Did you know that Christ knows how to use a pneumatic palm nailer?

I saw Christ at the work site today. No, REALLY, I did see him. He was standing with the group at 6:50 AM in our circle with a silly tag on his chest filled out with duct tape and sharpie, that was supposed to say His name, but instead, it said something like "caulk dude". We all kind of fell about the place thinking about why he was called that, but also the progress that he had made on a job that he did not know anything about the day before. Really good stuff!

Amazing how motivated He is at the job site. His efforts really showed as the project managers kind of inferred that they had no idea her efforts with Tyvec Weather Tape and Insulation would be completed so early this week. Early enough to complete all of the insulation work, move on to other parts of home building. Today, he was able to work with another of our workers to complete cross beams under the homes to shore up the building. I got to work closely with him later as he helped me cut deck hangers to support a second floor platform that will ultimately attach to stairs that proceed down from the 10 foot high first floors (he said something about avoiding floods in the future, and that maybe we could use 2 x 6 boards, instead of two by twos (a little joke...he could not resist)).

I later noted that he climbed a very tall ladder, which has been a fear of his for some time, and got up on the roof to cut shingles, because this effort is a bit about overcoming fears and doing things we have never done before. I later found out that the time frame on the roof was 1/2 hour. It's pretty high, so that's quite a feat!

Did I mention that she took some time to stop and memorialize the efforts with pictures. I never knew Christ was a photographer, but I guess someone should think about how we remember the things that we have done. I think some of the photos will be on the blog and Facebook sites tonight.

Siding and fascia. No problem. He took the time to work with others on making sure that the job was done right on the front porch. Small cuts, measure twice, cut once, no....measure again, then cut. It's all looking very good. Our homeowner even stopped by to see both houses, and you can tell she is pleased. He makes her smile and laugh, and she knows that He cares that she will be in the home soon. She said Christ has been out here many times. It's very good to see that He can take the time to be involved amongst all of the other important things that go on in his days.

Best of all, at the end of the day, Christ came to sit with us for a few minutes before we left the site. He talked about all the things that he had done today, how she thought it was amazing that what seemed like a tough building job is actually something that can be done by volunteers with sincere hearts. She talked about dirt, and nails, and laughs, and smiles, and most of all, doing something very positive today, and feeling like his work was accomplishing something better, today.

I asked him what He would do tomorrow. He said, "I'm going to wake up tomorrow just like I did today, and look east to the last bright star in the sky before the sunrise (Venus), breath in the crisp cool air of morning, and think about what the new day will hold for Mission #7. And maybe, just maybe, we'll scar someone with this volunteer foolishness that we call the love of Christ!".

Tomorrow morning, if you get a chance, look east to the sky before sunrise, to the light and hope of the Morning Star, and remember that me and Christ will be up, looking there too! We'll be off to do something more and something new to help this New Orleans, and to spread a little bit of LCR around the city. Hope you can join us next time!

David Alexander