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ABLAZE IN NEW ORLEANS HEAT
By Vicar Justin K. Vetrano
August 12-19,
2007 was the hottest week that locals in New
Orleans could remember, EVER! At least that is what
they told us as soon as we arrived! With
temps well over 95 degrees and humidity over 70%, the heat index was over 115
degrees. This was the perfect week to work
outside gutting houses, wear blue hazmat suits, three layers of gloves,
respirator masks and a smile.
 Our
flight to New Orleans
was uneventful and that’s an A+ when it comes to
airline travel. Our group of over 30 amassed over 50% of the seats on the
airplane. It was in the first 15 minutes of our plane flight that Ed Spear
was heard mumbling his favorite line, “Are we having fun yet?”
After landing, collecting over 60 bags of luggage and
renting 3 vans we checked in to our favorite
chalet in the bayou, Christ the King
Lutheran Church
in Kenner, LA.
-- http://www.ctk-nola.org/Weekly%20Newsletter.htm
(read some of the comments left by our group on their website after our fifth
trip)
Around 4:30pm
that Sunday afternoon we began our traditional tour
of the city, so those who haven’t been there before can experience first hand
the power of Katrina – however, on this tour
of the city, on our eighth trip, we witnessed once again the power of hope,
perseverance and God in the face of tragedy. Allow me to
explain.
It started when we visited
our friend Sue Easton. Sue’s story is captivating. She swam in the flood waters
pulling her 80 year old mother who was floating on an air-mattress to the
safety of a nearby rooftop because her house was completely submerged.
She and her mother were rescued 72 hours later by helicopter. When
we visited her on this trip we noticed she had erected a wooden deck around a
tree in her back yard. She told us
that she had the deck built to provide a
memorial to her two dogs that we buried for
her after Katrina. She also said the deck is there to
protect their remains in case of another flood. While gutting Sue’s house in
June of ’06, we discovered the remains of her two pets, this was nearly a
year after the storm. Sue had lived for a
year with the hope that they escaped. We buried her pets and had a prayer
service right there in her backyard. Seeing that deck reminded us why we were
there.
  On
our first mission trip to NO in January of
‘06, we met Mr. Earl, Earl Fortenberry. Earl was
determined to rebuild. We call him, “the
mayor of Wildaire drive” and visit him every time
we are in NO. We gutted and bleached Earl’s house on that first trip. His
resilience has been motivating, two years later Earl is still the only one living
in his neighborhood; however he now tells us that at least 5 other families
will be back in the coming months. On our 7th trip in June ‘07,
Earl invited us to a news conference he
organized; it took place right on his front
lawn. He had us carrying signs and speaking to
Fox News, ABC and the Times Picayune to get
the roads in his neighborhood rebuilt. It was the first time many of us had
been on Fox News! The clip will be on youtube.com
soon.
That Sunday afternoon in August
we stopped by Earl’s house to
check up on his progress.
  
Words cannot describe the emotions we felt as we walked
around Mr. Earl’s remodeled house. He repeatedly thanked us for our help.
What he doesn’t realize is that we should thank him; his resilience and faith
drives us to continue to
help others. Seeing Earl’s house rebuilt makes us want to
work on 40 more houses; we gutted and bleached our 40th house this
past trip. It was little things that fascinated us in Earl’s house, I can’t tell you how many times we rang the doorbell,
just to hear it ring.
This was the motivation we
needed to face the heat. At 7:00am on
Monday morning - it was already a balmy 91 degrees-we traveled to the
Bethlehem Ministry center run by Luther Disaster Response and Lutheran Social
Services. After being in NO eight times we have built up quite a rapport
with most of the staff. Darryl and Chuck load up a few trucks and mucking
trailers and send us on our way. Our group of 32 broke up into
three crews: Justin’s crew “The V crew” headed to
the upper 9th ward to gut a
duplex for an elderly woman named Sheila. Jason’s crew – “J Crew” headed to
Chalmette to gut a
house. Our third crew, Jackie’s crew got the honor of staying inside the air
conditioned Bethlehem Center to lay
approximately 30 boards of sheet-rock so the site could get the C/O from the
building department and be allowed to house
over 90 relief worker volunteers at a time. For two days her crew worked
inside – pretty rough but someone had to do
it! By Wednesday, the crew was begging to
get outside, not because of the work, rather, they felt bad they were working
inside and we weren’t. So on Wednesday, after completing their job, Jackie’s
crew became part of the “V” crew.
 Did
I mention it was hot!!! (104 at noon) In fact it was so hot that the “V” crew (16
people) drank over 550 bottles of water in 5 ½ days! “J Crew” drank an equal
amount. The heat was so severe that we could only work in 15-20 minute
intervals and then we would take a 15-20 minute break in the shade. The
people on the crew worked so hard, every minute of work counted and each
person was impressive especially since we had to
wear all the safety gear. The mission was clear – we were bringing hope.
