Louisiana. gulf coast outreach. 2006 reynolda missions trip. dude (guh yeh… im sayin that a lot now…) im not gonna lie… it was amazing. this trip freaking changed my life… not even kidding. its one of those things that you’ll never understand until you go… but wow. so… i have to admit, before this trip… i was a little less than totally psyched. like… i went to the meeting at church, and its all “no straightners, no mp3 players, no couples” and such… and im thinking “omfg, NAZI camp!” welll… it turned out to be nazi camp… but not in the way i expected. BUT… more on that later. sooo… i was mildly like “uhhhh” when it was time to go. so… we have to be at the church a little before 4 on saturday… cuz the bus leaves “promptly at 4”. well… of course, we all forgot that “promptly at 4” is in REYNOLDA time. sooo… at about 5:15 or so, the bus pulls out of the Reynolda parking lot. yeh. Reynoldatime… aka gene time… no comment. ANYWAYS. sooo… that was cool at first. i was sitting with danny (OF COURSE!!!) and it was pretty cool. other than danny and i, there was gene and abby (two weeks into their marriage, and already missioning! too cute….), jacob, jimmy, chase, emily, charlotte, Jonathon, tatum, morgan, laurie, Lauren, Katherine, nick, ryan, patrick, and chris. awsome group… just cuz Reynolda is the coolest in the world, and all… so its pretty awsome… danny’s reading a stephen king book, and im reading “notorious”… a book from the “IT Girl” series… yehhh i got some major grief from danny jimmy and chase about that one. well.. about 2 hours (ish) into the trip, the AC on the bus breaks. oh lord. so, basically, all hell breaks loose. yeh. so like a bunch of us, stuck on a bus without ac. it was like two trillion degrees. but we survived. we stopped at pretty much every gas station for the rest of the trip… i at more junk food than i have ever consumed in my life on this trip. and thats saying A LOT. but it was wayy to hot to not stop like every five minutes. we were pretty much melting. but there were a few things that made the bus ride a little more… well… bearable. like stopping at walmart to get a fan and such… oooh so we’re like sitting on the curb outside of wal mart… gene and abby and ryan are in there fan shopping/ peeing… and these people keep driving by and STARING at us. like we’re on display or something. it was a wee bit disconcerning.. we wernt even in Louisiana yet. but oh well. i guess its not every day you see a bunch of sweaty yet still amazingly hott teenagers playing with pinecones outside of wal mart. and, of course… because he’s eddy, eddy decided to get in a shopping cart on top of the hill. well… at the bottom of this hill… was the highway. yeh. brilliant, isnt he? and then, he was just debating whether or not to get someone to push him, when nick just pushes him. priceless. morgan got it all on video. priceless. im not even kidding. it was the funniest thing ever. about halfway down the hill, he JUMPS out of the cart…. and flies out, the cart like flipping over a zillion times… a total eddy moment. but despite the heat, and random Jonathon stories, we finally get to the hotel… at three in the freakin morning. we all get in our rooms, and pretty much go right to sleep. the next morning we leave at 8-ish. we get a exciting story from Jonathon about this one time when he was late. thats pretty much the extent of the story…. sadly, you get used to it after a while. a little later on, he had a “word from the bible for us”. it was “and jesus wept”. profound. really. deeply moving. but then, we went an had breakfast…. AT A TRUCK STOP. i, lindley battle, who have pretty much never been to a truck stop, at a subway sandwich for breakfast at a truck stop. then, of course, the guys played video games… and we left. a lot more driving… more gas stations, junk food, talking, sweating, and movies (NO, none of them were R rated. NOT on a church trip!)… and we finally get there at like 9 at night. there was a wee bit of confusion about the Mississippi river… and where exactly it was… we passed something we thought might be it, but gene said that no, in fact it was not it…. then later we discovered that it actually WAS the Mississippi… happy days. SO. we finally get there. there being a church.. ish… type thing. of course, we’re the last ones to get there. possibly because it took us like 29 hours to get there… and no, that really isnt a exaggeration. we go in, and put our stuff in a room. and i use that word lightly. 200 or more girls. in one large room. on mattresses. chaos in a bottle. but then we had “shower time”. it was around this time when we were informed that there wernt actually showers. shortly after learning this, we changed into our bathing suits and walked outside, where we “showered” under hoses. ah, yes. then, we attempt to sleep. but the 190 other girls seem to have different ideas, judging by the flashlight puppet shows and loud conversations going on most of the night. well… the next day, we wake up bright and early and start our missionising. we begin by going to the beach. supposedly, this was like a uber-nice beach… notice the was. there was debris from houses and such EVERYWHERE… it was terrible. then we found (much to charlotte’s dismay) a alligator carcass washed up on the beach. after that lovely and rather appetizing sight, we return to the bus to eat a bag lunch. joys abound. then, we drive around and see more devastation. this is also when we discover that our beloved bus leaks. through