The Final Chapter

On Friday, all three teams stayed at the church.  Every other Friday, the church opens the doors from ten to one for homeless people to take showers, get a change of clothes, and eat a hot meal.  Some of the members of our group walked a few blocks to Jackson Square to tell people about it and encourage them to come, others sorted through clothing and tried to find the right sizes for people, a few organized and directed the shower line, and a few more served food.  Everyone had a chance to just sit and chat with people.

After everyone left at one, the three groups headed back to the same afternoon sights as Thursday.  The Green Team shrank because several people took the opportunity to visit the Boys and Girls Club—Narissa, Lexy, James, Ruby, and Gwen.  The rest of the Green Team was able to finish painting two rooms completely and two more were most of the way complete.  They also covered tables with paper so that students coming at eight o’clock the next morning could fingerpaint.

The Gold Team carried more boxes, this time primarily to the third floor.  By the time they left, the big Kindergarten room that had contained all of the boxes on the first day was empty except for the furniture that belonged, all boxes that could be identified and sorted had been carried to the proper rooms, and the empty cardboard boxes were taken to the dumpster.  It was a hard week of labor, but they really felt like they accomplished a lot.

The Purple Team had a good time with the kids on the last day.  They weren’t able to go outside because it was raining (again!), but they went to the game room and played air hockey, pool, videogames, and board games.  A few went to the computer lab as well.  The team was a little disappointed because there was supposed to be a Target-sponsored party, but it had to be shut down early because of the rain.

Friday evening, the Kaleo staff took everyone out to a local restaurant called The Spot in the Ninth Ward, another section of New Orleans.  That part of New Orleans had been under 20 feet of water from Hurricane Katrina, and there were still whole blocks of houses and apartment buildings where nothing had been done with them.

Deep Breath, Count to 10

By this point in the trip, as always, patience is running a little low and we all have some frustrations.  The good news is that it’s mostly with Kaleo (the organization we are here for) and not with other members of our group.  This is only the second summer for Kaleo to be in existence, and it is being run by some very young people who don’t have a lot of life experience.  They scheduled the groups to be at the same places all week instead of being mixed around like we were in New York and D.C.  Not only does that get boring and routine, but at the Capdeau School it was physically too hard to keep doing that kind of heavy lifting every day for five days.  Also, the interns who are going with us to the work sites seem to be very lazy and unmotivated, and that is frustrating because they are supposed to be leading the group.

Pray for us to have the patience with each other and the Kaleo staff to make our last day here and our day on the road a pleasant one.

Love in the Streets

Thursday morning, the Green Team went back to Bethel Colony.  They moved doors and tried to get everything under the tents because it was raining.  In the afternoon, they painted at the KIPP school that the Gold Team had been at the day before.

The Gold Team went back to the Timothy House where they helped organize some more and just chatted with the men who worked there.  Cathy Gilbert and Darren landscaped for a lady down the street (in the rain).  In the afternoon, the team went back to the Capdeau School to move more boxes.  Hope and Sasha counted their trips to the second floor, and they made 40 trips for a grand total of 800 steps (Hope says 1600 if you count going back down).

The Purple Team went back to the Mission in the morning and to the Girls and Boys Club in the afternoon.  Everyone returned to their original teams except for Charles who took Becky’s spot.

 
The Green Team and the Gold Team went back to the church to pack lunches for themselves and a homeless person.  Everyone walked to Jackson Square, just a few blocks away, where they sat down and had lunch with someone on the street.  Almost everyone said it was the best experience of the trip so far.  The Purple Team, who didn’t get to go to the Square for lunch, went to the Timothy House to serve food to the homeless Thursday evening.  Some of the others went back to Jackson Square Thursday night with Danny, the minister at the church where we are staying, to pass out more food and just pray with people.  It was an awesome day.

Switching Things Up

On Wednesday, the Green Team went to Bethel Colony where they had to move office furniture, including huge desks, and take down tents.  In the afternoon, they traded places with the Gold Team who needed a manual labor break and went to the Capdeau Charter School to sort and move boxes.  It was definitely a difficult day for them, but it was much appreciated by the Gold Team.  The Green Team said James was their motivational speaker, telling them to just do six more boxes each.  When everyone had accomplished that task, he said “three more” and so on.

The Gold Team went to the Timothy House where they took all tools, supplies, and equipment out of a shed assembly-line style.  Some members helped cut pieces of wood for shelving while others worked on organizing the items that had to be put back in the shed.  In the afternoon, the Gold Team painted at a KIPP Charter School not too far away from the mission.  They worked on three different classrooms, and the assistant principal was thrilled to have them.

The Purple Team had some new people.  Kathy Campbell took Becky’s place as the adult while Hope, Molly, Narissa, and Lexy took the places of the girls (Charles stayed).  The Purple Team went to the New Orleans Mission like the Gold Team had done the two days before, but they worked in the kitchen preparing the meal.  Ask Hope about the cleanliness of the kitchen! In the afternoon, they went back to the Boys and Girls Club where several of them were bitten by a very interesting child, but they all claimed he was adorable anyway.

After returning from the work sites, eating spaghetti, and getting cleaned up, the whole group headed to a beach in Mississippi.  The beach was very strange—the tide was out, but the sand was hilly and the water pooled in large areas.  We were told it was affected by the hurricane and the oil spill.  However, it was still very pretty and everyone had a good time.  We had a communion service complete with singing, testimonies, and a devotion before we returned to the church in New Orleans.

