This is the final entry from the group who went to New Orleans last week. I encourage you to read the other posts from the blog as well. Thanks to all who wrote these updates.
On our last night in New Orleans we gathered at the Palace for a debrief session. After praying and sharing with each other all of the work we had done, we asked that everyone share their high and low of the week. What follows are powerful statements and stories from those present that evening.
One of the boys shared, “A low was driving around and walking around and seeing all the devastation on the side of the road and the houses that were half standing, and that what you see on TV in the north isn’t really what’s happening here. They make us think a year later that everything is fine. I’m going to pay attention to people that say the media blew things out of proportion. They really didn’t. It’s crazy the work that needs to be done, and I didn’t see enough people doing it.”
Another young woman spoke, “My other low was seeing that message on that house. (Michael -- where are you?) It really made my heart stop. To think that a year has gone by and there are still families that are not together. You can rebuild a house but you can’t replace a family member. If something like that happened to my family I don’t know what I would do. It really made me think of how much I cherish my family.”
Another one of the guys shared a personal low: “My low was probably Wednesday morning. I had been sheet-rocking the afternoon before and I couldn’t get the hang of it. I thought I was the only one who couldn’t do it, but then today when we finished that room I realized that I leave here knowing something I didn’t know how to do before.”
The highs that were shared were equally as meaningful. One girl smiled as she shared, “I have a lot of highs, but really every time I laughed, even though we were working we were still laughing -- all those points were the high for me.” One of the boys shared a similar sentiment, “My high was most of the jobs I did with Nina, and just being able to laugh about stuff. Having fun working was definitely my high, because working is not fun.”
Another boy shared, “My high was going to the Zephyrs game. The other high was standing back and seeing the work that we did on this trip. Real work...standing back and saying that we accomplished something.”
One of our adult leaders shared some of her thoughts, “The high for me which happens every time I’m with young adults is that it gives me so much hope for the future. And that there are so many really bright hard-working kids for the future. We hear so much bad stuff...I’m reassured about how untrue those things are. It’s really the most important thing to me, that kids are hopeful, because that’s all we have.”
These are just some of the comments that were shared that evening. We had been so busy all week that I don’t think any of us had had the time to stop and fully realize what was happening with our group. As a result of the share we all realized how much we had been moved and changed during this trip.
Perhaps reading this blog has moved and changed you as well. I’ve listed the names of the people that went on this trip below. If you see one of them, I encourage you to ask them about their experience. They have some amazing things to say. Thanks for reading.
The Rev’d Bob Brooks, the Rev’d Jennifer Pedrick, the Rev’d Clare Fischer-Davies, Susan Samoiloff, Sara Nappa, George Kolb, Mary Kesson, Bill Dench, Amy Scanlon-Moore, Meaghan Kelly, Chris Shumate, Andrew Shumate, Jonathan Shumate, Matthew Shumate, Tamsyn Santos, Jola Ilori, Chad Furey, Nina Nappa, Carey Iacobucci, Peter Meckel, Ben Carter, Cameron Carrington, Liz Wagner, Melanie Monteiro, Stephanie Monteiro, Samantha Martinez, Damian Almada, Derrin Almada, Colin Bomster, Sarah Dench, Mary Davies, Michael Leber, and Mahyama Fallah
No comments:
Post a Comment