By Josh Weidmann on Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:58 PM

Thursday. Day 6 of 7. Trying to Bless but being Blessed Instead.

I’ve never see so much dust in my life. Today we finished sweeping out the old church and boarding it up. It is now as clean as it can be for the Easter services. There are is nothing in the church as it is torn down to the bare studs in the walls, but if they bring chairs or sit on the floor they will be able to have church. I think we must have sweep for hours to get all the dust out of that place, but in the end it is near spotless. God gave us strength and focus to get through this tedious work.

Finishing the church today was quite a mixture of feelings. It was nice to be done with our projects for the week but so hard to believe our work here is done. As we sat on the steps of the church and ate our lunch out of the orange cooler, we looked around and the neighboring houses and still saw so much to be done. My heart was trying to comprehend how our four days really made a difference. However at this point, even four days makes a world of difference in the plethora of work to be done.

As I get ready to go to bed tonight, I can’t help but be so thankful for these teens. Working along side some of the best youth in the world is more of a blessing than words can capture. They all teach me so much about life and the process of growth. They always exceed my expectations in millions of ways. I can recall moments this week where I witnessed their smiles, laughter and even their tears showing evidence of the Spirit moving boldly through their lives. These teens are not my mission field, they are my friends. Yes, I do give them my all to minister to them but in the end I’m blessed by God through them. We share a friendship and a bold that is equivalent to the brother – sister relationship Paul wrote and told Timothy to have with the people of God. These are my “little brothers and sisters” and I love them as such.

They live out this verse: “Do not let any one look down on you because you are young. Yet set an example for them in speech, live, love, faith and purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).

The dust has settled. The Teens are now asleep. I will end this day with a song of joy in my heart and anxiously await to see how His mercies are new when I awake in five hours. Good night.

By Josh Weidmann on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:18 PM

Wednesday. Day 5 of 7. Rebuilding the “Temple”.

Remember when we were kids and we would do that thing with our hands to show a childish representation the church? We would take all of our fingers and interlock them on the inside of our grasp and start staying the rhyme, “Here’s the Church and here’s the steeple, open the doors ands see all the people.” Then when our palms were flipped inside out we would wiggle our fingers to represent the people inside. Well today I went to a church in downtown New Orleans, but the more appropriate poem for what we experience would be like - “ Here’s the Church, watch out for the steeple, kick down the boards and there’s no people.”

Today we were assigned to go to a church. There was something special about driving up to this old brick church in shambles because of the flood damage and no one has reconstructed it since hurricane Katrina. I was told before we arrived that is church used to be a thriving body of over 200 people. Since August 25^th, 2005 when Katrina rolled in, there are only 12 people still around that went to the church and they have never met again in 18 months.

It was fabulously to be assigned to clean “God’s house” today. We took the boards off and entered. It had already been gutted of all its insides except for a few light fixtures, the old baptismal, and a few random pieced of dry wall still of the ceiling. The small yard of the church was a mess with multiple fallen trees and a jungle of weeds. The parsonage home next to the church was also in desperate need of attention.

For the entire day today we worked to get the inside and outside of the church into the best shape possible. The 12 remaining members in the area are in hopes of holding an Easter service at their old building even if it means they sit on the floor or they bring their own chairs. With that goal in mind, our team has worked all day to make this dusty old structure a vibrant place of worship once again. Tomorrow we are going to give it another good 8 hours in hopes that the will be able to open their doors (if they get doors) to the community for resurrection Sunday.

Today I was reminded that God truly does make all things new. He is in the business of renovation and renewal. This old church building had obviously been accepted as adequate before the hurricane and very little action was taken to improve it over the 60-some years that it has been standing. Probably the same could be said of the people that once came here to worship on the weekends. Perhaps there were some who accepted average as adequate. How many times have I even take what has always been and made it into something that I thought should always be? It is important to trust the reconstructing hand of God. This church will be like new again some day. I hope the people that meet there will be too.

God, I trust that you sometimes have to tear me down before building me up.

Allow the flood waters of your ways wash away what is stagnate.

Tear down my walls of comfort and conformity and expand them for your utility.

 

Lord, you rebuilt the temple for Israel.

You are renovating this place for people to meet with you here in New Orleans

Now, please O God, please restorate the temple of my life so you may dwell there full.

 

In the name of your Son, a master carpenter, Jesus Christ. Amen.

By Josh Weidmann on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 10:44 PM

Tuesday. Day 4 of 7. God Sees People Not Projects.

My addiction woke me up today. Yes, the small attachment I’ve formed to a brown liquid beverage called “Coffee” was the only thing that was going to get me out of bed. Previously, the night before, I had arranged a run to a local coffee shop with two of the other guy leaders. We planned to get in a van and drive the coffee place to have our quite time with the Lord, but also be woken up with the aid of coffee. It was wonderful. We sat there sipping our coffee in silence as we all read our Bibles and prayed. My body and soul woke up.

After that I was awake and ready for the day. My soul was prepped and my body “pepped” and I was determined to make this day a great one. We returned to the same New Orleans home we worked on the day before and began to tear down all the walls and ceiling. The job was not nearly as disgusting as the yesterday, but it was filthy. Tearing down moldy boards and sheet rock was not exactly a tidy job. I was the only one that was tearing down the ceiling because I didn’t want my teens in the youth group to be at risk of getting hurt. However, my task of tearing down ceiling slats of wood came with its surprises. There were very few boards that came down cleanly. Most of the slats were covered with debris just waiting to fall on my head as it was pulled out of place. At the end of the day most of our team was so covered with dust and dirt you couldn’t even tell the color of our skin. When we removed our goggles and face masks there was an outline of them on our skin giving the illusion that we were still wearing the them. Needless to say, my shower at the end of the day was heavenly.

