We've arrived!

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It's been a long day of travel, but also a very smooth day. No glitches with flights, luggage or people! That is--we've all arrived safely at Yankie Stadium and have settled in for the week! The travelers from Minneapolis (and Sioux Falls) met up with the Appleton crew at the Memphis airport to travel the last leg of the journey together. One more team member from Michigan met up with us in Biloxi.

As we drove from the airport to Yankie Stadium, we couldn't help but be moved by what we saw. While it's certainly nowhere near the devastation of three years ago, it was still sobering to see homes and businesses still boarded up, and foundations with no homes sitting on them. And this is only the beginning of what we will see, hear and experience personally this week.

At Yankie Stadium, we joined up with two other Thrivent Financial teams from New York and Pennsylvania. It's always great to meet our members and to know the difference that we are all making together, in no small part because of what Thrivent Financial has committed to do in the Gulf Coast region. We are very blessed to work for an organization like Thrivent Financial. We also have joined up with another Habitat for Humanity affiliate here to help as well. It's going to be great to meet people and learn their stories of what has brought them here.

Matt from the local Habitat affiliate led our orientation; what a great sense of humor he brings to the week! We followed that up with a team meeting--which was a great way to kick off the week. It was a time of sharing our reasons for being here, our fears and how we hope to be touched. It's really all about team, and I'm thrilled to be part of such a great team.

Tomorrow we head to the build site where we learn what we will be doing this week. Looking forward to it!

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