I just returned from a week in New Orleans with 26 high school youth from our church. We were there to help with the rebuilding process that continues following Hurricane Katrina. The last significant time I spent in New Orleans was in the summer of 2006 – less than a year after Katrina. I was curious to see what had been done in the city in the last three years.
As it turns out, I was both uplifted and saddened by what I saw. Uplifted because progress has definitely been made. There are no more huge piles of debris littering the streets. There are people living in neighborhoods that were ghost towns three years ago. Even in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated areas, signs of life are present.
Sadly, there is still MUCH work to be done. The house I worked on, for example, belonged to a man who has been living in temporary housing since Katrina (almost 4 years now). He desperately wants to get back into his house, but does not have enough money to pay for a professional contractor. Because he is relying on volunteer labor, the process is slow. It will still be many more weeks, perhaps months, before he can return to his house. And when he does return, it will be to a neighborhood forever changed. Abandoned houses still abound. Neighbors have left who will never return.
And yet, hope is abundant in New Orleans. One of my good friends, who is a pastor in the city, was able to speak of life finally feeling like it is returning to normal. Though she was quick to admit that it is a new, post-Katrina normal. The French Quarter is full of life and energy, and tourists are starting to return to the city. I could sense that the spirit of New Orleans, which is such a central part of the city, has refused to be dampened by Katrina.
Throughout the week, the chorus of the Bluetree song, “God of this City,” kept running through my mind – “Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.” May we continue to keep the city, and its residents, in our prayers.
