Day 6: Intensity

The first part of our day today was similar to the last two. We are getting increasingly efficient at hanging sheetrock and taking more and more pride in our work. We also realized that this family's return to their home will have a notably hopeful impact on their block and neighborhood. The more people move back in the faster the renewal proceeds.

We left the house early today so that our team leaders could give us a tour of the city and the various neighborhoods that have experienced destruction in various ways. Some of the team who have been in New Orleans since Katrina were impressed with how much has improved in the last year or two. Most of us who have not been here since the storm have been struck by how depressing it seems here. We were blown away by the annihilation of the Lower Ninth Ward. But we were just as disturbed by the many middle class neighborhoods that must have been neat and tidy before the storm and now, two and a half years later, look like blighted slums. The storm did not discriminate, although we know that the politics of rebuilding does.

Our experience of the grief of New Orleans - of the people here and our reactions to the scenery - was coupled today with grief within our group. Our deacon at home, Sudie Blanchard, lost her father today quite suddenly. A close friend of two of our team members also died suddenly today. We closed the day with reflections on what we experienced today, mostly to the tour, and then with a memorial service for these two men who died today and for the City of New Orleans pre-Katrina, recognizing that Resurrection happens and grows in the midst of our grief, that the triumph of Christ and the love of God is greater than any of our losses and that we help God to make resurrection happen when we become the hands and heart of God.

May God bless our team and all who are supporting and praying for us!

Steve+