We were up early to be greeted by another glorious Louisiana day. Fletch and Mel were on the road in the wee hours but the rest of us enjoyed a breakfast in the First Union Church thanks to the hospitality of the men's group.  Showers, sinks, and potties spiffed, we posted our GPC "sign" on the camp sign post, and then set off via plane or automobile for what we prayed would be safe trips home.

Wasiks took a short detour to visit the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village which was created for homeless musicians so that the sounds which are such an intrinsic part of the New Orleans character could revive.  The village is an impressive place - rows of new, freshly painted, rainbow colored homes, some occupied and others still under construction by swarms of young people.

The village is yet another sign that New Orleans will be back but there is still such a huge need here.  God is working through His people.  I think we all felt humbly honored to be part of His team this week.

Team Beard

The final work day and the push was on for completion of demolition.  Our mission was to finish the floor removal, and that was three layers worth…and knock down the plaster bathroom walls above the lower tile walls.  Are you familiar with the Little Engine That Could?  Well that was us, we plugged away and slowly but surely we got the jobs done.  It was particularly fun to meet our homeowner Shirley’s husband Oscar today.  Shirley is an excellent cook, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at slim and trim Oscar.  Mary Wasik asked us what we had learned from our work experience, and your writer is the only one here to answer.  I learned that there is much that can be accomplished with a hammer, a wonder bar, a vise gripe, and a working toilet on the job site.  But we really learned much more about ourselves, our faith, and the myriad of things we have to be thankful for.  We celebrated this evening with Mary, Lucille, and Alexandra going to Lakeview Presbyterian for a Mostly Mozart Concert, and the majority of our group going out to dinner.  We have learned and grown from this experience and we are very happy to be going back to join our loved ones back home.  See you at church! 

Team Tukes

Team Tukes lost the coin toss and got Greg at their work site today.  Just kidding.  Any team wants the tall guy.  He used his height to good advantage by pounding nails in the baseboards.  This team was so successful that their leader sent them away to lunch while he worked on alone.  They had the very happy task of bringing a home to life and under Fletcher’s leadership and with his skills and the skills of the rest of the team, they brought a house back to being a home for a very deserving single Mom and her 9-year-old son.  And back to the importance of bathrooms, this team created one where there hadn’t been one before.  The Tukes Team treasured their time together and left with a great deal of pride in what they were able to accomplish. 

Team Beard

The intrepid members of Team Beard reclaimed Reverend Greg from yesterday’s Pod Building Team, and put his height to good advantage tearing down large panels of kitchen wall. James, who professes to be the only team member without back problems, tackled prying off not only ceramic floor tiles but went for the triple play and worked on the two other floors below the ceramic as well.  Lucille put her back and shoulders into prying out the screws that had multiplied like rabbits under the ceramic tile.  Don worked on de-wiring (removing the wiring) from the main house.  He had honed those skills yesterday taking out the wiring from the apartment house behind the main house.  Mary and Jean performed the very important task of sweeping up and keeping us all much safer from the rouge nail and screws that lay in wait to puncture our shoes.  Bob Beard, who says he never met a ladder he didn’t like, managed to spend a good bit of time on one hammering away at the plaster board that I believe we may finally have seen the last of.  And Big Bob Wasik has mastered the art of nail from rafter removal.  Wish we had a dollar for every nail and screw that bit the dust today.

            Greg bonded with the Pastor from the Lakeview Presbyterian Church over lunch, and what he learned became the topics for our devotional time this evening.  We are ready for our final push tomorrow.  It’s demolition completion or bust! 

Team Tukes

….back at the other house Team Tukes continues to slave away with dry wall and  molding.  The crack team of Travis and Hebdon were finally able to beat the bay window into submission after two days - it’s now holding its new frame nicely.  They’ve moved on to floor molding, and have finished two rooms, but due to last minute instructions will be moving it up a half an inch tomorrow.

Our team leader stayed late into the night yesterday to complete the “mud” work, and today, along with Mel, they were able to complete both drywall sanding and spray painting the ceilings.  Alexandra and Debbie filled in nail holes with wood putty and gaps with caulking.  Both helped to complete painting the trim around the windows and doors.  At the end of the day David, our homeowner’s son, was presented with a basketball and a soccer ball.  And everyone was “invited” to play.

Alexandra attempted soccer, while Mel and John played basketball…well John WAS the basket.

Team Beard

Today we heard stories from our homeowner Shirley Jackson about the evacuation of 23 members of their family to a small town in Texas where they stayed for most of a year.  Shirley said that they were very well treated by the host town in Texas.  The towns people found housing for them, donated clothing and household items and held a fundraiser for them.  They returned to their jobs in New Orleans where Shirley works as the cafeteria baker in a Catholic high school.  We have been the fortunate recipients of delicious cookies she baked at work for us.  Her husband is a maintenance worker at a downtown shelter.  They are now facing the issues of coming up with enough money to rebuild their home.   They are hoping to get money soon from the government They have a small building on the back of the lot which they hope to rebuild first and live in.  Shirley says they have been told they will need to give back the FEMA trailer in August.    When someone comments on the stress they must be under Shirley replies,” We are too blessed to be stressed!”  

