Monday, November 9, 2009

UPDATE: Mr. Isaac Green

Isaac is currently living in Shreveport, LA with plans to return to New Orleans with the rest of his family soon. His daughter is living in the house in New Orleans East, and he regularly comes to New Orleans to maintain the property. The house is holding up wonderfully. He reported that he even has a new fence up, and only needs to finish adjusting the gate! The only tasks left for him to do are to install his gutter system, and replace a few bricks that were damaged during the rebuilding process. Isaac repeatedly expressed his gratitude for all of the hard work that the volunteers put into his home- thanks to those of you who touched this man's life!

Monday, October 26, 2009


Emma and Edward Richards lived in this home with their 2 granddaughters before Hurricane Katrina drove them out. They have been residing in Baton Rouge in a small apartment with various family members. This is an elderly couple, and the husband is in a wheelchair. They nearly lost their son in the hurricane, but their daughter was able to find him when they were allowed back in the city (a really cool story! J) Their daughter has been living in a trailer behind the home in order to keep her job in New Orleans. The whole scenario has been a stress on the family, but they are resilient and continue to find their hope and joy in the Lord.
Two winters ago volunteers from Minnesota reroofed the house, tore up the floor, leveled it, and re-laid the floor, and they reinforced some of the walls. After finishing all of that, one of the volunteer’s fathers designed a layout for the house that would accommodate Edward’s wheelchair, and they framed the house. Since then the exterior siding has been re-installed and various teams have hung the drywall. The drywall currently needs finishing and mudding.
The Goal: Get the Richards in their house before summer of 2010. You can make a difference!!!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wouldn't you like to know...?

Oftentimes volunteers will ask an HH2G staff member what we do when teams aren't volunteering with us... and the staff member will begin to rattle off a list of not-so-fascinating tasks that usually loses the attention of the asker, or surprises them because the answer was different than what they expected. I'm sure that there are plenty of you who continue to wonder what we do in our spare time, so I though I'd offer a little explanation:

When we aren't riding motorcycles, taking Tango lessons, or traveling the world, we are holding office hours and progressing the work of community development that HH2G is a part of. Many of you have heard of the Spirit of Praise building that houses some of our equipment- this building has the destiny of a community center: with after-school tutoring, summer youth camp, a community garden, and events for the elderly people and folks of all ages to come together as a community (we like to dream about how this will look 5 years from now). In addition to this development, HH2G staff spends much of their time getting the word out about the work still to be done in NOLA. We have an extremely limited advertising budget, so we have limited ways of spreading the news. This is where you come in... PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! Or if you have any advertising suggestions, please feel free to pass them on to us! I think we can all agree that we'd like to see the residents of New Orleans thriving after suffering so much devastation... so please join us in encouraging folks to come down to work with HH2G!

Friday, August 7, 2009

St. Vivian Church 8.3 - 8.7.09






St. Vivian Church youth group of Cincinnati, OH. HH2G enjoys the privilege of working with St. Vivian two times a year: the adults during the winter, and the youth in the summer! This summer part of the St. Vivian team carried on the work at the Clouet house by mudding and taping the drywall, and finished up the week with a demolition job. The other half of the team furthered the work on Brian Berteaux's home.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Meadow Creek Four Square Church 7.13 - 7.20.09




Meadow Creek Four Square Church of Issaquah, WA. Many of these folks ventured down after Hurricane Katrina to assist with the clean up, and now they have returned with the intention of rebuilding! We appreciate their willingness to serve in whatever capacity is needed.

Family Life A/G 7.13 - 7.17.09



Family Life A/G of Pittsburgh, KA. These men returned for a second visit to HH2G, and this time put their skills to use building a back porch for one of the well-known musicians of New Orleans- Steamboat Willie. We appreciate all of the long hours and hard work that these guys give!

North Highland A/G 7.13-7.17.09




North Highland A/G Middle School youth group... what a crew! They brought so much energy to the city, and spent it all rebuilding homes, sharing their faith, worshiping, and of course- laughing.



Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Silver Creek Reformed Church 7.27-7.31.09





Silver Creek Reformed Church youth group from German Valley, IL. Their week basically consisted of hanging sheetrock, busting up some bathtubs, and hilarious quotes. We will remember how they worked hard and brought two homeowners much closer to being back into their homes... but the most memorable aspect of this team was their excitement during worship!












Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Teams in Action July 2009

Georgia, Kansas, Washington, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana... volunteers from these states collaborated with HH2G through the month of July to rebuild the homes of several families and individuals. Teams from Georgia, Washington and Kansas were the first to arrive, followed by Illinois and Indiana, and Ohio finished up the month. With a mixture of ages (the youngest being middle school), the stories and experiences will vary, but the goal remains united.
Several teams worked on the same project over the 3 week period, and each team picked up where the previous team left the work. Through this sort of team work HH2G can focus on getting a single homeowner through the entire process of rebuilding their home and moving back into it. Thanks so much to each volunteer that spent a week with HH2G spreading hope and love to the people of New Orleans. We hope to see you again!