3 Trucks of Trees and a Lot of Debris

I am so proud of the seminarians on this trip for all the hard work they have done and with a spirit of willingness and cooperation. It has been a Godsend to have two members from Gethsemane with us, too. They have some engineering skills and have helped us on numerous occasions to know what to do and how to do it. Lugging the huge living room carpet to the curb was a real group effort. From smashing up a bathtub, to removing insulation and a million nails they have worked in the muck without a complaint.

Yesterday in the neighborhood where we were mucking out a house a crew of tree removers was at work. I saw 3 big truck loads of tree limbs and stumps cut and sawed and hauled away. That was three truck loads out of thousands. There are few trees left standing. How hot the summer will be without the shade of trees and bushes on people's patios and avenues. The number of trees still down or just now dying is staggering. And so many trees left standing are half the height they were before the storms.

There are so many parallels to the exile in Exodus or the fall of Jerusalem and people living in diaspora. The shell of a city remains, but where have all the people gone? Some are rebuilding because they didn't have flood insurance and can't take on a second mortgage. Miles of apartments are emptied out. Boats are still on top of levees or along the road. Houses that once stood on the bayou on stilts are gone, but miles of wooden stilts stand sillouetted against the horizon. A few businesses are opening up each week. Fireman and schools are in FEMA trailers like the people who have gotten them to live in. Those trailers are so small. Some have had walls cave in. Others leak. Others stand in a field along Highway 59 never delivered.

I wish every church in America would send a crew to work on at least one house.
Students and church groups seem to be the ones doing the most. We only saw government workers working on bridges, levees, and demolition crews in the poor 9th ward.

Tomorrow we will paint walls at a Lutheran Disaster Response Center being built to house volunteers for years to come.

By the way, we are eating some great food. That hasn't changed. A member of the church who is a political science retired prof from LSU invited us for jambalaya on Monday. Their house was not flooded but they lost 50 trees in their yard that backs up to bayou/swamp. He showed us pictures of the mama alligator who laid 53 eggs in his compost heap. They were carefully removed and 43 of them hatched. Mama Gator was relocated, too. Life in the south, oh my!

We are all well and looking forward to the speakers we have lined up over the weekend.
Peace, Pastor Ruth