Our Mission trip to Luling Lousianna in 2006
out of chaos comes hope
Mon 4/10/2006 10:55 PM
News from New Orleans - Monday, April 10, 2006
Volunteers from Pennsylvania and California combined to work on a "double house" in the Uptown District. We began by cleaning out the remaining personal items, the belongings of the 76 year old homeowner and her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. The house had damage from the rising floodwaters, but also from a leaky roof during the storm. We removed plaster and lath from the walls. Our team included four high schoolers, hard workers who never complained. The neighbors were friendly, and all had stories to share. What a blessing to have this work organized for us!
Jerry Brown's group worked on Rosemary's home where she had lived for 52 years. Rosemary met us at the house with her sister Flora for moral support. Everything was out of the house except for a few pieces of furniture that she wanted to keep. We brought the furniture outside and cleaned it up. We knocked out all the walls and took out insulation. We took out some of the floor. A neighbor down the street, Wanda, came down to thank us for what we are doing. She offered the use of the bathroom in her trailer whenever we wanted it. Rosemary, Flora, and Wanda called us "angels."
Team Travis worked on a home that was at the corner of Rapides and Cartier. We didn't have to move out any furniture, but we believe our homeowner was a devoted Cosco shopper. We dragged out many multiples of sugar wafer cookies, ketchup, q=tips, big bags of potato chips, and enough sopping wet toilet tissue to have lasted the family a year. We had to pry out a soaking wet set of encyclopedia. But the majority of the work involved knocking out the plaster board, dry wall, and hauling it by wheel barrow and tarp to the curb. I think everyone had a chance at swinging the hammers and crowbars, and that was strangely cathartic, a great way to release pent up stress. We all looked like people from another planet with goggles and face masks, and gloves, but we were very glad to have them!
On our first work day, the "Beard" team traveled to the home of a 91 year old, WWII veteran, named Warren Gregoire. Warren's home is located in a middle-class neighborhood in the Gentilly section of New Orleans. When we arrived we discovered a home virtually untouched since Katrina's visit. At first we figured it would take us most of the week just to get the stuff out? mementos, treasures, family photos, books, magazines, newspapers, furniture, appliances? a life-time of things - now just trash. In our pictures, you will see our progress. By the end of day 1, we had nearly everything out of the house and had started some of the wall removal!
We especially treasured our home owner - Warren was a blessing to everyone on our team as we listened to his story. He spoke about his house - he and a number of veterans built 101 homes in this area after returning from the war. He told us that he had no home before then and he has no home now. So he concluded that he came out even. He went on to say that he had a house during the time he needed it - during his marriage and while raising three sons and one daughter.
When Bob was talking with him, Bob simply asked "are you 92?" ... Warren replied emphatically, "no, don't make me older than I am!" He shared with us that he learned a lot between 60 and 90. He commented that he was surprised by the number of women who had come to work on his house; he was expecting all men. He was pleased, however, to know that his house was being cleaned out. He was very touched by the writing on the back of our Presbyterian Disaster Assistance t-shirts ... out of chaos, hope.
The Concord PA group traveled to Gretna, LA, to the home of a nice young gentleman named Jim Vincent who started our day off work by introducing himself to each one of us individually. Then he conducted a short prayer circle with us all to give thanks and inspiration to our work.
Jim and his wife lived with two cats and a dog in a three bedroom single story home. Most of the furniture had already been removed, as had all of the flooring, but we were responsible for removing all of the drywall from the walls and ceilings and removing all of the moldy insulation from the attic. We also worked on the roof, removing most of the shingles and tarpaper. Tomorrow we will continue stripping the exterior of the roof and remove any rotted roof boards.
All the teams were struck by the friendliness and appreciation of the homeowners and the few neighbors we encountered. We have passed through street after street of abandoned houses. Many people were at their homes working on Sunday but today we were in ghost town with boats beached along the highway, street signs and traffic lights missing or askew, vacant strip malls. The situation is still very bleak looking but, as Mary Beth reminded us at our closing worship tonight, home is about our relationships with others and with God.
Sun 4/9/2006 11:04 PM
Greetings from Luling, LA, 20 miles south of New Orleans. Four persons from Placerville, CA, 11 youth and 6 advisors from Concord township, PA, and 32 from GPC fill Fish Camp, a village of corrugated plastic tents on the grounds of First Union Presbyterian Church with train tracks nearby. There is much horn blowing between midnight and 6 a.m. At least the grounds and tents don't "shake, rattle, and roll."
