This is my second year visiting St. Gabriel's. I was so moved spiritually by my first visit, I couldn't wait for the next. It was another wonderful experience, but completely different from the last. Last year, our group of 5 worked on the church to prepare for the first mass in the months since Katrina. This year, we were able to work with St. Gabriel's parishioners in their own homes. 30 parishioners from Holy Family and 9 Divine Child High School students from Michigan, along with their chaperones, joined the trip this year. We all got to know and work closely with one another throughout the trip.

I worked on the home of Vivian and Leon Gauthier's, an 84 year old couple. I spent time painting, staining, mudding, trimming, landscaping, etc. To show her appreciation, Vivian made us red beans and rice for lunch one and then told us stories. When Vivian and Leon returned home from the flood months after Katrina, Leon managed to find an old portrait of Vivian. It was the only picture he could salvage from the disaster.

As Leon explained his journeys through the waters, we learned that Vivian and he stayed in New Orleans during the failure of the levees. Vivian and Leon were overwhelmed by 4 feet of water before being rescued. They were picked up by boat and left at the nearest bridge where they sat for 2 days - and had no food for 3. When they were retrieved from the bridge, Leon and Vivian were taken to the convention center where they rested before there next journey out.

There is an attachment you feel after working with and talking to the families you've helped. Saying goodbye to Vivian and Leon was very emotional. As I hugged Vivian good bye, she said thank you and I love you. I felt the same way.

...more later

I was invited by a good friend at our church to join her and a few others to go help the Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans for the weekend of January 27 -29 2006. I did not hesitate to say yes. I felt like something bigger than me wanted me to go. I had been struggling with my religion for quite some time. At the time, I didn't know what I was getting into - I just knew I had to go. Five months after the storm, we arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to meet up with the Father from St. Gabriel's Parish, the church we had traveled to help repair. We met Father Doug at St. Jean Vianney Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, where he had been staying for the 5 months since the floods of Katrina. Before heading down to New Orleans he gave us a tour of the beautiful church before us. The entrance doors had symbols and hand prints in an embossed metal of the parishioners cherished belongings. The doors sat about 12 feet tall. Entering St. Vianney's church was striking. The church was surrounded by three quarter glass walls viewing the outside. It felt as though the church was in the middle wilderness.

After leaving Baton Rouge, we headed down to New Orleans to stay with a friend of a friend and a native of New Orleans. Although we had never met her before, she was so gracious - allowing us to stay with her. She thanked us for coming to help. Her home was spared from the water. She lived right outside the lower points of New Orleans. The water rose to her front porch stair but never entered her home.

The next morning we drove into the devastated area. The four of us in our rental car drove along with our mouths opened in awe. The scene was gray and mucky and orange spray paint could be seen on all the houses. The paint on each house was a circle with an X in the center and numbers in each divided part of the X. The four marking represented how many people were found in the home, the team that searched the home, and the date the house was searched. The fourth one was never explained to us. As we went further, we could see the water line on the homes getting higher and higher. As we drove through town, we have to avoid craters in the road that were big enough to fit a car in.

Finally reaching St. Gabriel's church, our destination, we joined Father Doug, Sister Kathleen, our Holy Family Deacon, Greg, and other volunteers from St. Vianney's Church. The structure was intact, including the many stained glass windows all over the church, with only one small 8 x 10 piece in the right hand door broken. Just one small piece and all the rest survived through the storm … amazing. The pews where remove prior to our arrival. The smell was musty. The grass was just starting to show up. Our group gutted the large moistened and mildewed wooded alter and moved the debris to the side of the road where a government trash truck would come by and pick up the materials on an hourly basis. We painted the many doors to remove the water line and marking. We bleached and bleached and bleached the cement floor and brick walls. We cleaned and set up the school chairs for the first mass in the months since the hurricane.

On Sunday, we joined over 300 parishioners at mass. Although the parishioners have since relocated to various areas - some as far as Texas - they still came for the mass. We sat and watched the people hug each other for it was the first time some of them had seen each other in months. It was an emotional, tear-filled scene. You could literally feel the love in the room, the warmth, the concern, the hope and the faith. It was a gloomy day; the skies were gray. As the mass went on, we sat listening to the homily with an overwhelming feeling that can't be described in words. As a beam of light entered the center of the room through the stained glass windows from above, a rush of God's presence came over me and I felt a strength that came from within knowing at that very moment why I came.

I felt the power of God's presence that I have never felt before. A warmth came over my body as I watched on and cried. I could not hold back my tears. The choir sang my favorite song, "Here I am Lord" at this point and I lost complete composure - crying more then I have cried in months. I held my head low to keep from exposing my tears to the parishioners. Later, during mass, we watched the first baby being baptized since the floods. The symbolism of the baptism water represented, for me, the rebirth of their church and, for them, God christening the water of faith instead of destruction. As so many of the parishioners were horrified by water after the flood, this was a powerful way to start to alleviate fears and allow the heeling process to begin.