Students from the Wesley Campus Ministry program are spending their spring break in New Orleans, working with Peoples' UMC - Tempe First UMC's Katrina partner church. Joyce McHenry, a Wesley student and member of Tempe First, is keeping a blog on their experiences. Read what she has to say...

Day One in N'awlins!

Alright, so after thinking that our flight wasn't going to leave Houston until 12:30 this morning, but Continental got their act together and found us a plane, so we got into town at our regularly scheduled time, about 11 last night. Some of us climbed in Kevin's truck, some in the van Rob was driving, and I was in the latter. After taking the "scenic route" to People's UMC, we get to the church about midnight. After showers, unpacking, organizing, and all that fun stuff, most of us finally hit the sack about 1:30 in the morning. Well, we've got some early risers in our group, so everyone was up by 7:30 at the latest. Woo hoo! So we all get up, get decent, and head out to the French Quarter for some grub. We go to this place called Cafe Du Monte, which has the best things in the world - beignets. I haven't had them before, but they're a little like Indian fry bread, only smaller and much better. So we all loaded up on sugar then walked around bit. Best part was that there was about an entire box of powdered sugar on every single plate, and somehow Tom ended up with about half of that on the back of his slacks. It was great. On the way out, we met this balloon guy who was telling all these random bible jokes. For example, where do you find the bible in baseball? The beginning (the big inning....ha ha. Come on, you know it was funny!)!!! He made rings for me and Jenn, proposed to Jenn, and when Tessa asked if she could go to the wedding, she was told, "Honey, you ARE the wedding." Quite hilarious.

After walking around for about an hour, we head back towards the car and stop at the Mississippi River for a minute to take some photos and admire the beauty. 'Cause it was gorgeous. So we all load back up into the cars and head back to church. We hung out for a bit before we headed into the sanctuary, and experienced a wonderful service. The church was upbeat and inspiring, the testament and gospel verses informational, and as it always is with Pastor Eunice, a lovely sermon about "dry bones" and how we all need to do our part. Following church the congregation had prepared an absolutely WONDERFUL meal for all of us with a variety of food ranging from shepherd's pie (the best I have EVER had), fried chicken, baked chicken, barbeque chicken, green beans, potato salad, spaghettii, fruit, lemon pound cake, dirty rice, and hawaiian punch to top it all off! After that we all headed back to the Volunteer Center right next to the church and began various activities. Some people colored and drew a lovely picture of the work we will be doing this week (thanks, Jenn and Rob!), we argued over what is good music and what isn't, some did homework, and just chilled for a good four hours. It was amazing.

Then the time came for all of us to head to Wal-Mart to get some food for the week and to get anything any of us forgot back home. After a few photo ops (I need the pictures, Tess!), quite a bit of junk food, and not as many snacks as we need, we finish up. I get suckered into buying candy for a fundraiser and hand it out to the group. We head out and try to find Chris' friends from ECU, only to give up and head back to the church. We did some more computer/music debating, ate an awesome dinner of chicken enchiladas and salad (thanks, Kevin!), then played a few rounds of Catch Phrase.

Day one has been an absolute BLAST, and I cannot wait for the real work and commitment to start! We've seen some of the photos and destruction from Katrina, but it still hasn't quite sunk in with me the severity of the devastation, and while to say I'm looking forward to experiencing that is the wrong choice of words, I am anxious for the experience so that I personally have a better understanding and empathetic view of what all these people went through. So here's to a fabulous first day and an even more wonderful, enlightening, inspiring four more days!

Days Two and Three in New Orleans!

Alright, so I definitely slacked last night because I was ridiculously tired and will make up for it by posting both days in one! Hooray! However, I haven't edited any photos and so don't have any yet to post. Definitely will tomorrow, though, promise!

Day Two

Tobie flew in during breakfast (cold cereal, bagels, toast, easy stuff for our first work day) and once him and Kevin got back, we all went into the sanctuary with all of the other mission teams in New Orleans for an orientation to the work that we'll be doing, why we're here, etc. Since we have the All-Knowing Genius Kevin, we didn't have to stay for orientation
and got straight to work.

We are fixing up Pastor Eunice's office this week. We started by completely emptying her desk, her bookcase, everything that we could lift off the floor, and moved it into the fellowship hall (which was just re-done and is completely GORGEOUS, FYI). Then, we discovered that the bookcase was built-in, so it had to come down piece by piece. Had a few people working on that while the others worked on pulling the floorboards out, ripping the wood paneling (SO 60's) off the walls, taking down most of the ceiling, and pulling out the carpet. The padding underneath the carpet smelled ridiculously like urine, which we can only assume is left-over from Katrina.

