Dec
10
New Orleans
Filed Under Life
Four years have passed since Hurricane Katrina hit, yet there is still a lot of work to be done. We partnered with a couple different ministries while we were down there – Crisis Response and Urban Impact (there may have been more, not sure…there were people coming out of the woordwork when we were down there!) Because of the rain, our schedule got chanced a wee bit, so instead of doing some demolition work, we went to another house to hang some drywall. This home owner had received his money (not sure if it was from insurance, or who) to rebulid his house. He paid a contractor to come in and fix his home. Well the contractor came in, took the money and ran. Unfortunately, that is quite common down there. Way to kick someone when they’re down, people!
Before and after shots of one of the rooms we worked on.
We all really enjoyed working with the people of Crisis Response and I almost mastered the art of using a roter zip.
When the rain settled after two days, we set off for our original house, which technically wasn’t a house. There were no walls nor ceiling and our job was to tear up the rest of the floor, but salvage what wood we could.
Another aspect of our ministry was working with Urban Impact. They created this thing called the Challenge Circle for the kids. While showing these kids love, they instill messages of staying in school and never quitting. We played a lot of four square and had a lot of fun with these kids.
We did have a free day and we toured the city. We saw the two levies that broke, and the Lower Ninth Ward, where most of the damage was done. We also visited a cemetery, which is highly creepy, but their graves are above ground so it was interesting to see. (We visited the cemetery where “Double Jeopardy” was filmed). There was a grave digger there who gave us a “tour”. The “tour” was complete with him showing us an empty tomb he was preparing and crawling into it! Many of us questioned whether he really worked there or if he was some random guy who came along to collect “donations” for his “tour”. The worst part was that we got locked in so he had to take us out another gate.
The evening was rounded off with a Tide win over the Gators (ROLL TIDE!) and bengiets at Cafe du Monde, a New Orleans dessert, which is very, very yummy (and really not that good for ya!)
All in all, the trip was a good one and hopefully I will be able to take an AIA Track & Field team down there to do some ministry. We had a good crew go down and there were a few times I laughed until I cried and couldn’t breathe (the best kind of laugh!) Please continue to pray for the people of New Orleans.
Love all the pics! You are doing an awesome thing down there. My dad was down in Galveston for several months earlier this year repairing damage from Hurricane Ike and he said the devastation was was unbelievable, even this long after the hurricane hit!
Oh yeah I love the new layout of your page! Hope you are having a great December and Merry Christmas in case I don’t talk to you before then!
Nevermind about that new page layout… my comp was just acting kinda wierd, I guess it isn’t too different. Maybe I better just go be bed, hehehe. Lova Ya Girl and talk to you soon.