Setting the Record Straight

I dragged into church today...literally. Not sore, but exhausted in many ways. My back which hurt all week from the lifting and pulling feels just fine. I found out that many people thought I was Susan Soares writing. No..I am Sue Sinclair and most of you do not know me. I had been looking for something ..a place where I felt called and the first Sunday I saw the announcement for the Mission Trip to New Orleans, I knew that at that moment, that was what I was looking for. So I signed up and have attended worship since. Anyway, I want to tell you that what we knew about New Orleans from the media and the government is not the New Orleans I encountered. There is so much we, I do not know so I am going to continue to educate myself about what really happened. Before I left for this mission and now afterwords I have had people make comments like, "Why didn't the people themselves clean up their houses and why didn't others in the community pitch in and help?" There are so many stories and I will share with you what I believe to be true so far in my education. The first house we worked on, the owner had a stroke...before or after the levies broke, I do not know. The mother had already died, so the house is the responsibility of the children who also have their own homes to recover. I know that the people that own the houses we worked on went through a lengthy process to qualify for help and the UCC Church as represented by Rev. Alan Coe had participated in the process of evaluating need and responding to it. Who am I to question that?! I know that many people had to leave the city due to no home, no job and no way of surviving without assistance....many were relocated by the government itself and have not returned. Remember Hazel on our flight over? After 18 months, she was finally coming home. I was told that three quarters of the population of New Orleans left! Can you imagine that? Businesses were still closed When we were there. Hospitals were still closed as well. One lady we met stated that if you really need emergency medical care, go outside the city as sometimes the ambulances wait in the parking lot of the remaining hospitals for 9 hours before they are able to deliver the patient. Can you imagine that? I guess I have some outrage at some of these comments about how people there have not helped themselves....Some have not and that is true in any situation, but not most!....Well, enough. I came home last night to my house with electricity, plumbing, my son, my dogs and cats, to flowers (some frozen but not all!) and to my wonderful life. How grateful I am for the riches I have, materially, with family, with friends, with church. Thank you God for all that I have and I pray I will never forget the feelings of saddness and loss in the city of New Orleans and the knowledge that God is still working through us and despite us in our world!