April 2010 Update

This past month we finally made it down to New Orleans. The purpose of our trip to the Big Easy was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to connect with the EFCA Crisis Response Team that is working there to see how we might use them to help assess potential 3-month team members hoping to serve at the Elikya Center. Crisis Response is constantly overseeing week-long construction crews from churches across the country as they help the residents of New Orleans move back into their homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It really will be a win-win situation since Crisis Response will get a few extra pairs of helping hands and we will have an opportunity to evaluate applicants’ readiness for a full season of ministry in a place they are not used to. Secondly, after 8 straight weeks of hosting and coordinating teams, the Crisis Response staff appreciated the extra help! We were able to serve as job site supervisors for a couple different projects over the course of the two weeks we were there.

With the Snyders at the Yellow House (Urban Impact HQ)

Since it would be a shame to drive right past all the great country in-between Pennsylvania and New Orleans we decided to camp out for a few days in the Smokies en route. We hiked a waterfall and then up one of the taller peaks in the region, Mount Le Conte. It was incredibly beautiful...

I guess this is why they're called the Smokies

The trail to the top of Mount LeConte

Snow and ice toward the peak

Michelle and I worked with a team from Iowa during the first week. We were doing drywall sanding, texturing, priming and painting primarily. There was also a carpenter and a plumber on the crew. We were helping the homeowner, Miss Jayne, move back into her house after five years living in a FEMA trailer in the front yard.

Miss Jayne's house and FEMA trailer

One evening, after we had left for the day, she returned from work and walked through the house just turning the lights on in every room. She said there hadn’t been lights on in her house since Katrina and the sight of it moved her to tears. The following week we finished painting at Miss Jayne’s house, helped a local ministry move locations in the lower 9th Ward and spent an afternoon working on some exterior window trim at another site.

Michelle and Miss Jayne

Our time in New Orleans was a good experience for us. It is easy to forget that the city is still struggling to emerge from the shadows of Katrina. It is no longer in the news but no less real. People like Miss Jayne are still living in cramped “temporary” trailers, neighborhoods are still half-empty, many houses are still abandoned.

Abandoned house at the corner of Flood and Rocheblave

Lower Ninth Ward

It was a privilege to work with TouchGlobal and another ministry in the city, Urban Impact, that is committed to rebuilding communities in the city. The operation of their ministry partnership revolves around this belief: “Real change is about more than just fixing up a home. It involves getting to know people, sharing Christ, reaching out.” As such, we participated in prayer walks around the neighborhood, helped out with a youth after-school program and hosted a block party at one of the construction sites.

Urban Impact's after-school Challenge Circle activity

This past week we had the opportunity to host President Bosokpale of CECU (the Congolese Free Church) as he was visiting the East Coast. We accompanied him to the Lebanon Area EFC where he spoke to a room full of people interested in ministry in the Congo. I got to translate for him and was glad that my Lingala was mostly sufficient for the task.

With Pastor Steve and Bosokpale at LAEFC

The real test, however, was the next couple days as Michelle and I drove him down to Washington DC for some sightseeing. We visited the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum on Thursday followed by a tour of the monuments and memorials on Friday. Translating the specifics of the Apollo program and the Gettysburg Address into Lingala proved to be a bit too difficult. But we had a really good time with him and were reminded again of all that we have to be thankful for in this country.

The President in front of the Capitol

The day after we returned from DC we were moving out of our residence for the past 6 months (the LEFC Mission House apartment) and moving in with some friends in Manheim, PA. This is a season of transition for us and we are looking forward to finally returning to the Congo. This current month we will be buying necessary supplies and saying farewell to friends and family. We still don’t have a date set for our departure but are anticipating either late May or (more likely) early June.