My Summer In New Orleans

I've now been back in Austin for a week after being away from home for a month and a half. I'm feeling rested, getting back into the routine, and ready to share more about all that has happened. To avoid a really, really, really long post, I think I'll just share in bits and pieces. Hopefully I will be able to remember everything and give you some insight into the story of my summer.

May 8th: After too little sleep (I'm not a morning person), I picked up friend and fellow staff member Marie and hit the road at about 7:30 am. It was a long drive, but I've definitely done worse. I tried to listen to a book on CD, but that didn't work. Marie did her best to keep me awake for the 8 hours. I am about 98% sure I saw the 2nd strangest roadkill I've ever seen--an alligator. (I once saw an emu...that one tops it.) After arriving at the duplex where the staff families were to be living, we had some dinner, prayed for our summer, and just relaxed a bit.


click on picture for larger version

The duplex (known to us as the Franklin House) is located on Franklin Avenue in the Edgewood Park area, just across I-10 from the 9th Ward. It was an area that was pretty hard hit (you can see the flood line on the house in one pic). This house is owned by a woman named Diane who used to run a ministry for women out of this home. After the hurricane, the women had scattered and she refinished the upstairs so she would have a place to live. Now Campus Crusade is renting it for the next year, for our project and then for a team of interns who will be coordinating ongoing relief efforts through next year. (Contact me if you or someone you know would be interested in going down to help.) One of the exciting things about the Franklin House is that we were able to begin building relationships with people in the neigborhood. We worked on several houses in the area while we were there and a couple of staff went to a neighborhood association meeting. It was a friendly and welcoming place, though most people have yet to move back. 75% of the neighborhood was represented at the meeting and plan to come back and rebuild, which is encouraging. We even had one woman who was so grateful for our help that she gave a donation to the ministry to say thank you. So many are still amazed that people want to serve them and expect nothing in return. It was always exciting and humbling to be able to hear from those who have spent the last 10 months trying to recover any scraps of thier former life.

more to come...