180 in New Orleans

An incredible thing happened this last week - 40 kids from my old youth group took their Spring Break week and went to New Orleans to help with relief efforts from the hurricanes down there. This is a youth group that only started 5 years ago with maybe 20 kids on a Wednesday night. Now there are more than 120 kids split between two groups cuz we outgrew the old space!

This is the first service trip they've done, and it blows my mind that so many teens would go. I've been getting daily updates from them, check out some of the quotes:

"It is hard to put perspective here on what we have seen and experienced. Katrina did a lot of things for sure and from what I hear, it is getting better…but better is measured in very tiny increments. The Lower Ninth Ward and the neighboring St. Bernard’s Parish, is a huge community of something like 68,000 people. In a sense they have their own brand of culture here and finding pride that they are not from New Orleans. You could say it is an adjoining suburb. Every day we drive in to our job sites, we see something new that astounds us. I am still amazed how houses not made of brick, could float as well as they did. One guy we talked to does not know where his house is. The foundation is all that remains. We have seen blocks for miles that every house on it floated somewhere, or into one another, sometimes no further than the back yard. Everyone I have met, has the same story….the hurricane came, the levy’s broke, people did what was necessary to live, whether it was riding a house to where ever it was going or being rescued, stealing a neighbors boat. One guy I talked with saw his uncle floating face down and to make sure turned him over. He had to call his Aunt to tell her while she was on another roof a few neighborhoods away. Dee the lady we helped yesterday told of her neighbor who couldn’t rescue 12 children who were across the street and three houses away because he couldn’t or didn’t have a way there. Fortunately, the kids survived. Here at the parish, you can drive for miles and see destruction on both sides of the street. If you could imagine your neighbor hood for miles, trees uprooted, cars flipped, some streets the house are all gone, just about everything you see was destroyed, you might get an idea. The media cannot do justice to how really terrible it is here. They say maybe 10,000 people have moved back. I am not sure it is that high." ~ Dave, adult leader

"I just wanted to share about my experience at emergency communities today, let me just say wow these people have amazing ways of living after they have lost absolutely everything but there lives, they are so happy and joyful about everything with a positive attitude, I will admit that I have never have so much fun washing dishes with Casey and Cassie, man mom get some Rubbermaid tubes and lets start washing some dishes in them it was a blast!! Never thought I would say I loved watching dishes, but don’t tell anyone!! It was also a struggle to fold and organize all the baby clothes and to just think about how many clothes my little bro has and these poor little kids have nothing at all and parents were so happy to have a box of diapers just one little box of diapers, because believe me these people truly have nothing at all they lost everything but there lives some of them even lost their loved ones. So just pray to bless these people and their homes." ~ Bekki, age 13

"But earlier in the week we did non-stop demolition for 3 days. One day we started @ 11 and didn’t finish until 6 o’clock. It was about a 1,800 square foot house and we couldn’t quite finish it all but we did the best that we could and finished a lot of it. Maggots were all in the kitchen, they had some interesting movies in their house, and their pool was filled with the most disgusting water ever. The guy was so thankful for us being there, He brought us soda and po-boys for us for dinner. The first day we went to a guy named Alex’s house and gutted out his whole house. Then during one of our breaks we saw a man down the street and went to talk to him. His name was brother Charles and he had actually @ one point was a helper of the poor and now he is one of the poor. Everyone up in Seattle, y’all will never be able to comprehend what people are going thorough until you see it for yourself. The pictures you see on the news, Oprah, and other shows do not even compare with what you see first hand. Houses are just chilling on the streets, dead animals are all around (particurally hard for me to see!!), and home owners are just devastated." ~ Lauren, age 16

"This has been, hands down, the coolest experience of my life. Today we basically ripped apart a house that hasn’t been touched since the flood. I didn’t even think that we would get all the stuff off of the ground. Not only did we pick everything up, but we ripped up the carpets, AND cleaned out a couple closets. The owner was a New Orleans sheriff, and had never left during the flood or the storm. He was one of the guys that had helped rescue people from their houses on jet-ski’s. All in all, its been an awesome week. I don’t think that there is a better way I could spend my spring break, and I’m amazingly glad I came down here." ~ Jon, age 15

"I am working with an amazing group of our junior high students who never cease to amaze me at home, and have really impressed me this week. We worked at Emergency Communities today and had a wonderful time. I had the opportunity to watch our kids work harder than they have never worked in their lives. While I was taking a rest after lunch, I sat and chatted with a woman named Martha (pronounced Moth-a here in the south). She told me that she her house was just tagged to get a FEMA trailer… she applied for it in October. They can’t find her sewer line so she doesn’t know when she and her 15 year old son will be able to move home. They are staying in a studio apartment right now. She said that her insurance company has deferred her mortgage until June…after that; she doesn’t know what she’ll do." ~ Tanya, adult leader

"Today was amazing. There is no other word to describe it. Seriously. Although it seemed like the day never ended, after everything was all done it was so cool to see all that we had accomplished. Our group worked insanely hard to finish knocking down the crazy walls made of sheetrock covered in plaster. We did a really great job today at busting our butts and working together. Towards the end of it all another group arrived to help us finish Karen’s home. By the way, Karen is one of the most inspiring persons I have ever met. She is so loving and caring for each and every one of us. I’m so glad God sent us to help her so we could all meet her. For lunch a group of college kids took us to a trailer where we were fed a HOME COOKED meal! It was delicious. Also, everything hit me today. And I hope all the rest of us are hit just like I was. I think I finally saw why God sent me here, and I’m glad I did. Anyways, minus a nail going through my boot, hammering my hand 4 times, and getting shoved in Jay’s soaked and sweaty armpit twice, I can honestly say today was the most amazing day ever." ~ Ari, age 15

There's many more than I can share. It just blows my mind to hear the stories of what is still going on down there, and how much work has and has not happened since last year. They've been sending pics and stuff, it's incredible.

And I'm so proud of them! Many of the kids who went I've known since they were fresh out of grade school and snotty nosed Sevies (that's seventh-graders, for you non-American folks). I've watched them grow up, and it honestly brings tears to my eyes to see them doing this and hear about the way God is changing their lives. I'm so proud of them. And what's even cooler is that I don't even know half the kids who went, and I only moved away a year ago!

This picture really sums it up for me. That amid the ruin, the devestation, the broken world that exists down there, that there is still hope and faith. We have it pretty good where we're at; I've never experienced a disaster like this in my life. God grant that my eyes would stay focused on him whatever life brings.