Sunday service at Elm Grove Baptist Church

The trip was filled with wonderful moments including worship with the members of Elm Grove Baptist Church at their 8 AM and 12 noon services. Reverend Errol Domingue preaches twice at Elm Grove. Once at 8 AM then he hurries of to another church plant to preaches live and then back to Elm Grove at 12 noon. Each service at Elm Grove is a different worship & message.
Our main work was in New Orleans and that began on Monday as we started laying tiles at the new 2000 sq ft youth center at Lower Light Baptist church. While the work was difficult we had a good team as the PFB team joined with members of Elm Grove and Lower Light Baptist.

In Baton Rouge

After travelling over 1800 miles the team finally arrived in Baton Rouge. With God's help we made it safely with no major traffic issues.

We took off at 7 am from Fort Stockton and made it to San Antonio in time for lunch at Bill Miller's BBQ. It was a good taste of Texas cooking at a good price. We then headed out around 1 pm and reached Baton Rouge around 7:45 pm.

We were greeted by Reverend Errol Domingue who was at work in his study. Brother Walter Howard with whom we have worked with from our very first Hurricane Katrina recovery trip also met us and showed us where we would be staying for the night. A three bedroom house that once belonged to a wonderful woman of God who passed away at 105 years old. We had met her two years ago when our Hurricane Gustav recovery team came and helped clean out some fallen limbs from her yard. It was at her yard that two members of the team contacted poison oak and had a severe reaction for weeks.

The house is potentially one that the Nehemiah Society at Elm Grove Baptist will purchase with PFB Pomona assistance for a family that had to relocate because of Katrina.

We had a time of prayer for Jacob's daughter with brother Howard then headed of to the local Wal Mart to get some supplies for the team. We also had a quick meal at Taco Bell & headed back to our home for the next week. The key question on our minds was when will different team members be using the one bathroom that we have in the house.

The weather is quite pleasant and we look forward to our time here. We all plan to get a good night rest. The picture of the team was taken outside the La Quinta Hotel in Fort Stockton at 7 am.

Please pray for continued good relationships between team members. Some rest and for a wonderful time of worship with our brothers and sisters at Elm Grove. We will be attending the early service at 8 am.

Fort Stockton

After leaving Pomona at 4 am this morning our team finally arrived at our resting spot for the night, Fort Stockton. We arrived at 11:55 pm, quickly checked in to our rooms and are getting some rest after the almost 1100 miles of driving. God was with us as we travelled, very light traffic, no illness, and eyes of protection as we battled some wind and dust along the way.

Please pray for us as we finish out the drive to Baton Rouge. We hope to get in by 7 pm tomorrow. Pray for Jacob's daughter who is battling cancer. pray for the fellowship with our friends at Elm Grove on Sunday and for the work at the church in New Orleans, laying tiles and sharing with children in the neighborhood.

We had the most fun eating at a place called Chico's Tacos which we found out later is a chain. We were told by someone that this was the best taco in all of El Paso and we stopped at a place that was busy and had quick service. Unfortunately the food did not live up to the expectations of all six of us. We had a good laugh and moved on with the hope that Maria will make us some tacos sometime this week. The picture is of Ron & Georgia in front of Chico's Tacos in El Paso.

They're off to Louisiana!

The Louisiana team of Sham Rambaran, Ron and Georgia Hernandez, Matt Runge, Maria Orsonia and Jacob Battieste left Pomona this morning well before the sun rose. Sham called from Phoenix to let us know that they got underway with no problems and expect to hit Texas by nightfall.

The team will work side by side with our sister church Elm Grove Baptist in the continuing recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina. Additionally they will spend time with the children and families of Louisiana building friendships and sharing one another's burdens through games, songs, teaching, eating and caring.

Check back often for pictures and updates.