NOLA

I've been back from New Orleans for almost two weeks and it's taking me a while to blog about it. I've been trying to think of ways to give the experience the justice that it deserved and I finally realized that the trip will not fit into this little blog! I will try to summarize it as eloquently as I can. Here goes...

The People
To make sure that you didn't feel lost in this big group of 300, they broke everyone down into GO Groups of 10-12 peeps. I understood why Crossroads took this approach but I wasn't totally digging it because I was doing this trip with my husband and I selfishly wanted to experience it with just him. I can happily report that this plan of mine didn't stick for too long! After traveling everywhere with your GO Group and bus mates, working on homes together, and experiencing the same extreme emotions, the people really start to grow on you! I truly cherish the new relationships that we formed while on the trip - it was a very unexpected, yet welcome blessing! You can totally see Gods hand in forming these groups of people with all of the unique personalities and skill sets that come along with them. I have especially come to appreciate these relationships now that we're back in Cincinnati! No matter how hard I try to convey the awesomeness of this trip - it's not the same unless you were there. I like having 300 other people around who really get it!

AND, I finally made a strong karaoke debut! Word on the street is that this place was one of the best karaoke bars in the U.S.! My friend Mandy and I pulled off a stunning rendition of Ice Ice Baby to a packed house! We were a total hit! I can't wait to find a local place in Cincinnati to keep the tunes coming!!


The Mindset
Pre-trip we had a lot of preparation meetings. There was a lot of talk and excitement at these meetings and yes, I was "excited" to go. I thought we were going to do a good thing and aid in building a house and we'd feel good about it. And it was fun that Brian and I could go together and I'd always have a comfort zone buddy. For the bus ride and most of the first day, I was right on track. There were nice people and everything went smoothly and at the end of the day (Sunday) it was business as usual.

The Monday morning came and it rocked my world. We started at breakfast viewing a video of an older woman going back to her house for the first time after Katrina to find it absolutely destroyed. It was very emotional! The emotion continued as we embarked on our Katrina tour. We traveled for three hours around the ENTIRE city of New Orleans and almost ALL of it had severe flooding after the storm. From all of the pictures and video I'd seen on the news, I had no idea it was this bad and that the scope of the damage was SO large! You would just go by so many different neighborhoods that were completely abandoned without a person or car in sight! And even if someone was fortunate enough to get their home back, there weren't services around: grocery stores, fast food, doctors offices, target - none of that exists anymore!

It was at this point that I dropped all previously made judgements about the city and its leaders and realized that it just comes down to the people. People whose homes have been destroyed. People whose families have been torn apart. People who have lost the only life they've ever known. No one deserves to lose all of this. I had so much emotion in my heart for these people and I wanted to really make it better. This tour really set the tone for the rest of the week.

The Work

Tuesday through Friday the day pretty much looked like this:
5:30am: Wake up
6:00am: Breakfast and some singing
7:15am: Load buses
7:45am: Arrive at work site
8am-3:30pm: Work and sweat your butt off with a joyful heart!
4:00pm: Arrive back at hotel smelling so very very disgusting!
Seriously, I didn't think working on a house could be this fun or educational! Despite the crazy heat and total exhaustion, everyone worked like there was no tomorrow, and had the best time doing it - smiling, laughing faces all around! And I never thought I would learn so much about construction! I feel like I can put up siding on a house with the best of them!

We even had a soon-to-be home owner on the site behind us bring us a fantastically seasoned New Orleans style lunch! It was so touching to see these people who have lost so much (she, in fact, lost her sister) still have such a giving and gracious heart!

We really did kick butt working on our house! As we were packing up on our final day it was really hard to leave with so much work still needing to be done, not only on our house, but all over the city.


The Impact
I really want to bring back from this trip a sense of love for anyone and everyone. I feel that I have been given a servants heart and I want to be able to give whatever I can: a listening ear, friendship, service, love!

I really can't wait to return to New Orleans and continue the restoration effort! Thanks for sharing in my journey with me!