Spring Break Servant Event 2009 - New Orleans, Louisiana
March 23, 2009
Thank you so much for your support of the Servant Events this spring break; we were truly blessed by all of the prayers and gifts. We hope that this letter will give you an idea of how our trip went, and how God’s Kingdom was furthered through physical work and the building of friendships.
Our adventures started on Saturday morning, when we picked up our rental cars and drove all day to Birmingham, Alabama. After arriving at the hotel at 10:30 pm, we got a quick night’s sleep, and left the next morning to complete our journey to Camp Restore in New Orleans. Sunday night we enjoyed New Orleans culture by dining in the French Quarter.
Monday morning, our group split to go to two different work sites. Part of our group went to St. John Lutheran School where we hauled tables and signs out of a room to make space for them to add a 4th grade classroom. Kristy Peterson and Angela Hiner went through a closet and salvaged books and teaching materials for the students. The other part of our group went to a house to replace framing that had been destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. Matt Anderson removed ceiling fans which had absorbed so much water that the blades were sagging to the ground. After finishing all of the work they were capable of doing, they went to another house under re-construction and ensured that the house was ready for drywall to be hung.
On Tuesday, our group was able to stay together for the entire day. We began a project that we would work on throughout the rest of the week. Our assignment was to be landscapers for a list of about eight houses. Our secondary assignment was to landscape any other abandoned house on the same block. Throughout the remaining three days, we landscaped 16 houses. This landscaping was crucial because of a Louisiana law that allows ticketing of houses if the land is not maintained. With many owners now living elsewhere, people are losing the homes they own in New Orleans because of these tickets without the help of volunteer landscapers. Katie Kusner lead a team of people who would pick up garbage and debris, while Matt Perko was our handyman who fixed, and demonstrated how to use, any piece of equipment that was not functioning properly. In the evening we joined about 30 students from Lutheran Student Fellowship from Florida and Georgia, who were also staying at Camp Restore, for a short praise service. We also experienced the yummy goodness of beignets at Café du Monde.
Wednesday we continued landscaping, this time, in a neighborhood that was placed in between two main highways. The reality of the poverty that people were living in prior to the hurricane, which is now even more dramatic, really struck us that day. Lee Nederveld and Mike Kusner were assets to the team with all of the great work they did mowing lawns and empty lots. For the second half of our day, we worked in a city cemetery that had been badly abused by the hurricane. Katie Beth Hammond, Katrina Weirauch, and Eric Dragicevic spent their time there erecting fallen headstones, while Kristina Miller cared for those who had passed by reinterring bones that had become exposed throughout the storm. In the evening our final team member, Claire Perko, arrived in New Orleans, and as a united group, we attended a Lenten Service at St. John Lutheran Church. We later went on to enjoy some delicious ice cream.
It was requested of us on Thursday that we send four people to one job, and 12 to another. The group of four, which included Jessica Zalucha and Alena Krone, went to a house with other volunteers to tile floors. The other 12 went to St. Bernard’s Recreation Park, where Jenny Willner and Ed Schleusener removed drop ceiling tiles from the park’s main building so that repair work could be done on the pipes and electrical. Others at the park, like Claire Perko, were key in moving retaining wall bricks into neat piles for later use. We finished our work week that afternoon as a united group, doing more landscaping and cleanup work in another devastated neighborhood. Thursday evening we had the opportunity to go to the Palm Court Jazz Café to enjoy some traditional New Orleans jazz music. Our waitress asked us where we were from, and when we told her we were doing rebuilding work, she passed the message on to band who then dedicated a song to us. We found it absolutely incredible just how appreciative everyone from New Orleans was anytime we mentioned what we were doing. Nearly four years later, you would think the hurricane struck yesterday - the residents feel that way, too. They truly appreciated our help.
Friday was our day off, so we travelled to a beach in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Before we headed out, we took a detour to the Lower Ninth Ward, where over 3,000 homes and 1,000 lives were lost. There were several plots of land where the houses were literally washed from their foundations, and all that remained were front steps. We then took the scenic route to Ocean Springs, which took us past several other homes that had been destroyed. For the most part, all that was left of those homes were the stilts they were built on. After that humbling drive, we enjoyed the afternoon at the beach, and then had a delicious family-style dinner at a Cajun-inspired restaurant before heading back to Camp Restore. We got a good night’s sleep and then began our drive home the next morning.
We want to thank you for your support and prayers during these last few weeks. Without you, this amazing trip would not have been possible. Every person we talked to, every home we repaired, every bit of everything we did, you did through us. Thank you for being such an incredible part of our journey!
God’s Blessings and sincere thanks,
Matt Anderson and Katrina Weirauch - Leaders of the New Orleans Servant Event
Alena Krone, Angela Hiner, Claire Perko, Eric Dragicevic, Jenny Willner, Jessica Zalucha, Katie Hammond, Katie Kusner, Katrina Weirauch, Kristina Miller, Kristy Peterson, Matt Anderson, Matt Perko, and Mike Kusner