Then we went around and pulled up all the tack strips, hammered in all of the nails sticking out of the drywall, and pulled out all of the staples left over from the padding. Very hectic day with all of us in one room, but it was a blast! We breaked after we got the paneling down for an outdoor lunch of hamburgers and brats and the wonderful Pastor Eunice went and bought sodas and a bunch of bottled water for all of us. Dinner was a delight, a New Orleans tradition of red beans & rice (for those that know me, I definitely picked out the sausage, but it was still fabulous!). After dinner we went over to meet up with the Newman group from the Catholic church across the street in Tempe (this group is lovingly known as the Catholics to us N'awlins Wesley crew).

We all got a tour of the monastery they are staying at, which was a secluded monastery for nuns from 1897-1971 (sorry if my dates are slightly off) and the nuns did not speak, did not go outside the castle-esque walls, and only communicated with each other during mass. This place is ridiculously large and slightly creepy. It has 14 courtyards, but they only have access to 12. It also has several chapels, an infirmary, five different stairwells, all sorts of stuff. It was amazing hearing the history of this place and getting some information on Catholicism at the same time. We also got to go into the tomb area where the bodies were stored until someone from the outside came and got the body and disposed of it however nuns are disposed of (please excuse my ignorance on the matter).

After the grand tour and being slightly freaked out, we all walked down to the French Quarter again. Me and the Catholics went to Cafe Du Monde again to get beignets, the older crew went their seperate way and saw an amazing band, and the younger crew went to tour the city and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I can't speak for everyone else, but I know it was a wonderful night!

We then went back to the center, some crashed while the youngsters stayed up and did what they do and regretted it in the morning when Kevin woke them up by banging pots and pans.

Day Three

Alright, so as I already said, Kevin had fun waking the late bloomers up. We had a kick-butt breakfast of french toast and sausage (pass, thanks). One group cleaned up the center's bathrooms, showers and kitchen while Rob, Kevin, Tobie and I went out to Home Depot to pick up the rest of the supplies we needed (dry wall, lemon oil, edging, and flood lights). When we got back, everyone got busy doing several different jobs.

One group started inside polishing all the brass things on the alter and then went and worked outside as the trash group and collected all the trash and put it into trash bags. A second group was in Pastor Eunice's office helping Chad (who has just gotten in) drywall and get things moving in there.

Another group (which included myself) worked in the sanctuary to wash and polish the wood on the pews and everything on the alter, then Judith and Chris worked on cleaning up the gorgeous stained glass windows that were painted over a bit during the remodel while I stripped the paint off the trim around the alter.

Pastor Eunice made us an absolutely amazing lunch of homemade gumbo, steamed rice, cornbread (with actual corn!), and all sorts of lovely food. We also have so many leftovers that we pulled that out for anyone that wanted it.

We went back to work and finished up our odd jobs until around 4 we all showered and got ready for dinner (thanks, Jenn and Kevin!). Rob, Stacy, Craig and I all took off to Wal-Mart to gather some miscellaneous items we need for dessert (heck YEAH banana splits and rootbeer floats!) as well as for our meals the rest of the week. Came back and we all sat down to a dinner of baked chicken, biscuits and corn-on-the-cob.

After dinner the rest of us finished getting cleaned up while KP did dishes, and then we all headed back out to meet up with the Catholics again. We all went down to Bourbon Street to walk around and explore. We stopped in a gift shop and a lot of us picked up some souvenirs for people. After that we went to this jazz club with an awesome band playing, but the speakers were far too loud so most of us took off. Stacey and I went off to explore and had quite the adventure getting beads, staving off drunks, and getting our palms read. I guess one group went back to Cafe Du Monde again and loved eating more beinets. A third group stayed at the club for a little while then went over to a dance club and enjoyed themselves. I think we all had a wonderful time, definitely the best night ever for me and Stacy! :D

We all then met up at the monastery after going our separate ways and made it back to the center just in time for curfew! We enjoyed some banana splits and root beer floats and then went our separate ways, some going to bed, some watching TV, and me updating the blog.

Well, that is the end of our adventure so far, I hope you guys are enjoying the blog and keeping updated on what we're doing here in N'awlins. We're definitely enjoying ourselves, and now I must go to bed as we will be up in six hours to start work again.

Love and miss you all and can't wait to share our next days' adventures (and some more photos!)

