So we've been here for over 48 hours now. It would difficult to explain all that we've seen in a short blog post or e-mail. We have hundreds of pictures and already hours of video, but we've narrowed down what we have so far to a couple dozen pictures to show you just a bit of what we've seen. Click here to view these pictures.Some notes on some of the pictures:
The first few are of New Orleans First Church of the Nazarene, where we got to worship on Sunday morning. The guitarist is "Mr. Ott" and he led us in what we'll call "blues praise". The pastor and preacher is Rev. Larry Bolling (not to be confused with Cuba Gooding, Jr.). He has led this church through the destruction and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and has an extremely warm and uplifting spirit.
Pastor Larry and his wife, Sister Dee, offered to take us through the lower 9th ward of New Orleans, easily the most devastated area of the city. Most of the destruction in these pictures is from this area. One must understand that these pictures were taken yesterday - June 3, 2007, almost two years after Hurricane Katrina. While these pictures are obviously the worst, the rest of the city is not much ahead. It's hard to really put numbers to it, but the vast majority of homes are still unlivable. You'll also see a few pictures of local residents who were willing to share their stories with us.Our task today was to continue in the deconstruction and construction of just one residence (of the over 300,000 that are affected). While groups like ours are repairing the homes of those who actually have come back to New Orleans, the residents must live in small government-issued trailers. The trailer of the resident we were with today is about 10'x25' Again, remember that this is the way it's been for almost two years now - residents live in these small trailers - smaller than most RVs - until their home is finished.
The destruction is hard to explain and certainly even harder to comprehend.
Your continued prayer for our group is appreciated and welcomed, but your prayer and concern for the people of New Orleans is of an even greater need.
To recap, we are volunteering through Nazarene Disaster Response, a division of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. We are here this week with three other teams - from Olathe, KS; Indianapolis, IN; and Atlanta, GA. We'll post again as time allows.
