Week 2 In Lake Charles, LA

Well first off I want to give an update on one of my "rep roles" for the team. I am a POL (project outreach liason) for the team along with Shannon McCoy. This round we have to put together a Community Work Day and get the whole community involved in a day of service. So far we have the organization to work with in mind. We've contacted them and now they have to contact us back to let us know whether or not they want to do it. So keep your fingers crossed. This organization is called Friend Ships here in Lake Charles, LA and basicly we would set up a day for the community to come together and spend the day helping them get their ship ready to set sail for Haiti packaging and loading supplies. Shannon & I jumped on this opportunity the moment we heard they need help because our team wants to go to Haiti sooo bad to help out. And since we can't, this is the closest thing we could do to help out. Every little bit helps right? Well we are working hard to make this happen so I just ask for all your prayers that this will come together like we are picturing it.

Alright, now to the work week. Wow, this week has been some gooooood work. Monday was MLK Day and so the organization that we are teamed with had the day off. We, however, did not. "Day on, not a day off" is what we say. Instead, we spent the day working with this thrift store in Sulphur, LA which is about a 30 minute or so drive from Lake Charles. We tagged items, arranged the floor, took items from the back to the floor, and helped unload trucks from people who came to donate items. Half way through the day a few of us guys headed over to a different building owned by the same store and helped move boxes from that location to our original location.

 Patty also found himself a nice vest....cool eh? haha get things done for AMERICA!!

One day we went to this trailer park and went to this one lady's trailor and put a tarp over her roof to keep the water from leaking through.

For the rest of the week we were working on this lady's house. We call her Mrs. Mary.

We did pretty much anything you could think of to this house. We first took everything out of her room. Then we pulled all the walls off.

Put up some new insulation

We then started pulling up alll of the floor

And in the midst of all this "destruction" that we are doing......God still seems to find a way to remind me exactly why i'm doing this program and why i'm dedicating my life to service in the first place.....remind you, I didn't touch or tamper with this at all...I found it this way:

I just couldn't help but smile and take a picture. Isn't He amazing?? :) I think for a moment there I got soo caught up in the day to day work aspect of this program that I lost focus of the big picture and the real reason why i'm here. God decided to toss in a little reminder for me there. I think many of us do the same thing I did in our everyday lives. We get so caught up in our daily routines and schedules that we lose focus of the bigger picture and the plans that God has for our lives. Who knows, maybe God is trying to throw in "little reminders" to help you get back on track. So just keep your eyes open and be willing to listen. Maybe you'll get your own "cross reminder" :) .....well, I have to get going. Thanks for reading and i'll try my hardest to post again next weekend. "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!!! :)

First Week In Lake Charles, LA

Well, we left campus in Iowa on Monday and drove to Memphis, TN where we stayed in a hotel for the night. Once we got there we got our rooms and headed out to Beale Street for dinner. It was nice. We found this really cool place that had a live band and had a great time!

The next day, Tuesday, we drove the rest of the way to Lake Charles, LA. We are staying at University Methodist Church. It's pretty nice. We have an upstairs place where we are staying and it has one room for beds and one room for living room (tv, couches, etc.) Its pretty cool. Our showers, however, are a different story. The Church was suppose to have an outdoor trailor-ish shower thing but its not working. So we've been going to Trinity Baptist Church to work out at their gym everyday after work and then we get our showers there. It's kinda frustrating but at the same time the showers at Trinity are better and it gives us that push to work out everyday. So it's nice.

So far this week from Wednesday-Friday we have raked leaves, fixed a broken shower trailor at a DIFFERENT Church, painted and hung shutters, mudded, sanded, and hung dry wall. The weather here is CRAAAAZY....one day its cold, the next day it's raining and storming, and then the next it's nice and sunny. It was fun the other day when Griff and I had to hang shutters up in the pouring rain haha.

Today we went to the lake and walked around. One of the really cool things we found was this memorial thing from the WTC of 9-11

And a piece that came straight from the Pentagon

Overall so far its been an ok week. We haven't done too much work yet, but it's only been 3 work days. Tomorrow (Monday) is MLK day and the organization we work with is closed. So we are working with a different organization in Sulfur, LA which is about a 20 minute drive from here. They are feeding us pizza for lunch...and then that night for dinner our site supervisor here in Lake Charles invited us to his house for gator gumbo!! mmmmm!! haha. That will be an adventure all in itself. Well guys, until next week, "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!!!

My Mailing Address

Hey guys! Just thought I would post my mailing address just in case there were anyone who wanted to send me anything. Mail, package, postcard....whatever floats your boat! Hope all is well! "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!

