Wonder Voyage 2009 Summer Blog

It was a great week in New Orleans working with the Fellowship Bible Church and Pastor Mike Heinz. Each trip that I make to New Orleans on pilgrimage is filled with a powerful sense that God has something special in His heart for this city. Regardless of how you have encountered New Orleans in the past there seems to be a new thing God is doing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Ask any one from New Orleans about the recovery process and they will say its the Church and God’s people that has been restoring our city. Wherever you go in New Orleans you will bump into teams of Christ Followers who have gathered to work at healing a city and her people.

Wonder Voyage has been leading teams of pilgrims to New Orleans now for 10 years and with each group we have seen transformation. Our trip was no exception. The change we bring in our service to God is one thing but on a pilgrimage you discover that God is after more of your heart. As the pilgrims from Fellowship Bible huddled together on our last night together following our celebration meal. We sang a few songs of worship and gave thanks to God for all that was accomplished in just a few days. What followed was a time for each pilgrim to share what God had taught them over the week and what they wanted to take home with them to maintain the change that had occurred in them as a result of being in New Orleans. Some shared stories about renewed value placed on family and a new evaluation concerning the value placed on earthly treasure. The pilgrims spoke about ‘minding the gap’ between one another, between the church and pre-believers, and the gap between heaven and earth so that God’s kingdom may come to earth as it is in heaven.

The journey of a pilgrim crosses many unique terrains, across mountain tops and the valleys below, and with each step we learn to rediscover the breath of God and learn more of the mystery that is the fathers love for us. These pilgrims are glad that the road they traveled through New Orleans this week was with a community of followers who now, travel together back home. May the journey never end.

Thus ends the NOLA blogs…

It can be said that, Life is a pilgrimage, a journey.  But we don’t embark on this journey as tourists.  We go as seekers, pilgrims, filled with longing for all that is true.  A pilgrim is wide eyed and prepared to discover what God has placed on the path before them.

These past two days have taken us out of New Orleans across the causeway to Fair Haven Orphanage. Working with the staff these pilgrims from Fellowship Bible Church served tirelessly. They worked cleaning fixing and tending to every need brought to them. Each day afforded them the opportunity to play with the children and get to know each child’s story better. As an approach to try and climb into the shoes of another, the pilgrims have spent time listening and asking good questions to better understand how to love and befriend the children and to not simply feel sorry for them.

Today they where challenged to choose well at the cross roads of choices, this is the place where we are given a choice on the path we travel, to go in several directions. Like the good Samaritan each pilgrim was challenged to choose well and take care to not step over the one set before them. We are trying to learn what it truly means to love your neighbor.  Words are cheap and actions can be contrived but what we do for another is true and authentic.Jesus was always “other focused” and we have been learning to be the one who looks after the others in our world. These pilgrims are nearing the finish line for home yet there is a great desire to learn how to return home without falling back into the everyday life they lived prior to this New Orleans trip.

Each new day holds new adventure with moments of exploration and wonder. Our day today did not disappoint us . Mike Heinz from Fellowship Bible Church in Dallas  shares his day with this description.“Today our team faced several challenges in the The Big Easy. We began by reflecting on who God is in our life through an artistic challenge. After presenting our creations from beads, crayons and paper plates, our trip leader Ken brought the day into focus. He read 2 Corinthians 5:18 and discussed the idea of reconciliation with us. He asked us to MIND THE GAP. It’s an expression that came up throughout the day as we sought to broker the relationship between God and lost men.Off we went to the New Orleans Mission organization near downtown to put this concept into practice. We divided into work groups for gardening, housekeeping, mass mail prep and flyer delivery to local businesses on Magazine Street. I loved watching our students work with diligence and good attitudes. You would have been proud! Next, we went shopping for groceries for the Stone Soup competition. Team one cooked tonight and made breakfast for dinner. They called their team BRINNER= breakfast for dinner compounded Team two will cook their meal Thursday evening and promises to be an interesting experience as well.After our BRINNER, we caught the ferry from Algiers Point over to the French Quarter. We had begnettes at Cafe DuMonde and finished with an encounter time on the levie of the mighty Mississippi. Their Ken asked us how we MINDED THE GAP today. Several students commented on how they felt like they helped the people at the New Orleans Mission. By working on the various projects, they freed up the staff to focus on the spiritual needs of the people. So cool! (Tomorrow night we will give each pilgrim their “boxes of love” sent by our Church family; they miss you a lot and it will encourage them greatly!)The days have been hot and humid with some rain showers but the team has kept their focus and given themselves fully to the work set before them.

