Out of My Comfort Zone (New Orleans)

It has been two weeks since we have back from our mission trip to New Orleans. I can not even begin to explain how much my mission trip has impacted my everyday actions and attitudes. What my youth group saw in New Orleans has truly made us grateful for what we have. It has been five years since Hurricane Katrina, and New Orleans is still suffering from the flooding. The city is working extremely hard on rebuilding the city, yet there is so much more to do. We were fortunate enough to work along with our youth group at Team Effort Mission Camp. Team Effort Mission Camp is a camp geared towards youth working for Christ all over the country and a few in foreign countries. At camp we learned how to do construction jobs such as sanding freshly mudded walls, priming, painting, and even some gardening. It was so neat to talk with Shelia, who was in her sixties. She explained to us that the day the levy broke it was sunny and warm outside, and she thought the storm had past. She thought there was nothing to be worried about, and that is the reason she was not in a hurry to leave the city. To her surprise, the levies broke, and the water poured in uncontrollably. Then it started storming, and the winds started blowing so hard that she said the houses blew back and forth. She managed to get out of the city and go to her sister’s house in Texas, but her eighty year old mother was not so fortunate. She had to be rescued by helicopter on the top of a building. Shelia came back to more than 4 feet of water all throughout her house. To make matters worse, she lost her job as a teacher in the NOLA school district. Although she had to live with her mother for a long time until her house was rebuilt and she lost everything she had, she had such hope and vigor. It wasn’t a burden for her, and she did not dwell on the disadvantages she was faced with. There was hardly any bit of remorse or bitterness when she told us the story of Hurricane Katrina. She told us that God had a purpose for Hurricane and was thankful that he gave her the opportunity to retire early although she probably had a good 10+ years still left in her. It is so amazing that someone can have such hope and perseverance especially someone in her circumstances. It just shows us how small man is, and how big God really is. It is taking New Orleans 5+ years to fix and rebuild something that took God mere seconds to destroy. Though many ask why God could let this happen to so many people, the answer is always the same. The answer is that He had a purpose. Sure, many people died and for many others their lives were devastated, but God did it for a reason. It might take others more seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and maybe even a lifetime to figure out what God’s purpose was and is, but He always has a plan. I have been struggling that myself, and this just opened my eyes because I am always focused on everything in the future. I tend to get stressed out way to much and I also tend to be a perfectionist which is going to bite me in the butt. Both Jared and I felt inspired to continue our new passion for helping people and learning to trust in the BIG God we have. I have always heard from parents and Sunday school teachers that I have to trust God, but I never really recognize that I wasn't fully trusting him. Jared and I discussed and we want to live and love like Christ. We want to be so focused on him that it is all about him and nothing about ourselves. We were stretched out of our comfort zone by doing things we normally do not do, but we learned to put on a happy face because it was all for the glory of God. We learned that no matter the circumstance we can have hope because we believe in God. It is not going to be easy because we have been so used to our self-absorbed worlds focused on “All about me”, but we are going to work at it with everything we have because it is not our will, but His. Please pray for our journey to come!