Tim Hubbard
AmeriCorps NCCC Cedar 7
1004 G Ave.
Vinton, Iowa 52349

Day Of Service With Completely New Team

Well, this weeks blog will be the last blog about NCCC until after Christmas break. I may or may not post a blog about my Christmas break i'm not sure yet...we'll just have to see. But anyway, this past week was transition week here in Vinton and all the other teams returned home from their first spike. During that week we had different training classes and community meeting which the 2nd and final one my team had to conduct. Which was fun b/c we made a video titled "The Real World Vinton" haha. It was fun to make and we had good feedback from it. On Thursday the 17th it was "all corps service day", so everybody was sent out to different projects. The difference, though, was that we were all placed on different teams. Everybody on my team for this day was somebody that I haven't been with before. And the ATL's (assistant team leaders) were the TL's for the day and the TL's were just regular corps members. Anyway, my team had an assigment in Cedar Rapids working at 4 Oaks painting rooms. It was pretty cool because we got to paint but also got to know each other quite a bit. And especially for me, it was cool getting to socialize with new faces and get to bond a little bit with them. I had a blast and made some new friends, which I enjoyed a lot. I'll post a few of the pics down below.

A lot of taping was involved in this project and several coats of paint. The ladies that were in charge there were super nice and fed us cookies, drinks etc. And even let us sort through baskets of free Adidas shirts they received and let us pick some that we wanted. I ended up getting three shirts. Pretty sweet.

A few days before the all corps day, on Monday night, my team Cedar 7 was invited to our Spike 1 supervisor's place for a pancake dinner. Well after we ate we played this card game which I can't remember the name of, but it was pretty sweet. She also introduced us to the magic animal in her house. Apparently if you squeeze it, you receive the magic. So we passed it around and started da squeezin'.

Well, i'm home in Alabama as I type this out. Here for 2 weeks and then go back to Vinton, IA for the remainder of my service with NCCC which will be about 7 months, up until July 29th or so. I hope you all have a great Christmas and you stay safe. I'll post again soon. Maybe during break, maybe not...but we'll see! But until then , "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!

Vinton, Iowa Spike 1

Well, it sure has been a while since i've posted a blog on here but hey here it is!!! I'm now in Vinton, Iowa as you all know still with AmeriCorps NCCC. The pic above is my new team and they are AMAZING! Some of the funnest people ever! Ok so I arrived here about 2 weeks ago and from the get go I started work with this team. CEDAR 7!! Our project is in Cedar Rapids, IA which is only about a 45 minute drive from Vinton, so we ended up staying on campus for our housing. Which is nice b/c we have the entire campus to ourselves along with one other team....CEDAR 6. Also, some really cool people to hang out with. Anyway, we are working with a volunteer group out of Cedar Rapids repairing homes. So far i've done a lot of mudding, sanding, and putting up dry wall.

Last Saturday me, Trishy, and Daniel did an ISP (Independent Service Project) with the Vinton Rec Center doing 2 different activities. In the morning we helped worked what they called "breakfast with Santa". We cooked and prepared the food. Then we served it. Helped clean up and get ready for the next event which was crafts with the kids!

I had a blast helping these kids out. And what talent! Some of the coolest design i've seen. Definitely a lot of fun and would love to do this type of work again.

Two of the days this past week, we were given the day off as far as work in Cedar Rapids goes, b/c of the snow. But we did, however, still work on campus and do service.

This past Friday night we had a murder mystery dinner! It was a blast! I played the firefighter haha. Even though I came dressed as a millionaire b/c thats what i was told. But that's ok! It was soo much fun especially since that was the first time i've done anything like that.

Yesterday a few of us went snow sledding. I've never done that so that was super cool!

All in all, my first spike has been a blast.....helping rebuild/repair these homes so these communities can continue to recover and grow is such a huge uplifting thing to do. The results have been astronomical and they're only going to get better. That excites me that even after we're gone, there will be others to come behind us and continue the work. I've been blessed enough to be working on this project and i'm excited to see how the next project will be. Which by the way is going to be in Lake Charles, LA!!! Thanks guys, I hope you have a blessed day! "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!

New Campus

Hey guys! I'm really sorry I haven't posted something in a long time. I've actually been at home for Thanksgiving break! But I will be heading back sometime next week and going to Vinton, Iowa.....Vinton, Iowa? I thought you were in Denver Tim?....well yes I was in Denver, CO....but w/out going into all the details, things didn't work out in Denver and so I will now be joining with a new team at a different campus in Vinton, Iowa....so, it's pretty cool. I will finish out my service with AmeriCorps NCCC in Vinton, Iowa starting next week! I will hopefully be updating and writing new blogs once a week on the weekends. I hope this find everybody doing well and that you all have a great Thanksgiving! "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!!

