Pastor Zorn - Nov 15

Deconstruction and Reconstruction
A year ago our efforts in the Gulf was wholly in deconstruction, or as we call it in Slidell "mucking." This trip has a very different feel to it. We have been reconstructing Gethsemane Lutheran Church. Reconstruction takes a lot more time! It is hard to believe how long it takes to reconstruct a community that was destroyed in such a brief amount of time!
Last night we drove past Shannon and Tommy's house. They were the young couple whose house we mucked a year ago to the day. It was heartening to see a trailer in front of their house and a small fence around it for their baby to play in. Half the house was lit and furnished! The other half of the house was still dark. From the appearance of this site, it looks like the family is on the way to recovery! Many of the houses in their neighborhood are still dark so it felt good to see that our efforts a year ago had helped put this family on the road to recovery.
One of the members of Gethsemane happened to come by the church today. She had been a teacher in their pre-school for twenty-three years before "the storm," as they call it here. She and her husband have moved to Baton Rouge and it seemed that she had not been back in quite a long time. She has started a new life in a new place. We also heard that the pastor of Gethsemane has moved to Tennessee. He comes to the church on the weekends and lives in a trailer on the church property. After the church gets reestablished he will retire. As I processed these pieces of information coming together, I realized something; it is one thing to reconstruct buildings (houses and churches), but it is something totally different to reconstruct communities (families and congregations)!
I am heartened to see that Slidell has recovered in many ways and Chalmette is on the road to recovery. But that is only the physical structures that are visible to the relief worker. When you listen to the personal stories of people living here you realize that lives and communities are not nearly as quickly reconstructed!
So many of the locals have commented that the volunteers bring them hope. It is a commodity that is still desperately needed here. Please continue to remember these good folks in your prayers. They are still very fragile!