not just a number

two teams arrived yesterday morning, one is staying off-site and the other on-site. the off-site group is mostly doing work on pastor don’s house and we don’t see them very much. the on-site group consists of older high school kids. they are a really awesome group of kids who are very willing to do hard work. the pastor of the church is the most friendliest man. he clearly has a passion for serving others, but he primarily cares about building relationships with people, which is most important when serving the kingdom of God. his team is from illinois…they drove here in two days and right when they got here, they got right to work. they even spent the evening making sure they finished a job that they could have easily finished the next day. they are very determined and you can definitely tell that they came here to work. the youth are so kind and friendly too, which makes things so much easier for us. not only do we not have to babysit them as they work, but they are happy workers. this week is going to be a breeze :)

this week the illinois group is working on a house that we started rehabbing last week. the owner of this house lives like a lot of people live around here. he has a house, or a roof over his head, but he has no electricity or running water. a lot of the work that the church has been doing lately involves people like this man, who may be living in a tent, a trailer, or a house with no electricity or water access. these people have been living like this for years…since Katrina hit! this man in particular only has his exterior walls up, with no insulation, dry wall, plumbing, air conditioning, proper flooring, electricity, etc. he just has enough shelter to keep him alive. not to mention, one of his arms is crippled, which is why he hasn’t been able to fix up his house. so far we've done his flooring, added insulation, hung dry wall, and now we're painting the exterior of the house. we still have a lot to do tho.

jamie took me around town to show me a lot of the houses that lakeshore baptist has built or rehabbed. there were so many houses! the church has currently built 39 houses from the ground up and rehabbed over 100 houses. the cool thing was that jamie knew of every single house that had been worked on, whose it was, and their story. when Katrina hit, FEMA gave each person who had been affected a number…it was so impersonal. jamie told me that the church made a strong point of not making any person a number. this is why the church makes sure to get to know each person on a personal level and build a relationship with them.

it’s horrible to hear about (and see!) the living conditions of so many people down here. especially driving around and seeing how many people live in trailers or sheds. it’s hard to believe that people can survive like that for so many years. some of them are living in water damaged houses that are ruined…some are living in a shed with multiple children…some are living in tents on their old property (or on strangers property’s!). Katrina is still affecting so many people down here and most of America does not even realize it.

the man that the team is helping this week is so grateful of our help. he has been helping with everything that we have been doing. there are a lot of people that the church helps out who just sit there and watch the whole time. they don’t help out at all! but this man is crippled and he is doing anything he can to help fix up his house. its people like him that make volunteering so worthwhile :)