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There were 31 people on the bus in the Fellowship Team. Upon arrival, four students from the bus group joined Scott VanLoo's teams. The remainder of the bus group worked in 13 locations over three days.
Day One:
Day Two
Day Three
Day One
In a joint effort with CAM (Central American Missions) International, the bus group was sent to two houses to remove furniture, drywall, and flooring material damaged by water and mold. Everyone worked very hard. The coordination among students was extraordinary. No one complained about the difficulty and condition of the work. Everyone responded to all requests made in the clean-up process. While we began tearing out walls at Martha's house, she became emotional and began to cry. One of our students, Lani Duell, noticed and went to her and hugged her while she wept.
Day Two
Aida is a single mother who had just lost her husband shortly before the hurricane. Rachel led a team of students and worked to clear all ceilings, walls and flooring material from her house. Luke led a team of students to Blanca's house with similar needs in the house as well as removal of a back fence that had been damaged.
Blanca's neighbor needed help with moving building material and tearing out a section of the back fence There were some uncertainties as to what to expect on the first day. As we gathered for assignments on the second day, I was amazed to see that students wanted to tackle the toughest jobs: They wanted houses that needed complete gutting, tree cut-downs & removal, etc. The eagerness of students to give of themselves was truly outstanding.
That evening, we gathered at the Fellowship Bible Church where the church gave a concert and led in worship as an expression of their gratitude to our efforts as well as the efforts of others church groups who had gone to help. After the concert, the pastors urged us to "tour" areas of New Orleans so as to better absorb what had happened to them in the city. It occurred to me that they have a "need" (as do many residence of New Orleans) for others to know what happened to them beyond what has been provided by the media. They needed their storiesand tragedies to be "experienced" by others. As one of the church members told me: "If you don't see it, it's as if you come to clean-up our city without personally knowing what really happened here, the extent of our loss."
Day Three
Took the bus group to the "Bucktown" section of Metairie/New Orleans and showed students where one of the levee sections had broken. To our surprise, the area where houses were inundated by water was opened to the public. We were told not to enter any houses because they were still considered toxic. The scene was somewhat surreal as we looked at the devastation in person what had only been seen on television prior to the trip.
We arrived later than expected to the New Orleans Bible Center Church where a full day's work awaited. We were split into four groups. All except one group eventually convened to work at the last two locations. The last two locations came about when a man in the neighborhood came to our group and asked if we could help an elderly couple across the street from his house. The wife of that couple had been ill and the husband was not able to do anything. I asked one of our students, Ashley Coale, to lead a few of our students to begin work on that house. The couple's daughters were present and let the students in. It needed complete gutting.
Later, as I walked towards that elderly couples' house to assist the students there, an elderly man in his 70s living next to that house asked if we could also help him. Debris, appliances and furniture had been piled just outside his doors. As I spoke with him, his exasperation overtook him and he began to cry because of the amount of work he had to do by himself. As our bus co-leader Rachel Heffield's team and another team rejoined the main group, we were able to work help "Mr. Roland."
I was thoroughly impressed by the efficiency of students and their perseverance to complete the great amount of work! Tools were spread very thin among all the groups, but everyone did whatever he or she was able to do. I thought that everyone would be tired after two full-day's work, but they certainly did not show their tiredness by their pace of activities. They outdid themselves!
As we were hurrying to finish what we could and preparing for our return trip back to Cedarville, one of our students, Dea Fallin, collapsed from exhaustion and dehydration. Ambulance was called and Dea was evaluated by medical staff. She returned to Cedarville University in the bus without incident. Both Rachel Heffield and I have checked on her as have the university's medical services.
On our way out of New Orleans, we stopped at a local restaurant for dinner. As we ate, I was deeply moved as Dea conveyed to me that she wished we didn't have to leave. She said, "I want to stay. I don't want to leave. There's so much work that still needs to be done!"
My wife and I had lived in New Orleans for 10 years before coming to Cedarville, I am grateful to the university and its students for this depth of offering and sacrifice.
Sincerely,
Luke Tse
Here are the pics from the Fellowship Team, specifically Scott Van Loo's van, and our trip. It was AMAZING! I have many stories. But I think the one that stands out in my mind is this:
One afternoon Scott Van Loo, Tim Gill, and I were walking up and down the streets going door-to-door to find out what needed to be done in that neighborhood. We came across a lady who had a few odd jobs that could be taken care of immediately, so we started to work and made conversation with the lady. It turned out that two weeks after the hurricane, her son-in-law and daughter were in a car accident. The son-in-law died and the daughter was badly injured. The daughter was in a wheelchair for the time being and was unable to take care of her children, so there was a huge custody battle going on. The lady ended up just pouring her heart out to us, and we were completely heartbroken. It was a simple reminder that although there was a huge natural disaster going on in New Orleans, these people also had many personal disasters going on in their lives individually that were much bigger than the hurricane. It was heartbreaking because it was evident that those personal needs were not being ministered to because everyone else was preoccupied with their own disaster. I think that is what stands out in my mind most when I think of New Orleans. Yes, there is a huge amount of physical disaster, but there is an equal amount of emotional and spiritual trauma as well.