Today we took our pilgrims from Fellowship Bible Church to continue the work of gutting the homes still standing in the aftermath of the hurricane that struck New Orleans in August of 2005. We spent the day in the heat tearing at sheet rock and striping the house down to its studs exposing its foundational structure. I asked Caitlin a student pilgrim to share her perspective on the day.

“This morning we went to the Lower 9th Ward, the poorest part of New Orleans. The government was supposed to spend millions of dollars on a new levee, but it was never spent. We saw houses that only had the foundation. It made me feel so grateful for what I have back in Dallas. After we looked around we went to gut a house. The house was still standing but it looked like it could topple over any second. I was wondering why save the house but at least he had this; some people only had the foundation. We wouldn’t have gotten far though, if we hadn’t met some Belgium kids. They worked on the first floor while we worked on the second. We got almost the whole house done.

After we went and played cabbage ball which is like baseball but with a bigger ball. The Belgium kids played with us and were quite good for their first time. We had fun with each other.

Afterwards we came home and washed all of the rubble off our faces. What I took out of this day was to not store up your treasures here on Earth because they will be taken away some day. You should make your relationship with Jesus stronger. I was also grateful to have everything that I have at the moment: a house, family and personal belongings. Today has taught me a lot!”

Much like the work of gutting a house we are asking God to reveal what is in us that has been destroyed by our own hurricane and asking our heavenly father to help us strip back the debris so we can rebuild. The work done on the interior of a home or the interior home of our lives requires hard work. Our pilgrims seem to be up for the challenge

Our energetic team from Fellowship Bible Church arrived today from Dallas eager to discover New Orleans and make their contribution of service in a city still working to recover from the disaster of hurricane Katrina. After a long drive we welcomed them to their home in the historic neighborhood of Algiers. We shared a meal of Jambalaya and had a time of welcome and orientation around the activates that await them this week.

As we talked and prayed together we read the story of the blind beggar who Jesus asked, what do you want me to do for you? The Beggar answered, I want to see. We asked the same question of each pilgrim from Dallas, what would you say to Jesus if he met you on the road here in New Orleans and asked you the same question. What would you want Jesus to do for you? The posture of our heart on a pilgrimage or in life in general will carry a load of perspective. Having God’s perspective is of the utmost importance. Do we in general expect Jesus to answer our request of him? Can we answer His question? In turn can we this week help Jesus by becoming the answer to the question on the lips of many fellow beggars here in New Orleans. We shall see.

The St Peters/ St James team in New Orleans finished out the week both the same way they started it AND totally differently than the way they started it. What? The same and different? How can this be?

The team finished the same, because they finished strong. The final two days included visits to Fairhaven Ministries as well as the New Orleans Mission. Tasks from gardening to cleaning to bicycle repair were tackled with the same energy and enthusiasm as our first two days of work. Every organization with which we served this week has commended this group for the mammoth efforts and their pursuit of excellence in all things.

The team finished differently because they started as two very distinct groups, and yet by today we practically had to make sure the right kids were in the right vans before they left to go home. They didn’t just TALK about what it meant to be one body- they WERE one body: in work, in play, in laughter, in prayer, and in love. The Lord knit their hearts together as He inspired their labors. It was a beautiful sight to behold and an honor to be a part of.

