A picture worth 1000 words
This picture was taken in the 9th ward area. That's where the barge broke through the levee wall along the river. As we drove through last Sunday the 6th, near the repaired levee, we found foundations and concrete porches with no houses attached! The houses were either "mowed down" by the moving barge and water or floated away. Many of the houses were not attached to their foundations and since the windows and doors were closed up tight the house would simply float away with the rising flood waters. We found houses smashed up tight against other houses and parts of houses on top of others. It's possible that some houses floated far away such that they landed in completely different neighborhoods. In the picture above, it appears that a floating house settled on an overturned truck as the flood waters receded.
Try to imagine 278,000 (or so) destroyed homes (All over New Orleans - Not just the 9th ward area). You can literally drive for miles through the 9th ward area and see this same level of destruction. It's nothing but a ghost town there.
My hope is that this can put everything in perspective for the reader. Miss Bonnie (SUM volunteer) said that we completed 10 homes total during the week (either mudded(belongings removed) or gutted (walls stripped)). I hope that this shows how much more there is to be done!! I hope and pray others will hear the call of God and go to New Orleans to help make a difference in people's lives. I pray that the hearts of others at Saint Matthew will be lifted to this call and will volunteer so that we can return and continue to make a difference.
The Many Voices of Jesus
Hello All,
Today as we were gutting out a house I took a couple of minutes to rest sitting at the top of the ladder I was using to remove nails from near the ceiling. As I sat there I noticed all the different noises that were going on in the house. I could hear the pounding of hammers of people nocking down plaster and drywall, the sqeek of nails being pulled from the studs, people sweeping and shoveling debris into binns, the binns being dumped onto the pile at the front of the house, and people calling for a specific tool they needed for a job. The sounds were happening all around me. All these people were happily doing the work of the Lord. To me these were all "The Many Voices of Jesus" singing his praises.
Jesus is with us here as we work to help some of the peope of New Orleans recover from huricane Katrina.
God bless all.
Michael Penny
The People
Hi Everyone,
We are working so hard this week that it's hard to believe the week is almost over. One of the two things I'm taking with me is the gratitude of the people we come in contact with. Everyone goes out of their way to thank us for coming down to New Orleans to help. It's genuine and heart felt on their part and moves me to tears every time it happens.
The other time I think of the people is when I take the time to really look at the items that are coming out of the homes we are mudding out. Usually we are moving so fast just passing buckets of items out and throwing them in the huge piles that grow up outside the homes. But there are times that I take a minute and really see the some of the items--the toys of a child, the new shirt that's still in the package, the wedding dress we pulled out of one home.....all items are brown, discolored and smelly. I always wonder how that person survived, how they are doing now and what plans God has for them in the future. Because in all the miles and miles of devastation each of those homes represent a person or family. It is so overwhelming.
One last thought..Even among the horror flowers are starting to come back--there are some blooming bushes and trees are green and grass is growing. Life will return to this area... we don't know when but it will be back.
Love to all of you.
Karen
The weeks almost over.
Hello everyone,
What a week this has been. I've been going strong, at least for a lady 67, but today I did quit 15 mins. early. I have never worked this hard for four days in a row. Mudding is a nasty job and gutting hard physically. Oakmont people I'll fill you in when I get home. As been said before one couldn't pay you enough to do this job. You know you are doing God's work and he gives the strength to do so. All the young kids call me Grandma and it is great fun to be with them.
I'm so tired I need to go to bed. I want to put forth a good day tomorrow.
Wish us a safe trip home. Love you all. Thanks for the comments.
Love and Hugs,
Grandma
Another day in Paradise - Day 2
My morning started out the same as the day before. Up at 6:30am, upstairs for breakfast, 7:30am for chapel, work assignments and then off to work. The only difference was that I was on the chainsaw crew and we were assigned to cut down a large tree on a vacant lot in the blazing sun. You know, I don't think I ever drank that much Gatorade in my life and I just sweat right it back out! As much as I wanted to complain about the heat, I had to keep telling myself that the little bit of disomfort I was feeling was nothing compared to the sorrow and pain the hurricane victims felt (and continue to feel). Consider the loss of life and property down here. We are here to do God's work and "self" does not (or should not) enter into it. Joel (a volunteer here at S.U.M.) tells us that we should perform our work with a joyful heart. My heart must have been pretty joyful. It was pumping really hard many times this morning.
Later in the afternoon, after finishing a "gut" of one of the houses on our schedule, we visited the boat dock pictured here in this article. Boats were heaped upon boats and pieces of boats were still lying around in the water. This is another example of the devastation that "still" exists and is "off the radar" of most American's current of view. We all just have a short memory span, especially when the news media pays no attention because it's "old news". I assumed that repair work was under way and that some people were getting their lives put back together. This is so not true.
As Mark Tilton said before our departure, "Go with a humble servant's heart". In today's prayer at one of the houses we were "gutting", I prayed that we all remember to approach all of this with a humble heart and that we are all doing God's work for his Glory, not our own.
In the face of this daunting clean-up effort, that is the best we can do. We can only take everything one house and one family at a time in trying to help those affected put their lives back together. I pray that God may give our mission team strength; strength of spirit during our eye-opening weeklong journey.
