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Professor Jon Baer - We returned to campus in good order after an outstanding week in New Orleans. During our five days of work rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina we were able to accomplish a great deal. Our main project was a new build; thousands of homes in New Orleans were so compromised by the hurricane and resulting flooding that they had to be demolished so new homes could be constructed on the lots. We focused our efforts on a site where we found an elevated platform (new homes are being built four or six feet off the ground) upon our arrival. By the end of the week, we had constructed the basic framework of the house — walls, trusses, sheeting, etc. We worked very hard and made huge progress towards rebuilding the home of a displaced New Orleans resident. A couple of students from our group also worked two days on laying tile in another home, and all of us spent an hour or so during a rainstorm in a third home moving sheetrock to help prepare the house for an initial inspection. Other volunteers who stay at Westside Mission will continue the work at each of these homes in the days and months ahead. The woman who resided at the main property at which we worked is Rose Gueringer, a long-time New Orleans resident. For years Mrs. Gueringer’s mentally handicapped brother lived with her and her husband, but not long before Katrina both her brother and her husband died. Mrs. Gueringer faced the hurricane and dislocation and exile in its aftermath alone, and she wants nothing more than to live her remaining days in her own home in her own neighborhood in her own city. Since Katrina, Mrs. Gueringer has been living 135 miles away near Lafayette, Louisiana, but we helped her take a significant step back toward Carnot Street, in the Gentilly or Elysian Fields section of her home city of more than 50 years. The residents of the other homes we worked on — Lou Bautiste and Margaret Banks — have similar stories, and indeed the stories of tragedy and suffering are multiplied thousands of times over. I’m grateful that along with hundreds of other volunteers at Westside, we’ve been able bring some measure of hope and renewal to Mrs. Gueringer, Mr. Bautiste, and Mrs. Banks. I thank God for the privilege of serving people in need in New Orleans. I’m also thankful for and immensely proud of the 11 Wabash students who participated this year. Each of them could have chosen a more relaxing, easier way of spending his spring break. They could have rested, spent their time catching up on schoolwork, or perhaps even headed to a fun beach location. Instead, they chose to drive 15 hours for the opportunity to get up at 6:15 each day to labor building homes for strangers they may never meet in a city far from home, then turn around and drive back. These are young men of strong character and abiding faith, and they represent the best of our Wabash mission to “act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely,” and even to “think critically” (it takes a lot of critical thought, calculation, and planning to build a home). I’m also grateful for the fortitude, camaraderie, and compassion of Prof. Dave Maharry, who models the rich tradition of Wabash faculty committed to the well-being of students and the larger community. Without the dedication, planning, hard work, and faith of Keith Strain, Paul Cass, John Hooper, and Dave Lunsford, from First Christian Church in Crawfordsville, we would have gotten much less done; indeed, the trip would not have been possible without their efforts. As you’ll see from this blog, all of us — students, faculty, and Crawfordsville residents — learned a lot about ourselves, about New Orleans, about suffering and hardship, and about service, grace, and hope. Finally, I remain inspired and not a little in awe of Brother Vance Moore, whose faith, commitment and desire to help those in need has enabled more than 5,000 volunteers from around the country to rebuild homes in New Orleans. One afternoon in New Orleans we cut off a bit early because a downpour had begun, so we took the students to the Lower Ninth Ward, the hardest hit area of the city and where we had worked the last two spring breaks. The devastation and destruction that remain in lower-class and working-class areas like Gentilly are hard to believe, but in the Lower Ninth Ward it is astounding and profoundly disturbing. Four-and-a-half years after Katrina it looks like a war zone, filled with vacant lots, houses that appear just as they did when the waters receded, piles of refuse, and much brokenness. Even in downtown New Orleans there are numerous high-rises and large buildings that stand defunct with shattered windows and other remnants of late August 2005. But in the Lower Ninth Ward that afternoon we passed by the homes of Ray and Clara Foxworth, Thelma Tyler, and Ray’s brother Willie Foxworth. A group from Wabash and First Christian had worked on these homes in March 2008, and they’ve now been occupied for well over a year. Last year I had the pleasure, along with David Swann ’10 and Eric Griffin ’10, of visiting each one of these homes and talking at some length with the owners. Similarly, we passed by homes we worked on last year, some now occupied. And I look forward to future visits with Mrs. Gueringer, Mr. Bautiste, and Mrs. Banks. There is more than enough despair to go around in New Orleans, but there are also signs of hope renewed, lives restored, and love amid the ruins. Matt Hayes ’11, Paul Hudak ’13, Jeff Kessels ’10, Matt Levendoski ’12, Chris Pearcy ’10, Cody Schroeder ’11, Brock Sibert ’12, Cory Tiedeman ’11, Tom Wade ’11, Garrett Wilson ’13, Graham Youngs ’11. Some Little Giants!
