Work of Restoration

A new day brought totally new experiences. Since we finished yesterday's job so many days ahead of schedule, there was a bit of a scramble this morning for the camp's work managers to find jobs we could do. We ended up being split into 3 groups, each with a different work site and different tasks to be done. One group worked on a roof--no small feat for this kind of heat. Another group was dispatched to help a hoarder empty a trailer of expired food and rotten memories.

I was in a group of 5 girls who went to help a homeowner finish painting a few rooms, and drywall mud a bathroom that is gutted except for a tub. The home was near the coastline in Pascagoula, and had flooded during Katrina. The homeowner--a retiree and former baseball coach we'll call Dale--put roughly $100,000 into repairs, but was bilked out of it by dishonest workmen. And this is one of the saddest of all the Katrina themes, that in the midst of disaster, while some portions of humanity band together to help one another, there are other portions that will take the same opportunity to steal from those already suffering.

So how is Dale reacting to this? We really don't know. How deeply can you delve into someone's life in a few hours midst primer and paint and drywall mud? He seemed depressed. The grass around the house was easily 10 inches high. He didn't have much to say when we arrived. But he was not unkind to us, and he seemed to warm to us through the day. Late in the afternoon, he spoke to a few of the girls and told us that, despite the awful experience of the storm, the damage, and then being cheated by contractors, he would not trade that for the experiences he has had with the volunteers this year.

We may paint molding and sand drywall, but there are other restorations that the volunteers here are making: we are restoring faith in humanity, in compassion, and in the God who placed that compassion in the hearts of volunteers like us. This is the work of restoration. This is why we are here.