Spring Break 2007: New Orleans
As thousands of people in Iowa were wondering when they were going to get their power back from the ice storm, 13 college students and 2 leaders from College Hill Lutheran Church and Brammer Student Center in Cedar Falls, IA had their eyes set on going down to New Orleans for spring break.
As we started our trip, we were blessed to stay with host families at St. Charles, MO and then at Jackson, MS. One of the amazing spots that we visited was Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Missouri. This history and beauty of this church and location was enjoyed by all.
As we traveled into New Orleans, we meet up with Rev. Jerome Terry and his wife, Dora. They showed us to our new home for the next three and half days.
We were soon off in the vans to the Ninth Ward and the Lower Ninth Ward to see the damage first hand. As we were driving, the van was silent with gasp of disbelief of what we were seeing. We then got a quick tour of the French Quarter as we would later spend a couple of nights there enjoying the atmosphere.
The work week started off early Monday morning. The original plan was to help with the clean up of the Bethel Lutheran Church building but the damage was too great. The church now is going to be destroyed and rebuilt. Instead we helped them clean up the grounds from other people dumping garbage on their lawn. We also had two groups helping at another church and a home with some painting that needed to be done. Later in the week, we had the opportunity to tear down some drywall from two homes so that they can start the rebuilding
This gave us an opportunity to help folks start getting their lives back. As the time down there came to a close, we got to worship with other volunteers. One of the students summarized the trip as: humility, reality and hope. We have given hope to the people in New Orleans and they have touched our lives forever.
