Month Two: Hurricane Cleanup and Debrief

Hey Y’all! This is my fourth week in Craiova, Romania!  I’m excited to tell you all about my time here in Romania, but first i’ll catch you up on my time doing ministry in Louisiana. 

Following week five of training camp in Gainesville, Georgia, my squad piled into vans and set off towards Houma, Louisiana to work with Samaritan’s purse. Samaritans purse is a group that organizes groups to do disaster relief. We arrived on Saturday, and stayed for two weeks serving Hurricane Ida victims.

Where did you stay? We stayed in a church in Houma, Louisiana called Covenant Church.  Samaritans purse plans to continue working in Houma until at least the end of November if not longer, depending on the help still needed. My squad was divided into 4 rooms to live in that were used for youth group. These were the rooms that we slept in, kept all of our stuff, some cozy sleeps, and made a few crazy memories.  

What did you do? Everyday we woke up for breakfast at 7:00, then left for the field with our teams by 8:00.  Our Samaritans Purse team leaders were Keith and Joan Jenson.A couple who carried and shared the Father’s love with us and each other. These people truly and fully understood the power of prayer. Everyday the work we did looked a little different, but usually it consisted of cleaning up mold, fixing holes in roofs, or cleaning their yards. After a long hardworking day we were very tired and and throughout our ministry were a lot of challenges, but in the end we saw the fruits that came out of it. We broke for lunch at twelve before going right back to work, and we returned to the church around 4 so that we could shower before dinner. At the end of each day, everyone was so tired. However, we always had enough strength and energy to get through the each day of manual labor which was truly a gift from the Spirit. 

Who provided food? Almost all the food we ate, was cooked my the most wonderful cook Bev. Bev was such a hard worker in all that she did and often had something intelligent and beautiful to say. She also cooked the best food, and a lot of it. Every morning there were multiple kinds of eggs, sausage, casserole, juice, delicious biscuits and gravy, fresh cut fruit, and so much more. Dinner was a similar story, Cajun, salad, pulled pork sandwiches, homemade bread, and don’t forget dessert. In the two weeks I was working with Samaritans purse, every time I left the table I was completely stuffed. 

My thoughts on the storms impact on Louisiana: Seeing all the damage the hurricane caused was very difficult. There were so many abandoned houses, and so many people living in nearly unlivable conditions. But there is so much redemption in the effects of the storm. In the 2 weeks we were there at least 7 people came to accept Christ, and even more that got to hear His good news. Serving at Samaritan’s Purse showed me the truth of Christ fulfilling our needs, and how He really does provide us with everything we could possibly need. I even got to witness Christ in the older generation of locals who worked with us. They praised God even in the midst of their own broken homes. 

What is debrief? Following out time serving in Houma, we went back to the base in Gainesville for some rest, debrief, and processing before heading to Romania. Debrief is essentially a time where we are asked a lot of questions so that we can properly reflect on our past couple weeks. We got to have a zoom call with our parents and we did a whole lot of worship. It was very sweet to have time to reflect as the whole last week in Gainesville was just such a sweet time of soaking up all the Lord has taught and shown me over the last 7 weeks.

I‘ll be sending updates on Romania very soon! Can’t wait to share more about what has been happening here and some ministry stories!

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Photo: My team in hazmat suits at Samaritans purse!