A Different Evening.

I am sorry it has been a few days from our last communication but we have been very busy here and I have my nephews and a friend with us and I find myself spending my spare time with them. I love having family here and they are a joy to have. I thought I would let you see a little something different. Last Friday night we went to a Hip Hop Show that another church put on to bring out the community and let the community get to know them. This is a wonderful church that is reaching out to the community right where they are. They put on a Hip Hop show that gave praise to the Lord. Anyone could express there talent by singing or dancing or free styling rap but all the lyrics had to be centered around the Lord. It was so awesome. Our friend Robin who is visiting with us started off the show by doing some break dancing. He was awesome! You can see him in the last picture . No one wanted to get up but Robin started the show and then everyone else was a little less shy and started to show their talent. Give a big Yea to Robin! There were small children, teenagers and adults showing their stuff. I think it is awesome the way a church will not be constricted by what they are thought of and step outside the box to reach the community. God told us to go forth and preach the word to all the world and sometimes that means stepping out of our comfort zone and going beyond the four walls of the church and meeting the people where they are. In their culture, in their neighborhood and sometimes right in our back yard. The music was very loud and it reminded me of my youthful days when I use to go to concerts only this one had all the right lyrics that feeds your soul. To see the teens express their love for the Lord in such a way that made their faces shine with excitement made me want to cry. I cannot express the love they showed for what they did and whom they did it for.

The picture with the guy and girl singing are two of our team members Mark and Susanne. They sang a worship song together which got the crowd rocking. At the end of the show was what they call "Free Styling" where anyone can get up and rap lyrics to a beat but it is not rehearsed and it is off the top of your head. Well there was t

his little boy of five years of age that got up there and just rapped for the Lord. He truly blessed our heart.

Well I wanted to share a little something different with you and hope you can understand and appreciate it because we sure did. Until next time..Lots of Love coming your way...Allen and Dovie

A Night Of Hip Hop

They Did and They Did Some More!

Hi Everyone. I wanted to dedicate this page to justl pictures of the two teams that are here. I have some great pictures of them hard at work so I won't be saying much today. They are a wonderful bunch of teens that gave a lot and did a lot more. Everyday was a great day.
Lots of Love...Allen and Dovie

Boy They are Fast!

Hello Everyone. Sorry it has been a few days but it has been very busy here for me. Here are a few pictures of the two teams he have in. One team is from Lansing Michigan and the other is from Tacoma Washington. Both teams are working so hard and so quickly. No matter what job they are given it gets done. The pictures you see are from the past 3 days of working. The WA guys are doing sheet rock in a home and got so much done yesterday that we had to give them something else to do today so we could get more sheet rock. The Michigan team was doing painting and got that job completed yesterday so we had to give them something else to do today. We had both teams working together today to do a gut out. They tore through that house so fast and carefully it was awesome. I do love working with the teams so much.

Well my two nephews VanAuthor and Weston and their friend Robin has come to stay with us for two weeks. They were doing the same thing just as everyone else and did not complain once. I love these guys so very much so everyone keep them in your prayers. We have devotions tonight so I will say later for now. Lots of Love coming your way from..Allen and Dovie.

New Team, Yea Teenagers!

Hello Everyone. We have a new team from Lansing Michigan. It is a group of teenagers coming to help. I love teenagers. The pictures show them painting a house. This house was completely destroyed. It had to be gutted down to the beams and then rebuilt. It has all been done by volunteers. I am going to take pictures tomorrow on how this house looks now. It is amazing to watch how a house comes back to life and the owners get that look of unbelief but at the same time relief and hope. It is really something to see. The team is having fun while painting the house as you can see in one of the pictures. It looks like one of them is going to eat the paint but they were just doing crazy stuff. They have a good leader and her name is Jessica. She is one of us long timer people that is here for a while. She has been here for many months. She is the one in the picture that is pointing at the camera. She is such a blessing to have with us and she keeps us laughing. I love her dearly. Well I am tired this evening so I will say by for now. Until next time..Lots of Love from Allen and Dovie..

Gone But Never Forgotten

Hello Everyone. Well the New Mexico and Alabama team has departed but they are not forgotten. What they did this week was wonderful. The teens from the New Mexico team never complained once. It always fills my heart to see teens take a week from their summer vacation to come and help rebuild someone else life. They are not only rebuilding someones home but are giving them hope for a better future. They worked on the Spirit of Praise building that will be turned into a warehouse and home for volunteers. So actually they

were building the quarters for others to come and help. Volunteers helping volunteers and not knowing it, that is something. Everything you do down here is always helping in one way or another.

The Alabama team did a great job also in helping to rebuild. They had a teen on their team that decided to come to New Orleans instead of going to the beach with with friends for a week. Pray for him and the rest of the team for special blessings.

Both teams were great and we will miss them so from the bottom of my heat Thank You for coming.

Well my 2 nephews will be joining us for 2 weeks to help. Allen and I are excited about them coming. They are bringing a friend also who wanted to come and help. Keep us all in your prayers.

Until next time..Lots of Love coming your way from..Allen and Dovie..

Boy What A Day!

Hi Everyone. Boy did we have a day yesterday. We had two Tornado's touch down here and one was coming our way. Our team mates Monty and Susan were at the new warehouse bout 10 minutes away from us and saw the first Tornado touch down and then go up. If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you can see the funnel right behind the truck. They called me to tell me that it looked like it was headed our way. I tried looking out all sides of our building but could only see dark clouds and lighting. Also I saw the rolling of the clouds like I did the other day. I finally went behind our building up the fire escape and I got a good look at it. I couldn't believe what I saw. I had never seen a Tornado before and as I was seeing it I realized I did not want to see it that close. One of the teenage volunteers stayed behind with me after lunch because her arm was hurting and all I kept thinking is what should I do. As I stood on the fire escape and saw it moving toward us all I could do was pray. I closed my eyes and said "Lord I need you to take this Tornado away because I do not know what to do except pray so please help us" I prayed a little more then opened my eyes, it kept moving toward us but I wasn't scared anymore. There was a peace inside me. Then within minutes it moved away, the funnel went back up and the clouds dispersed. It was a sight to see. It is something I will never forget and also remember that with God I will never be afraid of anything because he is my shield.

