Amanda Berglund - More than Hammering Nails

Although this will be my second time working in New Orleans I am experiencing many of the same feelings I had when we were preparing to leave last year. There is still a sense of doubt in me even though I've done it before. It's a very daunting task and I wonder how I could ever be of any influence. I know what we do is of great influence and very helpful but with the amount of devastation it seems like we barely scratch the surface.

These feelings of doubt are often suppressed by remembering how wonderful it feels to help the individual families and what our service did for them. It may not have been the entire city of New Orleans but to those people it meant the world to them. It's very exciting to think of the progress that has hopefully been made since we've been gone and exciting to think of the people God has planned to put in our path. So much of the reason we go down there is to not only restore homes but to restore hope and that is the most touching part of the whole experience. I'm really looking forward to making relationships with people down there, hearing their stories and sharing my faith.

Last year New Orleans was so far outside my comfort zone that I could barely board the plane. Now that that's over I have to go even further outside of myself. For me, that will mean initiating the conversation with people and not just leaving it up to others on the team. Instead of hoping the people we meet just start opening up and asking about Christ I want to push myself to ask questions, continue the conversation and let them know how interested I really am.

Please pray that God would supply me with a strong sense of self confidence through which I will be able to push myself outside my "comfort zone" and go deeper than the surface with the people we come across. This trip is about so much more than hammering nails, it's an opportunity for us to witness to these people who have little to nothing and try to give them a glimmer of hope. I ask that you pray that God helps keep that as my focus through out the duration of the trip.

- Amanda Berglund, 2008 graduate