Brock Sibert '12 - Well, we are currently on I-57, just southeast of Ullin, Illinois. We have been on the road for almost 11 hours and still have about 300 miles to travel before we reach Crawfordsville. Nonetheless, the long ride home has allowed me to do some reflecting. This past week has really been one of the most fulfilling experiences that I’ve ever, well, experienced. I can be the first to admit that I was a bit skeptical about coming on the trip. Not being an extremely religious person myself, I had this pre-conceived notion that I would end up feeling out of place or out of my comfort zone doing mission work for Brother Vance and his Westside Mission. But, my fraternity brother, Jeff Kessels, insisted that I go, convincing me that it would be a great experience. So, I hopped into the van at 5:30 last Saturday morning and we began our journey to the Big Easy. Monday morning began with a bit of a hiccup, as my clumsiness got the best of me, and I took the honor of garnering the first “on-the-job injury.” However, I was left with a pair of my own personal stigmatae (I tripped, my hands came down on top of a wire fence, and a couple of wire spindles went into the middle of my palms.) and the rest of the week went without a hitch. We managed to get a lot of work done, including building the frame, putting sheeting up on the sides, and getting all of the trusses up. I was also able to gain some new friends, creating new relationships with a great group of guys whose hearts are definitely in the right place. To top it off, I know that Ms. Rose will greatly appreciate her new home once it is completely finished. Overall, the trip was wonderful. It was comforting knowing that a group of guys who previously didn’t know each other could come together and accomplish a feat such as building a house in order to help out a city that is in dire need of assistance. There is a lot of work that still needs to be accomplished in New Orleans but every little bit counts, and with a little effort and faith, this work will eventually be completed. I want to give a huge thank you to Dr. Baer, Dr. Maharry, Brother Vance and his Westside Mission, all of the guys from the First Christian Church in Crawfordsville, Father Dave, Lambda Chi Alpha-Alpha Kappa Zeta, and all of the guys that accompanied me on this wonderful trip and made it a week to remember!
Graham Youngs '11 - At the start of our stay in New Orleans Pastor Vance challenged us to identify what motivated us to participate in Westside Mission this year. As my week comes to a close it seems clear that I have gained several things in the process, namely: a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of satisfaction, as well as a fairly ridiculous farmers tan. Today as we erected the final trusses on the roof, I had a funny feeling that this trip has been more service oriented than I originally thought. True we spent the week building a house for a Ms. Rose; however, we did not actually see her reaction to the completed house. I have often participated in mission programs and served impoverished people face to face. These sorts of programs allow you to see the direct benefits of your labors in the form of gratitude. Perhaps a simple ‘thank you’, or smile. This week however, we simply served as another cog in the Westside Mission machine. Ms. Rose will never know our faces and we most likely won’t be there to witness her initial reaction to her new home. Instead it seems to me that gratitude has been manifest in the overwhelmingly kindness shown to our group by many inhabitants of New Orleans. Our service therefore, was not merely building one house in Elysian Fields, but continuing a sense of hope for the Community in New Orleans. I’m not sure if I could identify exactly why I chose to participate in this year’s trip, but at the end of the week I can say for certain that I was able to provide a needed service.
Paul Hudak '13 - Last day down here in New Orleans was amazing. Garrett and I went to this other site for the second day to work on ceramic shower walls. This process took a long time. There had to be at least fifty different ceramic tiles that had to be cut for just one bathroom. Once all the tiles were cut the rest of the walls were put up pretty quickly. At the end of the day you could not tell where our hands ended and the adhesive began. It looked like a two-year old kid finger painting. Unfortunately, we did not finish the bathrooms, there still needs to be a wall put up in one room and another row in the other. When we got back to the other site it looked like a different house. All the trusts were put up when we got back all they were about ready to head back to our place of residence. On the way back we hit the more traffic today than the rest of the week. But today is the last day we will get stuck in New Orleans traffic. Later on in the night the French Quarter will be the last place we will visit down here in New Orleans.
