In N'awlins

Hey guys,

I realized no one's posted in a while on the blog, and to be honest, I probably havent checked it for a month. But anyway, here's a bump. For those of you who don't know, its my reading week and I'm on a volunteer trip with some other students from my school in Louisiana. I got here on Sunday and it's been a nice trip so far. The weather is warm, much nicer than in Toronto or London.. its actually sunny and I'm sweating right now. It's also been a nice cultural experience as well, and I'm enjoying this taste of Southern flavour.

So I'm about 2 days into my trip, and I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I'm doing here and stuff. Going to a place you've never been and volunteering to help people you don't know is something we don't normally do, and in a way it's a lot like missions. I'm in the greater New Orleans area, and it's amazing how badly devastated this place is. It's been over 2 years since Hurricane Katrina and there are still TONS of houses that haven't been touched since it happened. Driving along the streets and highways, I've seen abandoned strip malls, Wal-Marts, taco bells, and tons of damaged houses - in sharp contrast to the mostly-repaired downtown New Orleans. The political situation down here has been complex, and many people deeply rooted to their homes are now homeless. You just wouldn't expect this to happen in a country like the United States.

Today, we helped restore a home for a lady, who is now staying temporarily in a house down the street. The house has been around since 1790, and we did some demo work on the house so other people can help put it back together again. It's amazing to see how grateful people can be. There were 40 of us working on the house and she took the time to cook all of us lunch. Some of us were vegetarian, and when she found out, she went back into the kitchen to make us a "vegetarian" pasta, but it had chicken in it. She must have thought vegetarians only avoided red meat, but anyway, the vegetarians couldnt eat it so she went back to make salad. Now it's amazing she did this for us, but she does this everyday for every volunteer who comes to help. In a low-income neighbourhood where the house down the road sold for $2000, it's amazing how people with very little (and on top of that no home) can give so selflessly. This is just one example of what I've witnessed so far, and this form of love and selflessness is just amazing. I think that as Christians, this ability to give so freely is something we should all aspire to.

So far, that's just a taste of what I've seen here so far, and I'm sure I'll see more. It's been very encouraging for me in a time when I haven't been as on track with my spiritual life as I should be, and although I'm not technically on a missions trip, I feel like there is a bit of a mission for me to accomplish here - to other people and within myself. Please pray for the people of Louisiana in their gradual healing and restoration of their homes, and for a sense of hope as they go through the tough times. People who didn't have much to begin with have lost everything including their family members and their homes, and many of them still haven't returned since being displaced.

I'll do my best to keep you all updated, so keep an eye out for a new post. Good luck on your midterms and school.

Later guys,

Colin