Ironton, LA – Jan. 18-24, 2026

Our winter long term volunteers arrived in Louisiana January 6. Project director is Paul Schamback along with his wife Lisa who is Office manager. Andy Martin, Layne Newswanger, Sam Stoltzfus, Simon Martin, Jonathan Zimmerman, Andrew Zimmerman, and Blake Yoder were our work crew. Sue Horning and Kara Weaver were the cooks. Our initial assignment was to build 3 houses in the small village of Ironton, LA. These houses will be built 15 feet in the air. When we arrived the building permits were not issued yet. Consequently, we found repair jobs to keep us busy for 3 weeks until we could finally get started on the first house. While working in Ironton, we are staying in the town of Belle Chasse at the First Baptist Church of Belle Chasse. We have very nice facilities. There is a game room where we have our indoor pickleball net set up so we have some very competitive pickleball games in the evenings.

By Lisa Schamback