New Orleans Update

This is from TouchGlobal's email update.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

My name is William Midwood, but I like to be called Billy. I am from Palmer, Massachusetts and a member of Faith Baptist Church with my wife Amie, and three sons Allen, Jonathan, and Sammy. My oldest son, Allen (16), came with me to Trinity. We were invited to New Orleans by my brother Scotty. He is a member of Faith Community Bible Church in Louden, New Hampshire. When Scotty asked Allen to accompany him, I was excited but could hardly afford the trip. Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ a man offered to sponsor Allen's trip. A couple days later, Scotty called and asked if I wanted to go also. I was excited, but politely declined again because of finances. Later, Scotty called and said the same man was lead to sponsor me as well. I am one to do silly things, but saying no to God when He obviously wanted me in New Orleans was not one of them.

Today my life was changed, and I pray that it was changed forever. This morning, instead of going with Scotty, I decided to go on a gutting crew to some houses in the Lower Ninth Ward. We made our way to the home of Mrs. Gladys Simmons. Although I had spent the previous day in Sleidel, I did not know what absolute destruction looked like or that it even had a face. The town was flat with streets laid out in perfectly efficient square grids. The blocks could have been numbered in the thousands. Each block consisted of perfectly efficient square parcels of land with small houses on concrete slabs. A great many slabs were no longer occupied by houses.

Following the writing on the streets and the cardboard street signs, we made our way to Mrs. Gladys' house. Initially, we were dumbfounded because the address to which her house was assigned was occupied only by a concrete slab. The house that once resided upon it, gone. On the next corner I saw a man looking at us curiously. I tromped down the road to ask him if he could help us. His name was John Mullins, and he knew where to find Gladys' house. He said it was across the street from his house, and that we were on the wrong street. He told us that he knew Gladys and had known her and her eight sisters for many years.

After finding the correct house, we made a quick survey. It was small and just one floor. There were bars on all the windows and a gate across the front door. Although it wasn't funny, I joked that this was the most run down gated community I had ever seen. I suggested that the best way to access it was from the front picture window. Pastor Owens and I pulled the bars from the window and proceeded to remove the windows with much malice.

At this time a couple of thoughts came to me. The first was a feeling of intrusion and finality. Knowing just the little bit that John related gave me the uneasy feeling that I shouldn't have been there. When I stepped through the window it would be into someone else's world. At first it pained me to think that so many years had to end now, today with my crew gutting a house so the state could raise it.

The other thought was a logical reply from the Holy Spirit to my humanistic thoughts. He reminded me that my redemption was not bought with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. This took on new meaning just before I stepped through the window.

Stepping through the window, I grabbed the curtain and tore it down. Light shown through the mud covered windows for the first time in almost eighteen months. The sight was eerie. The furniture was scattered all over the living room, apparently because it floated there on the currents of the water. The ceiling had collapsed and covered everything in broken mildewed sheetrock. The only thing I could smell was rot and must. I walked to the couch, picking up the end and pushing it with help through the hole that had once been the front window. We picked up everything and threw it out the front window. We were very careful however to try to salvage anything possible.

When I couldn't take it anymore, I retreated the house and walked across to John's house. I wanted to know if he could contact Gladys. I was desperate to see if there was just one thing that she would want recovered. A short time later, John told me that she had mentioned maybe there would be some jewelry in the closet. I continued to gut the front room when a team member came out of the kitchen and handed me a small jewelry box. I opened it to find a couple of ring boxes and two small prescription bottles. I opened the prescription bottles first and found what I thought was junk - a couple of heart shaped charms and a set of rusty earrings. The ring boxes were mildewed closed so I used a knife edge to pry them open. In one box was a silver ring with a large Topaz stone. The other had either a white gold or silver ring with a large diamond. I was thrilled and so were the others. I carried the box to John and handed it to him. He opened the case with the diamond ring and sa id "I believe that there is Gladys' momma's ring."

That is where my journal ended for the day. We didn't finish gutting the house but needed one more day to finish. I thought I had helped score a bit of victory for someone that had lost everything.

Later, I volunteered to get food at Wally World for the next day's lunches. I was overjoyed at what I felt the Lord had done to bless me when I was working to try and bless others. I wondered at the time if Gladys was going to be as excited. As I went through the check out aisle, I felt lead to ask the lady if Wally World gave discounts to Katrina relief workers. She asked the manager who promptly said "no." Feeling awkward because I was sure the Lord would grant His people a discount while they did His handiwork; I decide to tell the lady what we as a group from Trinity were doing. After I told her about Trinity Church and what God did that afternoon, she started to cry and reached in her purse and pulled out a check. I apologized, told her that I had money, and that I was thankful but she didn't need to pay for our stuff. She looked at me and said, "Last summer Trinity Church came and fixed my house and they wouldn't let me buy them so much as a nail !"

What else is there to say? God has promised that His Word will not come back void. It didn't, and I heard it loud and clear. God's Word said a few things to me those two days. First it reminded me that the whole duty of man is to take care of the fatherless and the widows in their affliction (James 1:27), secondly it reminded me that I needed to search for treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) because that treasure can never be hidden in a prescription bottle in a closet, and finally it taught me that I really need to get out of my comfort zone to fully serve Christ (Matthew 19:16-26).

I have been to many places and have seen many things, but nothing could have prepared me for the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. I don't know if Gladys' house is still standing. I don't know if Gladys will ever return to the square concrete pad on the little parcel of land on the efficient grid of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, but I will.

VOLUNTEER UPDATE

In late 2006, we asked many of you to join us in praying Matthew 9:38...asking the Lord of the harvest to send workers to His harvest field. God has answered our prayers in abundance, and we are making preparations for more than 1,000 volunteers in the month of March alone. God knew we would need more staff to manage the increased number of volunteers. So we prayed again. God provided Jared and Pam Wold from MN; Nick Doneff, a contractor from MN; Matt, a young man from NE; and Gene Johnson, the retired cowboy missionary from MT, all to help us fill in our staff needs. He also knew that we would need additional tools to help the workers, so He moved in the hearts of a couple from IL to donate another small pick-up truck, a ladder lift, and money for tools. We are still short some items (see our current needs list at http://www.efca.org/katrina/supplies), but we know that God will provide exactly what we need just when needed.

Praise God and keep praying. There are many families we are committing work to, and we'll need an ongoing stream of laborers to minister to these families and their neighbors. Many of these new projects are in Central City in support of Castle Rock's goal of placing 30 families in 30 homes. We are planning for ministry through 2008, so please keep us in mind as you make future ministry and vacation plans.

We appreciate your prayers!
Mark Lewis, director
EFCA Crisis Response