Quick Day 4 Update

Okay, so we have an early rise tomorrow as Chad heads out at 5, so I am quickly typing this up with a more in-depth report tomorrow/Friday. Everyone was late getting up this morning (8:30), so we all kind of meandered in as we got up and made our own waffles with fresh fruit (BEST thing ever!). We finally got to work about 9:30. One group went into the office to work on the drywall some more to get the texture up so it would dry by after lunch so the painting could begin. Another group went to the upper level of the church to help organize a bit and get the carpet laid out from the old office. Me, Judith, and Stacy all worked on labeling all of the tools because they kept getting left at the homeowner's homes. It was great! Judith and Chris re-organized one of the "closets" in here, which was GREATLY appreciated as before you couldn't even walk into the area. It was GREAT! We got a lot accomplished.

We were planning on heating up left-overs for lunch, only for one of the families from People's bring us a wonderful home-made lunch of red beans & rice, baked chicken, and salad. They stayed and ate with us as well as Pastor Eunice which was wonderful to enjoy their company.

After lunch the room got primed and a first coat of paint on the purple wall, the beige walls were completely finished. Stacy and I KP'ed and then made dessert - rice crispy treats and then stained some boards for the front of the church. Pastor Eunice also got a new desk that was built with some more organization upstairs.

Judith, Chris and I helped cook a dinner of pork chops, sweet potatoes, apples, and onions. I also cooked up a special treat of baked brie bread, which was quickly gone. After dinner we went over to the sanctuary for a service that Pastor Eunice and Rob put on for us. We talked about what we were getting out of being here this week, what our favorite praise songs are, and just had a good grounding moment.

The best part of tonight was that after the service, two of the congregation members (the same two who brought us lunch today) stayed and talked about what they went through after Katrina hit. It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear their story, but it was absolutely what we needed, I believe. It made this more effective as to what we're really doing here in New Orleans, why we're helping to work on this church. It brought home the devastation that the citizens of New Orleans faced during this horrible storm.

Their story is that the Saturday before Katrina hit, they drove up to their children's home off the coast and packed to stay there for 3 days, when Katrina was supposed to be gone and it would be safe to come home. Katrina hit on August 15, 2005, and they were not allowed to return to their home until November 1, 2005. When they came home, they could see the water line in their house from where it had flooded. The water had come up and stayed at 3 feet above the ground outside the house, and had flooded and filled their house with water all the way up, just 3 feet shy of the ceiling. They lost their wedding pictures, all the clothes, anything that wasn't completely water-proof. When they went through their china and glasses, the glasses were still filled with water from their home being flooded, and they just threw them out because it had gotten so molded. They would have paid their home off completely in December 2005, but because they had to rebuild, they had to take out another 30 year mortgage in order to get their home back. It was only this week that they were able to move back into their home.

We all really enjoyed talking with them and hearing their story, and it was obviously difficult and the woman began crying thinking back on all they lost, but as she kept telling herself and her husband, "It will be alright." Her philosophy is one that everyone should remember and live by. If she can live through that and be alright, then anything we go through can turn out alright.

After the service and impromptu conversation, we all went back to the volunteer center and chatted. The younger crowd went out bowling and from what we gathered had a great time. Us old people (ha ha) went out to get more beignets. Chad leaves tomorrow morning and hadn't had them yet, plus Stacy and I wanted to get the mix to take home for family, so we conned Kevin in to taking us down there and let me tell you, it was a RIOT! Chad isn't exactly used to hanging out with us, so every time he would go to take a drink, someone (mostly Chris) would say something and he would about spray his water out his nose. It was HILARIOUS! Then, while we were chewing down on our beignets, he went to take a bite and decided to inhale the powdered sugar that covers them and we thought he was going to die, but somehow couldn't stop laughing long enough to make certain he was alright. Kevin was laughing so hard we thought he was going to hack up a lung. I don't think any of us have laughed so much the entire trip, it was definitely a much needed break from the serious and solemn tone of why we are here. Of course, Judith has been feeling a bit under-the-weather, so we stopped and picked up some honey for her on our way and brought it home to her so that she could have hot tea.

Today was a good day full of insight, things to ponder, and the most important thing in life, lots of laughter. I thank each and every one of you that has taken part of this trip to make it what it is, you will all hold a special place in my heart and a special moment in my memory. I love you all.

Well ladies and gents, I believe I definitely need to get to bed now. I have been talking with Chris as I type this, which makes it difficult to pay attention to what I'm writing, so this has taken me much longer than I expected and need my beauty sleep, which will be much less than I originally intended.

We will see you all back at church this week, and I hope you all are enjoying this week as much as we have been!

Love and miss you all,

Joyce