Hurricane Relief Trip - Part 2 (scroll down for part 1)

Day 3 – 10/7/05

The word for the day is “Ow”. I am starting to hurt all over. At least it is from working, though. We had a very successful day, even though the first job we went to we couldn’t find either the resident or the tree that was supposed to be down. Since they weren’t there, we went back to the first site from yesterday that didn’t get finished and took care of that.

We went to our second site at 11 o’clock and took out their kitchen – stove, cabinets, counter, sink, dishwasher, and fridge. Then we went to lunch and went back after and did the rest of the house. Last night, we took advantage of some folks that offered the shower in their garage. We were going to go back tonight, but there were too many people that wanted to go. So I went out back to the tarp-and-a-garden-hose shower and came back to find that the people weren’t home anyway.

I’m a bit disappointed that Josh has been on the other work team, but he is still doing well once he wakes up. It’s sure a good team that we are here with and it’s all I can do to keep up with the guys that I’m working with.

Continue to use us Lord, to bless those who are in so much need.

Day 4 – 10/8/05 (picture is Central City Vineyard - New Orleans)

This for me was the coolest day yet. We were divided first thing this morning by our team lead, Dom, into different teams. Our team was chosen to go into downtown New Orleans to help the pastor of the N.O. Vineyard with his house. It was only about a ½ hour drive, and we were done by 2:30. Dave Collier got there just as we were finishing up, and he drove back to Kenner with us.

I then went with Dave across the 24 mile long bridge across Lake Pontchartrain, through Covington, where he was staying, out to Slidell. This was one of the hardest hit areas that doesn’t show up in the news. We drove through areas that a month and a half later still had standing water, utility poles and trees knocked over, and houses in ruins.

The neighborhood was in the bayou, almost on the lake. There was what used to be a marina, but was now just a swamp. The boats were mostly ruined, with some on their sides, some in pieces, and some even nose down with only the back end out of the swamp. There were signs spray painted on houses and even cars that said “Keep out – we shoot looters.” It was a mess.

We then drove back to Covington, and Dave took me to a Cajun buffet restaurant. We had shrimp gumbo, fried shrimp, fried catfish (mmm), Jambalaya (mmmmm!) and other stuff.

Then we went back to Dave’s hotel and I got a hot shower before heading back to Kenner. All in all it was a very fun day. Tomorrow is Sunday, and we’ll have church here. We are still discussing what we will do after church.

To be continued...