Day Two: "Transformed by Trouble"

Tuesday was a day of highs and lows for the team. It started with a hearty hot breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and grits and a Devotional which was a continuation of the Purpose Driven Life message by Dan Valentine.

“Transformed by Trouble” was the message Dan presented and it was fitting for what we experienced today.

The high point of the day was seeing the amazing progress we made at Eastminster Presbyterian in the Nursery and on the grounds. Large trees were finally cleared, the upper level Nursery rooms mopped and sanitized (after being cleared of debris from Monday’s efforts). The Sanctuary looked useable again as did many other rooms.

Another high point was being joined by 3 members of Redondo Beach Presbyterian Church – David Sergeant, Mike Chen, and Laura Krauss. We also had two local individuals from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (Elizabeth and Kurt) assist us. With this large team we were able to accomplish all of the final clean up effort before lunch.

After another enjoyable MRE lunch under the trees we headed out for a brief tour of other severely devastated areas including Jim McLain’s home. To most everyone in the group this was the low point of the day. While it was very important for the team to see this, it was a heartbreaking experience. Some things we saw:

• All of Jim’s many personal books he had collected over many years


• His pipe collection of over 100 pipes he had been collecting for over 20 years


• Large oak trees completely blown over on portions of his yard and roof


• The whole neighborhood of attractive middle income homes completely destroyed

This poignant visit was followed by an afternoon of work at Peace Presbyterian. This situation was also initially very difficult for the team to take in. Initially some of the team felt somewhat overwhelmed at the task, but in two short hours significant progress was made. The church was and to some degree is still a beautiful church. It has stain glass windows over 103 years old ordered from Germany by the church founders as well as a 83 year old pipe organ – all valuable and worth preserving. Progress today included

• Cutting up all the pews and hauling most of them out


• Removing many of the doors stuck shut because of the flood


• Clearing out much of the destroyed furniture and books in the Fellowship hall

After our time at Peace we left to get cleaned up for an amazing dinner of Grilled Oysters and Seafood at a famous local Metairie Restaurant called Dragos. Jim Umburger, Peace Presbyterian’s Clerk of Session and a retired Coast Guard Captain treated the group.

Afterwards the evening’s Reflection was presented by John Chen who spoke about his Grandfather who survived a Typhoon as an infant in Taiwan and all the trials and tribulations he endured through his life under the Japanese and World War II.

During our reflection, we discussed how we were moved by the day’s mixture of high and low experiences – the high being the accomplishments we made at both Eastminster and Peace and the low being seeing the destruction to Jim’s house, the community in general and Peace Presbyterian. However, the overriding feeling coming out of today was that even with the little bit we have done, the change in appearance of the building we have worked on offers hope to those who are feeling a sense of hopelessness over the Katrina’s destruction.