It has been a wonderful week in New Orleans with our group of thirteen people from the Somers UCC Church and our group from Holy Trinity Episcopal in Enfield. As we have come to our last day together, some of us have commented on the way this group of thirteen people has become such a close-knit group. It is a diverse group of personalities, but the thing we seem to have in common is a deep commitment to serve folks who have been living as displaced persons for the three years since Hurricane Katrina, and to work as productively as possible in the name of our Lord Jesus, in harmony as a team.
For myself, what was most daunting about our work this week was that we would have only five days to do whatever we would be able to accomplish. Our list of tasks needed in our houses seemed overwhelming. For each of our three work teams, the result was that we accomplished more at each house than we could have hoped on Monday. It was a great feeling to go to all three houses this (Friday) afternoon and see all that each group has done. Team effort, and using one anothers' skills accomplished more than any of us might have imagined.
My other enduring memory will be of seeing firsthand the incredible breadth of destruction wreaked by the storm. Having lived through the flood of 1955 in northwestern Connecticut, I have real appreciation for the power of wind and water in a hurricane. But here in New Orleans, instead of destruction of hundreds of homes and businesses, and the loss of scores of lives, we encountered the signs of many thousands of buildings destroyed, and the loss of nearly two thousand people. The scale is hard to imagine, let alone try to describe. It is distressing to tour the damage.
Yet the best thing about being here in 2009 is to see the scale of rebuilding, and to walk through neighborhoods, and meet people from all over the United States who are here to lend a hand. On Wednesday, as we toured some neighborhoods of this city, we encountered a group of college kids from California who were working in a large team from the peak of the roof to the footings of a large house. They were as excited to hear about us, as we were to hear about them. It is inspiring to realize that the traditions of generosity and solidarity with people in crisis and suffering, which have characterized the people of this country for so many generations, are alive and well in our time.
While this has been anything but a restful time away for this group of middle-aged and one college-aged people, we have been refreshed by finding certain evidence that we live in a great time, in a great country, among great people. We know that people today are still moved by the Christian principles of compassion for human suffering, and in self-sacrificial service in behalf of one another in obedience to the teachings of Jesus. And we have discovered once again, that as we offer ourselves in blessing to others, we are blessed by our God in return.
Peter Bushnell
