Prepairing to leave

After finally getting used to our schedule, with its early morning wake-up calls, fixed meals times and succession of activities, it's time to wrap things up and go home. Like at our work sites, we make sure all of the "tools" (our air mattresses, cups and bowls, etc.) are clean and accounted for and ready for the next group like ourselves to arrive and get started. After a relaxing last evening of fellowship that included kareoke, we had a closing worship session puntuated by a cappela renderings of "Sanctuary" and "Stand by Me", a prayer circle (using Shelly's "squeezing the hand" method), and a sharing of visual images that teams of three created to represent what the trip has meant to us. Some of the themes: "Stand by New Orleans" (with the image of a hammer); "Listen.Tell.Act."; and "Who is your Neighbor?" (from the Good Samaritan parable).

Many of us are praying that we hold onto what we have felt this week---the empathy, the learning, the empowering, also the anxiety, the confusion, the frustration, unprecendented event that has splintered a community, left miles of neighborhoods empty and quiet, and overwhelmed us all. We all hope to tell more of the stories we've seen and heard here, so that our committment to this work is sustained and our greater community (we are all New Orleans' neighbors) will continue to extend its hands and its resources for this need. -- Paul T

It's been marvelous and overwhelming to be here. I remember the words "O God the sea is so big,my boat so small." Did we make a difference in the vast suffering and need? Perhaps the difference is in us. We've worked together, prayed together, eaten together and struggled together. We'll return home with gratitude for this time and with hope that we will be able to come back in a year? someday, and see a city rebuilt on hope, determination and faith in God and each other. -- Pat dJ