Dulac Mission Trip

So this past week, my best friend and I were able to join some other people from around the country to do some rebuilding work in New Orleans. We were in an area about an hour south of New Orleans called Dulac which is mostly resident to a tribe of Houma Indians. Most of the homes and buildings there were severely damaged due to Katrina, but also due to the high incidence of flooding that occurs on a regular basis.

The whole trip was truly a great experience. Our day would begin at 7 am cooking breakfast, doing the dishes, working on the community center for 4 hours, coming back and making lunch, work for another 4 hours, shower, make dinner, and then hang out playing 28 or spoons till 2 in the morning (these games were intense =P). It was a blessing to experience the teamwork and camaraderie amongst us initial strangers displayed on practically every level.

Much to my surprise, I also loved the feeling of getting my hands dirty doing some hard core manual labor! We were putting up drywall, spackling, sanding, painting, etc. and at the end of the day we were covered in mud, paint, dirt, and sweat.....and it all felt very good. There was something very satisfying in the exhaustion we felt at the end of the day. Everyone who came was there to work and work we did.  In the end, it was really gratifying to see the tangible fruits of our labor.

I know what we did doesn't even make a dent into what needs to happen there, but the fellowship and friendships that were formed and what we learned of the Native Americans there, just made our world a little bit smaller in seeing the plight and hardships of other communities. I look at these projects, not so much as an opportunity to serve, but to observe how God works in other communities and to broaden my sometimes very narrow worldly perspectives.

I pasted the link below to an article written about our trip in their local newspaper....some of the facts in it are wrong but you'll get the gist of the mission that's run there =)

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20100416/ARTICLES/100419562?p=1&tc=pg
Bond attracts Indian Americans to Dulac
HoumaToday.com

DULAC — A couple of times each year, a kindred group of volunteers visits Dulac to help rebuild the bayou community from hurricanes and flooding.