Howdy there folks. In case you didn’t know, I spent my break down in LA with about 68 other students from NE helping to rebuild New Orleans (pronounced or-lins, not or-leens. we asked the natives). I could make the requisite post containing all of my thoughts and telling you everything in the world about the trip, but somehow I never feel like doing that. Maybe I’ll try to hit the high points.

New Orleans is, as a city, ruined. 70% of the city was underwater, some parts of it until mid-December. On TV they either show you the decimated 9th Ward, implying that there is no hope, or the thriving French Quarter, implying that everything is already rebuilt. Neither of those is accurate. I would say that 85% of things damaged in the disaster are still that way. But there is hope, there are people rebuilding and caring and people are moving back. One of the main impressions I got was how very adaptive and resilient we have been made.

Last Sunday I stood by the levee that broke and flooded the 9th Ward. I stood on somebody’s kitchen floor and wondered where the rest of the house was, I walked along the sidewalk and up front steps that no longer led to a house. I carefully drove around the house deposited in the middle of the road, I looked at the cars turned over and the objects symbolizing lifetimes lost. The word devastation certainly has a new, more personal meaning for me. It was sad, but as Allie put it, I don’t want to sit around grieving for people’s lost things. I will grieve for the lost lives, the lives ruined and the humanity with no hope, but possessions are just that and ultimately they are meaningless.

Monday through Friday our teams went out to do whatever. We worked with Operation Blesssing to get work assignments. My team, Team Homewreckers (“Wreckin’ it Jesus style!”), spent three days completely gutting one woman’s house. I ate MREs (which are the most amazing thing in the world) and wore a Tyvec suit and a respirator and took out moldy drywall, moldy floors, moldy appliances (a refrigerator with water still in it from the flood), and moldy insulation. We slept on pews in a church and showered in trailers. Breakfast was at 6:45 a.m. I have seldom been so tired or gratified or so happy. This might have been the best week of my life.

When I woke up yesterday after a nap in my own bed, I was overcome with the strange sensation of thinking that all the things around me were garbage and needed to be taken out to the curbside pile. I thought that the blankets and such were insulation that needed to be hauled out. There’s more about the trip, so much more, but I’m still processing and most of it isn’t really post-worthy, it just adds more to my character. I certainly feel like God used me to affect some lives, and I know that he used others to affect me, for which I am grateful. So let’s all give a big “Yay Jesus”. And then take a nap, because I’m still tired.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 19th, 2006 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.