We also were able today to reconnect with our friend from last year, Warren Gregoire. He was thrilled to see us again and joined us for dinner at camp once more. What a joy-filled spirit he has at ninety-three. He is still out of his home and “waiting to hear what he might be able to do in the next months.”

Today, Greg and Sandy built the blue pods. Greg’s height was a wonderful help to getting the roofs secured. There are no instructions on how to put together the blue pods, so it has taken us awhile to figure out how to put them together. We have gotten to play Twister to hold pieces together while they are riveted. Power tools are our friend! It has been a good way to support future volunteers.

Team Tukes

We made quite a bit of progress today, as people fell into a groove of who works best with whom on what tasks.  Fletcher and Mel concentrated on getting doors in, Fred and John worked on window framing, and Debbie and Alex puttied and caulked window frames.  

Our homeowner Gina was present before and after her work shift, and shared some more stories of hurricane Katrina.  Gina seemed pleased with the progress when she returned from work.  Most of us had to knock off for the day then, but Fletcher remained behind to skim the walls in time for them to dry before the end of our week here.

Fletcher’s Team

Well, we had a little change in teams so that we could spread the skill and work needs.  The team working in Meraux was increased by two. This home has drywall up, electrical, and plumbing done. Gina, the homeowner is a single mother of a nine year old. She is a waitress in the area and has lived in the home for over twelve years. She is such an inspiration; simply because she is so tenacious, hardworking, and most of all, cheery.  She is funding this restoration without any insurance money, consequently borrowing money from friends, family, and her employers. She was quick to assist the team in anyway she could.

Gina told us about her narrow escape from Katrina. Gina, her ex-husband, and her son were in the house as it filled with water. The water came up 10 feet into her home. The most frightening part was that her 7 1/2 year-old son could not swim and the water rose about 8 feet in a matter of twenty minutes. She told us that when the water was about six feet outside the bay window they knew they had to get up to the attic or drown. If that wasn’t enough, they had to break out of the attic to get onto the roof. Civilians pulled them from the roof but they could not take the few items they had packed because the boat was over loaded and taking on water; and they could not afford the additional weight. They were saved but lost everything else.

She finally returned home six months later only to find six inches of mud on the floor and everything destroyed. She personally spent 20 Saturdays (her day off) shoveling mud out of the rooms. She speaks about her experience with such calm. Gina continues to smile and speak warmly about getting “Little David” out of the tiny 900 sq ft. apt they are living in, and back into their home. There was never a complaint, just statements of hope; she is a very special lady.

Debbie Hulen

Bob Beard’s Team

We returned to Shirley’s house today to continue the process of preparing her home for recovery and renewal.  Bob and James climbed into the attic to bring the ceiling down.  Feet seemed to be the best tool for the job, so those of us working below were not surprised to see a foot suddenly crash through the ceiling and then withdraw.  Greg and Don worked in the kitchen to bring mildewed cupboards down.  Greg’s favorite tool was the sledgehammer, which allowed him to release pent up frustrations.  Bob and Mary, Sandy and Lucile filled endless wheelbarrows with the debris.

We made great progress, but the dramatic change in appearance of the house reminded Shirley of the enormous obstacles which must still be overcome before she and her husband will be able to move back in.  Hurricane Katrina is often described with statistics and numbers that reflect the cost to the city and state and nation, but for two people it is summed up in the loss of home and security. The stress of this experience is clearly drawn in the lines on her face. Much more work will need to be done, so we’ll return tomorrow and the day after and the day after that.  One day she and her husband will be able to move out of their tiny F.E.M.A. trailer.  One day the city will return to normal, but it will not be any time soon, so we persevere step-by-step and remember our calling to care for each other in ways that really matter.

Greg Seckman

Our first workday got off to a fabulous start thanks to Maryland Team 1 preparing Mary Leopard’s tasty “Breakfast Casserole” from the GPC cookbook.   Thank you Mary and Team 1!   After chores we frantically collected all the tools that the two teams might need, participated in-group prayer, then headed for our work site.

The GPC “masters of unskilled labor” team, lead by Bob Beard, is working in the Gentilly section this week.   Once again, we enthusiastically began striping a house down to the studs. Our homeowner is Shirley, who spent about a year in Texas after the Katrina before moving into the FEMA trailer now located in her driveway.  She had previously paid to have the home stripped just above the flood line, so when we entered the house the lower three feet of drywall had already been removed.  Unfortunately, the mold took hold of the remaining drywall, and so she called us in to help.

Since Shirley had to work this morning prior to our arrival, her daughter Paula came over to see if we were OK, and brought along some drinks and snacks.  After her visit, we rolled up the sleeves and dug back in to work.  By early afternoon, we had most of the walls stripped to the ceiling in the front of the home.  Shirley arrived from her job around 2pm, and brought us some delicious cookies baked especially for us at her school cafeteria (Yes, no one is going to loose any weight on this trip!).  As we ate, she told us about the evacuation with all 23 of her extended family members, and the long wait to return.  She also introduced us to her dog, who was quite vocal from inside the trailer when we arrived, but had became “real” quiet once the sledge hammers started to fly next door.

