Parish Pilgrimage Tour of April 2008
For Photos click here
Dear Sisters in Christ –
Writing about this trip is proving harder to do than planning the trip. The trip being the one we took to Louisiana the first weekend in April. I have run all of this information and my mind’s pictures through my head a million times and it doesn’t seem to be easing up any. But I’ll try. Since you weren’t able to go with us physically, come along with me now. We “borrowed” a bus from Camp Lutherhill, that is all is cost us was the gas. And you know that gas is very dear nowadays. Anyway. As it turned out, the air conditioning wasn’t working in the bus so we all said Thank you Lord for nice weather in the first weekend in April. Don’t try this in July. The bus made stops in Brenham, Cypress and Baytown to pick the travelers. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Baytown fed us brunch and gave us food to take with us. On to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Baton Rouge, LA where these gracious ladies fed us supper. Our next stop was Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Slidell where they housed us and fed us. (I have to tell you that we ate well all the way.) Do you see a theme developing here? Yes, we were being taken away from our homes and all that is familiar to us and we were dependent upon others for some of our basic necessities. The thing is – we all knew that we would have a look around and go back to our nice clean comfortable homes with plenty of food and water. What we had to do was REALLY look around with our hearts as well as our eyes and listen with our hearts as well as our ears. I hope we accomplished that. Time will tell. We saw so much destruction and despair but there is also hope and renewal. Are you still on board? Slidell had extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans came through the hurricane ok enough but then the levee broke and flooded parts of the city and well, you saw all of the pictures. But the pictures don’t begin to tell the stories. We rode past entire shopping centers boarded up because there is no one to shop there for school clothes because the schools are closed as no one has a home to come home to because the shops are closed and there are no jobs to pay the rent on the homes that are not there and the hospital is closed as well as the surrounding office buildings because there are no doctors or nurses or other staff because there are no post offices and social security checks were not delivered because there were blown away or destroyed in the water or……. OR the Wal-Mart store is closed and boarded up – so is the Taco Bell and McDonalds. How bad is it when Wal-Mart and Mickey Ds close up. Two Walgreens within a few blocks of each other are closed – as is Home Depot. The list goes on and on. And I could too. City Hall is now a double-wide.
We saw homes, some on stilts, some half way on stilts, halfway in the water, stilts just standing in the water the house gone with the wind. Homes that still had the markings of the date it was inspected, the National Guard troop that actually did the inspecting and the state they were from and a zero if no bodies were found in the house. Or one dead grey cat or well….Some people are still living in FEMA trailers. Either they didn’t have insurance or the insurance hasn’t paid yet (and may never). You should hear what the insurance companies consider a building. For some reason they won’t pay for a wall because it is not part of the structure. What used to be homes are now piles of rubble, several blocks of them at a time. Streets are still torn up with huge chunks of concrete missing.
And then we visited three Lutheran churches and drove past the fourth one. Of course, Peace in Slidell was the first. They have come back and rebuilt and now are housing volunteers from all over the US. Many Lutherans and many others are coming in to Slidell to help in the rebuilding of this area. Peace has housed over 4000 volunteers. Some are regulars that arrive at night and just go into an RV that they consider their own. And for a few days – it is! In fact, that is the biggest part of hope. Gethsemane in Chalmette and Grace in New Orleans as well as Peace have rebuilt, remodeled, added on and otherwise joined in the effort to rebuild the entire area. They saw the need to minister to the neighborhood and that they are doing in a grand way. But their stories are amazing. Gethsemane in Chalmette – the water rose to about 8 feet (thereabouts-don’t quote me on this, ok?) swirled around and ripped the pews loose from their anchors and flipped them around like pick-up sticks. One section of glass that still has the water marks (bits of grass and a bug included) has been encased to prevent it from being cleaned. They proudly display where they were and to where they have come. But first they had to have a crypt removed from the front of the church. Not their own as they are not going to die. The flooding water had taken a crypt from a cemetery and deposited it right in front of Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Chalmette, LA.
