A little bit of hope

Tens of thousands of lives were immediately changed when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast last summer. All most of us could do was sit back and watch the devastation, watch people struggle on their roofs, watch people crowded in the Superdome, watch boats going up and down streets instead of cars. As I sat and watched the pictures and listened to the benefit concerts, I didn't think about sending money or giving blood. I thought about getting my hands dirty and going into the worst of it.

I finally got my chance at the beginning of July, ten months after the storm. Twenty-two of us traveled to the Big Easy: eighteen teenagers and four adults. We weren't told exactly what we would be doing, so I, along with most of my fellow CYF-ers assumed we would be rebuilding. It is now eleven months after the storm; most of the cleanup should be done, right?

Wrong. When we arrived we learned we would be gutting houses that had yet to be cleaned out or even touched since the storm. We spent four days tearing down walls, tossing pictures, dishes, and memories into a pile on the side of the street, until all that was left in the home were wooden studs. We took out curtains and molding and hot water heaters and clothes. We even emptied cabinets of pots and pans that were still filled with flood water.

The hard work was nothing new to me, at least the physical work. But the emotional toll was something I had never experienced before. Most people go on work trips and are filled with joy because you are helping to re-build something: re-build a house, re-build a life, re-build faith. But as I worked, as I hit and tore and destroyed walls and ceilings, I found myself feeling drained, not uplifted. It felt as though there were almost no redeeming qualities to the work, but through it all Jesus Christ still made himself known.

Dave lived in Slidell, a town about fifteen minutes outside the city of New Orleans. His house was flooded, but only had about a foot of standing water instead of the average 3-4 feet that we had seen at our other worksites. However, Dave had other things to deal with. Dave's wife has multiple sclerosis, and had broken her foot at a church event a few days before we arrived. Dave had just gotten over a dislocated shoulder and broken bones caused by an electrical accident that happened soon after they got back to their home, a few months after the storm. All of these things happened to two people who didn't need much more on their plate, yet Dave and his wife greeted us as old friends. Dave cracked a joke at every turn and his wife ragged on him as much as he did her. They had kept their sense of humor and their joy when many people would have lost it completely.

Shirley and her husband had built their house in a nice suburban area of East New Orleans. When the work group got there at 8 in the morning, Ms. Shirley was already hard at work. While we put on our respirators, hard hats, white protective suits, and gloves, Shirley got down and dirty with an old pair of gloves and a small mask. When we finally got a chance to sit down and talk to her, we learned that she was planning to re-build, but not for herself. She is living with her son and husband outside of New Orleans, but they have decided to re-build because they have hope for the neighborhood. They have hope New Orleans will come back, and their house will be home for a new family who will live a long and happy life there. Four feet of standing water could not kill their hope and could not kill their faith.

These are just two names and two stories out of thousands and thousands of names and stories and faces of God. In a place that has been forgotten by many and abandoned by more, God is still present. Water can destroy walls, it can destroy photographs, it can destroy furniture, but I have learned that nothing can destroy the hope and joy and faith of true believers. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)