The Church Being Church
 This year’s trip was our second since Hurricane Katrina. It was amazing to us how much work remains in the rebuilding of New Orleans. Tens of thousands of homes remain to be gutted. One out of three or four roofs we saw had holes in them. Many power lines are still down. Many houses remain in their collapsed state. Piles of debris can be seen on every city block. Though many adults can be seen in and around the neighborhoods, there are very few children. With only 1 out of 11 public schools open in New Orleans’s Central City, many families have not been able to return. In some cases, we saw men who were working in the Central city, but had to go visit their families elsewhere on weekends.
Our work tasks included gutting houses, which meant everything from removing all of the contents to removing all lathe, plaster, wiring, and clearing stud walls of nails. On the reconstruction side, we built stud walls, did drywalling, and put up trim and doorknobs. We were also involved in some plumbing and electrical projects and cleaning at the Yellow House and Castle Rock. Some of our team helped with laundry and meal preparation. On Super Friday, we joined with other teams to do community clean-up, including cleaning streets and boulevards. This was a great time to talk to people in the neighborhoods. Several things rang clear as we talked to many people. One is that they were very appreciative of the churches that have helped. The second is that FEMA’s help has been very poor. For every dollar of relief people have received, whether in FEMA trailers, or other relief efforts, FEMA has paid out five dollars, mostly to middle men. Many FEMA trailers remain empty because there are other reasons families cannot return to New Orleans such as the schools remaining closed.
Urban Impact’s staff reminded us often that cleaning out houses and bringing aid was not meeting the real need for people in the Central City. The real need is transformed lives through Jesus Christ. It is one thing to come alongside of people and help them get on their feet. But once on their feet, what prevents them from getting into the same crisis situations? What people really need are not homes and cars and possessions, they need transformed lives. It therefore becomes our team’s purpose to partner with and support Urban Impact Ministries in their mission and see lives transformed in the Central City of New Orleans through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The temporal help that we give provides a beginning place for discussion of eternal things.
 There is still so much to do. Where some houses may be fixed up or are being fixed up, the house next door or on the same block has not yet been touched. These contaminated properties are breeding grounds for rodents and roaches; virtually everycity block has houses like this. Schools must be rebuilt. Most of all, churches must be strengthened and mobilized to take advantage of one of the greatest ministry opportunities ever presented to the church in our country. These are exciting, yet exhausting days for God’s church in New Orleans. Never before have the churches of New Orleans networked together so extensively to accomplish the goal of transforming lives through the Gospel of Christ! Our impression is that every day is CareFest in New Orleans.
Castle Rock Community Church has about 70% of its congregation back. With many new people coming to church, and some old friends returning, church services are full to the brim, so full on Sundays that our team had to worship elsewhere so as not to take seats needed for their attenders.
It was our pleasure to give to Urban Impact Ministries Calvary’s donations of $8000. Besides this amount, Calvary brought $1700 in supplies which included a brand new drywall lift donated by Telpro, a Christian company out of Grand Forks. While there, we spent an additional $500 in supplies and equipment for Urban Impact. All told, Calvary’s contribution to Urban Impact’s continuing efforts was over $10,000.
Continue to pray for New Orleans and the church there. Pray that God sends funds and people there to assist His church to join in the work He has begun and is doing to transform lives in New Orleans. Pray specifically that God provides property for the church to house its ever expanding ministry. Pray that our missionaries will not grow weary in the work that remains ahead, probably for years.
If you’d like to see some pictures of our trip, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/challstatyahoo.com. If you would like more information on Urban Impact Ministries, go to www.urbanimpact.org. For more information on the Evangelical Free Church’s Hurricane relief efforts, go to www.efca.org/katrina.
For a great book that highlights many God-sightings since the Katrina Disaster and the Evangelical Free Church’s response, check out Stories from Katrinaland, by Pastor Michael Sprague, Evangelical Free Church pastor of Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Covington, LA. You may write for the book at Trinity E-Free, 19380 North 10th Street, Covington, LA, 70433-8877. Suggested donation is $15 plus $5 shipping. 
On this year’s work team from Calvary were: Greg Meyer, Bill McWaters, Chris Hallstrom, Harold and Janice Neumann, John Nolan, Michael Flemke, Matthew Pease, Joel Minchinton, Jared Goedhart, Rob Stiles, Lavone Bigelow, and Pastor Dave Hammond. If you’d like to see our daily blog, go HERE!
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New Orleans Mission 
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