 Professor Dave Maharry - As we finish our fourth day working here in New Orleans, I have found myself thinking about how this kind of work can make us think about how we might approach all of life. We come ready to work on a project that we feel is important, and it is, but then something else comes along, maybe rain or missing materials or just an unexpected project that needs to be attended to immediately. We need to be ready to change direction or change our focus. We need to be aware of so much in our world, needs of others, beauty in nature, the enjoyment of the folks around us, as well as the work we set out to do. We have already accomplished so much working on the house which has been our main project. But along the way we have been aware of the changing weather, clouds and sky, the Mocking Bird that has been watching us and talking incessantly. We have even talked about the rhythm of the pounding of multiple hammers as different men have worked on different projects around the house, a rat-a-tat of work making a rhythmic music in the background of our work. During a quick rain storm we broke off work on our new house to go to another site to move wallboard up to the second floor, a dirty, tiring, but much needed job. The rain storm, which seemed to block our primary focus, turned into an opportunity to cool off and complete another job, then return to our primary work renewed. Lots of life can be like that if we let it.
Cory Tiedeman ‘11 - This is my second year now coming down to New Orleans on the Wabash Spring Break Mission Trip. We have just finished up day four on the worksite and I have been surprised at how much progress we have done on the house. When we got there on Monday, all that was done was the floor. In four days, we put up all the walls, boarded the outside and started on the trusses for the roof. We thought that we would miss two days due to rain earlier in the week but were blessed with good weather all week. It was very interesting helping to build a new house from scratch since I just worked on gutting and putting in a new floor last year on this trip. It has been a long, hard, and tiring week but still I have had a good time working with everyone and getting to know a few Wabash men a little better. I am also excited about finishing up work tomorrow and visiting the French Quarter tomorrow night.
Chris Pearcy '10 - Prior to leaving for New Orleans last Sunday morning, I really wasn’t sure why the trip appealed to me so much. I’d consider it quite different from any Spring Break I’ve been on since coming to Wabash. I spent the whole trip here on Sunday trying to figure out why I had agreed to come on a trip with 12 other people I didn’t know, to a place I’ve never been. But by the end of our first day here I think I’d found an answer.  See photos here from Day 3 in New Orleans.
Brother Vance asked us that night after we returned from work and finished eating a question that he has made famous at the mission. It’s a question that I think we all keep in mind every day we are here. “Where did you see God today?” he asked us. I really appreciated the simplicity of the question itself because it really made it easy to think about. I feel like all too often we try to find some profound experience where He affects each of us rather than taking the time to appreciate the day to day things He does. I answered Brother Vance by telling him about a wall we’d put up that day, probably around 36” long filled with 2 X 4s every 16 inches for the length of it. I explained how so many of us were skeptical that the thing would even budge or hold together when we tried lifting it, but it did. Once we got it up I looked around and realized that it legitimately took every single one of us playing some role or another to get the wall up and into place. But what really amazed me is that, prior to Sunday morning (at least speaking for myself) I hadn’t said more than maybe five words to any of the guys on this trip, and as Big Paul from First Christian put it, we looked “like a well-oiled machine.” A group of strangers working together like we’d known each other since day one at Wabash College was amazing to me, and I know we worked so efficiently because we are all on this trip for the same purpose. We are now on our third day of building and my observation from day one has only been reinforced. We’ve finished all the interior and exterior walls, top plates that the roof trusses will sit on, and we nearly finished placing the OSB board around the exterior walls of the house. Three days and already we have what at least resembles a home again where there was nothing but concrete blocks and a raised floor before we started. Once again Wabash has hooked it up with another amazing trip. I have already had an incredible experience here in New Orleans and I have no doubts that this is how I was supposed to spend my senior spring break. It has been a rewarding experience so far and I look forward to finishing up our work the rest of this week.
Garrett Wilson '13 - It’s amazing what a small group of motivated Wabash Men can accomplish during a time when they are suppose to be taking it easy. On our third day of our building, we became worried about the looming weather for the day. With a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms we were unsure if we could accomplish what we set to do for the day. Yet, our construction is starting to look familiar to a home for the new family. We put on all of the inside walls and all of our rooms have been constructed. We fastened our outside walls and tomorrow will start, most likely, our most difficult venture so far.
Matt Levendoski '12 - The week is just getting started, but I feel like we have accomplished so much already. God has really been at work. Friendships are being forged and walls are being built. Even though we are the ones doing the work we have been blessed in so many ways. In the past couple of days I have been taught so much! It is my firm belief that God is teaching me about perseverance and being content.  We have a couple snags here and there, but our progress cannot be hindered. Our mission is to get these people back in their homes. Vans stuck in mud (way to go Professor Maharry!) and misread blueprints can easily dishearten any group. Thankfully that has not been the case for our resilient bunch of guys. We have had to keep in mind that the prize is worth so much more than our physical labor. Seeing the destruction that is still present four years later is mind blowing. We have no idea how much we have to be thankful for. People’s lives here were washed away with the flood waters. The citizens of New Orleans lost so much more than houses. They lost homes. Many families have been here for several generations and now they are forced to live in different states. Some may never be able to return. Memories of empty lots where homes used to stand will certainly make it difficult to complain in the future. I just want to thank all of those that made this trip possible. Pastor Keith and his Church, Professor Baer, Professor Maharry, and my family, thank you so much for all the support and direction. This trip has been amazing. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the week has in store!
