NOLA Mission Trip – Day 3

Day 3

I’m going to try to make this a little shorter than the previous 2 days because, quite frankly, it’s late and I’m tired.

Today went really well. VBS was good this morning. Our team heard a couple of stories that really helped give us a glimpse of what life is like for these kids. One child, Calin, lost his mom just 4 weeks ago. He’s 7 years old. We’ve all noticed him being very clingy and affectionate with us, but now we know why. Please pray for him.

Karina was feeling well enough to come with us today, so she was able to be there for the VBS. However, by the time VBS was over she was starting to get that worn out day-after-the-flu feeling. Since I had to get a tetanus shot anyway, we dropped the other 3 girls off at the house, went to get my shot (we went every direction except the right one to get to the clinic, by the way), then headed over to the BBC office to see if they needed any help. We weren’t there for more than 10 minutes when I got a call from Arthur (the Volunteer coordinator working with the other 3 girls) saying that, (1) Heather stepped on a nail, so you know the clinic you just went to? Yea, she needs to go now…and (2) The dumpster still had not shown up at the house and we can’t do anymore work until all the stuff we’ve already knocked out can come out of the house. So that was the end of house gutting for day 2.

It worked out really well, though, because we were able to come back to BBC and play with the kids for a while before heading back home a little early to shower and take a quick tour of the Garden District before Kati, Paul, the Petersons and the Homs joined us for some of Ray’s famous Shrimp Pasta.

After dinner, we all sat around the living room and heard Paul’s “Katrina story”. Not only did Paul grow up and live in Gentilly (a neighborhood demolished by the floods), but he was in college at the time at Tulane University, so his story has some different elements to it. We also got to hear the story of how he met his fiance shortly after returning from the storm. For a group of girls, that was a great addition!

At 9, we broke for a few minutes so our team could officially do a short debrief so everyone was free to go to bed. Jessie’s been having a lot of problems sleeping this week. She’s very literally exhausted and needs to sleep more than anything else right now. We prayed over her and her bed and we haven’t seen her roaming in or out of the room yet, so my (our) hope is that God is showing himself faithful to our request.

A few of us took a quick trip out to Morning Call in Metairie for Beignets, then I took a liberty as the leader and driver of the car and swung by my adopted Mama’s house to wake her up (as I usually end up doing when I come to town) and say hello. I can’t come to this town and not at least see her for 5 minutes.

Now everyone is sleeping but me and I’m very quickly heading in that direction. Thank you to those who are reading these (very long) updates and keeping us in prayer. The team is really starting to function like a team and I’m really proud of us. I look forward to seeing what God does in the next few days in the girls and in the people around us. Keep praying!

Until tomorrow…

NOLA Mission Trip – Day 1

My wife is currently leading a group of girls on a mission trip in our beloved New Orleans. As I am hoping many people are praying for them I also wanted to be able to post Leanne’s blog here so everyone could now how it’s going. Enjoy.

Day 1

Today was our team’s first full day in New Orleans, and boy was it a FULL day! We started the morning with some devotions and then headed off to Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. For those of you who are not familiar with FABC, it is a staple of New Orleans. There are thousands of people who attended this church before the storm…most from the parts of the city hit the hardest by Katrina. When Katrina hit, many parishors went to Houston. So many so that Franklin Avenue was meeting in Houston and now has basically planted a church in the Houston area. The Lead Pastor was actually in Houston this morning. We heard “The Bishop”. And for those of you who’ve been to a black Southern Baptist church, you KNOW-ah we went to CHURCH-a THIS-ahh MORNIN’!

It was good. You can check out their website and see a videocast of the service every week. I think Heather might actually leave Revolution to watch the FABC broadcast. ) Not really.

After coming back to the house to change, we headed out to lunch. We had some amazing Po’ Boys. The girls even liked the alligator sausage. mmmmmmm

And then it was time for “the tour”. It’s hard for me to imagine what this is like for someone who’s never been here before. I’ve been doing the same tour since October 2005, and even though it’s almost 3 years later, it’s amazing that the sights can still create deafening silence, awe and sadness in those seeing for the first time. New Orleans is coming back. But she’s coming back slowly.

