Red Beans and Rice: I learn from them I dress like them, I love old people.

This is a photo of my new friend John Lovelace and I. John organized and brought down a work group of 60 people from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Over the past week they worked on rehabbing 2 homes owned by our foundation. In the next few weeks’ families forced by hurricane Katrina to leave their homes will move into these homes. John and I became the “moles” for the workers. For most of 2 days John and I made non-stop runs to Home Depot for supplies. Back and forth we went, with each trip learning a bit more about each other and before long we’d become great friends. John’s the kind of guy that I could spend weeks with just asking questions and hearing stories about his life. He’s a no nonsense guy who struck me as bossy old dude at first but as time went on and I saw his efficiency in organization, I came to understand that he was just a good leader. He told me stories of his 40 plus years working with poor people all over the country and in Columbia. He will be back with another group in November and I look forward to seeing him again.

We’ve had another group here from California who have made several trips south to the city of Laurel. Laurel was hit harder by the hurricane and will be in need of cleanup for a long time.
The past week was incredibly busy around here. Not only did we have the two groups working and staying at the center we were also hosting a prescheduled intimate leadership retreat with John Perkins. We had five people come for the retreat and they all stayed with us at Antioch house. We enjoyed getting time with all of the people. Then to top everything off we hosted The John M. Perkins Foundation board meeting on Saturday. Things have been going non-stop and we’re really looking forward to a few days of relaxing at some point. Even John Perkins, who is a workaholic at age 75, said he was tired and needed a few days to rest.

Our good friend Lowell Noble was in town for the leadership retreat. He was a great help in accommodating the people who were staying at our house for the retreat. On Thursday we took the group south to tour the some of the harder hit area's. We didnt ven get to coast but could see the massive destruction. Tree's everywhere snapped in half like toothpicks and others on houses. After seeing the damage I got a deeper understanding of what a long term process the cleanup will be.

Now its Monday morning and things don’t stop. This afternoon our after school program will start for the first time since the hurricane. It will be great to be with our young friends again. Hope y’ all are doing well.
Thanks for reading
Johnny