by Pr. David Goodine
Most of our facilities weathered the storm without too much damage to them as Hurricane Isaac parked over our area this past week. Both Prince of Peace/Camp Restore, and Trinity-Claiborne in the Lower Nine came through without too much damage. Some of the other churches in the area had some major damage.
Information is not complete concerning what the needs will be. Flooding in the Greater New Orleans area was not a problem despite the storm moving through very slowly and dumping a great deal of rain.
Before and during the storm I fielded many phone calls asking about what our needs were and offering their hopes and prayers that we would come through without major damages. We did, but not everyone in the area came through the same way.
On Thursday as we were cleaning up the rear area of camp a man pulled up in a white pickup truck. He was in his mid 60’s and was looking for one of our work request forms. He was pretty emotional, trying to hold it all together as he said to me, “We just got things done, and the storm took my shed. I got no more money left. What am I gonna do?”
We had helped this family earlier, to get back into their home and rebuild what they had lost. Now it was happening again.
At Camp Restore we are blessed to be surrounded by people across the country who answer Him with hope. They give of themselves, their time, their money, and their immense talent and hearts to help people in need.
We have people coming in this weekend from the Chicago area who are trained in tree removal and will have chainsaws to help clean up some areas that need work. There are many more places in our region that are going to need more help that will be identified as we move forward. I am heartened to know that there are hundreds and thousands of volunteers who will join with us in responding to their need.
God bless you all,
Pr Goodine
