Chivalry in Chalmette

Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn. Ok, so it was around 6am, but it sure felt like it was closer to 3am. Probably because the night before I'd gone out with my community group to go bowling and then to girls' night.

Why am I up this early you ask? Because I was going to go down to Chalmette (east of New Orleans) to help as part of a demolition crew for a few of the houses that were flooded; not because of Katrina but because of the levee breech. Oh yeah, I'm going to be a huge help with a demolition crew. I'm five-four, weigh not-a-lot, and don't know what a bench press is. However, I do have two hands and a stubborn streak, so I figured I could do a little something or another there. Why not? God's done crazier things before, surely He'll help me out with this. And He did, but I'm jumping ahead. So I get a friend of mine to come with me and we head up to the church. You can tell who the morning people are because they are oh-so-chipper, meanwhile I'm just waiting to pounce on anyone who gives me a hard time about not being a morning person. So as I sit in Crabbyville, more and more people arrive and then its time to go. Ok, so its like 9 guys and 4 girls. We were totally going to do some damage today. Its now 7:30am by the time we get on I-10 to head south.

The drive to NO was not bad at all, I got to play DJ in our vehicle, so that was fun. Anyways, as we get closer to NO, I begin to see the signs of damage. I'd not been down there since the hurricane and flood. In fact, the last time I'd been to NO was the thursday before Katrina hit that following Monday. I'd been to an organizational fair at Dillard University, one of the three traditionally black colleges in the area. The University itself did not fare well in the flood, about fifty percent of the faculty will come back to the school. Back to my story, I was not ready emotionally to see the damage. It was heartbreaking. I just sat there as we drove farther and farther into the devastated areas. I saw cars on top of cars, trees in houses, boats on the road because they had gotten loose from their bonds. Yes, it was sad, and I found it hard to breathe, not from the air, just because I began to see how devastating this really was. And then God was gracious enough to show me that these people who'd had everything wiped away in one fell swoop had not given up. There were signs everywhere of God bless, we will rebuild, we'll make it, if you need help, call so-and-so. It was incredible. Then we arrived in the neighborhood where we would be working. There were signs of life being rebuilt, cleaned up, and a determination that this too shall pass. We stopped at the houses we were going to demolish, got out, suited up, grabbed tools, and started getting to work. When I say suited up, I mean, leather work gloves, rubber gloves, big huge rubber boots, and dust masks. Yeah, I'm glad I was there to look good because otherwise I'd have looked ridiculous. ;) Although I gotta admit, I'm so glad I wore the boots and gloves and ratty clothes because everything needed to be burned after we got done. It was a whole lot of fun. Yes, it was work. Serious work. I've not shoveled muck like that since, well, never actually. And the million nails that ended up being pulled out probably could've been used to build another house. But I'd sign up to go again in a heartbeat.

I noticed a lot about my community Saturday. The guys in my community, aka my church, have some of the best hearts I've seen. They worked SO hard!! The girls did too, but after we got done working on the houses, we went to another house where the men loaded up a few of the trucks with a displaced students' furniture and then delivered it once we were back home in Baton Rouge. That's the type of community and church I want to be in! Where they put their needs aside and give to others? I'll sign up to be a part of that. I saw God in them Saturday. That's my community, that's my leadership, that's my church, and in the end, that's my God.