Rosa Parks died last night.  She will always be remembered as the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott.  By refusing to leave her seat on December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks infused courage into millions of African-Americans who were tired of being treated as second-class citizens.  And because of the Montgomery bus boycott, the world was introduced to a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr.  Never before has one’s refusal to act made such an impact on individual and national attitudes about race and justice.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/25/parks.reax/index.html

 

Sometimes, helping someone out is so much easier than talking with them.  During our trip, several students were more interested in talking with the people that we were helping than assisting in the clean-up effort.  This was great to see.  Sometimes it was easier for me to complete the task (clean out the church, remove fallen trees, pile up items on the curb, shovel through the rubble) than it was to listen to people’s story.  I get this from my father who demonstrates affection by repairing my car, installing a new light fixture or fixing the plumbing in my house.

The second day of the trip began with church with the members of the Episcopal church from the day before.  They were meeting in an elementary school gymnasium.  One of the first sights that I noticed (aside from the short drinking fountains) were the large tables at the back of the gym that were filled with microwaves, toaster ovens, coffee pots, boxed dishes, silverware, cooking utensils and children’s toys.  “If you need one or more of these items, don’t be bashful about taking them.” said the priest.

 

In the afternoon, our assignment was to deliver the trailer full of food to a distribution center then distribute some of the food in the community.  This information, however, seemed to surprise the man at the distribution center.  After unloading the trailer, half of our group went back to the Episcopalian church while the other half drove through a few towns trying to distribute care packages.  Driving through neighborhoods was discouraging because we didn’t find anyone to distribute our food and supplies to; we had stuff but either no one was home or they didn’t need the stuff that we had.  It was a relief when we drove to the church to do physical labor. 

 

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent cleaning out the remainder of the kitchen as well as two rooms in the middle of the church.  The students worked very hard cleaning in spite of the fact that there were no lights in the inner rooms.  They were afraid to stop working because they might loose their job.  If you’ve ever done a project with a large number of people, you know what I am talking about: people find a necessary role to play but end up losing their job if they set their tools down for a break.  For many students, it was more important to continue with their task than it was to stop for a minute.

Below is the remainder of the Episcopalian church sanctuary.

In the afternoon of the first day, we ended up at an Episcopalian church one block from the beach.  Between the beach and the church offices stood the sanctuary.  During the storm surge of the hurricane, the water was deeper than the sanctuary was tall; 40 feet high.  Imagine your church sanctuary completely under water.

The office walls that faced the beach were destroyed.  The newly exposed middle rooms of the office building became a collection of debris from the front rooms as well as the sanctuary from across the street.

Our job was initially retrieve the baptismal fount that was underneath the rubble in the newly exposed kitchen.  After about 3 hours, we pulled the fount out of the debris but then became even more determined to clean out the remainder of the room including the industrial appliances.  While some students cleaned the kitchen others cleaned other areas removing bricks, an iron gate, dishes, pine needles, dirt and artifacts from the church offices.  All that was removed was piled up within 10 feet of the street so that front-loaders could collect the trash when they came through.

That night, Mike Burnett and I got our flat tire fixed from the night before’s travel.  Then we ate at Wattaburger.  And what a burger it was.  I suggest eating at a Wattaburger if you get the chance; don’t get the large drink because it is 44 ounces.  I enjoyed hanging out with Mike because we got to talk about civil rights, Ole Miss and Christians swearing.  Afterwards, Mike bought his first pair of flip-flops which he plans to wear daily to his theatre classes.

From Friday, October 14 – Tuesday, October 18, eighteen students and five staff / faculty went to Biloxi, Mississippi to help with the relief effort.  In the next few days, I hope to share some of our thoughts about the experience.

On the first day, we cleaned and set straight a small cinderblock church where the water rose to 7 feet inside of the structure.  One of the twelve pews floated above the water and came to rest off of the ground in the back upper corner of the church; Nathan Geer called it the “balcony”.  The remaining pews, hymnals and pulpit had all been shaken and returned haphazardly around the sanctuary. 

We took out the pews and cleaned them, ripped and removed the crustied carpet and sprayed the walls, ceiling and floor with a chemical to kill the mold that had begun growing because of the dampness.  Next to the church was a man’s workshop with the pictured sign on the streetside of his building.

“WE WILL ‘KILL’ YOU.  YOU CAN BE PART OF THE TRASH”

We were able to talk to the mother of the pastor as well as the pastor.  It was unexpected to see so much courage and perseverance in the people that we talked to.  I enjoyed watching the students listen to folks as they shared their stories.  We were expecting to see folks who had been defeated and walking with their shoulders drooping forward.  It wasn’t that they were proud but didn’t seem to be as down-trodden as I would have been if water had filled my home or church and caused everything that I owned to rot.

Imagine a wrestling match between Mike “Big Dog” Burnett and myself.  It was a match for the ages.  Those of you that were there will tell your children about it.

A few friends have been found through Xanga.  It’s been cool to reconnect with folks that I haven’t heard from in a while.  This internet thingy is going to stick around isn’t it?

Thanks to all those folks who have played with my children during their 4 years and 10 months of existence.  We enjoy sharing our children with the campus and are grateful that you guys are interested in playing with them.  We’ve had many great students who watched them while we were both at work and many more who have taught them lots of neato tricks.  We enjoy watching students play with our children but not nearly as much as our children enjoy playing with students.  We always imagined that having children on a college campus would be cool but didn’t know it would be this cool.  Thanks.

Kids say the funniest things.

Last night, my son Isaac and I were walking around the house singing, “I like big BOOKS and I cannot lie.  You bruthas cannot deny.”

This morning, my daughter Grace noticed a band-aid on my right shoulder and asked me what happened.  I told her that yesterday I had a Hepatitus A shot.  She responded, “When I was 2, I had a hopatitus shot.  We’re hopatitus buddies.”

Should churches try to be more attractive to college-aged students?  Is there anything that they can do to make going to church interesting?  Or if it is interesting, what is interesting about it?  Dong.