All I have to say is they were very creative.




They have worked in a house all this week putting up drywall and they have done a great job. They have worked very hard and has worked as a team as you can see from the pictures. They are even coming back this December right after Christmas. They are a very dedicated group. You can tell they love and respect their leaders and themselves. We had devotion tonight at the church with both teams and it was good. The Iowa team and the CA team spoke of what God had showed them on this trip. They have enjoyed each others company. I know the home owners that they have been working for is very grateful too.

Pastor Teresa found a dog in the highway yesterday and has taken to the dog. Suzanne has really grown to love the dog in just 2 days. It is such a cute dog, you can tell it is a mixture of a beagle and hound or something. They tried to find it's owner but couldn't. They walked the dog around the neighborhood but did not get any response. They are going to take it to the vet tomorrow to make sure it is ok. If they don't find the owner Suzanne would like to keep it instead of taking it to the humane shelter or something where they would just put it to sleep. We are praying for the right thing to do.

Well I will put pictures of the Iowa team on the blog tomorrow. Until then we love you and will continue to pray for you all. Allen and Dovie

Iowa is here!

Meet Iowa! This is a team from Iowa that came in on Sunday. They are here for a week. They are wonderfully sweet people. Boy do they know their skills. They move through a house with expertise. They are working on Janice's house to try to get things done. I will have pictures tomorrow. They have been having dinner with the youth group from California and they all are having a good time.

Last night it rained so hard we got at least 5 inches of rain. Allen says it was more but all I know is it was a lot. Anyway there was a young man in the California team that took my umbrella and walked each and team member from Iowa to the van so they wouldn't get wet. He took all the women first than what ever men wanted to be covered. Now he got soaked while dong it and his shoe's were all muddy but he did not care. No one asked him to do it, he just took it upon himself and did it. It was so wonderful to see a teenager take the initiative to help others. I sat there and watched how the women just loved him for doing it and he just smiled until he was done. We have talked often and I can tell he loves the Lord with all his heart.

I will have some picture of both the teams tomorrow so until then we love you all. Allen and Dovie