Friday, 11/25/2005 -- Day 6

We did no work at all today. This morning, we said goodbye to the Philly team and the Saint James staff. We had breakfast at IHOP before doing one last damage tour of Mississippi. We got another stern lecture from a police officer at a checkpoint who told us to “stay off the highway or we’d get in trouble.” The checkpoints around the casinos are very close together and very restrictive. As we moved away from the casino zone (and the money that needed to be recovered) the checkpoints got farther apart and less restrictive. Interesting. After getting kicked off of the highway, we toured through the neighborhoods again taking pictures of the devastation (we hope to use these pictures to educate people in Oregon about the need that is still down there). Some of the houses in these neighborhoods have been moved completely off of their foundations. One was pushed by the storm against a couple of trees in the front yard which are now embedded in the front of the house. In a couple of areas, people have put up American flags amid the rubble.

After touring this area, we left Gulfport and toured a small town just to the west. This town was where the hurricane hit the hardest. Whole blocks of houses were gone here. Not just in shambles, not just collapsed, but completely gone. There were nothing but debris fields in this area. Typically, you would see a driveway and maybe a piece of cardboard nailed to a tree telling what address that plot of land used to be. In one area, there were what looked like thousands of plastic bags caught up in a bunch of trees. We wondered about this until we discovered nearby the remains of a Wal-Mart with most of its walls missing and realized that the plastic bags had been blown out of the store when the storm came through.

After a short tour through this neighborhood, we drove back to New Orleans. We decided that after all of the hard work we had done (and also to spare Riverside Baptist from having to put us up for another night.) it would be appropriate to pool our money together and pay for a room at the Sheridan downtown. I know… rough life. We went to the French quarter one more time and ate dinner (I had some Jambalaya -- the only complaint is that they could have cleaned the shrimp). After that, we did some shopping and yes, I’ll confess it, I bought one of those darned Katrina t-shirts. It’s a classy one though. It just says “Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Team 2005”. I felt a little dirty as I bought it but looking back at it, I’m glad I did. I got a lot of practice bouncing my eyes away from things that I shouldn’t look at. There are pictures of topless women right out in the open as you walk down Bourbon street. Only in New Orleans… It’s insane there.

So about 2 hours ago, Justin decided that he wanted to walk back to the hotel room. I didn’t want him to walk alone so I went with him. Tiffany, Melanie, Kris, Matt and Jaime stayed out a little longer. Just a few minutes ago, I got an urge to go down to the lobby. There I found Tiffany, Melanie, Kris, Matt, and Jaime at a table praying. I joined them for the end of their prayer time and that is basically how we are going to end this trip -- with prayer. Appropriate, I think.

Tomorrow we fly back home. I don’t really want to go back. It’s going to be hard to resume a normal life after this week. It’s weird but after only a week together, these people from Good Shepherd along with the Philly team have become like family to me. When a group of people goes through an experience like we’ve gone through, it tends to bring you together quickly I guess. I could not have asked for a better team to work with. This week, we did demolition work on five houses. That’s five homes ready to be repaired by teams who will come in after us -- five families on the road to recovery. It doesn’t seem like much but here’s the thing: Thousands of teams just like ours are streaming into the Gulf Coast from churches all over the country. On this trip alone, we met teams from Kentucky, California, Philadelphia, Arkansas and a team made up of members from several different states. They’re rebuilding houses, serving meals, offering encouragement and comforting those who are hurting. Let me set the record straight right here: It will probably take years but the Gulf Coast will recover and when it does, it will not be because of FEMA or the Red Cross or any other Federal Organization. I’m not badmouthing these agencies. They’re doing a lot of good down here but on these pages you’ve read about the destruction that has taken place. This disaster is too big for any agency or even any group of agencies to handle. This is a God sized task. The Gulf Coast is going to recover because the Body of Christ pulled together and with the Lords supernatural help, brought Christs healing to this region. It’s already happening and I can tell you, from conversations that I have had with Theda, Dave, and others that the Body of Christ has no plans to slow down its efforts.

Thank you Lord that I got to have a tiny part in all of this.