Not much writing happening here lately.
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of leading 10 of our students to New Orleans, LA for our annual Spring Break Mission Trip. What an amazing time. I feel like a schlub, because these trips are great chances to blog and share insights. However, I am simply too busy to blog whilst preparing for and executing these kinds of trips.
All in all…it was amazing. The devastation in NOLA is still massive. People there are hopeless and lost and frustrated. I talked to several folks who confessed that they just about jumped into the floodwaters in order to take their own lives. One guy didn’t do it because the water was too cold. There are great needs…and will be, for at least the next decade.
We spent much of our time in the Lower 9th Ward, made famous by Katrina. It’s still a ghost-town, but businesses are starting to pop up. We got to help gut an old nursing home that had been destroyed. In one of the most eerie moments on the trip, someone from our crew uncovered an old whiteboard. Written on that whiteboard were evacuation plans for the residents and staff of the nursing home. Perfectly preserved. It was haunting.
We also gutted an old house down in the “toe” of the state. What a cool place. We could see the Mississippi River 150 yards to our right and the Gulf of Mexico 150 yards to our left. Where we were working was under 30′ of water for a few days and all the houses were underwater for several months. The residents of the area finally got to go back to their destroyed homes about 3-4 months after the storm.
We spent one day working with The Green Project, a local recycling organization dedicated to preserving and re-selling old construction materials, primarily. Different work, but very cool.
The last day was spent going from devastated house to devastated house doing odd jobs. We stained a deck for one lady. Cleaned some debris for another.
And we saw all the sights…Bourbon Street and the entire French Quarter is a spectacle. We took a tour of the bayou and fed some alligators. We ate oysters and crawfish and alligator.
Pictures and another NOLA post to come.
Posted in Campus Ministry, Missions
