I got this email from Katie.
“I wanted to let all of you know that last Thursday was my last day on the RHINO staff at Saint Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church and I have bid New Orleans goodbye. I am back home in North Carolina and after a few weeks of beachtime, relaxing, and traveling to see friends and family, I will begin work on a Masters of Divinity degree at Union Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. I will start with summer language school, learning the ins and outs of ancient Greek. So prayers, mantras, hail marys, good karma, etc for me will be much appreciated during that time! I am eager to begin this next chapter of my life and to see where it will lead.
My last week with RHINO was bittersweet and the end of not only my time in NOLA, but also the end of an era for RHINO. RHINO begins full time work with Habitat for Humanity this summer and so the program gutted its very last home during my last week. At the day’s end, the 16 Michigan volunteers I was working with paused with me inside the sacred space of the home we were working on. I think the whole group was struck by the realization that they are connected to so many other RHINO volunteers they have never even met but who have shared in similar work and experiences. We were all humbled thinking about the work from the last year and a half that so many people have been a part of.
Sarah and I donated all of the gutting tools to the Presbytery’s Disaster Assistance office and we returned the RHINO Penske truck to its headquarter home, ending the church’s 20 month lease of our beloved yellow truck! I kid you not when I say I was misty eyed handing over the dusty shovels and the blue bin of hammers. As the Presbytery’s Construction Manager said to me as I handed him a handful of brooms, “Its the end of the best gutting team in New Orleans.”
I am so grateful that each and every one of you have been a part of that team. I cherish that my life intersected all of yours, if even briefly, through such a unique and amazing experience. Working alongside all of you, witnessing so much pain, but offering the work of our hands and hearts as a prayer to God has been one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life. My time in NOLA, both this year and last year, has absolutely changed the lens through which I see the world. It has revolutionized my understanding of who Christ calls us to serve. I have discovered new and creative ministry ideas as I have wrestled with so many of you over questions and issues of social justice, poverty, and the church’s role in crisis and disaster assistance. My heart was opened to so many moments of grace as we engaged together in the work that I believe is our highest calling as Christians-to participate in the revolution that Christ calls us to by caring for those that the rest of the world forgets, being present to those in dire need during crisis, and letting God’s love and mercy come from the light that we shine.
In an article I read recently in World Ark, Heifer International’s magazine, comparing Hurricane Jeanne in Haiti and Katrina in New Orleans, Paul Farmer, a physician, medical anthropologist, and cofounder of Partners in Health writes: “The best monument to the catastrophe in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast would be a serious national effort to address the poverty and inequality that afflicts the entire country. But can we respond effectively by addressing poverty in our own country alone? The shared history of Louisiana and Haiti reminds us that cultures, populations, hurricanes, and need refuse to be confined by national borders. Katrina is the latest reminder that the project of reconstruction must be underpinned by a vision of a world without indecent poverty, without racism, and without the accelerating divestment in public infastructures, which is now acknowledged in the United States and elsewhere. The great vulnerability to which we expose all those who lack fundamental social and economic rights, including the right to be protected from foreseeable and, indeed, predicted disasters, is a cause worth fighting for… Allaying human suffering and promoting human dignity, at home and abroad, are part of the prescription and the reason for rebuilding.”
It is my hope and prayer that all of us keep fighting that worthy fight and rebuilding hope in all the ways we can, wherever we are. Thank you to each and everyone of you for all you brought to New Orleans, I hope out paths will cross again soon, please keep in touch.
Peace RHINOs,
Katie”
Thought for the Day: Some you are familiar with the Portuguese saying I use at the end of my emails : “It will all turn out okay in the end, and if it isn’t okay, it isn’t over yet.” It isn’t over yet in New Orleans. The end of this particular phase of the work makes room for other opportunities for ministry. I’m adding something new to my email signature for a while.
Our highest calling as Christians is to participate in the revolution that Christ calls us to by caring for those that the rest of the world forgets, being present to those in dire need during crisis, and letting God’s love and mercy come from the light that we shine.
- Katie Cashwell