Part 3 of a 3-Part Series:
Clean up of Katrina's housing mess involves
workforce & labor issues and one's spiritual life

Clean up the workforce and volunteer labor issues

Seven of us were organized at this end by High Point Church, and by Samaritan's Purse at the New Orleans end, to undertake the 2000-mile round trip (Feb 12-19) to provide clean homes and new hope. To accomplish this goal of 5000 homes by June 30, just in St. Bernard Parish, hundreds more volunteers are needed each week.

Hence, two more trips are already planned from this area: March 3/4 and March 24 to "clean-up" St. Bernard Parish, or March 31 to "build-out" Mississippi homes (at Kiln or Biloxi). Again I plea: Do consider taking a week off your regular work, retirement life, or Spring Break to join this cause.

At all such sites, we partner with Samaritan's Purse, an excellent Christian international disaster relief agency, whom the feds and local officials love and subcontract with. (While "construction" is already underway in Mississippi, it will be months before that phase comes to St. Bernard.)

Paid work may be found for anyone willing to do it. Frankly, the clean-out work that we did you could not pay me enough to do. Only as a volunteer would I endure that muck and mold. But homeowners and contractors are offering $15-25/hr, or $1.40 per square foot, for others to do it. Out-of-state contractors are prohibited from bringing in their own crew, but must hire 70% from locals.

Yet Jim, a FEMA deputy director I had dinner with, told me that many locals shy away from such work. With unemployment compensation, insurance pay-outs, food pantries, housing vouchers, FEMA aid and other subsidies, some are stepping out of the workforce. In all fairness, it should be added that workers are non-committal, because they cannot find a place to live.

Nor can they find a school for their kids to enroll -- 11 of 12 schools in the parish remain closed -- which begs the chicken-and-egg question of who should first move back into the area: school age kids or their teachers? As it is, the one United school and its teacher housing complex consists entirely of connected trailers, and enrolls just 635 kids out of a pre-Katrina total of 8,800.

Nor can workers find any places to buy food or shop -- only 10 of 601 restaurants or food outlets have reopened. And 3000 other local businesses have been lost in St. Bernard. The loss of income, sales, and property tax base has parish officials forever facing payless paydays, except for federal subsidies. So why not help the fishers get back to work, for example, as they supply 30% of all fish (shell, fin, and crustacean) consumed in the US, and thus increase the tax base and get money flowing through the local economy.

One local worker concurs, "How can I put money into a home," Melvin asked, "especially if I don't know if the government will put money into a levee, then get hit by another big storm again?" As St. Bernard residents know all to well, June 1 marks the beginning of another hurricane season.

Clean up lives by working on the spiritual plane

"Housing is a vehicle for ministering to people," we were told. So, given this big mess and all the SNAFUs to correct, where do the homeless who've lost everything then turn for help and hope?

Mary, with centuries of roots in the community, is quick to answer: "If you don't have God in your life, there's no way to express the anger, or the hope. We had to get rid of the clutter, the hindrance of stuff, which keep us from seeing God more clearly. God has given this community a unique opportunity to clean up our lives."

God reinforced many such points through daily devotions and service learning on site. Here's my Top Ten:

10. That life and the "laboring for the Lord" and "watching over a city" is not about what we do, but about what God is doing, and His timing and provision are remarkable.

9. That family matters and kingdom matters -- more than "stuff" matters, which mold can destroy or thieves can take away.

8. That since "you can't take it with you," we should purge now, or other guys will have to clean up after you.

7. That water -- the "giver of life" -- is also an equal opportunity destroyer, raining on the just and the unjust, the rich and poor, old and young, white and black.

6. That as "specs" (from building materials) fly into one's eye, they must first be removed, to see ourselves more clearly, lest we judge others for having too much stuff to clean out.

5. That church life does not revolve around buildings, but around common elements and meeting needs. (With all the churches equally devastated, the people are coming together, worshipping ecumenically in parking lots, meeting for prayer and Bible study in tents, and now joining in a Billy and Franklin Graham crusade, March 11-12. High Point's Fred and Ruth Siegenthaler will attend the crusade and do follow-up work.)

4. That in the body politic and the Body of Christ, "when one hurts, we all hurt."

3. That strangers, especially guys, can bond closely amidst adversity, work projects, and road trips.

2. That "Who is my neighbor?" takes on new meaning when God moves the "tent pegs" of our confined circle -- or the house off its foundation.

1. That "lost coins" (we found a few in the rubble) and "lost sons" (we lost one, at least for now) require extra grace to seek and find, or to await and celebrate their safe return.

The people of faith whom we encountered are praying and working for both an "extreme makeover" and a "Jesus takeover" of their beloved city. Please pray for laborers willing to work in the muck and mire of people's lives.

If you want to go with a group to the Katrina "war zone" anytime soon, contact me at dgruen@chorus.net.

© 2005 Middleton Outreach Ministry

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