Police Chief, Warsaw Resident Repair New Orleans Church Damaged From Hurricane Katrina
Posted
Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
While many people spend their vacation relaxing, Warsaw Police Chief Steve Foster spent his two weeks of vacation making repairs to a church in New Orleans that sustained damage from Hurricane Katrina.
Foster and Warsaw resident Joe Streeter drove together to New Orleans to spend two weeks making repairs to Holy Cross Lutheran Church.
The two made the 15-hour trip by car, leaving Feb. 2 and returning to Warsaw Feb. 16.
Streeter attends Redeemer Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Warsaw, and found out about the opportunity to volunteer in New Orleans in his church newsletter.
He asked Foster if he would be interested in joining him, and Foster agreed.
Foster and Streeter volunteered with Camp Restore, a Southern District Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod camp, managed by Laborers for Christ.
Laborers for Christ is a ministry of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, comprised of Christian men who use their retirement time to volunteer for congregations, schools and social ministries of The Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod.
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod opened Camp Restore in October, a camp that constructed a church and school into a place for volunteers who aided in hurricane cleanup to stay while they volunteered.
Attached to the church being repaired was a school where Foster and Streeter stayed with volunteers from Camp Restore. The school's gym was turned into a dining area, the classrooms were turned into dorms, and modulars were brought in for volunteers to take showers.
Foster and Streeter arrived in New Orleans Feb. 5 and Foster said he was shocked by his first impressions of New Orleans.
"Being on site, we saw the devastation for what it was, and when we saw the damage to homes, we saw entire neighborhoods that were destroyed," Foster said.
He said only recently running water has been restored to most of the city and electricity has been restored to half of the city.
Streeter said buildings that were once occupied by hospitals, doctor's clinics and malls were vacant.
"Pre-Katrina population was 485,000, and post Katrina population was 199,000," Streeter said.
He said two-thirds of the homes in New Orleans were rentals, and there is now no housing market in New Orleans.
Foster and Streeter spent the two weeks assisting other volunteers with Camp Restore in tearing out the church's old windows, putting in new windows, replacing aluminum siding and putting up walls in the church's interior.
"There were volunteers who had never picked up a hammer before, but they found a job they could do," Streeter said.
Both Foster and Streeter said they enjoyed meeting and working with the other volunteers and meeting a couple who were missionaries from Japan.
Foster said on Super Bowl Sunday, he visited a grocery store in New Orleans. While he was at the store he saw a cashier who stopped ringing items up and came around the counter and gave an embrace to a customer they knew.
"It was the first time that some of the people had seen one another since the flood, and up until that time had no indication that they had survived," Foster said.
Foster and Streeter also visited Biloxi, Miss., Feb. 3 on their way to New Orleans so they would be able to compare the devastation that had taken place to New Orleans.
Foster said the biggest damage to Biloxi was wind damage. He saw a church that had been leveled off, and a church steeple that was salvaged and lying on the ground.
They also saw gasoline filing stations where the only thing left was a canopy. Foster said the only visible indication that it was a filling station was the curved pipes left behind that once guarded the gas pumps.
Foster and Streeter said they hope to visit New Orleans again soon to finish repairs on the church.
"It truly was a blessing to volunteer and we could tell our work was appreciated," Foster said.
