"Lean On Me" video from New Orleans Mission trip 2008.
Churches from all over the country have been sending members to help clean up and restore New Orleans and the many neighborhoods that were nearly destroyed after Hurricane Katrina. Everyone who participates finds the experience to be both hot and sweaty and inexplicably rewarding and uplifting. We welcome volunteers of all ages to join us in partnering with ANGELCARE, a 501 ( c ) 3 organization that has run mission trips for years, and send volunteers again in 2009!
It is hard to believe that 2008 was the third Summer we have been privileged to work in the recovery efforts in New Orleans. It has been a remarkable experience to get to know the people at Bethlehem Lutheran (our Sister Parish) and the people in the surrounding community. It is hard to believe that the needs are so vast several years later, but our spirits were just as high as we went again. And, our partnership with the people there grows even stronger. We truly have a second home and a special bond with our brothers and sisters in New Orleans.
Our group was the biggest yet in 2008 with 18 people from several churches in San Diego. It was nice to have “veterans” of our efforts welcome newcomers to the group. Everyone travels by plane. We “hit the ground running” early in the year with meetings and the first of several fund raisers. All our members worked hard during the months before we left. To be sure, the members of Ascension were extremely supportive with their time and contributions. (We even had a fundraiser to beautify the church grounds and help our group all at the same time!) There was also a grant from Home Depot for $3,000 to help with the building supplies that were needed.
After another memorable trip to New Orleans (ask any member of the group about the airport in Dallas!), we arrived ready to go. Our work this year was much more focused that before. Bethlehem Lutheran had been able to purchase a home near the church through a grant from Thrivent and the determination of its congregation to finance the rest. This home was to be completely renovated inside and out in short order. It is earmarked to be used as a transition house for battered and abused women and their children as a step between the time they leave a shelter and have secured housing on their own. (One could just imagine the children playing safely outside in the backyard for the first time in perhaps a long time!) Lots of love and expectation went into each and every coat of paint and nail that was pounded. One neighbor two doors down from the house would loan us some of her tools every day as her contribution to the effort.
Our group was lucky to be in a position to provide and/or install the major fixtures of the house. We were able to see it come together as ready to go! After painting, caulking, cleaning windows (from which safety bars had to be removed and replaced each day!), we felt a real pride in the future this house holds for we hope many women.
Another moving event took place when we were able to visit Patricia Farve’s house. This is one of the houses that was part of our work in 2007. It was all ready to go except for the bathroom. We were able to visit the day the plumber was installing the 4 legged, cast iron bathtub (all newly painted) that we had used the past year to saw boards over! To see this all come together, and share Patricia’s excitement was something that is hard to describe. It was almost hard to tell who was more excited about her pending move-in, Patricia or us!
We were privileged once again to share Sunday worship with the congregation at Bethlehem. We all know what a good preacher our Pastor Rich is. However, you may not have heard him at his ultimate best if you haven’t heard him preach in New Orleans! And the people of Bethlehem could not treat us any more like family! It is a joy to worship and fellowship with them.
To top off our work this Summer, our group was honored to be represented in October at a special dedication and blessing. The transition house and Patricia’s house were blessed and dedicated on the same day to be of help to others. The transition house at that point was to be turned over, by a committee at Bethlehem, to an agency that would run it. Patricia had just moved into her house two weeks before Hurricane Gustav, and was happy that her house “stood strong” despite the wind and rain. (As an aside, after the hurricanes were over, Patricia was already helping a family of seven left homeless from Gustav and Ike and had moved them into her home until the time she found them temporary living quarters near her. What a living example to us of how the gifts we give and the seeds we plant multiply through God’s grace.)
Our group returned to San Diego with a determination to return this Summer. (One young lady asked us to inform Pastor Keen that even if some of the places already fixed by us were damaged in Gustav or Ike, it would be OK because we would be back and we would simply fix them!) We are now looking ahead to 2009 and the Youth Gathering that will be in New Orleans. It is a great time to combine sending our youth to the Gathering and working again with the recovery effort.
Fundraisers are held to defray the costs involved, and some scholarships are available. There is plenty of work for the skilled and unskilled. The question to ask yourself is “am I to love my neighbor as I love myself?