Grace Lutheran, on Canal Boulevard in New Orleans also had water damage, in fact
their windows are still a milky cloudy color where the water got between the
double panes and completely discolored the panes. They don’t consider replacing
those panes just yet because there is no water leaking in at this time and the
cost to replace would be about $10,000. Actually, they are quite spectacular
discolored in this way. Luther’s seal was higher than the water level and was
not damaged. The pipe organ – oh my. Well the pipes have been cleaned and are
waiting to be put to use at some time. Some of the wood that the pipes sat in
has been salvaged and now a large cross sits in the Narthex. They too have
added a large room with many bunks beds and are housing and feeding volunteers.
They are taking donations of everything, diapers, detergent, mops, pillows,
sheets, orange juice, pads (any and all-read that however you want to) most of
all money. Each of these churches are reaching out to their communities and
they still want and need our help. And that help can be money, food, clothing,
our bodies actually over there working, MONEY, certainly our prayers and support
but real people and real money is most important.
It is not all a big downer, there is hope and there is renewal. While they are still many tons of rubble to be hauled off, there are also several areas of rebuilding going on. There are new homes being built, both in the city and outside of the city. It is not enough and it is too slow.
I am going to name names now. But first of all, let me start with Pastor Robin McCullough-Bade. Wow, what a ball of fire. Pastor Robin supplied us with all the information we needed to get this group on the road. She joined our group in Baton Rouge and was with us until we departed Slidell Sunday morning. She provided a ton of info, got us into the churches and is very supportive of all our efforts. (She expects results, BTW). Pastor Barb Simmers of Peace, Slidell. Host extraordinaire, Pastor of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church and a florist with flair. Pastor Sue Beall got on the bus in Brenham and served as our chaplain all weekend and she is splendid in her work. She is at Our Savior Lutheran Church in College Station. We really needed her counseling during this time. We want to say thanks to Evan Moilan of Camp Lutherhill, to Arnie Fitchtenberg – the best bus driver in the world, a man of few words. I think he may have said ten words the whole weekend. I’m not sure if anyone ever actually heard him speak but that doesn’t matter –he can drive a bus. And his wife, Mem is the best navigator in the world. She talks. They make a great team. Lin Falcon and the other ladies of St. Paul’s in Baton Rouge for a great supper (the best potato soup anywhere) . Nancy Borgfeldt, Dorothy Johnston, Pastor Bonnie Parker and her Mom of St. Pauls’ in Baytown for a great brunch. And the fellowship in both places. Your support is appreciated. St. Pauls in Brenham and Messiah in Cypress for allowing cars to be parked there for the weekend. Each of those churches as well as St. Pauls’ in Baytown all provided extra security for the parked cars. Many thanks to each of you. Janice Matherne, Coordinator of Bayou Cluster. The ladies of the Bayou Cluster are doing just fine, thank you very much and they will participate with us when they are able. We need to go to them more often. Pastor Barb has offered to bring a van over to the convention in September and several of the ladies have taken her up on that. I can offer a bed to one of them – how about you?
The other pioneers on this bus trip back in time are: Kay Fritz, First Lutheran, Galveston; Cathi Bruhn, Spirit of Joy, The Woodlands; Debbie Nowak, Spirit of Joy, The Woodlands; Gail Peart, Covenant, Houston; Beverly Rose, Our Savior, Bryan; Peg Swavely, Atascociata, Humble; Annette Sheppard, Covenant, Houston; Nancy Borgfeldt, St. Paul’s, Baytown; Janie Mehrens, St. Paul’s, Brenham; Colette Wunderlich, Martin Luther, Carmine; Patty Greiwe, St. Paul’s, Wharton. Contact any of these ladies to find out what you can do.
Are you still with me? Well, you can’t get off of the bus yet because we still need to talk about Beaumont, Port Arthur and Lake Charles. Hurricane Rita, remember?
We began the tour with prayer, and at each church we prayed for the continued restoration of that church, it’s people and the people in the surrounding neighborhoods and then the tour ended with prayer. Some of the most stricken areas we also stopped for prayer. I know you all know that prayers are answered. In Gods’ way – in His time. And so we keep praying.
Ann Nicholson, SWO Vice-President/Bus Rider
Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Pasadena, TX