Tom Wade '11 - While on my second trip to New Orleans hosted by First Christian Church, Wabash College, and Westside Mission, I have been quickly reminded what I have missed since last Spring Break…I believe there is much to be said about the way Wabash men come together and work towards a common goal, despite not necessarily having relationships beyond familiarity. See photos from the second day of work here. The men on the trip, whether from First Christian Church or Wabash students or faculty, have been able to represent the hearts of servants of Christ in a great way. All of us here have been able to bond and grow closer together; in a way, we are our own ‘Band of Brothers.’ We all have different strengths and abilities to offer in rebuilding homes, but the desire and willingness to accomplish as much as we can while we are here is ever so apparent in each of us. We are here to rebuild homes and that’s what we’ll do! At the end of each work day, we look back and answer the question, “Where did you see God today?” I can say without any reservation that I have seen and continue to see God in the root of why each of us are here; we aren’t here to necessarily lend that helping hand to those in need, but to heed that calling in our hearts to open our hearts to God and seek His will while we are here. No matter what denomination or strength in faith, God called us here together to build homes, seek Him, and grow together as a rag-tag crew…and that’s what we are doing each day. Despite the on-site accidents, bent nails, stuck vehicles, and plenty of sunburns, this trip has been nothing short of amazing. I have been able to see how much a group of people can actually do with their bare hands when their minds and hearts are all focused on a common goal. Yet the work here needed in New Orleans is very easy to see when we look at the 9th Ward. The Big Easy has some Big Problems, and it’s going to take groups like this to instill that hope and love for those in a city in desperation. Along with a few blunders, there have been frustrations, discomfort, and mixed feelings about what I’m doing here and why, but God has been guiding me in these struggles; whether building the house, eating, or a Bible Study, I have been blessed to learn more about each man here, as well as myself and see me grow in my faith. Each day, I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:31, and am shown why I am here and how I can make a difference for New Orleans, and how New Orleans has made a difference for me.
 Matt Hayes '11 - I’ve never been to New Orleans before. And aside from watching movies like “Déjà Vu” and “12 Rounds” and Hurricane Katrina news footage, I would have no idea what the city even looked like.
I’ve actually seen very little of the United States outside the Midwest, which was part of my reasoning for coming on this trip. I figured it would be a good opportunity to see a state and city I have never been to before and help some people at the same time. See more photos from the guys' first two days of work here. Being just a little bitter about the outcome of Super Bowl XLIV, I couldn’t help but have some negative attitudes towards New Orleans. Prior to our arrival, I caught myself thinking “New Orleans is a dump. It’s not a place where anyone wants to live anymore” as if that would take the world back in time and change the game’s outcome. But driving in on I-10 last night and seeing the downtown skyline, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans Arena, Tulane University, Xavier University, and St. Louis Cathedral, I found myself thinking, “This is a really cool place.” And that reminded me of the reason I was here: to make New Orleans a cool place to live again. After driving through the Lower Ninth Ward after work today I see we have a long way to go before that becomes a reality, but we can’t get discouraged. We just keep doing what we do. No excuses.
Cody Schroeder '11 - It was our first day on the job here in New Orleans. Our major project for this week is framing a house from the starting slab. This marks my 10th week in New Orleans. I spent my last spring break here, and I worked as a volunteer intern for eight weeks during this past summer. It is like I’ve finally had the opportunity to return home. When you leave this place, you don’t realize it at the time, but you leave part of you here. It becomes a part of your life that you will always remember because it affects you so deeply. The people, the city, the work, and church will always put a smile on your face. It’s great to be back working and this new group of 13 Wabash students, two professors, and four members of First Christian Church have already accomplished a lot. Today at the worksite we start by framing walls. Already in just the first day of work, we framed five sections of exterior wall and four interior walls that lead off the exterior sections and towards a middle hallway. I have high hopes for this group because it is not often that a large number of young men together that have the strength and endurance to work all day long. There are prospects for bad weather for most of the week so I’m pretty upset that we might not get to opportunity to work outside at the new building. If the weather does take a turn for the worst we will move to another location and do interior work hanging dry-wall. Either way, we plan to do some serious work in hopes that next week another volunteer group will take over on the next step of the rebuilding process for either worksite.
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