Monday, 11/21/2005 -- Day 2

Spent all day demolishing a house. It will be remodeled and made into a home for one of the pastors here who lost his home in the hurricane. We tore out the drywall and everything else except the foundation and the studs. I was able to rescue a small lizard that was living in the wall. It was very dusty, dirty work (especially dealing with that insulation). The ladies on our team (Theda, Carol and Jaime) treated us like royalty. We even each got a shoulder rub from Carol as we ate lunch.

We worked again with the team from Philadelphia. Pastor Dave from that team took charge of the operation and we all pulled together really well under him so that was a real answer to last nights prayer. Relationships with those on the Philly team are becoming stronger. We all ate dinner together tonight. Had a great time talking with Frank from the Philly church. Frank and I shared with each other about our churches (theirs is a small but growing congregation that meets in a movie theater). I told Frank about the history of Good Shepherd, how we started out in a basement etc. After dinner, we had a devotion together led by Pastor Dave. Two guys from California joined us during this time. Later, another family from Kentucky came in. They are working at different projects than we are but are staying at Riverside. All of them are really cool people. We had a great time of worship and sharing about what God has done so far on this trip. We talked about what a great work day it has been (we gutted that entire house in one day…the Riverside people didn’t think we could but we did!)

Tonight, we took one of the vans and toured some of the more devastated areas in New Orleans. We drove around the Superdome. Several windows in adjacent buildings are still broken out. After that, we attempted to drive into some of the neighborhoods that had been hit hard by the Hurricanes. We were turned back at a couple of military checkpoints (glad I had my lost tourist routine polished). These checkpoints were interesting in themselves. They were guarded by soldiers with M-16 rifles strapped across their backs. In some places, they were barrel burning to fight the chill of the evening. It seemed as if we were in another country. We finally entered a neighborhood that was not guarded. The carnage is indescribable. It is comparable to the aftermath of 9/11 or some kind of bomb going off. Trees are knocked over, houses and cars (many of which have flat tires or no tires at all) are gutted, debris is everywhere along with signs advertising house gutting. Everything looks to be covered by some type of fine white dust. Some of the appliances in the street have advertisements for gutting and salvage spray painted on them. There were no lights in these neighborhoods. They were complete ghost towns. Not a human being in sight. Stray cats roaming everywhere. Many houses had messages spray painted on them requesting the rescue of pets presumably trapped inside. Others had messages painted by rescuers indicating the number of dead animals found in the house (one place had 6 dead cats inside of it). All had a cross painted on them. In the upper right corner of this cross was painted the date that rescuers inspected the house. The bottom left corner showed the number of dead found inside the house. All of the houses that I could see had zero dead inside. We left the neighborhood after touring several blocks for fear of arousing suspicion. I’m sure there is still fear of looters in these neighborhoods.

After leaving the residential neighborhoods, we drove into downtown New Orleans. There is a very heavy police and military presence downtown. Military police vehicles are parked in the median of the main drag every few blocks. About 60 percent of the traffic lights downtown are now working. Some are completely off, others are blinking yellow. Tried to drive into the French quarter but found it blocked off. We noticed a large crowd of people on Bourbon street. There was one downed palm tree in the median.

Tomorrow, I think we are going to Vieux Carrere church in the French Quarter. Lord, please be with these people and the city. It’s one thing to see this destruction on TV but to actually drive through it…well, as I said, it’s indescribable.

Personal feeling: Tired. Should have been asleep hours ago. Going there now. P.S. There are help wanted signs absolutely everywhere around here. All of the employees have left.