Week Before We Leave For Spike

Ok, so I wasn't able to take many pics this past week and this is the only one I did take haha....my friend Pat was "balancing" on the rails and he was sooo excited about it. He actually has what is called a "slack line" that he attaches to two trees and balances on those. Its pretty cool and pretty hard to do. I've tried it.

Anyway, so this week has gone by sooooo fast and I haven't had time to write in my journal so it's not like I have a lot of material to refer back to except for my own brain (oooh boy). But i'll give it my best shot. My days are starting to run together so be patient with me. One day of training we spent part of the day learning car maintenance. We learned how to change a tire and also how to put on snow chains if needed. Which they've told us if we ever need those then there better be a good reason why we're still out on the road. But anyway, it was pretty cool. Most stuff I already knew, but a few things I didn't.

We eventually got our permanent teams on Thursday. The TL's had this scavenger hunt planned out and we had to take our piece of paper and go to a location that led us to another location etc. etc. At each station there was a person completely covered from head to toe with a mask, sleeping back, hat...you  know, whatever it took to COMPLETELY disguise their identity. We kinda figure it out that they were the TL's and eventually the station we got to in the end the TL there would be our TL. Well, I eventually got to the last station and met my "team" and after a while the TL revealed themselves and it was Daniel! I was like "sweet!". I wanted him. But then he was like ,"surprise, i'm not your TL." What!? lol we were confused. He said we had one more station to go to, and gave us another paper to go to another location. And there I found my REAL team and my REAL TL Terrence. I like him too so it was all good. We were all so glad to finally get this out of the way b/c everybody was getting so antsy and nervous about the whole thing. On Friday we spent the entire day going to the classes that we wanted to that taught about the team positions we could hold. I ended up going to the yearbook class which basicly means I take a lot of pics and write a short summary of things and turn them in to " The Altitude" (campus newspaper/yearbook). I also want to be the "team counselor" and the "Assistant Team Leader" but those won't get decided until 2nd Spike come January.

On Saturday we had this thing called "World Cafe" that the TL's had set up in the caf and it basicly was an event that helped us realize the poverty issues surrounding the world today, how lucky we are, and helped us to think of ways to help out. It was pretty sweet and I enjoyed it a lot. There were 3 different stations that each team has to go to and each one helped you get a better understanding of issues in the world and in our own backyard even.

Saturday, our team (Water 3!) was going to go hiking. But first Terrence wanted to take us to a fairly local Farmer's Market. So we spent about an hour there and actually ran into a few other teams. It was pretty cool and had a good time. And since we were already there and it was about lunch time he asked if we want to just stay and go to the Pearl Street Mall and find shops and eating places. And of course we did, so we spent the next 1 1/2 hours there. Afterwards, we began the drive to go hiking and it turned out that all the parking spaces were full b/c of all the people hiking and playing at the park that day. So we ended up going to another park and just hanging out there. At the park we made expectations for the group and for ourselves. I think we had a better understanding of each other and what each expects from the group for the year. It was nice and I think we'll all be fine.

As I sit here writing this it is 2:48 PM in Denver, CO on a Sunday afternoon and tonight we are all taking Jessica out to dinner (and possibly bowling I think?) for her birthday that was yesterday. We were going to go last night but we ended up not b/c something came up. Anyway, she's 19 now and we're gonna take her out for dinner. We actually had about 10-15 cards taped to her door the night before her birthday so when she woke up she was bombarded (sp?) with b'day cards. I think she liked them. And she seemed to have a pretty good day yesterday so that's good.

Oh! And one more thing before I go! We found out my team's first project and it is going to be in Wickes, AR doing trail building. We leave next Saturday on the 14th and will get back I think on the 16th of December. It's pretty cool and i'm excited about it. I'm sorry about this post not having any pics and not really that organized but  once we leave for our first spike it'll be more interesting and full of pics i'm sure. I hope you've all had a good week and i'll be writing again soon! "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!!!

Snow, Snow, Snoooow!!!!!

So this week as you can see is going to be about how much SNOOOW we got. I don't know the exact amount but I know it was well into the 12 in. mark. Prob way more than that. But anyway, lets start with Monday....Monday was a day off for my unit since Saturday we did a project raking leaves. So I spent the day just relaxing. I took about a 2 hour nap when my friends called to wake me up and go to dinner. I went with Jessica, Pat, & Avi. What stunk about it though was that about halfway through dinner I started feeling sick. I don't know if it was b/c I ate too fast after waking up or if it was the food. But my stomach just wasn't happy. I eventually got better and we spent the rest of the night playing Phase 10 haha! I know I know, it's kind of the norm for us now. But we all enjoy the games we play and it brings us closer as a team.