When the tour was over, a few of us stayed at the house to relax for a little while while 2 of us headed out with Janet to Sam’s club and to pick up our rental van (which is like a Mazda Miata compared to the Giant White BBC Beast we’ve been driving since last night) and then a final stop at Wal-Mart for some VBS supplies. Once we got back home, Jessie (with some help from our hosts) cooked up some wonderful Spaghetti and salad, we ate and then did some planning for tomorrow.

We are so tired and the week hasn’t really even begun yet! Tomorrow is the first day of our 4-day VBS as well as our first taste of gutting a house. We are all excited, but praying we are energetic enough to give it our all. Karina had a fever of 102 earlier, but it looks like God is answering our prayers and it’s down to 99 as of an hour ago! Praise God!

As for me, I’m just along for the ride. I don’t know what God has in store for this week. I certainly didn’t expect my own emotions to be all out of whack just by being here, so I have to really let God have control of everything or I’ll just fall apart like I usually do when I get overwhelmed.

So when you think about us, pray for us. Pray for the kids we’ll meet tomorrow. Pray for the people whose house we are working on. Pray for us to have soft hearts and humble, teachable spirits. Pray that we grow to love one another and enjoy one another as teammates. Pray that we stay healthy and well-rested. Pray that God gives us joy abundantly. And pray that God is glorified through our short stay here in New Orleans.

Until later…

New Orleans pt. 3 – My breaking point

December 29th

We got to start late this day. Not that we slept in…you see we found out quickly that Cheryl gets up at like 4:28 in the morning. She was our rooster as she made coffee and put out the breakfast goodies.

The plan for this day was simple…go work some more on the offices of BBC, and then around 2 we would head downtown to feed some people who were homeless. We would then clean up, get some dinner, watch a special on Hurricane Katrina and go to sleep.

Like clock work everyone dived in to their respective projects. We had some Popeye’s chicken for lunch (yummo) and then we tried to get as much done as we could before our 2 o clock departure for the downtown area. I found myself agitated that early afternoon and for the life of me I could not figure out why. As we went to McDonald’s to buy 100 double cheeseburgers I found myself becoming increasingly overwhelmed with everything. For 3 days I had been working and leading and I don’t know if I allowed myself a time to feel…anything. Leanne and the baby had arrived late the 28th and when they arrived I think reality finally began to catch up with me.

As a few of us waited in the van for the rest of the group Jessica told me she couldn’t look at the water lines anymore. I couldn’t tell her at the time…but neither could I. I knew I needed to face whatever was going on inside of me, I knew I needed to pray, but at that moment…at that point I just didn’t know how. I decided as the group gave out the cheeseburgers and prayed with people, then I would go and run to the store to get some supplies we needed. I dropped them off and away I went…running away…trying my hardest to not deal with the turmoil that lied just below the surface.

I went to three different stores…and all of them were still closed. As I drove around downtown my mind played images in my head. Images of when we would hold worship services for those without a home. Images of kids playing in the street. Images of life. But the pictures my mind saw were far different then the ones my eyes currently beheld.

I pulled over and parked and as I began to weep for the city, for what it used to be, for what it is now, for what it could be…I saw Charity Hospital. Before the storm it was the premier trauma center in the Gulf South. After Katrina hit they were literally forced to slide people down the stairs because the elevators did not work. The morgue overflowing, the stench of death and decay everywhere, and everyone was trapped…for days. This was a place of healing, of hope and for a few days in August and September it became a prison. Now it stands as an empty sentry overlooking the city.

The picture of that vacant hospital made me nauseous and quickly a flood of emotion hit me. It was as if all the things that I had spent two years pushing down came rushing to the surface with a fury that could not be stopped. Feelings of guilt, anger, pain, jealousy, selfishness, confusion, despair, frustration…so many thoughts rushing through my mind like a torrent. I sat in that van and all I could see was that hospital…that stupid hospital…and I realized that I had reached my breaking point.

