Going Just a Little Deeper

I feel what has been written to date about the February trip is shallow stuff — Worked for Miss Pat, a great team, great people from all over the country… all nice, all good, all blah, blah, blah…

So, OK —- What is the deeper stuff of this trip; of all the team trips? Why do teams go to New Orleans and come back tired, exhausted for sure; but also excited and hyped?

What I think is going on is the excitement that comes from being in the middle of a movement of God. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think God is parked in New Orleans and can’t be found in central Pennsylvania. But, I do think that after an event like Katrina many people have come to rely more on God. They are more tuned into His power, His direction and His love (more about His Love at another time).

Pastor Michael likes to tell the story of how he spent weeks putting together a wonderful 70 page plan for Trinity Church – It charted the course of Trinity Church for years to come. And, most surprising, all the church leadership signed off on it almost without question. A beautiful plan for growth. That was completed a week or so before Katrina. Plans of men change.

Pastor Michael now can talk for hours about God’s plan. How he has seen God move (time after time); how he has seen the body of Christ be the Body of Christ (time after time); how provision has come (time after time). Read his letters if you don’t get what I’m talking about. (click the Trinity Church link).

But the point is – God is being God and the people are recognizing and responding to it.

So – the difference here vs. there? God is being God here too – He’s not different in Louisiana.  But, are we responding? Do we seek His provision on a daily basis? Are we being the “Church” by going out/into the community to serve, to love… or do we sit and wait for people to come in and join us? Life Giving Saturday is a start at going out; but sustaining it, growing it and investing in relationships is hard, very hard work.

I hope to add to this in the coming days. (What is our responsibility to the poor? What does the excitement of “New Orleans” look like when we get home? … )

Comment!

A Great Team!

I want to thank the team I traveled and worked with this past week. They are a great group of people who all had a willingness to be challenged on this trip and to do whatever was asked of them. Thank you.

Cherri ….

Rachel (a.k.a.  Bill  and  R.J. ) …

Don …

And – Me (Terry)

February 20 “Question of the Day” answered…

This past week in New Orleans where I was working with the poor in inner city neighborhoods, there was much discussion about – as Christians, what is our responsibility to the poor, the needy, the oppressed? What is the believers role in society?

In the February 20 post “Question of the Day” I asked; according to Ezekiel, what were the sins of Sodom? I didn’t get any replies to the questions. So….

In answer to my question – I (and I would guess most of you too) think of things like the sexual sins, their lack of godliness or other such things.  However, that is not what stood out to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)   49 ” ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

The Question

            Terry has been asking us “What has God taught you this week”?  After two years, the enormity of the need in New Orleans still overwhelms you.  On every block houses sit empty, gutted of their contents.  It’s normal to see people living on the second floor of a house while the first floor sits empty with gaping holes in the side.  Other’s live in trailers squeezed into the yards of a shattered house.  The lucky ones live in RVs, many remain in FEMA trailers.

            We spent four days working on Miss Pat’s house.  Although we accomplished much it will be months before she can move out of her trailer.  Through the combined efforts of Trinity and Castle Rock Church’s another 10 to 15 homes are being refurbished.  But there are tens of thousands of homes remaining.  The work of rebuilding will take decades.

            What has God taught me this week?  The answer for me will be a long time in coming.  I leave New Orleans with mixed feelings.  I want to stay and see Miss Pat back in her home.  But I know that its time to return home and leave the job to others.  I guess that for now my answer is a simple one.  We serve where the opportunity presents itself, one soul and one day at a time.    

DON

Finishing up

So we’re making some major progress at Miss Pat’s house. Yesterday, we finished up the landing for the steps and began placing the steps. Today, we actually finished the upper level of steps and are building the lower level platform/supporters for the bottom set of stairs. Unfortunately though, Miss Pats had to leave us today to go visit family in Mobile, Alabama. We’re all doing great, a little sore, but we’re doing just fine.

Question of the day?

Without looking it up in a Bible – according to Ezekiel what were the sins of Sodom?

Post your comments.

Mrs. Pat

Our work week will primarily be with Mrs. Pat. An elderly lady, living alone, having a hard time. But, she seems to thrive with people around – she laughs, she jokes and boy, can she talk. She is short – told me once she had her picture taken with a bunch of other people and it looked like she was standing in a hole. That is why you don’t see any pictures of her. After the “hole” experience she said she never wanted to have her picture taken again.

While Gary and Shelita’s story is one of success, Mrs. Pat’s is maybe more typical. After 2 1/2 years she still is struggling, wondering what will happen next, living between her home in New Orleans and some other place (Mobile, AL in Mrs. Pats case). Construction on her house is coming along, but oh so slowly. In the picture below you see her house and her FEMA trailer out front. I never realized how small a FEMA trailer was until I was in one.

One incredible thing about Mrs. Pat though is her story – an abbreviated version follows…

The storm was coming and Miss Pat thought about leaving.  But her ride out had a dog and so did Miss Pat.  She knew the dogs didn’t get along and she knew other people were staying to ride out the storm.  So instead of making the trip with two miserable dogs in a crowded car – she chose to stay behind.

As the storm came through, Miss Pat seemed safe enough.  But, after flushing the toilet she noticed some water around the base.  “It’s leaking.  The storm’s causing problems with the sewer lines”,  she thought.  But she then noticed more water – in the hall, around the doors…  there was more and more water and it was rising fast.  It was too late to leave, the water was rising so fast, the levee had broken.

The second floor of her house was an apartment.  Head up to higher ground was her plan.  But, to get there required going outside, around to the other door and then up to higher ground.  By this time the furniture was floating.  She had a hard time pushing water logged furniture out of her way but she did finally make it to the door.  However, she couldn’t get out – the door was blocked.  Whether is was debris or the pressure of the water outside pushing in, she wasn’t sure.  But she knew the water was still rising and she had no way to get to her second floor refuge.

Perplexed, scared, exhausted she made her way back through the house.  She had to get above the water, she had to climb to higher ground.

Perched on her kitchen stove the water continued to rise.  Finally, finally it stopped – night was falling, she had nowhere to go, no way out.  Miss Pat said the hardest thing about spending the night on top of a stove with water up to her neck was staying awake. She is frail, she is old, she was exhausted.

Obviously she survived that night. However, there is the rescue, the cut foot, the helicopter ride, the ambulance, the trip to San Antoine and finally a flight to family in Mobile.  Maybe I’ll tell you some other time.

A Success Story

Too bad there aren’t more….

We arrived in New Orleans Sunday afternoon. There is still plenty to do. But there are some successes and following are a couple of pictures of one. The November 2005 team will remember Gary and Shelita. Take a look. They moved back into their home in November 2006 – a year after we took the first pictures when gutting there house..

Then…

NOW!!!!

2/18: First day

Today we set out to help Miss Pats. It was amazing to see how much work still needed to be done. With a group of four, you can say we accomplished a lot. We decided to split in two groups to cover more areas of the house. Terri and Cherri went out back to start the last bits and pieces of the porch while Don and I started framing. Closer to the end of the day, Miss Pats told us her story and everything she went through. She said the first night she was trapped in her house and actually fell asleep on her stove, how uncomfortable. But overall, I think the day went well and we’re all very, very excited to get to work tomorrow.

We’ll check in tomorrow!

Team Introduction

This is the team that left for New Orleans this morning (Feb 16th). From left to right are Terry Fisher, Don Sherman, Cherri Cribari and Rachel Stum. As you can see they left with the sun shinning bright; please pray for traveling mercies. You may leave your comments of encouragement here, I am sure they will be pleased to hear from you while they are away. Stay tuned for what we hope will be daily updates from the team.