We had a good dinner then that evening we had devotions. Every Thursday evening we have a time where we get together with the teams and other people from the neighborhood and people we have rebuild homes for come and join in. People give testimonies of there day and what God has done for them. The pictures show how everyone was praising God but what you don't see it the presence of God that was in the building. We could actually feel the angels there with us. There were so many testimonies and singing and praise that there was not a person in the place that did not feel the presence of the Lord. It went on till 11:oo p.m. We started at 8:00 p.m. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord moves on people's heart and what he does in their lives. It is hard to explain but if you were here you would know what I mean. I hope everyone that is reading this and has not been here has the opportunity to come and experience it.

Well I have to go now but remember we love you and until next time.. Lots of Love coming your way from ... Allen and Dovie

After a long hard day!

Hi Everyone. The pictures you see are the 2 teams at different times of the day. The first 3 pictures are from this morning in church when we start the day off with prayer. We all gather together to get the day started right and that is with the blessing and protection from God. We start with some singing then our director Joel gives a short message and then we pray together for the day. Any team that comes and has anyone who sings or plays an instrument is welcome to join in with their talent. It is so awesome when we have a variety of talented people from all over coming together to give glory to God.

The next set of pictures are of the team relaxing after a long days work. They have their showers and are playing a game. The team behind the food table are cleaning up the dinner that was served to them. Everyone on the team have their time on the cleaning crew. They are all smiles and really enjoyed the day even if it was a dirty job they had to do. They never complain but always come back talking about the excitement of the day. They had planned to do a little exploring of the city of New Orleans later that evening. The young man sleeping in the chair looks like he doesn't want to go anywhere because he is so tired. You do get tired after a hard day of work but it is well worth it you can ask any volunteer and they will answer with a smile (most of the time). Some was playing my favorite game of (Sorry) I love that game! If I get the chance I am going to play with them.

The leader sitting by himself was just relaxing. I caught him off guard but he didn't mind.

I am starting to have difficulties with this blog tonight because it is moving my pictures all around so I will stop here for now. I will be back tomorrow with more pictures. Until then God be with you... Lots of love coming your way from...Allen and Dovie

More to be done.

Hi Everyone. Here are the pictures of the teams from Alabama and New Mexico. The first picture is the The New Mexico team of teenagers tearing apart the roof of the building that came off during Katrina. The picture of the 3 boys are the teens also. The Alabama team is sitting at the table. They are working so hard on a house in a different location and I will get pictures of the house and get those on the site tomorrow.

The other pictures are of the warehouse that we are trying to get put back together. The pile of rubble in front of it is all the stuff from the inside of the building. The city will eventually come and take it away. The other picture is of the inside of the building now. Doesn't it look different from the other pictures? It is so empty now with just the studs holding up the building. If you go back to the previous pictures you can see the difference. The New Mexico team was working very hard on that building inside and out. They were doing an awesome job which but I do think their were a few people from Alabama there also.

The picture you see of the cloud was taken today while we were standing outside of the building. All of the sudden the dark clouds started rolling in. I had never seen clouds move so fast and roll like that. On of our team members Monty who is from Indiana was explaining to me that a Tornado is formed from clouds like that and he has seen them before. I have never seen one before but I knew that there have been Tornado here before so we went into the building. Well it still was an awesome site and and just as it started to pass it started to pour down rain. It was like someone was in the clouds pouring buckets of water on us. It was a very interesting day to say the least. Well it is an adventure.

By the way I would like to say HI to Jen and her sister that came from California. They were here about 2 weeks ago and I so enjoyed their company. YOU GIRLS ROCK! Thank you for your kind words of encouragement in the letter you left.

Until tomorrow... Lots of love coming your way from Allen and Dovie..

Welcome New Mexico, Mississippi and Alabama!

Hi Everyone. Here is some more pictures of the warehouse we are cleaning out to store stuff. I thought I would show you a couple of pictures of me and Allen. We also were there in the mud working. I look terrible but you don't wear make up or fix your hair because the makeup runs off your face from you sweating so much and your hear gets so dirty. Anyway this is the best I can do. The thing on my head is a breathing mask and I had to take it off a little bit. Allen tried to hide behind the wall that he was trying to take out but I got the picture anyway.

We have 3 new teams in this week, well actually 2 for the whole week because 1 team from Mississippi was just here for the day to do some work but they left this evening. They came with the New Mexico team. The New Mexico team has a lot of teenagers YEA! I love teenagers. There are about 35 of them from all over. They traveled 3 days in a bus to get here, boy that is what I call dedication to serving the Lord. They are really a great bunch of people. The teens keep me laughing. I will have pictures of them tomorrow.

The other team is from Alabama, there is about 12 of them and they are all adults. However, they are skilled and that is what we need right now. Don't get me wrong we have a lot to do for the unskilled people but there are things right now that need to be done by skilled people. We really appreciate the Alabama team for coming and helping us out. They are very nice and loving. I also will get pictures of this team tomorrow.

Well I just want to say thank you to everyone that continues to look at our Blog. It really does my heart good to know that people are looking at what we are doing. You are very much loved. Email us and I will post your email on the blog.

Until tomorrow...lots of love coming your way from..Allen and Dovie.