Lets fast forward to Wednesday...Wednesday we had safety training from 8:00AM-12:00PM. A guy talked to us about the safety rules on the project site and just basicly on how not to be stupid. We took a lunch break and were suppose to reconnect at 1:30 PM for tool safety but we got a message from our TL's that the rest of the day PLUS tomorrow (Thursday) was cancelled cuz of snoooww!!!! So, OF COURSE, we all changed out of our uniforms and went outside and played in it....had some snowball fights, and built a fort....here are a few pics:

Later that day, after dinner, I played cards with Sophia and Kelly and then we played Scattegories & Life. I had a lot of fun with them. It was yet another nice end to the day.

Thursday, like I said, we had the day off b/c of snow...so several of us (Sophia, Jessica, Danielle, Pat & I) decided to take a trip to the Denver Art Museum. It was a pretty cool place to go. We walked quite a bit to get there after the bus and train ride. And enjoy a lot of cool scenery from the snow.

Now Friday came around and the snow had let up and was starting to go away so we actually did something. The entire campus had times set up for their unit to go indoor rock climbing! It was pretty cool. I attempted 3 walls and was only able to complete 2 of them. My first one I only made it about 2/5 of the way up. I guess I underestimated its difficulty cuz I hadn't done something like this a lot and didn't have much experience. So I attempted other walls and got the hang of it.

Saturday me, Sophia, Jessica, Pat, Kelly, and Lena went to this Japanese Sushi restaurant place called "Sonoda's Sushi"...I don't eat seafood so I got the Teryaki Chicken but it was still wonderful. We walked around town a bit and went to this market and got a pumpkin to carve, so that was cool. Plus, it was Halloween night so there were some interesting characters lurking around. By the time we decided to head back to campus the buses had stopped running so we decided to call a cab. Well this cab company told us 15 minutes......so after 45 minutes had gone by we were getting quite aggravated so we decided to call every stinkin' cab service in the area haha...we ended up calling and ordering about 5 or 6 different taxis. So, we decided that while we were going to wait we would do so inside of an IHOP instead of being out in the freezing cold. When we got there the waitress told us after we had sat down that they were going to be closing soon. We informed her that all we were doing was waiting and that we really just wanted some hot chocolate/coffee and we wouldn't mind leaving whenever she needed us to. She offered to call for us a cab b/c according to her ,"I do this all the time for people and they're here in 10 minutes." .......well then, we call and order a taxi and are still waiting about an hour later, she calls and what you know...a taxi in less than 10 minutes shows up lol .....so we're getting ready to leave and we go to the register to pay and she says ," you know what, you guys were so understanding about leaving....i'm not gonna make you pay for those drinks, especially since its so cold outside." Well talk about a blessing in disguise! We're fa-reezziing!! and the taxis are late and we end up with free hot chocolate. So we hopped into the taxi and enjoyed our FREE HOT CHOCOLATE and made it back to campus safely :)

And now today...Sunday....I went with Leia to the Denver Rescue Mission and helped out with some clothing distribution and a soup kitchen type of thing. We did some food prep, and served, and cleaned up. I was there from about 4 until 8...and then afterwards Leia and I went to dinner to this "noodle" place haha....she wanted to take pics of our food....she said "it's what we Asians do" haha

This week has been kinda slow in a sense b/c of the snow days that we've gotten. But next week will be different with more training and things to do. Like I think we'll be getting a training session with the Red Cross b/c that's one of the things that was cancelled this week. We'll see though. Oh! And plus we'll hear who are permanent teams are on Thursday! Everybody is kinda nervous about that but also excited. I'll let you guys knows about next week come the weekend. So until then stay awesome and leave me messages!! I have the rest of my "snow" pics on my facebook so go check em out! "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!!!

First Official Weekly Blog Post

        Aight guys, so here it is! My first weekly post. I hope you all will enjoy it, but i'll go ahead & tell you that right now we're just in the process of training & will be for the next 2 weeks or so. Once we get deployed on SPIKE these posts will be more exciting & with more information. But, anyway....here goes.

       This whole week has been full of classes. An overview if you will of what to expect from Americorps & what they expect of us. And it also consisted of team building activities & things that allowed us to get to know our team better. Saturday the 17th we did what is called "Community Mapping". We drove to a neighborhood where there was a Boys & Girls Club & we looked around the neighborhood to see what we thought the needs were, where resources were, any libraries or hospitals around? etc. etc. etc. Things like that that allow you to help the community better. We also took a campus tour. Later that day we got our physicals done & took a drug test.

