Before heading to Mississippi/Alabama we had MANY fundraisers. One of which was to sell bracelets. They had sayings on them like "Faith Hope Love", "Jesus Loves You" "Keep the Faith", etc. We also made 5 index cards for each member of the team and asked that prayer partners join us in prayer for the trip. Boy did we call on those "prayer warriors"!
There are so many things about this trip that were so incredible, I want to type every detail of the trip, but I know that's really not interesting to anyone but me and maybe my kids. I'm guessing if you're reading this you want to find out what other kinds of blessings came out of Katrina?
As always I got up to watch the sunrise and it was beautiful streaming through the trees in the church yard. (Not as beautiful as over the water at DI, but still memorable to me.)
So many things seemed to still be going wrong. Fussing amoung team members. I couldn't find my work boots anywhere. So here I am heading to a construction site and the only shoes I have are my bright orange Crocs. Not gonna work! Bless her heart, Cindy loaned me her tennis shoes, but they weren't exactly the right size. Oh well, we were on an adventure. WHAT an adventure!
Some of our crews would continue with the work in the Turkey Creek area, the rest were going into a different neighborhood. As we entered the neighborhood we were once again struck with the devastation. Nearly every house still had a blue FEMA roof, a FEMA trailer and a POD. Again, the devil was working on me and the snotty "princess" came out. As our "neighbor" came out to greet us, she seemed very friendly but then we realized that she had 3 teenage sons. Couldn't they have been doing some of this work??? She seemed a little upset that our team was mainly made up of teenagers. I can't say that I blame her, I would be worried if this crew showed up to work on my house too. When we entered her house, you could literally see from one end to the other. There was one room that had partial drywall up but that was it. It was overwhelming. My boys jumped right in measuring and cutting the drywall. My girls started "mudding" as soon as the drywall was hung. If you're like me "mudding" is when you place a piece of tape like paper over the seam between the pieces of drywall, and then take a putty like substance and smooth it out. If you do it correct you will end up with a seamless wall ready for painting. Some of my girls have a definite talent for this. I on the other hand, not so much. I ended up with it on my clothes, Cindy's shoes, in my hair. The finally took my trowel away from me, and told me to "just rest a little Aunt Kim".
We worked for several hours, and then the homeowner came back. I sensed a little distress in her. Did I mention that her husband is a contractor? He’d been so busy rebuilding the local businesses and churches, that is why he had only done such limited work on their house. He had been trying to get her and their boys to help, but she did not believe that they could do it.
My boys were steadily hanging the drywall, the girl’s were muddin’ and it looked good to me. Gina had come back to pick us up to go to lunch, and she thought it looked okay. I remember saying, “I don’t want to do more harm than good.” Drywall was at a premium, and if we messed it up they wouldn’t be able to easily get more. We prepared to leave for lunch with our “neighbor” from the day before (the family we tore down their home). In appreciation they wanted to feed all our teams. I hugged Ms. Wanda Renee and told her we would be back in a little while. I detected even more distress from her, she was definitely worried about what her husband was going to say! Also, a neighbor had passed away and she was trying to deal with that situation as well.
Our “picnic” was really great. They had tables set up in the front yard. Dad was grilling burgers & dogs. Mom had prepared all the fixins’, bbq beans, chips, it was quite a spread. After lunch, most everyone joined in a game of volleyball. Then their kids showed my kids how to “fly”. They were so proud of what was basically a rope swing attached to a tree. All my kids were good sports and tried. Even our 6’5” pastor, and the 6’1” youth leader tried. I thought it best not to try because I surely didn’t want to be the one to destroy it. These kids had lost enough already.
Everyone headed back to their worksites. One of our prayer warriors, “Ms. Roberta” had told us during times of stress or conflict, to sing “They will know we are Christians by our love.” By this point in the trip we were getting very familiar with the song! Of course it doesn’t sound quite as meaningful when sung through clenched teeth, but after a few times, we would start to believe the words we were singing. I’m not sure exactly when it happened but the church van died, just died, wouldn’t do a thing. We jumped the battery and it fired up but it appeared to be the alternator. We called “Ms. Roberta” and she started the prayer chain, and the kids started singing “Sanctuary”. Gina got everyone delivered and headed to the dealership to get the van repaired. Again, satan was really after us!!!
We got back to Ms. Wanda Renee’s home and started back to work. Seems as if lunch had given us renewed energy, and I finally started to get the hang of muddin’. You could no longer see completely through the house. Part of the living room, all of the hall, and 2 of the bedrooms now had “walls”. We were feeling pretty good, and then I heard a hush fall over the house. Wanda Renee’s husband was home. Would he be mad that she had allowed us to do this work? How would he react? I said a quick prayer and went out to greet him. Imagine my surprise when I saw tears in his eyes. This was a burly, construction worker, and he was looking at me with the most amazed expression. He said, “you and these kids did this?” I answered yes, and he stuck out his hand for me to shake. He said, I would be proud to hire any one of them to work for me. I couldn’t have done better myself, or hired a team to do better. You should have seen those kids faces, and Wanda Renee’s. I still get tears in MY eyes.
We finished up the day and headed back to the church for VBS. At some point during the night I decided to give Ms. Wanda Renee my bracelet. It said, “Faith, Hope, Love”. That morning when we arrived, she was showing her neighbor her “walls”. She was so proud and praising Jesus because she had walls. I’m not sure about ya’ll but before then I had never woken up and thanked God for my walls. (I say thank you for a lot more things now!). Wanda Renee was preparing to go to the funeral visitation for her friend, but before she left she showed me her surprise for us. In the fridge was meat, cheese, gatorade and cupcakes. There was also a note to her family to leave the food alone, it was for the “people that God sent to answer our prayer”. I get tears again. God was using us to answer her prayer. I took a picture of the note on my phone and kept it for a long time to remind me of how much I had to be thankful for, when I got a new phone I lost the pic. Nothing can take my memory. As it turned out each set of “neighbors” prepared lunch for their team.
We worked all day, and even worked on the inside of the “outside” walls, which required us adding insulation. There was still a lot of work in the kitchen and bathrooms but there was still some more plumbing work that needed to be done. Jeffrey worked so hard on the house but we soon realized that he was going to have to work on something else. Gina talked to the dealership and they weren’t even going to be able to start on the Van until Friday, and we needed to leave on Friday. Jeffrey assured us he had helped his dad enough, he could change the alternator.
As we prepared to leave, I took off my bracelet to give to Wanda Renee. She hugged me and thanked me. She told me that not only had we done so much for their house, but also for their spirits. She confided that she had lost her hope, but thanks to us, God had restored that hope. She now realized just how much she and her sons could do to help her husband finish the work needed on their house.
We got back to the church and along with Bro. Steve’s “help” (translate just hanging over his shoulder), Jeffrey changed the alternator. Later that night Barbara shared with me that she had given her bracelet to her neighbor, who had never lost faith that God would help them to repair their home (Barbara’s bracelet said “Keep the Faith”). Britney then shared that she had also given away her bracelet it said “Jesus Loves You”, and she gave it to the teenage girl that had already lost so much.
As I finish this entry, thanks for sticking with me through this story. I’m still amazed at all the “good” that came from Katrina. I know that none of us will on that trip will ever forget the lessons learned. Again, I come back to Esther. When we first started planning the trip, I thought what can we really do? I learned we can’t really do a lot, but through God - Faith, Hope and Love were restored in us and those we that we shared our time in Alabama and Mississippi.
No comments:
Post a Comment