Our prayer for these 2 ‘neighbor’ churches is that they will continue to avail themselves of the opportunities to serve, worship, play, and
pray together when they are back home in the Dallas. We hope this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The flood after Hurricane Katrina left everything in the city of New Orleans changed. It has been four years, and many parts of the city are still in bad condition. But people don’t want (the Wonder Voyage team) to show them pity; no, they just welcome our help. None of the people we have met feel sad- the emotion that covers New Orleans is New Hope.

Miss Milly, whose house was ruined in the flood showed great compassion and appreciation as we gutted her house. In fact, she was working right alongside us for part of the day.

The emotion that slowly started to dawn on us was that she wasn’t sad; the feeling that she presented was more of a rebirth. The whole team was enveloped in this feeling, and pushed even farther to work harder.

When we finished for the day, the very appreciative Miss Milly returned to thank us and to wish us all good luck on our trip. Then something happened… We prayed as a symbol of belief and new beginning. At that moment gutting Miss Milly’s house seemed like the biggest thing in the world.

It’s been four years.Four years since the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and yet today I had the opportunity to enter into a damaged home in the Lower 9th Ward, and it was as if the hurricane and flood had happened only yesterday.

I was able to witness the devastation brought about in the aftermath of the storm. Everything was covered in grime, and broken sheet rock.The furniture and kitchen appliances were thrown around like toys.

I saw the living room and could imagine a very comfortable, homey place for a family to gather. One bedroom had twin beds that could have possibly housed grandchildren. However, both rooms were turned into ruins and the family gatherings with grandchildren will never be the same.

I am unable to compare this situation with my life. I’m not sure that I would be able to have the courage to move on after everything I had known was lost. Today as we continued our tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, people smiled and waved, and their attitudes reflected a positive and hopeful attitude toward the future.

Our 5th New Orleans team has arrived in the city full of energy and the desire to be a part of the rebuilding effort. While the team is from 2 different churches- St Peters  & St James – our spiritual focus this week is ‘We are the Body,’ so the goal for the week is to be one cohesive community.

Our first full day in town was a Sunday, so we filled the day with worship, adventure, and team building. We were warmly greeted at Mt Olivet Episcopal Church by Mercedes, one of the church’s oldest and longest-tenured members. Mercedes thanked the team on behalf of the church and the neighborhood for the work they will be doing this week. A New Orleans City Councilwoman who is a parishioner thanked us on behalf of the city. They  made us feel as if we’ve already made a difference and we haven’t even lifted a hammer yet!

If the afternoon is any indication, our week will be full of wonder and laughter. Our swamp tour highlight came when the captain of the boat lured a 9-foot gator ONTO THE BOAT! Amazing! Our evening game of  cabbage ball resulted in not many runs but tons of laughter.

As we contemplate the hard sweaty work that lies ahead for the week, we pray for the continuous building of community as we love and serve the people of New Orleans

Our amazing St Thomas pilgrims spent their final two days in the city 
of New Orleans continuing to serve with enthusiasm, energy, and 
excellence. A day at Fairhaven Chidren’s Home never fails to inspire 
with its incredible story of faith, and the group responded to the 
inspiration with a mammoth effort. From the kitchen scrubbing to the 
massive trash fire, our Floridians were able to be God’s provision for 
accomplishing the multitude of the day’s tasks.

The next day included some exploration and shopping time in the 
historic French Quarter, but only after the students spent the morning 
blessing a local public school teacher by painting her classroom in 
preparation for the upcoming school year. She explained that because 
her school went undamaged after Hurricane Katrina, they still have the same stuff that has been there over 50 years. The damaged schools got an unforeseen benefit: all new everything.

During our final gathering time, some common sentiments were expressed about the eye openers of the past week: one person’s effort can make a difference, the efforts of a whole community even moreso, and through faith in God’s plan and providence we can be couriers of hope to those in our hurting world. It has been an eye-opening week for all of us individually as well as corporately. May God continue to grow us and use us to make the world a more grace-filled place.