Team 13 Thursday Update

So do you think we can stand up and tell the church what we saw, the stories we heard and how we were blessed?

Today we went to the east end of Chalmette. The houses there are really nice. Most are single story homes. A lot of elderly people. The gentleman we met was Harold (71). He lived in his house with his wife and mother. He was a square dance caller and they held square dances out back in a big gazebo. He had left the house during the storm. But those in the neighborhood who didn't leave ended up drowning. Several of Harold's friends died as a result of the flooding or from the trauma afterwards. Since he wasn't at the house at the time of the storm Harold couldn't say how long it took to flood the house. But his house was flooded into the attic. Everything they owned was lost. The water did not recede for two weeks. He had flood insurance but the insurance only paid $75,000 for his home and all its contents. He had no mortgage and now he is displaced to Covington Mississippi. Harold was such a sweet man; he brought us extra water and snacks.

When we got to the house it was a mess. All the furniture, clothing, dishes, linens, etc were still in the house. Everything was submerged in water for two weeks. There was about six inches of muck (mixture of mud, wet plaster board from the ceiling and insulation, along with anything else that floated around the in house). The kitchen still had water in it and the lower cabinets. A fridge had fallen and did not allow the water to drain. The stench was awful. We looked at it and didn't think we could get it done. But we spread out through the house and began shoveling, pulling curtains down and moving furniture out. After a lot of sweat and hard work we able to get all of the muck out of the house, removed the carpet and then pulled down just about all of the plaster board, as well as gut out the kitchen.

Even though the work is hard, we are dead tired at the end of the day and smell worse than we ever smelled in our life, this is probably the best thing I have ever done. It is so rewarding and such a blessing to me to be able to help someone who I have never met. And, to see the joy and hope on the homeowners face when we have finished. Harold was so gratefully, words could not express the way he felt.

For the last couple of months we have been talking about going out and serving others. About being more Christ. But there is nothing that will bring you closer to the Lord and to humble yourself to clean out someone else’s mess. The reality of how much material things mean NOTHING. The question we need to ask is who have I served today.

I will write again tomorrow.

God Bless.

Barbara