Today was not a day of doing anything for the sake of being noticed. We finished the job without ever showing anyone our final product. No home owner came by to see what we had done. No supervisor checked in. No reports we waiting on the porch. It was just a job accomplished for no one’s glory but God’s. Through this grueling two day “Gut” job I’ve relearned the necessity of selfless service. Ministry is not flattery. We don’t do what we do in the kingdom to get a pat on the back or pat ourselves on the back. We do it to please God – whether anyone ever attributes it to Him or not. Surely the homeowner could return to see her house take care of and thank no one but the special services team who sent her. But God know who did it – He did. He called us there and HE transformed our live in the future. We don’t need the compliments, nor does He. Because God is much more interested in the process than the product, he doesn’t want the praise for the job but every step of getting the job done.

Now, my Savior will put me to sleep tonight. I can rest peacefully knowing He has continued the project He started with me and He is not done with me yet…

By Josh Weidmann on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:11 PM

Monday. Day 3 of 7. Clearing debris from a house and cleaning up my heart.

My Alarm went off at 5:45 am. It was actually a mere beeping in the choir of other alarms of sound off in the room of over fifty guys on airbeds on the floor all in one room. The day was going to be filled with so many unknowns and the men remained rather quite and everyone was rubbing the sleep form their eyes and pondering the potential happenings of the day.

After a breakfast of mini-wheats and baked eggs we received our assignment. Like a person in the reserves military must feel, we were filled with anticipation as we were served our orders for service. My team was assigned to “gut” a house – meaning that we would strip it down to nothing but the studs. The question was; what was remaining between us and the studs in the wall? Mold? Belonging? Shredded sheet rock? Furniture? Who-knows-what?

The only thing written on assignment sheet was the person’s name who owned the house we would be working on. Her address and telephone number were for Texas so she obviously had evacuated after Katrina had arrived. We called her on our way in an effort of courtesy to inform her we would be there today. She was grateful for our work and simply asked that if we found any “religious items” we save them for her.

Upon arriving to the neighborhood, it was like were entering a movie set. The houses were is a wretched state and there was evidence of tragedy all around. When we pulled in front of the boarded up house we had no idea of what waited for us inside.

I ripped the boards of the front door while insisting the team stays behind me so I could first check out the property. The nails creaked and the board finally snapped I was able to see inside and instantly my heart sank. Everything was still there. Everything. It was a house completely full of people’s belonging. It was evident that they left their home and took nothing with them.

I walked through the four rooms of the house walking on at least a foot of stuff everywhere I stepped. My mind couldn’t even comprehend the sight. How could this all still be like this when the hurricane was over 18 months ago? How come no one has helped this family until now? How many other houses on this block are like this? Or how many in this city are still like this?

We dug through loads and loads of personal belonging. Even handful of debris we carried to the curb gave us a glimpse into this family’s torn apart lives. We empties records, TVs, bed, dressers, cloths, dolls, china, pictures, wedding certificates… and the list could go on for pages. As we took one milk carton full of broken dished and others ruined sentimental items and threw it on the pile, a small music box went off. There among all the ruin was a sweet melody still singing one last song.

By the end of the day our team had cleared the house of all the items. We removed the maggot filled fridge and tore up all the floors. Tomorrow will be a day of tearing down walls, removing other large appliances and taking down the ceiling.

All the lessons I learned today will surely not be realized until moments yet to come. However, I do know that going through someone else stuff that was left behind in a hurry makes you think – what is it that I really value in this world? If my house was filling with water at a rate too fast to grab anything, would I be okay to walk away and let it go? Is my treasure truly in Heaven?

Finally, it made me think about what my life would look like to someone else if they knew me only by going through my stuff. Would my life still preach Christ? Would they question my values – or even my morals?

In the end we may have cleaned out a mold-filled house after 18 months of rotting, but this project did something to my heart. There was some selfish debris and misplaced priorities that needed to be removed in my life. Those things  have played their last song, now I will leave them behind in a pile of rubbish to never be seen again.

By Josh Weidmann on Monday, March 26, 2007 11:41 PM

Sunday. Day 2 of 7. The Hurricane before the Hurricane clean up.

Yesterday we took a 16 hour bus ride from Illinois to Louisiana. It was long and laborious. Trying to keep 51 students enthusiastic and occupied for that amount of time is challenging. Even worse – keeping myself (an ADD 10 year old on the inside) from going insane from being confined on a bus can be the challenge of a lifetime.

Today was the first day on the site in New Orleans. We awoke and soon after ate breakfast in the gym of a church right next to the old YMCA building we are staying at. A few waxy doughnuts and a stale cup of coffee started Sunday. We all attended the church services. After church, I was in charge of doing team building activities for our 7 teams of students. This was like a 3 college credit youth ministry class all crammed in three hours.

With the help of my faithful intern sidekick Johnny (and my sister Janae on the phone) we came up with 9 team building exercises for the youth. In the 80 degree heat and 90 percent humidity we took each team through all the games. All the games went great and got the responses I was looking for – there was yelling, frustrating moments, problems to solve and most of all dysfunctional teams learning how to be functional. I was running from one game to the next, filling up water coolers, giving water bottles to the leader, blowing whistles and cheering teams on continuously (almost all at the same time) for three hours straight. It was absolutely chaotic, but hey – that’s youth ministry. :)

In the end I saw God’s body at work. I saw these teens overcome fabricated problems that are mere shadows of real life. When God designed His children to work together as a body, it only verifies the ability He has to foretell the struggles His Children will face. He never meant for us to be islands. We don’t have to operate alone. How amazing would it be if we all would dispel pride and practice humility for the sake of unity?

Unfathomable.

I got to see a glimpse of that today.