Mom and I got back from our trip to Louisiana last night. I think it went well. Our goal was to bring some families up to Iowa. When we first started out, four or five families had pretty much decided to come, but when we got to the shelter, two(three?) of the families backed out.
It was irritating that we had gone down hoping to bring back a bus full of people, instead coming back with only 11, but God's wisdom is sovereign and He knows what's best for everyone.

OK, I'm sure you're all wondering 'how did you get connections to go to LA?'
There is a radio program on AM660 called 'America's Family Coaches.' About three weeks ago, the hosts interviewed a man who pastors a church in Des Moines, IA. He talked about how members of his congregation (and of neigboring churches) had family in the New Orleans area. So he began organizing caravans to go and retrieve families from the area and shuttled them north.

Mom listens to this program regularly and that day she felt God telling her to call Pastor Rod and let him know she has a CDL - a Commercial Driver's License. When she had argued with God for a while, she yielded and called the radio station. They gave her the Pastor's cells phone number, so she called and left a message.
It turns out that the caravan he was taking that weekend (Labor day weekend) didn't need drivers with CDLs, so they began to plot another time when they could use Mom's connections. Through a series of God-ordained events, Mom found two other qualified drivers and a mechanic to come with her.

So, there they were, all ready to go for the three-day weekend... And Mom gets a call that there is no bus, no funding and no connections in LA. Her trip was cancelled. She had already told her drivers (Kat and Marie) and her mechanic (Marvin) that the trip was off, when she got another phone call.

God had come through again! A church had stepped forward, offered to let Pastor Rod use their private charter bus and pay for gasoline, to boot! It was at this time that Mom asked me if I wanted to come as well. But before contacting Kat, Marie and Marvin again, she wanted to make sure that there was a reasonably solid plan to communicate to them.
It had been decided that they would drive to the church in Des Moines and meet the bus there. From the church, we would pick up a few passengers who were going back to LA to retrieve some valuables out of their homes. We would pick up a U-Haul trailer down South, for them to load up. Then, we would continue on to Gonzales, LA and the shelter. It would be a 20 hour drive, altogether.

We picked up two families and turned around to do another 20 hour trip. Because of the amount of fear our passengers had, it took us a while to get out of the shelter. We stopped for dinner, a Wal-Mart run, then were on our way.

I'm running out of time on the compy, right now. I'll fill in some more details later. Love you all!

*huggles Vanawen* ;) Where would I be without you?