I had a beautiful small world moment tonight at a shrimp boil at John Calvin Presbyterian out in Metairie, just west of here. It wasn’t exactly a traditional Louisiana shrimp boil, I must admit. The volunteer group from Central Presbyterian in Atlanta staying at John Calvin wanted to meet the staff at Project Homecoming and the long term volunteers so a few of their guys who could cook fired up a boil. They wanted to… thank us, find out how we were doing, find out what we needed, find out how to build on the work they do this week, make sure the work this week isn’t in vain. They were trying to be more than a drop in the bucket. 175,000 homes got lost in the storm and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Mississippi, New Orleans, and the Rita-affected area have rebuilt, are you ready, 82 homes. 82 homes. That’s a drop in the bucket. These folks see how much work there is to do and how long we have to be committed to the area and they wanted to be involved. So we all mingled and talked about how we’re doing. There were some people who lost their houses, some staff, some volunteers, the church group, and even a guy from Alicante, Spain who was just rolling through town for a few days. A few people cried. A lot of people spoke up. I left with a feeling that a lot of people were really inspired. In one room, there were people from all over the country, brought together by a commitment to the coast.
In public school growing up, my peers were decided by geography, i.e. we lived near each other. In university, my peers were decided by similar intellectual interests and roughly consistent educational pursuits. On the coast, my peers are decided by the fact that everyone here listened to a call. The church groups, the long term volunteers, the staffers; everyone felt a pull to this area and listened to it. We work together all day, we often hang out on weekends and at night; we’re quickly becoming family. And that’s encouraging, that there’s this family of people from around the world all here working and listening to that call in this city.
October 31, 2007 at 7:17 am
82 homes… Out of 175,000, it doesn’t sound like much. In a vacuum, however, that’s a lot of families. It’s a few neighborhoods. I mean, it’s important to see both sides. Seeing that 00.05% of all the homes lost have been rebuilt shows you that there’s an incredible amount of work to be done. Seeing that 82 homes have been remade, families have been able to move back in, and communities are slowly crawling back to life should be a reminder that, despite the vastness of the challenge, something is, indeed, being accomplished.
November 10, 2007 at 11:24 am
Where did you get the idea for the title: A PA Yankee in King Rex’s Court?
December 7, 2007 at 11:59 pm
I won’t lie….you lost me at Alicante….love that quaint town and would love to be lying on the beach there right now. Hope you’re well and am glad you’re making a drop in the bucket…after all a lot of drops will fill up a bucket:)
January 30, 2008 at 10:24 pm
hey there mon ami, how’s life in the big easy? sounds like you’re doing wonderful things thru God down there, but october’s a long way back. what’s the world look like now?