This morning the entire group attended an inspiring service at the church. Since this was Palm Passion Sunday at FUPC two sermons were given by Pastor Lisa Easterling. The sermon topics were Part I - The Welcome: Cheers and part II - The Rejection: Jeers.
Most of the camp descended on New Orleans - The French Quarter and the Ninth Ward. Shopping, eating and touring were enjoyed by all. We completed our day (Sunday) by meeting at Café DuMonde for beignets and coffee at 4 p.m. (as one person said we had "high tea.")
Devastation is apparent in many areas, some more than others. Monday morning we are off to the Ninth Ward where we will see the affected areas up close when our work crews will begin gutting houses.
God is blessing us!
Tue 4/11/2006 10:46 PM
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - Luling LA
Team Beard - Praise the Lord, we have successfully completed day two of de-construction!
We were greeted at the worksite today by a bobcat front end loader and two trucks that were loading and carrying away our hard work of the day before. It was good to see it go, but a little difficult for Warren the homeowner. We continue to offer a listening ear and encourage him that there is "hope out of chaos."
Today's work focused more on tearing out 1952 "dry wall", attic insulation and ceilings, kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures and tiling, and cutting down a tree that had fallen against the backdoor and roof.
Eagerly looking forward to tomorrow, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, or at least sore and fortified by Advil, Motrin, and Tylenol.
Team Travis - Maybe the majority of these blog entries have revolved around what we've been doing and about the situation Hurricane Katrina has created. I'd like to tell you a bit about the fellowship that this trip has engendered among the many different generations of GPC participants.
Of course, I have to be careful discussing exactly WHO is a part of which generation, but this trip involves youth from the church, young adults, and on up to various people of parenting and grandparenting age!
Mary Wasik was commenting that although the youth may be tolerating the presence of the adults, the adults are loving the chance to get to know some of the younger generation of GPC.
GPC prides itself on being a caring community of faith. It is the opening statement of our mission statement, and it shines on a trip like this one. It has been a personal joy to get to know the names behind some of the faces I've seen all my life. I've had the chance to drive (and drive and drive) with Fletcher Tukes, who is a deeply experienced and skilled man in the construction business. I've gotten to spend hours pulling dry wall off of house fames with Dave Fosdick. Perhaps the most fun of all has been chatting about the inside scoop Lucille Baur was able to share concerning the DC Sniper (Lucille works for MC Police and had an active role in that investigation). Of course, finally, I've enjoyed spending a very different kind of family vacation with my own father. (Who knew my own Dad could head up Team Travis?)
More than anything else, we've been able to share about our faith and our interactions with Jesus over the course of this week. It has been a pleasure to pray and share deeply with someone OTHER than a teenager (no offense to my favorite people). God is at work here in New Orleans, but He is also at work in the hearts of us GPC folks, and we look forward to bringing our experiences home to you soon.
Team California consists of 4 adults from Federated Church in Placerville, California. Today's work was our second day at the house of a family in the Uptown section of New Orleans. We were amazed by the amount of work we had accomplished yesterday in pulling off the wallboard and lath and plaster from our small house (and amazed by the size of the debris pile!) Today we returned to work on the upper walls and ceilings of the 12 foot high rooms. We felt fortunate to have a number of much younger co-workers to aid in the demolition, and we loved to see the way they really gave themselves to the work, barely stopping to drink or eat.
Today we also had more of a chance to talk to the son-in-law of the house's owner, a man named Gary who helped us all day. He is a quiet man who clearly doesn't like to complain about what has happened to his family, but at one point he told us how overwhelmed they had felt as they tried to cope with the damage from the hurricane and flood, since every member of their family, friends, work colleagues, and neighbors, was in a similar desperate situation. He told us that we were an answer to their prayers, since they had given up on being able to do anything about the house on their own, especially since they had moved to Baton Rouge so their children could enter school. Now they feel like there is a future for them, and they can begin to think about how they will fix the house, and move back to their neighborhood someday. They have a long road to travel, but at least we could be a small part of helping them to get started.
