Wonder Voyage 2008 Summer Blog

After completing over 530 hours of restoration work on a single house the pilgrims from St Nicholas in Flower Mound TX spent their final day in New Orleans exploring the swamps and the city. The morning began with a short drive to Lake Pontchartrain where we met up with Cajun Pride for a introduction to the historical swamp life of Louisiana. This area has been inhabited by pioneers since the mid 1850’s and is still teeming with alligators, snakes, and many other kinds of deadly animals that can severely scare even the toughest outdoorsman. Our guide for the expedition was nice enough to scare a few of the pilgrims with a surprise 3ft alligator he had hidden on our boat and eventually he attracted 12 full-size gators from 8-12ft covering the waters around us. These massive predators leap from the water to get their meal and a couple tried to come join us on deck. Thankfully, however, none could quite make it.

Returning to the city the pilgrims had the day to enjoy a part of New Orleans culture that they had not yet experienced on their journey, shopping the French Quarter and exploring the Garden District. These areas offered a stark contrast to the locations we had been spending our time rebuilding after Katrina and the cultural clashes between the Lower 9th Ward and the Garden District are complex.

As we closed our evening the pilgrims reflected on their time in New Orleans and how they had been affected through their experiences. Christ was present amongst them and many expressed the love of Christ in their own lives throughout the week as a result of their time of work and service. It is through this experience of Christ’s love that the pilgrims began to understand the application of love in their own lives and how that love is worked out through the justice they have been fighting for.

We began the day with a good amount of work in front of us. But continuing with our theme from yesterday and knowing that tonight would end in a graveyard, we had to us ’stories’ as a transition.

Since this was to be our last day working in Calvin’s house, we were on a quest to find a relic; at the house, on our free time, wherever. And our relic needed to tell a story; preferably a story that speaks to our life and purpose.

Around 8:30 we ended up in the Algiers cemetery reading headstones and contemplating the tale of our own mortality’s. Grave thoughts. We found several common denominators in the graveyard: religious symbols, stone, Cajun names and – the dash.

The dash is the small line between one birth and death dates; it represents our life. How long is our line? How strong is our line? What give our line purpose? How can we direct our lines to be the line that will make a difference, make the world a better place and provide impudence for other to pen stories about? Not every outcome could be covered but the beginning is all the same…a life devoted to Christ.

Jesus said “truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”

So far in this trip we’ve accumulated several stories. We have heard stories from Matt, Kelly, Ben and Melissa but we’ve also heard about Perrier, Bieneville, Vaudruil, Miro or Henriette Delille.

Also our team story today was, in the words of another great southern legend, Larry the Cable Guy, ‘get er done’. We worked and worked on the house, early completing the upstairs demo and beginning on the downstairs. We cleared all the furniture from the downstairs and began demolition of three additional rooms. This was the hardest working day yet. Maybe too hard?

After working hard, playing hard is in order. We walked from the pink YWAM house and took the ferry to the quarter, Café Du Monde to be exact, and had cafe’ au lait and beignets (or as locals call em, coffee and donuts). On the way out of the quarter we couldn’t resist the call of the St. Louis Cathedral and and encounter time involving the melding of stories past and present with our theme of Love and Justice.

Joshua chapter 4 tells the story of when the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan and took stones with them to build a memorial, a story for future generations. May the stories we write this year serve as memorials to last us the rest of our lives.

We began the day by reflecting on the things that hold us back, the things that have us chained down. All of us are chained to things good and bad; often, we also have things chained to us (again, some good, some bad). Our friend Calvin (see previous blog) was chained to New Orleans. During the storm has was pulled to another city, but not for long and even though many family member were pulled away to.

We also found ourselves chained to Calvin’s home, the one we are demolishing. We dug in harder than ever and worked feverishly. At the end of the day, we were beat; but we did have time for an empowering encounter.

We discussed chains one more time; on the banks of the mighty Mississippi looking at downtown from the Algiers side, near an historic building that was once used as a slave warehouse. We wrote down some things that we were negatively chained to and then submitted them to the lordship of Christ. As we crossed these things off n our journals, we left our chains that day on the bank of the Mississippi.

Originally built in the late 1800’s as a single dwelling family unit, over the years this colonial plantation house has been modified, updated, ‘updated’, rebuilt and today, semi-demolished.This old house is approximately 4000 square feet, two story, 15 foot ceilings, 3 kitchens corner lot and four 40 foot Corinthian columns on its extra large NOLA style porch.

Calvin, the current owner tells me the story.  After it was originally built, a back part was added to the original 3000 square feet to accommodate the families slaves.  The house was probably the first in the area and besides affording a house, the land took up most of a city block.  Soon the extra land was parceled out to other home builders and the adjacent plot became a community hall.  Some time before the 1950s the house was divided into three apartments and rented out. Years later the city acquired the house and turned it into a day care center next to its other building. Calvin acquired the house in ‘04 and he, his wife and two sons moved in. The property next door passed hands as well and was on its way to becoming apartments when Katrina hit.

After Katrina unleashed its fury. The house sat in a foot of water, a huge pecan tree ripped open the roof and massive mildew began multiplying.Months later a small white FEMA trailer was moved in front of the house.
Calvin had been working for Shell Oil in Lafayette, his wife and younger son moved to Houston and his oldest son moved to Milwaukee.  Only Calvin and his wife returned.

Fast forward three years. Some of the furniture had been moved out but by and large nothing major had been done with the house.  And to make matters worse, his wife lost her voice.  Most likely to either complications from living in a FEMA trailer for three years or a fungal infestation from the mold.   This truly is a big house and since virtually nothing had been done in three years, this was also truly the big easy.

Enter Wonder Voyage and St. Nic’s Episcopal.

This week we are going to do our best to demo the entire inside of the house and show them our ‘love as justice’.  Until then, they need our prayers and encouragement.  Jesus asked the man at the pool Bethsda if he wanted to be healed, the man didn’t say a thing but picked up his mat and he was healed. Today was asked Calvin if we could him rebuild, he opened his door.  To be continued…