Intro to Voodoo 101

On Tuesday, all three groups went to the same morning ministry sites as the day before, but a few people switched teams.  Charles took Keylie’s spot on the Purple Team and Keylie took his on the green team.  Kathy Campbell and Staci switched teams with Mark and Leo so that the Gold Team could have more men to help carry boxes.  In the afternoon, the Green Team went to a school to paint instead of to the house they were at on Monday.  The Gold Team sorted and carried lots and lots of boxes at the school they worked at on Monday, and the Purple team forged bonds with the children at the Boys and Girls Home.  The kids wanted to play with their hair, get hugs, and give them kisses.
 
After dinner, most of the group went on a Prayer Walk of the Bywater district from nine-thirty to midnight.  The Bywater is an area of the city where people actually practice voodoo—there is a “healing center,” a shop, and a satanic church.  There is also an alley where they invite people to come on Friday nights to a ceremony where someone invokes the main voodoo spirit to inhabit her body and people can ask her advice.  The team split into groups of two or three and walked the streets, praying at specific locations that were marked on the map.

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's Off to Work We Go...

The Green Team left the church at 8:40 for St. Bernard's Parish, a drug and alcohol rehab and outreach center where they moved supplies and helped restock shelves.  After lunch back at the church, they headed out to the NOLA (New Orleans Louisiana) church plant site.  A group of ministers who live in the Gentilly area of New Orleans, one of the areas worst hit by Hurricane Katrina, wanted to start a vibrant and thriving church staffed by ministers who actually live there.  One minister bought a house that had been severely damaged in the hurricane, and he needed help fixing it up.  The Green Team spent the entire afternoon painting his new house and helping to make it livable.

The Gold Team left the at 9:30 for the New Orleans Mission, the major “soup kitchen” and outreach center for New Orleans.  The group put together new shelves for the food pantry and rearranged the food.  After lunch at the mission, the group headed to Capdau Charter School.  The school has moved twice in the last year, and all of their boxes that the moving company dropped off were piled floor to ceiling in one big room.  The team had to sort through all of the boxes and take them to the appropriate classrooms.

The Purple Team left at 8:40 for Bethel Colony.  This team of all women and girls moved filing cabinets across the parking lot all morning to prepare for the grand opening of a new thrift store.  After their lunch back at the church, the Purple Team went to the Boys and Girls Club to play with the kids.  They certainly got more than they bargained for with their inner city group of munchkins and all of their street-smart, potty-mouth ways.

Opening Day: Sightseeing and a Scavenger Hunt of the French Quarter

On Sunday morning, we attended an African American Baptist church.  The service began at 10:00 a.m. and ended at 1:10 p.m.  Dave Saul, as our elder in residence, was asked to join their church elders on the stage, and there he remained for the duration.  There was a great deal of singing, and then some praying that turned into singing, and more singing.  The visiting minister finally began the message about 12:30.  James Hopf declared it the best church service he had ever been to, so Craig and Paul—take your cue from there!  Okay, not really. 
 

Becky made reservations on Saturday for a swamp tour Sunday afternoon that was scheduled to begin at 1:30, so needless to say we were running very late.  There were eight people who elected not to go on the swamp tour and wanted to stay behind to explore the downtown area.  The vans pulled over on the side of the road to drop off those eight, and the rest continued on their way, changing clothes in the van as they sped along.

 

The large group made it to Honey Island Swamp Tour about two o’clock where their guide was already waiting for them.  They sat on benches that ran down the sides of the boat and four seats facing the back where the guide explained to them the difference between the private land and public land, and they checked out the swamp houses along the way.  The main attraction, of course, was feeding the alligators.  The guide slapped the water with a stick to attract their attention, and the group fed the alligators hot dogs and marshmallows.

The smaller group walked down Canal Street to Bourbon Street, the very heart of New Orleans.  There were definitely some sights to see!  From there, they made their way to Jackson Square and the Café du Monde where they tried the world famous beignets, delicious warm pastries with loads of powdered sugar.  They also took the ferry boat across the river to Algiers and back, and they shopped along the many stores of the Riverwalk.

The two groups reunited and arrived at the Kaleo Mission about five-thirty Sunday evening.  After a quick dinner of po-boys (sandwiches) and a worship session led by two ladies from a neighborhood church, we unloaded the vans and geared up for the opening activity: a scavenger hunt through the French Quarter.  We were supposed to find and take pictures of items and landmarks, talk to people on the streets, and bring bag a few random items.  We had one hour.  Team 1 (Lisa, Sasha, Narissa, Keylie, Leo, Ruby, and Madyson) returned victorious with 26 points!

Teams

Green TeamDave Saul
Pat Hopf
Molly Hopf
James Hopf
Charles Hopf
Mark Stienecker
Narissa Montez
Lexy Tormohlen
Gwen Breckler
Ruby Miranda
Leo Miranda

Gold Team

Brad Smith
Darren Howard
Lisa Smith
Brent Smith
Jordyn Smith
Marissa McGookey
Cathy Gilbert
Hope Mills
Sasha Huff
Staci Dewitt
Kathy Campbell

Purple Team

Becky Hopf
Keylie Holding
Kaelyn Smith
Hannah Epple
Hannah Taylor
Madyson Smith

Getting Ready for New Orleans

In order to prepare for the work they will be doing in New Orleans, team members were asked to do a little bit of work at home first.

On March 25 and 26, team members painted the walls and doors of the Central Christian Church gym.