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Volunteers
The Grateful Stranger
One day in late July, seven volunteers from Plymouth, WI helped pass out flyers for an upcoming VBS at Christ Lutheran church in Chalmette.
Afterward, they went to Armand’s in St. Bernard Parish for sandwiches and Po’ Boys, all wearing matching shirts that said “Jesus = cool.” At the restaurant, everything seemed normal; they ordered, ate and asked for the check.
However, when they received it, the check said “taken care of.” The volunteers went up to the register to thank the restaurant, but when they sat back down their waitress corrected them.
Pointing, she said “the man who sat at that table over there paid for you. He wanted to leave before you got your check so you wouldn’t know who it was.”
The group stared at each other in surprise, until they realized their T-shirts had given them away to the grateful stranger. He was not the first person to express his appreciation to RAI’s volunteers. Locals frequently offer friendly waves, greetings and tokens of gratitude. The nation’s kindness has certainly made an impact, but people of the Gulf Coast have made their own impression on the volunteers.
Relief from the Sun, in the Son
With a passion for people in need, a young volunteer came to New Orleans to help restore the homes and community. After hours of hard labor in the sun, he’d finally sat down on Louisa Street to eat a sandwich when he heard someone crying.
He looked down the street to find a woman, in her early 20s, sobbing.
“Ma’am, what’s wrong?” he asked her.
She insisted it was nothing, but he asked again.
“It’s the sun,” the woman said. “It’s so hot.”
He gently ushered her into the shade and asked her once more how he could help. The woman explained that she had just been fired, she was pregnant and didn’t know what to do.
He listened to her as she told him about everything that was going wrong. Then he asked if he could pray with her, and she told him yes. So they took each other’s hands and began to pray.
They thanked God for all of the blessings of the day, even though they did not seem prevalent at the moment. Then they asked God to fill her life with hope and peace that only God can provide.
By the time they finished praying, the woman had stopped crying. With that, she continued on her way.
This volunteer discovered what thousands of volunteers before him have also experienced—often the greatest impact we can make has nothing to do with swinging a hammer or hanging drywall - simply pausing, listening and sharing time can go a long way.
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“Looterans”
Early on in the chaos that was New Orleans after Katrina, a small group of Lutheran volunteers were making their way through the city. Several of them became separated from the group and eventually came upon a local man whom they asked, “Have you seen a group of Lutherans go by?”
The man, looking a bit confounded, replied “We SHOOT looters here!”
In the nearly four years since, tens of thousands of Lutherans and volunteers from other denominations have come through Camp Biloxi and Camp Restore to help Restore Faith, Home and Community to the survivors of Katrina, helping over 2,700 families get back into their homes after major rebuilds and almost 4,000 more with smaller rebuild projects.
Today, it’s much more difficult to find someone in New Orleans or Biloxi who’s never heard of Lutherans before. In fact, many volunteer groups receive “drive-by blessings” as they go about town: friendly greetings from strangers who are so very grateful for the help and hope they continue to provide.