WATER – John
4:13-14
Our Tuesday night devotion was focused on Jesus’ words to
the Woman at the well: “Everyone who
drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I
give will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give will become a
spring of water welling up to
eternal life.” We need water for life, and yes, we continue in what seems
like a never ending cycle of thirst, especially in NO in August! However, we
were in New Orleans to
offer something greater, we came to offer the
water of which Jesus speaks. As our crews worked diligently in neighborhoods
that have less than a third of its pre-Katrina population, people would come
by asking, pleading, bargaining and begging for water. As we handed out
bottles of water to FEMA crews, garbage
collectors, families on the street and even
the National Guard people knew exactly why we were there. The drug dealers in
the neighborhood and local business owners knew why we were there – we were
known as the “church group” in town and as one
person said to Kim Vetrano
“the Churches are the ones rebuilding our city and our lives! Thank You!”
People know why we were there; people would see and hear from us that it is
Jesus’ willingness to endure more than heat
and humidity on behalf of all of humanity. In the waves and smiles as people
sipped their ice cold water and kept heading down the street looking back and
shouting “God bless you,” we could see that the people of NOLA knew why we
were there! We weren’t on the worksite 5 minutes on Wednesday morning when
the local garbage men drove up, ground their truck to
a screeching halt and asked a few of the teens if we had any water. Those
young people ran over to one of our four
water coolers to quickly hand out more than
just a bottle of water! One gentleman who was scrounging through the garbage
pile handed me a newspaper article written about him. He had been a homeless
drug addict and since the church helped him, 10 years ago, he now works
taking people off the streets. In his spare time, he takes homeless men
around scavenging sheet metal and giving them the money! Ironically, he was
the only person, all week, who when we offered him water, thanked us and
passed on the offer.
It was water that destroyed this city two years ago, it is
water that is keeping people alive and it was what kept us alive that week in
August. It is water and the spirit that destroys; destroys our sin and it is
water and word that rebuilds, makes us a new creation – Water is keeping us
alive and it is water that has welled up into
a spring of eternal life, just as Jesus promises.
It wasn’t just water that kept us alive it was food too!
The Bethlehem center has an
amazing cook who prepared for us a wonderful dinner every night. After a long
day in the heat one might think we wouldn’t want to
eat, but to be brutally honest, the heat
nausea dissipated as soon as we hit the air-conditioning in the van. As soon
as we cooled down, the hunger was there.
 Tuesday
afternoon I gave a bottle of water to a man
named Clarence. He currently lives in Texas
and was visiting his 82 year old mother who lives in a FEMA trailer across
the street from the house we were gutting. He told
me of a local and I mean very local place to
get some good food. He told me to
go down a few blocks and go in the front door of the white house on the
corner and ask for Peanut. I was skeptical at first but some of the most
serendipitous moments in life come when we
follow the spirit. I took a few people and
went to find Peanut and find her we did! As
I walked in the door of this one bedroom apartment, I noticed we were the
only white people in site. We found Peanut in her kitchen frying chicken,
boiling mustard greens, baking macaroni and cheese and serving up crawfish
jambalaya and crab cakes and that was only Tuesday’s menu! For $7 you would
get a container of some of the “finest soul food” (as one of the locals said)
in New Orleans. I admired
Peanut’s entrepreneurial sense as she lost her job as a chef and is now
cooking out of her home. While in Peanut’s house, her phone was ringing off
the hook with people asking what was on today’s
menu. We became known as the “church group” as we ate lunch there every day,
supporting the locals and building relationships. When we walked in the door
on Thursday, a large guy named “G” began chanting, “New
York is in the house.” That same day a gentleman
named Frazier Parker thanked us for all we are doing to
rebuild their city and bought our entire group lunch that day! Charles
(Captain C) owned the local snowball and nacho stand behind Peanut’s,
everyday after work our crew would head over for mostly free snowballs, ice
cream and nachos. Captain C would tell us harrowing tales of his survival and
how he saved a 75 year old man from drowning and then gave him shelter for 5 days
after the storm until they were all finally
rescued by helicopter. Of course we always ask THE question, “why didn’t you
leave?” Every time we get the same response, “We only expected a little
water. We survived the hurricane, it was a bright sunny day when the water
came pouring in, the storm had passed.”
Captain C. made us feel so welcome and safe, he assured that no-one in town
would bother us, he knew why we were there! So much  good
food and incredible heat made for a worn out crew. None of these  pictures
are staged!
The work was difficult, but well worth it, we finished 3
houses, sheet-rocked the ministry center and even got to
tear down two sheds for an elderly lady on our last day. The gutting work is
drawing to a close as FEMA and the local governments
have drawn a line in the sand. After August 29th, the 2 year
anniversary of Katrina, there will no longer be any free garbage pick up.