Team Speedo - Writing at the completion of a glorious day 2!!! Our homeowner, Jim Vincent, had already put a good deal of effort into his restoration, so our effort involved a bit less of the "mucking" than a lot of the houses. Our team was divided into an inside team, which focused on removing all the drywall ceilings in the house (rain damage through a bad roof had caused extensive ceiling and insulation damage), and an outside team that was essentially removing all of the shingles from the roof. The inside work was largely finished after day one, so our entire team focused on the roof today. Working out in the sun on a 75 degree day was outstanding!!!
We have really enjoyed working with and for Jim. He has really poured himself into the effort, and spends the entire day with us. He works with us, laughs with us, and prays with us. He has lost a lot to that devastating storm, but still realizes that he has been blessed and that the material "things" can be replaced.
The second great thing that is happening with our team is the growth that is happening with the team itself. The team is made up of 4 adults and 7 high-school kids, and it is a wonderful dynamic. Some of these kids are mission trip veterans, but several are first timers. Even more amazing is the fact that only half of the kids who came with us for this trip are even affiliated with our church. The other half are children from the local high school who responded to a posted "flyer" put up by our youth director and are now spending their spring break doing God's work in Louisiana. Our God is truly an awesome God!!!
Team Brown - The morning itself brought good news. One of our team members, Fletcher, was back in action after a having to miss day one due to illness. His contributions and knowledge of the work site were appreciated.
We spent another day gutting Rosemary's house. She had 7 feet of water in her house so everything had to go. We all got a good workout expanding the pile at the curb to about five feet high.
Today we met another of "Miss Rosemary's" neighbors. Laurie lived next door and told us how a huge tree behind her house fell in the storm and took out her carport along with Rosemary's. It also crashed through both home's roofs. Laurie described this as a "blessing" because it allowed her to file a claim on her homeowner's policy (flooding is not covered).
We are beginning to become a team and everyone is enjoying each others company, from the two teenagers to the most senior members, we all seem to share the same aches and laughter.
Thu 4/13/2006 11:04 PM
Another exhausting day of work and the rewards are great. Our house is almost completely gutted out. The most laborious task would probably be removing ALL of the 52-year-old tiling from the bathrooms. But of course, that isn't a problem for a 15-year-old with a sledgehammer. The garbage people still haven't come by to pick up our trash so Mt. Trashmore now consists of four days of trash. It has erupted and is now covering the entire front curb. The ceiling is out; the walls are out; all that is left is the flooring and clean-up. YAY!
Seeing the post-hurricane pictures of New Orleans and surrounding areas, I was expecting things to be really bad. At first glance, it was. Deserted houses in deserted towns were full of mold after 7 months of growth. Car "morgues" were under the highways varying from buses to vans to sports cars, most of them broken into and all of them in bad shape. Looking beyond that, one can start to see signs of New Orleans coming back. Shops were starting to re-open. Hurricane Relief teams are coming in to lend a helping hand and are being greeted by the smiling faces of the homeowners. If I ever come back here (and I'm sure I will), I expect to see a lot more people living their lives like they used to, and in the company of friends and family.
- Paul Buehler
We have come across many interesting artifacts while cleaning up. I found a set of slides dating as far back as April 1962. The slides are still in tact and are mostly pictures of a parade featuring clowns and dancers on floats. My dad found a perfectly in tact angel that the owner did not want to keep. We should be in a cleaning up mode tomorrow if we have a big enough group to work.
More groups of cleaning crews have shown up throughout the neighborhood. A group of about twenty-five told us they would gut a house in two hours. We all laughed. No matter how many people you have, it takes at least two days of elbow grease. I have to admit it was funny watching them trip over each other.
-Drew Duvall
Team Beard has almost gutted our house. Today we took out a cast iron tub, a few hundred nails, and we have just about finished getting all the moldy walls down. Warren, the owner, comes by each day to praise our work and to thank us.
Today, a man stopped by and said he had heard about our efforts on TV and wanted to make a donation. It was sizeable and we were very appreciative.
This is very hard work for most of us, but at the end of the day, we are thrilled to be making a difference in the life of a wonderful old man.
Tour buses are now driving by one of our work sites twice daily
Wed 4/12/2006 10:36 PM
Team Beard: The third day dawned with the same eagerness among all teams - a rush to finish showers, eat breakfast, and prepare lunches as others lined up in the parking lot to leave - even though all are feeling the impact of two days of hard work.
The Beard team arrived at Warren's house facing another day of pulling down drywall, ceilings, and trim. And today's tasks also took us to the outside of the house to remove most of the debris from five trees laying in the yard.
