I have been asked by multiple people in our parish (St. Michael's) to design and publish a blog so that the parishioners who are staying at home, and keeping us in their prayers, will have a way to follow along on our journey. I have never blogged before, but I am confident that one (if not all) of the 43 teens going with me will help me out. (So far, so good.)

My name is Lori Anne, and I am the Youth Faith Formation Minister at St. Mike's. Anna, the Adult Faith Formation Minister and myself are taking 43 teenagers (with 8 other chaperones) and 35 adult team members to St. Gabriels in New Orleans. We leave on June 19th and will be returning on the 25th. While we are at St. Gabriels, we plan to gut and help reconstruct 15-20 parishioners homes. Some of these homes have not been opened since the hurricane came and the levy failed. The devastation is immense.

A lot of planning and hard work has taken place already. The teens will depart by bus, and the adults are carpooling in RV's, vans, and cars. When we get to St. Gabe's, the teens (and their chaperones) will be sleeping on air mattresses in the school classrooms, and the adults are staying in dorms at Loyola University and carpooling to the church. (Don't worry, those of us staying at St. Gabe's in the school building have air condition and showers too!)

We have a team of adults who are coming just to feed us! Jim, Sally, and crew have worked hard at making our meal times appealing to all age groups, and we hope to experience a little bit of New Orleans cuisine as well. We even have a pot luck supper planned with the parishioners of St. Gabe's. (Yummy!)

Fr. Doug, Sr. Kathleen, and Matt are our contacts at St. Gabe's. Anna and Manette have been down there to visit twice and to firm up our itinerary. They are extremely excited to be working in conjunction with the three of them. They assure me that they are a great team, and from talking to them on the phone, I have no doubts!

We will working long days, but have some free time built in too. At the end of each day, there will be "Club Time" for the teens. This is a time where the teens get to decipher what happened during the day, and how they saw Jesus at work. We have gospel reflections, sharing, praise, and laughter. It is a great way to be relational, while showing God's love to others. Of course, the adults will have reflection and prayer also. They will be meeting at the church, and we will be upstairs in our chapel.

That's about all I have to share for now. If you make comments to this blog, and ask questions, I will do my best to answer them in blog form, so that everyone will get to see the answer. (Unless of course, it is of a personal nature. . .then I'll just try to email back.) We are really looking forward to going, and special THANKS! goes out to the parishioners of St. Michaels who supported us financially, emotionally, and spiritually. We love you and are happy to be a part of your parish family.