        Tuesday the 20th was spent doing driver training all day. So it was kinda boring in a sense that we sat in a van all day, but at the same time, it was pretty cool b/c we had plenty of time to talk & learn about each other. After we got back from training me & 4 other Corps members played this card game called "President". One of the rules that the "Prez" at the time made, was that we had to go to the room of extra clothes & put something on if we ever answered a question that was directed towards us during play. At one point, we even had to skip down the hall to the room. It was quite funny, to say the least. An overall great day even though we didn't do much.

         Aight, so Wednesday the 21st I started my day off as usual....waking up at 6:45 AM for a shower, bfast, & then meeting my unit at 8:00 AM, this time in room 101...but the cool thing about this morning (literally), is that I woke up to the ground COVERED in snow!!!

During the morning we had "Media Training", which basicly just meant that they wanted us to be prepared on how to handle the media if & when they approach. They didn't want us to be caught off guard. They even told us how there have been several teams to have met famous people in the past...such as Willie Nelson, Brad Pitt, Bill Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, Matthew McConaughey (sp?) etc. etc. etc. It was pretty sweet to know that people like that have actually shown up to our project sites before to see what we're about and to thank us for our work. Afterwards the TL's (Team Leaders) had a "game" for us set up. They had little puzzle pieces w/our names on them lying on a table. We were suppose to find our name & then take that piece & proceed to search for other people that had the other pieces that formed a puzzle. Those that had the missing pieces ended up being our new team members for the next week. So, now by this point I have my new team....my 3rd team since i've been here.....Water 1 now.....After all that we had dinner & then watched "The Office" in the lobby & then played a 14 man game of "Catchphrase". And afterwards me & 6 others played a game of "Phase 10". I taught a few how to play & they beat me lol .....but it was a blast anyway. :)

         Thursday the 22nd we had another fun day full of classes!!! The classes consisted of these topics: 1) The "Pledge" of NCCC & the "Big Picture" of National Service. 2) The Ed Award. 3) Awards (National) & College Credit Opportunities. 4) And about EO (Equal Opportunity). These classes literally took all day w/a few 10 minute breaks thrown in and a lunch. After the classes our entire unit (Water) had PT. We got in a big circle & did random exercises, & then we ran/walked the baseline (1.5 miles). Afterwards was dinner & then Pat, Avi, & myself watched the British show "Dr. Who" which i've never seen until then but I loved it!

          Friday the 23rd was the first day we actually did a project. All teams, in all units, went to a middle school. A few teams hung out with 3rd graders &helped with their reading. Others talked to some students about NCCC & the rest of us (what I did), spent the day building a running/walking track for the school. What was really cool is that they allowed the 8th graders that wanted to, come & help us. Each NCCC member hung out with kid. I got this really cool young girl named Meg. We got to know each other pretty well & that was fun. For lunch, they provided pizza & we also got to chill with the kids during lunch. This project took most of the day. Afterwards I did laundry, ate dinner & then played ping-pong with Pat & then Phase 10 with Jessica & Pat. Tiring day, sore arms & legs....but nothing compared to what's to come!

            Saturday the 24th our entire unit (Water) had a project where each team would rake leaves at an elderly or handicaped person's home. Which was pretty fun to do. My team had been assigned 6 houses & it took us until about 12:30 or 1:00PM to do them. We came back to campus & a little later Pat & I went to town & he wanted to get some "souvenir" things....so we got those & then found a coffee place & just chilled there for a while. When we got back we ate dinner with Jessica  & then we went to downtown Denver & walked to this pretty sweet coffee shop place called "Paris On The Platte". It was awesome...we got some pretty cool Chai Tea & just sat there talking until about 11:00PM. It was such a great night just hanging out with two really cool people.

            Sunday the 25th (today!) I had plans to go out again today but they fell through. So I ended up having a pretty laid back kinda day. Watched some football, played pool & foosball...I went down to the laundry room & hung out with Monique playing cards while she waited on her laundry. She taught me a new game called "Spit" which was a ton of fun! I even showed her a few cards tricks haha. Later I hung out w/friends playing taboo & then WATCHED them get facials lol...I want to stress the WATCHED part haha.

I have more pics on FB. So if you'd like you can look at my page. It was such an amazing week getting to know so many great people. I've already made some great friendships & its only been a week.

I don't know what God has in store, but I know it's great! I'm on God's timeline He's not on mine. He proved that to me this past week. I know God will use me here. And in a way, I feel like He already has. "My time is up, I thank you for yours." God bless!!!