Countdown to 30: Day 9

(Hurricane Katrina cont.) Today will be the last day I post on Katrina even though there is so much more I could share, such as the trips to the 9th Ward, trips to Houston, trips to Nachitoches, trips to Ruston, rumors of people dying while later being able to rejoice because they were alive, etc. I have not even scratched the surface! My last two stories involve the same family, and are further examples of how God put me in the right place at the right time.

Several weeks after Katrina hit and after my house was empty again and I was getting settled, I got a phone call from one of the kids letting me know that one of our college age girls had been in a serious car accident. One of the passengers (a girl I did not know) was thrown out of the car and killed, and the girl I did know who also had been driving the car was on a ventilator in pediatric ICU. She was in critical condition but things were looking promising for her. They did not expect her to live through the first few nights, but by the time I got the phone call she was progressing. I asked where she was in the hospital, secretly hoping that it was far enough away that I would not need to go while at the same time hoping it was close enough I could go to see the family. My fear of hospitals created the strange desire to go but not to go. Turns out she was in the hospital in Shreveport, which is a little over an hour away from Texarkana.

I got in contact with the family and let them know I would be there on Saturday. I was secretly relieved to find out the girl was still in PICU because I knew that meant I would not have to go to her room and see her in the worst condition. I met her mother in the lobby and was casually chatting with her as we went upstairs to the PICU waiting room. Next thing I knew, we were standing beside her bed and there she was, ventilator and all. Needless to say, I was a bit freaked out. I froze. I plastered myself against a nearby wall and refused to say anything. Her whole family was laughing at my reaction. The nurse asked my relation to her, and her mom answered, "She is our cousin, can't you see the family resemblance?!?!" I have since learned that the easiest way for a non-family member to get in to see someone when visiting is for family only is to be a white person visiting an African-American patient. After being in a coma for a week and a day, the girl started waking up. Just a few weeks later, she was home (well, at their temporary home in Ruston). God had placed the family and me in the exact places that we needed to be for me to be able to minister to the family during that time. I am now an honorary member of the family, and do not try convincing any of them otherwise!

In spring of 2006, my church was able to go down and gut the home of the same family. I cannot describe the amount of hard work that is involved in gutting a house. To give a bit of perspective, you have to wear a hazmat suit and goggles and a mask. There is no ventilation in a hazmat suit. I drank at least two bottles of water every 45 minutes, and I did not go to the bathroom all day. The first step is taking everything the family owns and putting it out on the curb for a trash truck to come by and pick it up. Then you start to rip out the plaster and slats that are damp and moldy and mildewy. It is hard work. There are all sorts of four, six, and eight legged critters that come out of the wall when you start ripping it out. Now that I know how much work it involves, and am not sure that I could ever do it again. But I probably would. Gutting homes is an important ministry in a situation like the aftermath of Katrina. Workers were charging thousands (because it is a lot of work), but that would leave families with no money to start rebuilding. It was too emotional of a task for the homeowner to do it. Plus, many homeowners such as the family we helped were stuck in the situation where they were paying rent on an apartment and a mortgage on a house, meaning they had to pick up extra shifts of work whenever possible, leaving little time to work on the house. The family is a family of believers, so it was a small way for believers to help fellow believers. Plus, one of the members of our team was able to share the gospel with a man on the street walking by, and that man then went forward for baptism that Sunday at the church that I took the group to. God has a way of putting us in the right place at the right time!