This is the second line in the sand, the first on
the one year anniversary came and passed because too
many residents still needed so much help. We are glad to
be a part of the effort to help people move
forward with their lives.
 Our
fondest story is that of Margie Fluitt. We gutted her house just before we worked on
Earl’s house in January ’06. We have kept in contact with Margie for the past
year and a half. She flew up and stayed with us in New
York for a week last spring and spoke to
our congregation. On Friday night our entire group went over to
Margie’s new house for Ice cream sundaes. After having our tasty snack Margie
made us all nervous by checking our blood pressure. Every one stood
in line as we compared numbers. Thankfully we all are in pretty good shape.
Once medically cleared we topped off the ice
cream by singing and eating birthday cake. It was Erik
Tower’s 15th birthday,
not to be outdone by Katie Wallman who celebrated her sweet 16 with us on Wednesday.
Katie’s mom sent party favors so we could celebrate in style. I am stunned
that young people would forgo the social stepping stones
like a “sweet 16” party and instead, spend a week engaged in ministry. Praise
God for the witness of their faith!
   On
Tuesday afternoon we decided to beat the
heat. Every person on our crew decided that it would be best if we worked
from 7:00am – 2:00pm instead of 9-5.
So every morning we were up by 5:45am.
The girls would be up way before the guys, it took
some serious persuading to get the guys out
of bed by 6 am. This earlier time
schedule worked, we finished our work day before the true heat that swelled
around 2 pm. Being done by 2 pm got us to
the showers and back to the Bethlehem center
for dinner by 5pm. After dinner two nights we headed down to
the French Quarter. One night we sat in on a35 minute set at Preservation
Hall, New Orleans premier Jazz
Hall. Even the sign outside was made of an old trombone and flute case.
Preservation Hall is a place that connects people to
the history of Jazz and traditional New
Orleans Music; a great experience for all people. Another night we visited
the Café Dumonde. You can’t visit New
Orleans without having chicory coffee and beignets,
a must.
After our evening excursions every night we shared in what
we call our “Late Night Devos.” It is our time to
praise and worship God, debrief our experiences and hear from God’s Word. You
can not get out of devotions in less than an hour and a half even if you
tried. It is in that circle on the floor in the parish hall that God truly
binds our community together as we sing,
pray together and reflect. It is an amazing
experience to go to
sleep just after finishing devotions at midnight;
it is like falling asleep in the arms of God. On Saturday night, devotions
lasted two and a half hours. We finished the week with a foot-washing
service, serving those who worked tirelessly. Jason, Justin and Jackie washed
the feet of all the participants and then prayed with each person. Our bodies
were bruised and weary but our feet were clean. Jesus said to
the disciples that they wouldn’t understand what he was doing when he washed
feet. The spiritual experience associated with such a service is a most
powerful time especially as we read from Luke about the disciple’s hearts
burning within them. Our hearts were burning within us in the presence of the
risen Christ when we all shared communion after the foot washing to
close out our week of ministry.
People ask us why we continue to
go to New Orleans.
Some have even told us that they “don’t
believe in our mission.” Here is a quote from the Pastor of the church where
we stay who wrote to us in an email: Thank the whole gang for us! I made mention of you all in
the sermon, as examples (like Hebrews 11) of folks who put their faith into action. Glad to hear you're a
bit cooler. We'd be glad to have you back
anytime!”
Or in the words of the President of their Church council “What you do matters! Thank you for
helping us.”
Why do we go to New
Orleans? I am not quite sure how to
answer that question. Is it the relationships formed with the community of
the people in NO? Is it our relationship with each other that is
strengthened? Both? In such a large city we are sowing mustard seeds, but we
trust in the power of the kingdom
of God that out of that tiny seed
grows up the tree of life, for people to
build their nests. We go to New
Orleans because there is a need. Not only is New
Orleans in need, but sometimes we NEED to
get out of the bubble of our own lives and experience God’s power away from
ourselves. God is not different in New Orleans
or anywhere for that matter, but rather, we are.
 Our
last day in town, as the bulk of our crew tore
down some sheds, master artist Ian Grosskopf, and
his artistic apprentice Megan Russ (who had sprained her ankle the day
before) painted a mural on the wall at the Bethlehem Ministry center. Ian
wanted to capture the pride we have for our
home, our solidarity we share in having dealt with tragedy and our strong
faith in Christ Jesus who redeems and sustains us. On the bottom
of his incredible mural, which includes a small outline of STJLC, the dates
of our eight trips (the most of any other church there) and a hash mark for
each of the 40 houses completed, Ian and I chose to
put the verse --
Luke 4:18-19.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
This is why we go to
New Orleans!
Maybe you want to come
with us sometime? Maybe you want to help fund
this mission, we have spent more money than we have raised?
Let me know, it would be great to share this
experience with you.
–Vicar Justin Vetrano
jkvetrano@aol.com
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