Presbytery Travel Blog

Happily, our travel was uneventful and we arrived safely Saturday night. We got to the Land Building shortly after 10 p.m. and immediately ordered pizza, since none of us had had dinner. This is a great group of people, who really go to a lot of trouble to take care of each other.

Sunday morning began with worship at St. Charles Ave. Presbyterian Church, where we were warmly greeted and profusely thanked for coming to New Orleans to help with the rebuilding effort. After worship, the eleven of us managed to find a restaurant where we could have lunch together and spend some time getting to know each other better.

We returned to the Land Building for our orientation, by which time, the other group, 8 men from Westminster Presbyterian Church  in Wilmington, DE,with whom we’re living and working this week, had arrived. This means a LOT of personal space and shower time for the PGV women, with only five of us in the “women’s dorm,” and not so much for the men.

Sunday afternoon and evening, some of us explored the  Audubon Park and we all ended up in the rench Quarter for dinner, followed by beignets and coffee at  Cafe du Monde

This morning, we had our first work day. Tricia elected to go with the Westminster group to the home of Miss Stella, a 25-year nursery volunteer from St. Charles Presbyterian Church. Her home in the 9^th ward sustained a lot of damage from the Hurricane, and the Church has been able to send teams of RHINO volunteers for several half-days to help her with the restoration. The rest of us went to Trinity Christian Community Center where we did a variety of outdoor cleanup chores. The Community Center itself had sustained serious damage from the storm, and has been facing a constant struggle to restore and maintain its own property and at the same time offer its assistance to the surrounding community. The director, Sandy, told us that she felt bad about having volunteers working on their own facility, but she explained why the work was so critical: The overgrown areas surrounding the Center not only attacted a variety of animal pests, but encourages dumping which has become a significant problem in the area. Sandy pointed out to us the pile of debris in front of a house on Joliet street. Apparently, as of the 2^nd year anniversary of the Hurricane, the City no longer picks up Katrina-related debris from homeowners who are restoring and repairing their property – it is not part of the contract with the new refuse contractor, and the City is not willing to bear the additional cost, so homeowners are responsible for contracting their own debris removal – just another obstacle for the folks who are trying to put their lives and home back together.

The work at Trinity Community Center was good hard work, and we came back to the Land Building hot and tired, with just enough time to eat lunch and shower before we split into two groups and headed off with SCAPC members for driving tours of Post-Katrina New Orleans. Many of us were disappointed at the lack of progress we could see since we’d last been here. In contrast, one of the tour groups had the opportunity to meet Robert Green, who was grateful for the opportunity to share his story. All of us were inspired by the depth of his faith, which provided just the prod some of us needed to be sure that we could, in fact, make a difference in this place this week.

Although we worked hard today, and accomplished much, the best moments for everyone this day were the moments we spent listening to people tell their stories. As we reflected on the day’s events in this evening’s devotional time, it was agreed all around, that even though we are sooooo eager to accomplish the tasks we’re assigned, the most important thing we do is listen.—even if it means it means temporarily setting down our tools to so. We have come down here with the intention of being a blessing to these folks – we need to remember to let God bless us through their lives and stories as well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 10:38 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.