the lights. so, seeing that the electrical fixtures are now dripping water, and the air conditioning is broken, we are developing a progressively growing feeling of uneasiness concerning our dearly beloved bus. but as we waited (yes, still on said bus) in a line to take a ferry to a more devastated area, the sight of two people from another bus running out into the field to… uh… pee… cheered us up considerably. and i think yelling “WE SEE YOU” to them defiantly played a part in lifting the sprits of all of us. of course, this sadly did not last long. after the bus got on a ferry, we started across the lake. it was a little bit scary, but mainly because everyone went to one side of the bus to look out, and i was almost positive that we were going to tip over. well… charlotte seeing a bird that “looked like a freaking dinosaur” cheered us up a little. but when we finally got across, what was there was possibly one of the worst things i have ever seen. actually, to be more accurate, it was what WASNT there that affected us so much. the bases of houses were there, along with some furniture… but that was all. the rest of the houses were ripped away, and presumably destroyed. complete devastation. very few people… but more destruction than i have ever seen before. so after that sobering ride is over, we return to the church at which we are staying. the next day we get up, ready to work. we started by going to a church to help. this church wasnt directly damaged by the hurricane, but since Rita, there has been a dwindling congregation, so therefore there was plenty of ordinary cleaning jobs to be done. we began by painting a nursery room… then after lunch a few of us (emily, jacob, Katherine, Jonathon, danny and i) stay at this church to finish the painting and such, while the rest of our group goes to booker T (a ghetto neighborhood) to begin helping there. those of us who stayed actually had a pretty good time, painting and such. the pastor asked danny and i to vacuum the sanctuary…. we got told that we were the cutes couple…. you know. the usual! lmao. but… we stayed there working so late that we almost missed out on showers! fortunately, we didnt… then, the next day, all of us go to Booker T neighborhood. we start working at a very small church, run by a pastor who used to be a drug dealer. we began work on the roof. the church was hit pretty badly by the hurricane, so there was a lot to be done. we all got on the roof of the church, and started removing the tarps and nails and such that were put there to keep rain out until the actual roof could be fixed. me, with my fear of heights, long black pants on a 100 degree weather day, and non-grip sole shoes… i was up on a roof. with a hammer. and nails. and i didnt die. it was really quite amazing. then, after that, we walked around the neighborhood to invite the people to a “hope fest” that Youth With A Mission was having that saturday. well, that was pretty cool. we split up into groups… sadly i was not with danny… i was with abby, Katherine, nick, and this chick from YWAM. ryan was with us, but then he went with another group, saying he had to “protect the herd”. yeh… but we met some people… and they all seemed to want to talk to us. they told us their stories from the hurricanes, and just stories about their lives. it was really amazing. but all the people we visited kept saying things like “ya’ll be careful” or “the people around here haven’t given you any trouble, have they?”… so we were getting a little freaked out by all the warnings. so as we were walking away from this one place, abby was all “oh, i wonder why they keep telling us to be careful. no one’s given us any trouble or anything…” and then we saw these two kids sitting on the roof of a car, and i was all like “oh, i think they’re the ones we need to be careful of…”. and they were pretty scary-ish. like… the whole do-rag thing goin, tattoos, “grillz”… loud music… thug-like. really. rather frightening. so i was like “umm… should we go talk to them?” cuz they were across the street from us, and nobody was starting to cross over to them… we were all pretty scared. and abby’s like “i’m not!” and nick was like “nooo”… so… i started to walk to them… then got scared and went back with the group. then, i was like wtf so i crossed the street until i was pretty much like right in front of them and i was all like “hey! theres this hope festival on saturday…. would ya’ll like to come?” and then i sorta explained what that was… and eventually the rest of my group came behind me, and we talked to them for a little while. but when we left, abby was like “Lin, i am SO proud of you, i was about to cry!” and stuff, and even nick was like “yeh, i wouldn’t have even done that”. it was pretty awsome. but then we go back… shower… eat… and such. the next day (wednesday) was pretty fun too. when we got to Booker T, the guys went up and worked on the roof, and the girls did yard work and such. charlotte and i trimmed the bushes in the back yard, while talking to our geeky “oh, i’m a YWAM guy, and im here to sorta stand around and pretend like im working, but really i can get away with it because im nerdy” guy named ben… i was not a fan. but ANYWHOOO… then i had to help eddy rake the yard… and hear about his girlfriend whose existence i highly question… she apparently has her lip pierced. but when that was over, i went to the playground with emily and abby and charlotte and laurie and pretty much all the girls… we picked up