The team came back and I sucked it all back in…

and the rain began to fall.

As the team was cleaning up, Leanne and the baby came over, and I had to go outside…I couldn’t let people see me like this. I let the cold rain hit my face wishing that it would numb the pain. Hoping that it could take away all of the anguish and confusion. I wanted to go back to LA and forget this place. I wanted to forget the city, the need, the pain, it was just too much…I thought I could handle it but apparently I was wrong…at least that’s what I told myself.

Then God gave me a word…hope.

I was hope. We were hope. And we needed to be able to offer that hope to the people who needed it the most. That was why we came. I shared with the team the realities of pain in New Orleans. The truth of the struggle that so many were coping with. I shared with them the fact that we were hope and we needed to offer that hope . That we needed to be people of hope…because those around us need it now more than ever. We came to work, we came to help, to make an impact…but above all other things God brought us to give hope to the people of New Orleans.

The 29th was a day of…understanding…it was a day of brokenness and of beauty. By the end of it I was exhausted…but tomorrow was another day, and it would be a day of celebration.

Part IV coming soon.

New Orleans Pt.1 – A reality of hope and need

I’m not sure really where to begin. You see this was more than a mission trip for me…it was…closure. The trip began for me on Christmas night. Cheryl, Tanya, Tim, and I all arrived at LAX for a 12:30am flight. After a short layover in Huston we arrived at Louis Armstrong airport at roughly 7:30am.

December 26th
Our first day was pretty low key, we grabbed some pecan waffles, grits, and an omelet…did some grocery shopping, took a nap, and waited for the rest of the team to arrive. My friends Janet and Casey stopping by, however, interrupted my nap. It was a welcome interruption seeing I had not seen them in over a year.

Finally, the rest of the team arrived and we had a nice little welcome party before we crashed in our respective areas. We needed to get as much sleep as we could before the workday that was awaiting us. Of course when you have a house filled with 14 people –two of which snore, 5 of which (including myself) talk…a lot – you know that sleep is the one thing that does not happen before midnight.

December 27th

We awoke and drove to East New Orleans to assist Building Better Communities in their move to a new facility. We broke off into several smaller groups to tackle the projects before us. Jessica, Jenny, Randy, Esther, and Tanya did a whole bunch of painting, and insulation work. Cheryl, Christina, Marie, and Rachel began to put in a hardwood floor. Doris was a cleaning machine and put together a whole bunch of IKEA furniture. And finally, Tim, Aaron, Aaron, and myself hung some drywall…twice. (We were new to that process)

You should know that East New Orleans was completely devastated. 100% of the structures were destroyed by floodwater…that’s well over 65,000 homes. As we drove on Hwy 10 to the new offices it was a strange site because you had these small pockets of renewal that looked like little islands in a sea of desolateness.

As we worked on our tasks it was easy to forget that everywhere around us was pretty much empty. The structures were there, but the life was hard to find. The only time I think it really set in is when you would take a break, and you would be greeted with a muffled silence…an eerie quietness that spoke a story to large to comprehend.

Building Better Communities however is offering hope. Not only do they help facilitate incoming work groups but also they are actively working at restoring their neighborhood. The facility we were working in will not only serve as there offices but also as a dress for success office that would enable woman to get clothes and job training. It will serve as a day care and day camp center for children who have nowhere to go and nothing to do. They are also opening up a coffee shop that would enable ample space for community to happen as well as a place for neighborhood small groups to meet.

BBC is one of those islands…one of the few places that has been able to jump through the red tape and bureaucracy to begin rebuilding…one of the few places that life is apparent. They exist to rebuild New Orleans one family at a time, and it is rewarding to know that the work we did for BBC will have lasting implications. However, no matter how good it made me feel the reality is, that it has been 2 ½ years. 2 ½ years…and maybe…maybe 20% of the work has been done.

Part II coming tomorrow….