Meanwhile, GPC’s “skill masters” team, lead by Fletcher Tukes, is actually doing a rebuilding project.  This home has been visited by four prior PDA recovery teams, and is now nearing completion.  However, this home still has a lot of detail work remaining, including drywall mudding, hanging doors, fixing trim, and painting.

We met two types of people not usually mentioned in the Katrina re-build efforts - a “contractor” and a child.  When we reached “our” home, a tile worker was packing up his gear to leave, which initially caused me some confusion.  We later learned he’d completed the tiling in one bathroom of the house for no charge.  He told me, as he was packing his van, that he was getting out of the tiling business and going to Vegas to do anything else but tiling work.  He said he had trouble giving work away, much less finding paid work.  He’d done the walkway of another homeowner in the neighborhood as well.  Hopefully he’ll change his mind since after viewing his work, he seems to be very talented.  We also met the child of our homeowner, who will be nine in June.  He was extremely energetic and joyful.  He showed me how to play bottle soccer, as well as asking if he could help us clean up before we left for the day.  

All in all, a really great first day on the work sites for the GPC teams.  Some of the other groups at the camp did not fair as well: one group was turned away by their homeowner as the result of a scheduling mix-up, another group managed to rupture a gas line (a somewhat convenient excuse to leave work early <grin>).  However, everyone managed to have a very productive day.  Our pre-dinner entertainment was watching the guys trying to assemble some replacement sleeping huts fondly known as the “blue boxes”.

Maryland Team 1
Don Woodward, John Travis, Mel Reid, Alexandra Parker, James and Sandy Menzies

John and Mel stopped in Gulfport on the way to New Orleans, to present a check from the Beyond These Walls campaign to the Presbytery of Mississippi.  The check was presented at the beginning of the morning worship service of the Handsboro Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, where the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance staff maintains offices.  After services, the small GPC team was entertained for lunch by George and Linda Bates of the PDA effort for the Presbytery of Mississippi, pastor Scott Castleman and his family, and several PDA staffers.  The latter included Erin Counihan, who grew up in GPC.  Erin’s mom Maxine was also there, having spent the week with Erin.  John and Mel left in mid afternoon to join the rest of the group in Luling.



The rest of us worshiped at Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans and presented the Beyond These Walls check to the pastor, Neale Miller.  We were greeted by the congregation with warm thanks for the money and appreciation for our efforts with PDA.  Forty-five per cent of the church members have returned and continue the slow process of rebuilding their church. The sanctuary is almost complete but the remainder of the church building is still a gutted shell as is the adjoining pre-school building. 





After the service we toured the area where we worked last year and were disappointed to see that nothing had been done since our work last year and many for sale signs in the neighborhood.  (pic 5-7)  Those who toured the 9th ward reported many houses leveled and an abundance of for sale signs. (pic 8)   Over 200,000 homeowners have applied for aid in rebuilding but only 4,000 applications have been processed for the funds which have been allocated by Congress.  However, throughout the area are signs of life - reopened stores and businesses, more parked cars and pedestrians on the streets and more traffic on the freeways!




Debbie Hulen, James and Sandy Menzies, and Don Woodward arrived in time to relax with us in the afternoon. Several of our group enjoyed the music and food at the festival in the French Quarter before returning “home’ for supper, devotions, and job assignments from Rich Cozzone, our friend who managed the camp last year who now supervises the work groups.  Tomorrow we work on two houses, one group gutting and the other group finishing up a house which is almost complete.  

Today we welcomed the next arrivals -

The first wave of volunteers from GPC has arrived at the PDA camp in Luling, dodging wind, rain and thunderstorms. We were warmly greeted by camp directors Kelly and Kerry Buell who are here from Midland, MI.  Bob Beard and Fletcher Tukes immediately got to work in the afternoon helping construct floor platforms for the pods which need to be replaced. Brian Cavannaugh, who is here from Canada to take charge of camp maintenance, was supervising.

Bob Wasik did the airport run to fetch Alexandra Parker, Lucille Baur, and Fred Hebdon.   Jean Beard and Mary Wasik assisted Kelly in preparing dinner and getting the pods summerized with some screens in the doors (only to have the wind whip up and the temperature drop significantly).

Tomorrow we will attend church at Lakeview Presbyterian Church to present  the Beyond These Walls check for $26,710.50 to that congregation for rebuilding their church and pre-school.  John Travis and Mel Reid are in Gulfport tonight and will present a check tomorrow for the same amount to the Presbytery of Mississippi.

A group from Connecticut has just rolled in;  another group from Minnesota  and a couple of people from North Carolina are expected tomorrow along with the rest of our crowd.

The pictures are all of the camp where the volunteers stay.







Men's dorm


Wild life in New Orleans!