Well, it seems like our work group from Chicago just left and here we have another one set to arrive. A group of 14 high schoolers and their 3 adult leaders will arrive late on
Tuesday, April 11 and work from Wednesday morning through the morning of Saturday, April 15. They are from Faith Community Chapel in New Castle, PA. Some of you may have worked with their leader, Russ van Nest back in 2003. He was here with another church from New Castle and worked on Dallas Call's house waaaaay out there on Derrick's Creek in Sissonville. He has changed churches but he hasn't changed his committment to Habitat for Humanity. It will be good to welcome Russ back and meet all of the new faces that have come to help. I get great feedback from work camps about working alongside our regular crews. They always mention how they have learned from you folks and how much they admire your year round committment. Of course, they have a few choice words about Tiny and Lavern as well. I swear, I think many of them return just to get another dose of those two characters.

Bob Peirson, our just returned Care-a-Vanner brought some photos back with him. It looks like things were well organized in spite of the extra hardships that Hurricane Katrina imposed.
I think it is inspiring to see
CON-struction instead of the all too familiar DE-struction. Notice the slab foundations. The rebuilding task is just plain immense and it looks like it will be years before the job is done. Thanks to Bob, the Care-a-Vanners and all who have stepped up to help win back the Gulf Coast. I hope today's enthusiasm will be carried forth until the displaced residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama can go home. The same thoughts hold true for those victims in Flodida who also

suffered heavy losses in last year's record shattering hurricane season. I am very, very glad that we don't have to worry about hurricanes in West Virginia.