WHAT A GREAT WEEK IN DULAC!

Dulac, Louisiana
Set in the bayous of the southern reaches of Terrebonne Parish, this is a place where water and swamp outnumber dry land in square miles. It is the home of interesting mix of hearty people, about 51% Houma Indian and 49% Cajun. The Houma Indians originally had settled in the Red Stick (Baton Rouge) area of LA, then moving south to Houma and finally down to Dulac (meaning “the land beyond the lake”). For some 300 years the Houma have lived in the vicinity of the Grand Caillou and LaFourche Bayous as fishermen, trappers and farmers. Their southern LA villages remained very isolated for many years. Until the 1940’s there were no roads to Houma community’s beyond the city of Houma and the only way the people had to travel was by boat.

The devastating hurricanes of the past few years have taken toll on this community, with much wind and water surge damage to homes with little protection down in the marsh. Our team spent five days working on homes installing new flooring, replacing drywall and paneling, installing trim, decking repair and general home repairs. We worked cleaning and panting the Community Center Gym…..and yes we did a little fishing, played some games and had a great time of fellowship. Our the theme of our evening devotions was Mat 25 14-30 the parable of talents, Rick did a great job helping us realize our team was investing our “talents” in the people of Dulac. I think we all came back a little changed. Thank you Jesus for a great trip to Dulac and thank you St. Andrew's Mission Team for investing your "talents" in Dulac.

THURSDAY AND FRIDAY IN DULAC

Our Shrimp boat tour!

Our new friends from Maryland, down at Dulac on a mission trip!

again....our Maryland friends....

Hard at work....never seen so much paint!

Proud of the new walls, trim, paint, and floor!

All in a days work!

Our new friends waving goodby for the day!

BIG GATORS!

MONDAY AND TUESDAY AT THE DULAC MISSON

Wow....this "bloging" is tough stuff....by: Robert, Elizabeth, Sarah & Mary!










Here are our group breakdowns for Monday and Tuesday:
Monday
Group A - Mary, Robert, Miller, Elizabeth, Carolyn, Mr. David, Ms. Mary, Jimmy
Group B - Andrew, Kara, Sarah, Blake, Breanna, Mr. Rick, Kasey, Ms. Christa

On Monday Group A painted a woman’s porch, but we ran out of paint, early. (3 cans of paint is not enough). Admittedly, some of the paint was used for a paint fight between some of the group members. 



The woman was very kind, and came down to talk to us for a little bit. We got a lot of work done, but there was still much to do. -Elizabeth

Group B, worked at a different house on 2 different projects. The girls (excluding me because of my allergies) scraped ceiling popcorn off of the ceiling of the kitchen. The guys worked on taking siding down from the house. I picked up the siding off the ground & threw it into a pile. Later, Breanna & I took a turn at taking down the siding.
For supper we enjoyed delicious red beans & rice made by Bosco, the cook! =D
-Sarah

Tuesday
Group A - Sarah, Elizabeth, Miller, Robert, Andrew, Carolyn, Kara, Mary, Ms Mary, Kasey, Mr. David.
Group B - Breanna, Blake, Jimmy, Mr. Rick

On Tuesday Group A went back to the woman’s porch with a little help from Sarah, Andrew, and Kara but guess what … we ran out of paint AGAIN. Then when we got back to the Dulac Center some of the girls had fun playing with hair, the problem, the hair was the boys.
-Robert














I THINK WE LOST OUR TEAM (they found a shady place under the stairs and disappeared for quite some time)

All we have left to do is some minor touch ups, but we need more paint. [Four cans is STILL not enough.] It was extremely hot today, so we took lots of breaks under the porch.- Elizabeth
Group B, put up sheet rock at the same house that they were at yesterday. Actually, the guys did, Breanna supervised. Breanna did, however, learn how to play Jingle Bells on the Drill.  -Breanna & Sarah
After everyone showered, Carolyn & Kara decided to style the triplet’s hair. Miller had pig tails (and he looked like Boo off Monster’s Inc.), Robert had a ponytail





























Elizabeth caught a HUGE crab! Andrew is "studying" it.....

Just catching crabs......you just have to watch our video below!

SUNDAY – CHURCH AND SWAMP TOUR….. by: Elizabeth and Sarah

Went to church across the street( Clanton Chapel United Methodist Church) It was a very small church. We took communion at the church, (oyster crackers and grape juice) They support French Fries, not Freedom Fries. They played old hymns, like “How Great Thou Art” and others.


Found out that they don’t speak Cajun French here, just normal French.
-A lot of the members of the church were shrimpers, and weren’t at church this morning, because, as last night was the full moon, they were taking advantage of the light to shrimp all night.
















--The church had a very positive outlook. Absolutely NO concerns were said, they were turned into joys. (ex. Instead of saying “ So-and-so was diagnosed with cancer” they said, “We celebrate that God brought So-and-so to the hospital so that they could find the cancer”)
-We came home and had sandwiches for lunch, and chilled out for a couple of hours.
-Then, we went to Houma, to World Famous Munson’s Swamp Tours, and we saw LOTSA ‘gatuhs!! :D And we saw buzzards, and ‘gators, and raccoons, and ‘gators, and vultures, a squirrel, ‘gators, blue/gray herons. Oh, and did we mention we saw some ‘gatuhs? 
-We ate dinner at Boudreauxs and Tibideauxs, which was VERY VERY YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

(Oh, and Kasey discovered that the flower the captain of the boat said was poison ivy was actually called Trumpet Creepers. :] )













Our new gator friend!



Yep...there are times when things are out of control.

The first group is on the way down!

Three carloads left this afternoon for Dulac.... kinda tight getting all the "stuff" in, but Rick did a great job of organizing it. Two more groups travel down tomorrow, meeting up with today's group in the swamp. We will meet at Munson's Swamp Tours in the afternoon, where we will be taken deep in the Cajun Bayou Chacahoula Swamp for what we understand to be a "trip of a lifetime"!

Moving on to Dulac!

ST ANDREW'S UMC SUMMER '09 DULAC MISSION

Hello all, we are off this weekend (June 6th) to Dulac, La for our summer mission trip. Dulac is located about 20 mi south of Houma, way down in the marsh. That area of Louisiana has been hit real hard the last several years by hurricane after hurricane. There are lots of needs for construction repair of homes. We have ten youth and six adults spending a week helping out as we can to represent Jesus....to be His hands and feet. Please pray for us in Gods work in south Louisiana.
Here is our team: Blake Scouten, Kara Scouten, Andrew Hane, Robert Hane, Miller Hane, Philip Hahn, Sarah Hahn, Breanna Smith, Carolyn Smith, Elizabeth Ducote, Mary Wilborn, Kasey Waller, Rick Miller, David Howell, Mary Holland, James Holland.