New Orleans - Tuesday, July 10

Yesterday our devotion theme was “God has changed me from the inside out and today I am making it real.” Our scripture reference was 1 Peter 4:7-11 and our debrief time centered around the items Peter mentioned in that scripture and how we can apply them to our time together this week.

Our devotion theme for today is “I will abandon my apathy and serve with all my heart and soul because I serve the King of Kings!” and our scriptures today were Joshua 22:5 and Colossians 3:23-24.

We had two very distinct work projects today. Swanie (Mike S) and Jake's team included Stevie, Nate C, Nate P, Wyatt, Sarah A, Lauren L, Lauren S and Debbie. This team spent their day gutting a house about 2 blocks from the church. The owners of the home, Tommy and Carol, are currently living in a FEMA trailer about a block away from their home. They are an elderly couple that aren’t able to do the work themselves, so were very appreciative of the efforts of our team. Gutting a house involves removing wood trim, doors, baseboards, sheetrock and insulation…basically getting the house down to the studs. The team didn’t completely finish the job, so we may be going back to this site later in the week.

Jim and Natalie’s team included Mike P, Chris, Tyler, Andrew, Sarah S, Laura, Lauren M, Lizzie and Christine. This team spent their day doing yard work at the home of an Elder of Canal Street Presbyterian Church (where we are staying). The gentleman does not live here anymore and is hoping to eventually fix up his home and sell it. However, he is responsible for keeping up with the yard work and if we hadn’t cleaned it up for him, he would have had to pay someone to do it. Homeowners are fined by the city if they don’t keep the growth cleaned up on their yards…even if they’re not here. Jim calls the work his team did today “deforestation”, if that gives you any idea of what they were faced with.

If was miserably hot and humid today. The team inside stayed a little cooler just because they were shaded by the house. The outside group found shade under a carport, but was working out in the heat all day. The kids (and adults) were a sweaty mess when they returned to the church at the end of the workday. During the late afternoon we have had some thunderstorms, so maybe things will cool off (somewhat...) for tomorrow.

Once we all gathered together we went on a disaster tour of the city to see the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the breaking of the levees. We started out in Lakeview and finished in the Lower Ninth Ward. Both of those were neighborhoods that were flooded by levee breaks. Lakeview had many deserted homes, but for the most part they were still standing. The Lower Ninth Ward has few homes and many completely vacant lots. Many of the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward have lost their homes and their land because they do not have paperwork to prove ownership. These were homes that had been in families for many, many years and city records to show ownership were also lost in the flood. Other individuals are still fighting for insurance and government money. Homeowners had hurricane insurance, but not flood insurance, so people have not been reimbursed for the damage done by the levee breaks. A number of the deserted homes had “For Sale” signs on them with prices up in the $100,000 - $200,000 range. This is for a house that needs to be completed gutted and rebuilt. Hard to believe, isn't it?!