TRASH PILED HIGH WITH MEMORIES
We have a FEMA adjuster living with us here at the church. I told him a while back to be on the look out for anyone who could use some help with their house. Galatians 6:10 tells us to never pass up an opportunity to do good to others, and especially to our brothers and sisters. Well, I have been doing good to our Christian brothers and sisters here in the New Orleans area and I am constantly looking for opportunities to do good to the non-Christians as well so when I heard about this young police officer who's yard was in such a mess that they couldn't get a FEMA trailer into his yard, I jumped at the opportunity like fleas to a dog.
I took a couple of men from a church team that came down from our old church in Shell Lake, Wisconsin and we went down to Lake Katherine to meet this young policeman. Lake Katherine is where there are only 15 houses left standing of the 350 before the storm. We were loading up trash into a wheelbarrow and hauling it across the street to pile it up to be picked up later. I noticed one of the men picking up the pieces of a cedar chest and carrying it across the street. I was thinking of the treasures that it must have contained while I was picking at my pile of trash. I noticed that long strings of lace were intermingled in the trash that I was cleaning up. I found several pieces of this lace from 10 to 15 feet long. As I was picking up the third piece of lace I looked up and there hanging on the side of the house, attached to a very rusty coat hanger, was his wife's wedding dress. Needless to say, it looked pretty shabby. As I stood looking at the dress the man said, that was my wife's wedding dress. I opening my mouth and said, "George, you better convince your wife to stick with you, and she won't need another one." His reply was, "I guess you are right."
You can't clean up people's treasures without a touch of sadness entering into your heart. I looked down George's street where only about half of the houses on that street are still standing and thinking, "Everyone of those empty lots is where a family once lived and now they have no house and they can't even find any of those treasures that they once held dear, even those wedding dresses from those houses are scattered across the road in the swamp or maybe the winds carried them to Mississippi, I guess 180 mph winds could carry them that far.
We have a FEMA adjuster living with us here at the church. I told him a while back to be on the look out for anyone who could use some help with their house. Galatians 6:10 tells us to never pass up an opportunity to do good to others, and especially to our brothers and sisters. Well, I have been doing good to our Christian brothers and sisters here in the New Orleans area and I am constantly looking for opportunities to do good to the non-Christians as well so when I heard about this young police officer who's yard was in such a mess that they couldn't get a FEMA trailer into his yard, I jumped at the opportunity like fleas to a dog.
I took a couple of men from a church team that came down from our old church in Shell Lake, Wisconsin and we went down to Lake Katherine to meet this young policeman. Lake Katherine is where there are only 15 houses left standing of the 350 before the storm. We were loading up trash into a wheelbarrow and hauling it across the street to pile it up to be picked up later. I noticed one of the men picking up the pieces of a cedar chest and carrying it across the street. I was thinking of the treasures that it must have contained while I was picking at my pile of trash. I noticed that long strings of lace were intermingled in the trash that I was cleaning up. I found several pieces of this lace from 10 to 15 feet long. As I was picking up the third piece of lace I looked up and there hanging on the side of the house, attached to a very rusty coat hanger, was his wife's wedding dress. Needless to say, it looked pretty shabby. As I stood looking at the dress the man said, that was my wife's wedding dress. I opening my mouth and said, "George, you better convince your wife to stick with you, and she won't need another one." His reply was, "I guess you are right."
You can't clean up people's treasures without a touch of sadness entering into your heart. I looked down George's street where only about half of the houses on that street are still standing and thinking, "Everyone of those empty lots is where a family once lived and now they have no house and they can't even find any of those treasures that they once held dear, even those wedding dresses from those houses are scattered across the road in the swamp or maybe the winds carried them to Mississippi, I guess 180 mph winds could carry them that far.
posted by Jim Burton at 8:05 AM
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