Fletcher Tukes saved to day for at least three teams today. The Beard team and others encountered at least one bathroom (we had two) where the tile was placed on top of more than an inch of wire-reinforced cement - impervious to sledgehammer. Fletcher located a circular saw with a diamond blade and he took it to every worksite. In each bathroom he sliced through the cement so we could knock the rest down with sledges and crowbars.
Still much work to do at Warren's house, but the Beard team believes we can still get everything done by week's end.
Warren joined us for dinner at the camp tonight. It was a very special treat for everyone, but especially the Beard team. He is such a delight and inspiration. After our Thanksgiving-style dinner we presented him with a PDA t-shirt because he told us how touched he was by the "Out of chaos, hope" slogan on the reverse. His heartfelt thank you and genuine appreciation touched all of us and gave us a boost to face day four ...
Team Speedo: Worked with a reduced team today. We expected to finish up by lunchtime, so four of our team members joined one of our sister groups on a job that will take longer to finish. Our team began with prayer at the site (with the homeowner!) first thing, and then up to the roof we went. The work multiplied a bit, and we spent the day replacing a good deal of the roof decking, and then covering the entire roof with tar paper in preparation for re-shingling tomorrow. The team worked tirelessly, and the banter up on the roof is hysterical! Somewhat unusually, two of our high school men are singers, and would break into random songs any time that a thread of the conversation contained something that resembled a lyric. Lots of laughs, lots of rolling of eyes, and lots of give and take.
As usual, we underestimated the amount of work we had (largely because we have a team of perfectionists who want to fix everything), and we had to scramble to finish by the end of the day. Much of the team was working with tar, so there were a lot of dirty hands and faces on the way home!
Just got off the phone with the homeowner, who wants to come out to the camp tonight and say goodbye and thank you to the team.
Team Brown - The women were banished from the house while Fletcher and the other guys sawed out the bathtub and stomped down the ceiling creating a storm of dust and debris. But they did clean up after themselves! Meanwhile the gals visited the day care center at the Metairie Ridge Presbyterian Church to help out. One of the teachers, Miss Summer, was blessed that her home was only damaged by a little floodwater. Two days prior to the storm she, her husband, and three children (ages 3,5, and 7) drove to Panama City, FLA, then to northern Louisiana for three and one half weeks. If this occurs again they will probably relocate to northern Mississippi or southern Tennessee. Her children only know that the hurricane caused the roads to be messy and houses to be damaged. Other teachers lost everything they owned.
Sat 4/15/2006 9:05 AM
Team Brown - our team scattered today with everyone heading home so we did not go to the work site. We pray that another team will complete the job so that Rosemary can think about rebuilding.
The Brown-Tukes-Spencer, etc. caravan was aiming for Chattanooga for tonight enroute home. The rest of us stayed at Fish Camp until mid-day before heading home doing some chores there - organizing the food pantry and the tool hut (ask Larry and Bob for details of interesting contents), cleaning the refrigerators and freezers, and otherwise trying to leave things in good shape for the next group. The California crew created a lovely garden with birdbath, Adirondack chairs, the cement bench, in a tranquil spot under the trees on the far side of the camp. We did have the opportunity to talk with Lisa, the pastor, and Rich and Susan, the camp staff, about the birth and future use of this miraculous place we were blessed to call home for a week.
On the trip out of town we were again overwhelmed by the staggering extent of the devastation here. The PDA website reports over 600,000 houses were destroyed or damaged by Katrina. Most of the vast area affected is still a ghost town with so little apparent recovery in almost 8 months. But there are many recovery efforts like PDA's helping one house at a time. At this time of our Savior's death and resurrection we pray for New Orleans that OUT OF CHAOS, HOPE will come.
Team Beard, with a high-energy "push," finished the house of 91 yr-old Warren just at the end of the day Friday. We quit exhausted and sore, but with a great deal of satisfaction at having seen the rebirth of hope for Warren, and having heard his heartfelt and emotional "thank-yous." For our last night, we celebrated dinner in nearby Kenner,LA in an outstanding local-color restaurant specializing in freshly steamed crayfish. (Like a MD crab-feast!).
The problems New Orleans faces are complex and enormous in scale; there are no easy answers. We leave having been welcomed by so many who went out of their way to thank us for caring and helping.