News from Christ Chapel Campus Ministry of Texas State University

New Orleans Report by Austin Prowse

            Christ Chapel invited its students to volunteer to help rebuild New Orleans over spring break. When I heard this, I was immediately ready to serve. Although there might have been many other good ways to spend spring break, I wouldn't have traded this trip for anything.
            Operation "Redo the Bayou", has been going ever since Hurricane Katrina broke the levees in New Orleans on August 29, 2005. It was only months ago that the National Guard was relieved from their duties in what felt for years like a recuperating ghost town. It is "starting to come alive" observed my friend Steven "Bear" Vacek, who has been going to volunteer in New Orleans every year since this disaster of catastrophic proportions.
            "Good folks in bad situations" was the recurring theme in the people we met. Many people's homes flooded, others didn't. Some people's houses floated off, while some houses stood only to be burned by the returning owner, as it was easier to burn than rebuild. Stories of cars and trailers floating on top of roofs give a sense of the destructive power of an "ideal" hurricane.
            Some of the citizens with whom I conversed with told us about their ordeals. "James," the first person for whom we worked, told us that he didn't want to leave but was forced to evacuate with his dog. Thank God for dogs, who seem to soften some of the most stubborn of hearts. Warren was welcomed back by the bite of a water moccasin inside the house he now owns. It wasn't until a week later that he went to see a doctor and was told to avoid snake bites.
             Another witness to this fury was a man named Jonathan. Jonathan had just remodeled his mother's house months before and stayed behind with his mother and Shiatsu. He knew something was wrong when his neighbor's roof began to succumb to the mayhem of a twister. He was in the house when the water began to seep in. He first put his mother in the attic and grabbed four chain saws. Jonathan's mother then sent him all over the house to grab certain heirlooms. The water level quickly reached chest high. Jonathan got into the attic. By the time the water was approaching the ceiling/attic level, Jonathan chain sawed out a portion of the roof on the side of the roof protected from the howling wind. They had to leave the attic because the water eventually reached ten feet. When on the roof, his mother's arm was broken (both bones) by flying debris. Jonathan fished over a section of fence floating by and used its minimal buoyancy to get his mother and Shiatsu to the safety of a neighbor's roof. The Shiatsu got lost somewhere in the mix. Jonathan's mother finally got her arm professionally taken care of days later and Jonathan was reunited with his distinctive dog some months later in Houston.
             The citizens of New Orleans are a grand bunch of survivors. They were incredibly humble and more than anything, wanted someone to talk to. We as volunteers worked hard for them and they in turn fed us like an army of kings. It is finally feeling as if this historic city is a place for its citizens to live again. "The Big Easy" has been described as "End of the World Land" by some of it's most uprooted, relocated and returning citizens, but the population of New Orleans is now approximately 80% of what it was before Katrina. It was our blessing to be of what help we could be.