L2 - Day 6

This might be the coldest morning yet. Even the bright sun didn’t seem to heat it up at all.

Just after leaving camp, Lauren called to tell us that Interstate 10 – our route to the work sites – was closed due to icing. So, it was time to improvise a winding route through the city.

Team 1 went back to Dreux Street and Team 2 to Louisa St. It was bitter cold, but both teams worked hard, hard, hard.

The Louisa Street house was finished with some time left over to do the front and back yards. Including removing a VERY heavy cast iron tub. After loading up the van and just before securing plywood over the front door, the group gathered in the house to pray. We gave thanks to God for the opportunity to serve Christ by serving the owner, Sheryl, and her two daughters. We asked God to bless the house so that one day it might again be a home.

Then Team 2 drove over to the house on Dreux so they could see it. It was incredible how much Team 1 accomplished.

After lunch at the Golden Arches, we took a drive through the Ninth Ward. We wanted the three who missed the tour last Sunday to have the opportunity to see the area. We also wanted to drop off our extra supplies and tools at Common Ground. CG is a grassroots organization that the August group happened upon. They are committed to supporting and empowering the people of the Ninth Ward. It was encouraging to see new telephone poles and electrical wiring up in the neighborhood. David commented on the fact that a great deal of the wreckage that was there in August had been cleared. The landscape is desolate – which is actually a positive thing. In a way, the land is being prepared so that, first, the dream of rebuilding and then the rebuilding itself can begin.

Once back at camp, it was a flurry of unloading tools, cleaning vans, doing laundry, making dinner, showering, sweeping, packing and sharing stories of the week. Susan (the Work Site Coordinator) told the group that she couldn’t remember another group – except maybe the initial group of college kids – who had accomplished as much as this group. Three houses were added to the “Gutting Completed” list this week and another one was well over halfway there.

There was cake and pies for dinner tonight. Before serving, David told the group that they had indeed fulfilled their high calling this week and so he had bought special dessert plates and napkins. They were black and gold – the colors of New Orleans’ football team – and whose name this Louisiana II group embodied – the Saints.

Don’t stop praying yet, we still have a flight ahead of us tomorrow. But this is the last installment from NOLA – until Louisiana III, that is!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support!