Off the Radar
My thoughts before coming on this trip was that N.O. was cleaned up and that they were already rebuilding. I was very wrong. There has been very little news coverage on the after math of hurricane Katrina and I had no idea of the devastation that had occured here. It's amazing to me that a year from the disaster that so little has been done for something that needs so much. I feel like most of the world has turned its back on this or that they just haven't been informed of how much work this town still needs. We all need to open our eyes and realize that there is still more work to be done here and we should do our part in helping out.
History in the Making
We have learned many facts that we would not have known about by actually being here in New Orleans. The flood was actually caused by a large barge that hit the levee wall, not water pressure as we actually thought. There are posters asking for people who witnessed this event, so that law suits can be filed. There were approximately 200,000 homes that were affected by this flood, and around 1,278 people lost their lives. Yesterday after church we were escorted to the ninth ward. The homes in the ninth ward were the ones that were closest to the levee. Some of these homes floated for quite a distance and landed against other houses in different neighborhoods. Probably most of these homes were not bolted to their foundations. Currently, there is a regulation that new homes being built must have the foundation at least three feet off the ground. So many of the new homes have cinder block foundations with reinforcing steel in the middle and concrete. There seems to be so much red tape that these unfortunate people have to go through. Many of these homes must be rebuilt because they stood in standing water for around 14 days. The picture on the right shows a house that we mudded out today. As you can tell there is heavy mold to the ceiling. Larry, Deena and I feel blessed to be able to help these wonderful people who have been through so much. I hope that God will continue to bless them, love them, watch over them, and guide them through this major life change that they are experiencing.
Lisa Steinwandt
Workday 1
Hello friends,
Karen gave a good overview of our work today. Temp was 92 plus but not too bad Had a little rain off and on but again not bad.
We started our day at 7:30 a.m. with group worship. Breakfast and dressed ready to start work.
At each home we formed a group circle and said a prayer for the people who owned the home and their family. We also prayed for a safe day and that God be with us as we did his work. Some of the homes were overwhelmed with stuff. The smell was unbelievable and a mask was necessary. We did work hard but we could handle what we set out to do. Our job was "mud out" and believe me if it were my home I could not have done the job. Thank goodness people help people. After we completed our project we again formed a group circle and said a prayer.
I love having the experience with the three oldest grandkids. They have a positive attitude, work hard, although the boys still wear thier pants too low. I'm proud of them for being here. More later.
Love and Hugs,
Susan
1st day of work
First day in the field. We were able to mud-out 3 homes. (that means we hauled our the household items that were abandoned when the owner had to leave) It's unbelievable how much devastation still exists. There are blocks of homes that are uninhabitable and will be for years to come. It will take that long to rehab the area. In the lower ninth ward we were told the city would like to create a park as that's where so many of the deaths occured. However, there is no money for that and the fate of the area will probably be unresolved for some time.
We were told the work would be hard --and it is but not unbearably so--we were told it would be hot and it really hasn't been as bad as I expected so far.... Where there was no exageration is how dirty the work is. Hualing out a houseful of someone's stuff -- 11 months after it floated around in deep water gives a whole new definition to dirty. But it is rewarding to know that with our help the family who owns the home will be that much closer to moving back in.
Tomorrow we get to do "gut-outs" taking out the sheet rock etc to get the house ready for rebuilding. More later
Karen
News Bulletin:
Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, Ca. dispatches a group of good Christian soldiers to Gretna, La.! Pictured (L to R): Mark Tilton, Karen Ball, Mae Carlson, Brian Smith.
After many stops and starts, a fine group of God's servants from St. Matthew Lutheran Church is on their way to New Orleans to help spread the Gospel through an outpouring of love and solace for the victims of hurricane Katrina. They start their week long journey to New Orleans early on the morning of Aug. 5th, 2006. These fine people will be helping in the cleanup effort and through this work, folks waiting on checks from FEMA will finally be able to receive some monetary assistance and get their lives back on track!
The
15 person roster going to New Orleans is as follows:
Karen Ball, Dave Bogumil, Caroline Carmichael, Mel & Mae Carlson, Larrisa Gallagher, Larry, Lisa and Deena Steinwandt, Paul, Jessica and Scott Moore (The Utah connection via their grandmother, Susan Whitney and her brother, Dick Brown (of SMLC), Michael Penny, Brian Smith and Susan Whitney.
Feel free to read and respond to the members of St. Matthew Lutheran and their friends and relatives from as far away as Utah, via this BLOG site. Pass along your prayers, respond to their posts and listen to the stories they tell along the way!A heartfelt thank you goes out to the School of Urban Missions(S.U.M.) in both Oakland, Ca. and Gretna, La. and in particular to Mark Tilton, VP of S.U.M., Oakland. Mark and the S.U.M. staff in New Orleans were instrumental in helping us organize for this important outreach mission.
This picture was taken in the 9th ward area. That's where the barge broke through the levee wall along the river. As we drove through last Sunday the 6th, near the repaired levee, we found foundations and concrete porches with no houses attached! The houses were either "mowed down" by the moving barge and water or floated away. Many of the houses were not attached to their foundations and since the windows and doors were closed up tight the house would simply float away with the rising flood waters. We found houses smashed up tight against other houses and parts of houses on top of others. It's possible that some houses floated far away such that they landed in completely different neighborhoods. In the picture above, it appears that a floating house settled on an overturned truck as the flood waters receded.