the playground… the broken glass from beer bottles, the cigarettes with the tobacco taken out of them, the whatnots they use to smoke weed and such… guh. it was pretty repulsive. it was a children’s playground, with children on it, covered in stuff that no one under the age of freakin 21 should have. and not to mention the F word, written everywhere… sick. totally sick. this little girl… about 12… came up and talked to us for a while. she was really sweet… but it was so sad to talk to her. she wasnt sad at all, but when she told a story about her daddy drinking, after a baseball game, she talked about him getting drunk completely unfazed, as if it was a natural thing. she also told us about the “big kids that smoked weed all over the playground”, told us about them taking stuff out of cigarettes, peeing on the playground, how some kids actually sleep in the playground equipment… it was so sad. then she asked why we were even bothering to help clean up, that it would be all back there again tomorrow. it was the saddest thing ever. she stayed and talked to us as we worked… and when danny was finished, he came over, and i introduced them. after danny and i had hugged and such, she looked at us and was like “you kin or something?” it was the funniest thing i have EVER heard. then, when i explained that we were not “kin”, and in fact, he was my boyfriend, she cracked up and said to danny “i thought you was a grown man or something! you so tall!” it was pretty much amazing. but after a while, we had to go… then we went to the lake! we had a b-b-q dinner, and swam. it was pretty awsome… watching jimmy, chase, patrick, and eddy crawl across the sand because they were baby seals… made my day. and Jonathon pretty much killed me because he threw me into the lake even though i was already in. i was like swimming, and he come up underwater and like grabs my leg and i was all like wtf but i thought it was like danny… so idk. then he like come up, and throws me in face first… i get a nice mouthful of disgusting lake water… i dont even want to think about what was in that… but then we ate… and changed… and went to a church service at the church we helped clean the first day! it was pretty cool… and then we went back and sorta chilled and then went to bed. welll… then thursday. that was our free day… so it was like uber-fun. first we had to walk around like stores and talk to people… that was actually pretty fun. Lauren was rocking the whole missionary thing… and danny and i were sorta just like “ummm” yeh it was cool i guess. but then… we went to the mall… for lunch… i got two new shirts at AE… danny got the new underoath shirt from hot topic.. then we went to the “water park” aka glorified pool. it was a lot of fun except that i pretty much got eaten by little kids. but danny and i got a chance to talk a lot so that was really fun. thennn… we went to go see ice age 2… that was pretty amazing. i was very upset because the turtle never came back… it was quite tragique, really. then we went and got *Cajun food*… i was like pretty nearly broke, so i ordered shrimp gumbo, even though i really had like NO CLUE what it was. i really liked it, tho… then we went back and i got yelled at by one of the Nazis that work for YWAM for wearing a tank top… oh no, i have bared my shoulders, so therefore i am surely hell-bound. but that was fun. thenn… friday. our last day. we went back to Booker T… and worked some more. on the roof and such. and we power-washed the walls… and scraped the paint off. and re-painted. all while veggie tales music was playing. i am not going to lie, i was defiantly singing along to every single song. it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. but then… we finished and went back and showered. at the night-session thing, they showed a video about the invisible children in Uganda… it was the most horrible thing i have ever seen. i was so upset, i could barley talk. it hit everyone pretty hard. everyone had their different reactions.. but it defiantly hit everyone. then we talked about it for a while… and then, following tradition, the guys got on their knees and serenaded us. it was soo sweet. then, we go in our rooms, and say goodbye to all of our new friends. we had to apologize to mattie because ryan kept hitting on her… and then all 200 girls in our room played a massive (but clean, as we didnt have to be reminded because we are all “such good Christian ladies” as Hitler said) game of never have i ever done. ooooh… it was pretty fun. but then we went to bed… and got up at 3 o clock in the freaking morning to get on the bus. after 3 bagels and 2 bags of cheetos and a bag of chex mix… i still felt like shit. i was cold and tired. but it was all good. and we drove pretty much all day… it was so freaking hot… eternal sunshine of the spotless mind was on, but danny and i were into a pretty deep conversation, so we didnt really watch it… but it was so much fun anyways, because now i honestly feel like i know everything there is to know about danny and i love him even more than i thought was possible. but then we get to a hotel in Atlanta… and OF COURSE i run and take a nice hot shower in out room. but later that night, we’re all sitting out by the pool, and the guys have their guitars… and they are playing together. then, danny comes and sits with me and sings me “you’re beautiful”… the first song we danced to at formal. it was so amazing…
it was defiantly the best trip i have ever been on… so incredible.