On a Mission - Beyond the Storm: New Orleans

This is a on-going commentary of the mission work by Concordia Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, IN as we engage others in the loving grace of Jesus. "Beyond the Storm" our 2nd mission trip taken in early April 2006 served people of New Orleans after the devastation by Katrina. We pray that you are blessed by the stories told of the people that touched our lives and that inspires you to engage others for Him in your own unique way.

Friday, June 30, 2006



Beyond the Storm

Day 6 – April 6th, 2006

Our team today was split up again to work on Dot’s and Bonnie’s homes and we had one of our teammates (Barb Bleke) stay behind at the camp to help with the cooking and cleaning.

We knew that when we got to Dot’s we had more work than could be done in a day so the group stayed very focused on the tasks at hand. We got the feeling that Dot too felt the pressure knowing that this was our last day with her. Dot seemed to truly like our team, trusted us and was disappointed that we were going to leave. It could have been our imagination or not, but we felt that she wanted us to finish her home. She kept telling the team that we were so talented and how thankful she was being under our care. In fact, she had spent a lot of time the evening before at dinner telling anyone that would listen about how grateful she was to have us helping her.

At the end of the day, we did have the kitchen appliances installed and tested, all but the refrigerator (it hadn’t been delivered yet). She had complete plumbing in both bathrooms, the livingroom, master bedroom and hall way had laminated flooring, and the kitchen cabinets were installed and stained with the sink dropped into place and functional. Other things that we did that were not on the original work order was installing a door in her outbuilding, yard cleaned up, cleaning out the gutters and reattaching them along with any loose siding. All that was left to do was installing the flooring in the other 2 bedrooms, trimming out the baseboard and trim around a few doors.

We wanted to go back for a ½ day on our departure day (Friday) but there were 2 good days or more of work. While we were disappointed that we wouldn’t be the ones to complete her home, we knew that there would be others after us that would finish.

At Bonnie’s house, we finished ripping out the 2 bathtubs and 4 feet of drywall from the garage, finished pulling nails and spent time just talking with Bonnie.

Again, it is not getting the job done that matters but helping the healing process for the residents by listening to them. It was a way to also show them the respect and dignity that they had lost because of the storm. We were reminded of that when Bonnie told us that for some reason she felt that the reason that were weren’t spending time talking with her was because we thought poorly of her and thus didn’t like her. Our focus on getting in and getting the job done probably gave her that impression which was far from the truth.

By day’s end, all that remained to do at Bonnie’s before the power washing and disinfecting process was to pull out the floor tiles which covered the entire house and disassembling the fireplace mantel and insert. Again, work for another team.

When we pulled away from Bonnie’s, she looked sad and a bit lost. Since she had no one else to rely on, who would take her through the next phase of rebuilding? The night before we had brought her along with us to the Lenten service at Lamb of God and had introduced her to some of the members there. She said that she was looking for a church home and we thought that maybe this was a fit for her – at least there were others to know that were in her situation. Unfortunately, Lamb of God seemed to be too “old fashion” for her. Later she shared that she is looking for a church that is more contemporary and has a young adult ministry which she was used to in her previous Baptist church.

Our evening was spent off camp as we walked the French Quarters in New Orleans with Pastor Stefan as our guide. Couldn’t leave this part of the country without having some great fresh seafood, bit of Cajun cooking at Ralph & Kacoo’s and some yummy café au lait and beignets at the Café Du Monde. Dinner highlights included fried gator and shrimp to start off our meal followed by a lively turtle soup and entrees that were to die for.

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