About a week ago on our way back from Passion, Rick & I stopped in New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. We were amazed at the lack of progress seen in the redevelopment of New Orleans. Large sections of the city were deserted and in shambles. I’ve heard the city’s population is at least 200,000 people shy of pre-Katrina levels. Whole neighborhoods are empty; there are piles of trash & building debris everywhere. I was really amazed to see the damage done and how slow recovery has been.
Rick & I were able to help out for a day through a relief center set up by Celebration Church. We hooked up with a work team from Rock Harbor Church which is based in California. They were in the middle of gutting two houses and we jumped in to help them finish the job. Gutting consists of stripping a house down to the framing. We knocked out ceilings, tile floors, dry wall and pretty much anything else you can think of that is in a house. Rick and I even helped shatter a bathtub and toilet. It is a nasty job but it significantly reduces the costs for the homeowner to either renovate or tear down their house. We finished gutting two homes before heading home for Baton Rouge.
What I can say is that if you are looking for ways you, a group of friends, co-workers or your church can volunteer a great opportunity is to head to New Orleans to help clean it out and hopefully rebuild communities or at least the lives of people who are affected. This tragedy brought about a lot of community spirit and unity but I feel we’re suffering from Mission fatigue…the problem still exists even after we’ve come together to donate/give/work/pray so much.
