Wesley Student Center Spring Break Journal – Entry #1
Spring break 2009 for the Wesley Student Center began at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning. We gathered in the dark in a small circle with our pastor Mary Jo. She prayed for us and gave us an Amber Stone to remember the Olive tree, a gift that gives to the next generation. She led us in a meditation that helped us understand that the gifts that we start this week may not be finished when we leave New Orleans. The next generation, the next work camp, the next group of volunteers, may be the ones to see the home finished and the family moved back after years of displacement. We were sent on our way with the blessing to vans from Ohio University where we set out for New Orleans, Louisiana.
Our first stop was Camp Sumatunga and Gallant, Alabama. This was a nice retreat center that is part of a United Methodist campground. We arrived about 5:30pm our time, however we passed the time zone change and it was actually 4:30 PM, so we had time to explore the campgrounds. They were beautiful.
Our supper run was a bit interesting as we chased the tom-tom around until we decided to stop at the Huddle House, a small restaurant with one cook and one waitress. With 22 of us, it was a bit confusing. After much singing and guitar playing, the students were ready for a good night’s sleep in a motel-room like setting.
Sunday morning brought us back to the Huddle House for a great breakfast and then off to church at the First Gallant Baptist church. After a bit of confusion about what street the church was really on and going in circles for a while, we found our way to the church four minutes after the 11 a.m. service began. It was a great service, and we were very welcome. The congregation invited us up to the front for prayer, and the sermon was very appropriate for our trip. “The need for evangelism in North America”
It was a beautiful day for traveling, and our traveling went smoothly until we got on the Ferry Road and realized that we were about to cross a ferry for real. It wasn't what we had planned, but it was a great trip; and a first experience for many of us, including me. The strangest part was sitting in the van and moving backwards on the ferry.
Traveling into New Orleans in the dark was interesting, looking for street signs with no street lights. But we found our way, and we arrived safely at the Aurora United Methodist Church about 8 PM. The students immediately unloaded the vans, and we settled in and waited for pizza.
An exciting week is about to begin as we venture out on our mission to the New Orleans area. We look forward to updating you.
Sincerely,
Keith Rader Wesley Student Center director
March 23, 2009
Today we split into two different groups to head to our two building sites. It was quite interesting because we tried to get 6 vans into one church for orientation. Meanwhile, we were driving in rush hour through downtown New Orleans, toll bridges and all. The trip was pretty interesting. Somehow we had many sets of directions, and managed to get lost. Instead of having our nice half hour drive from the church we are staying at for the week (Aurora UMC) to get to our orientation, it managed to be a good 2 hour and 15 minute drive. Oops. Got lost just a little bit and got to see a lot of New Orleans we wouldn’t have seen if we knew where we were going.
The group I was in did a couple of tasks for the house we were assigned. We painted a door, started figuring out the tiling for the fireplace and counters in the kitchen, and also put sheetrock around the window frames. Some of the team members unloaded supplies from our site manager Ozzy’s truck. We also packed our lunches in the morning before arriving on our site and ate it later on the porch.
All the people in the South seem very friendly and outgoing. They don’t mind saying hello and asking where we’re from and what we’re doing in New Orleans. It was interesting because at one point, I took a break and stood out on the porch. Most of the neighborhood we were at was already rebuilt if they lost their homes. Most of the vehicles that passed our house were trucks, normally with building supplies in the bed.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the days to come. Whether it’s fun van rides, or hard work, I’m excited to be serving any way I can. It means a lot that instead of being at home, or on a dream vacation for a week, I’m serving here in New Orleans and helping those that lost their homes. It may not be in some people’s eyes the most entertaining Spring Break, but we are called to serve, so why not do it in New Orleans?
-Katie Schmidt
Today after breakfast we started off to our second day on our worksites. We enjoyed the wind in our hair and the photo opportunity of our ferry ride across the Mississippi and the excitement of our first foray on this trip not getting lost.
Driving into "our" house's neighborhood, I realized more than half of the houses in the development were either abandoned with boards nailed across the windows and weeds in the yard or only a plot of land, with broken kitchen tiles and concrete floors the only remnants of the house. The house my group (group two) has been working on, has electricity, painted walls and a tub and toilet with running water. These conveniences make all of our work much easier. We are the seventh group to work in the house which the owners have lived in since last May.
In the last two days of working at the site, we have laid waterproof insulation and then laminate "hardwood" flooring in a bedroom, a hallway, a closet and the dining room/living room area, and began tiling the bathroom. We've worked with lots of power tools and hammers, and everyone has learned a lot of skills. No one had laid this type of flooring before, and few had worked with power tools, but by the end of today, we had found ways to make everyone busy and work seamlessly together. Skills were learned (or figured out) and then taught to others. Whenever anyone needed a hand to hold a piece, there was always someone willing to go out of their way to help them.
--Dee Dee Craun
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