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"Today I stood on the side of the road eating chicken with Sam. We were waiting to flag down a bus that would take him on a nine hour trip to Nashville. There he would meet some family and start over. Sam is thirty seven years old. He is a carpenter by trade (all of the homes in N.O. are wooden) was born and raised in New Orleans and has never been out of the city. The first deep gully he ever saw was as we drove to St. Francisville to catch the bus. He had never seen hills, had never seen a creek. Nashville will be a new visual experience for him.

Sam was one of those who stayed in N.O. He had no car and had never been out of the city so, why leave now. He and a friend stayed together in a second story apartment during the passing of the hurricane. After the storm was over they drove in the friends car to see the damage. As they neared downtown the damage got worse and worse. They heard that it was flooding, so Sam decided to go to his home and get some belongings and get out. As he looked up the street, Sam said that you could see the water coming, Not in a wave, but steadily rising. By the time Sam got to his house and retrieved one small bag of possessions, the water was up to his waist.

Sam waded blocks and blocks to the Superdome, it was full. Then he saw busses on the causeway above the Dome going over the river to the West Bank (Gretna). No bus would pick him up so Sam walked across the Mississippi River bridge to the other side. He and many others spent the night under the bridge. The next day, Tuesday, he walked to the causeway intersection and waited two days to get on a bus. The bus was supposed to go to Baton Rouge, but the driver continued past Baton Rouge on towards Houston. Sam and another man asked the driver to let them off and he did. They paid someone twenty dollars to take them back to Baton Rouge. Sam went to a Catholic church that got him in touch with a shelter at the local carpenters union. It is now Friday and Sam has not been to sleep except for a nap here and there. On Saturday he went to another shelter and then on Sunday came to ours.

We helped Sam get registered with all of the services and agencies, no small task. Sam then made the decision to leave everything he had ever known and go to Nashville where he had some family. There to get a job and begin a new life. He said that he is not sure whether he will come back or not. I think he will. After he makes some money and after they begin to rebuild New Orleans, I bet he will be right there swinging his hammer and putting life back into a dead city. [ aside: That's kinda theological. Read Ephesians two]

An hour late, the bus came into view. We flagged it down. I carried one of Sam's bags onto the bus for him. All of the passengers looked tired and weary. They were leaving a life behind (consider that for a moment). The bus pulled out and Sam with it. This man who had never been out of New Orleans is doing the bravest thing he has ever done. Starting over in a world of uncertainty. Yet he has hope, Sam has the Lord.

This same story is being repeated hundreds of times daily throughout the Felicianas. It is one thing to hear a sermon on trust and hope. It is another to look into the eyes of someone whose family home of four generations will be bulldozed because of contamination. It hits home when you hold someone who can only sob because there is nothing else they can do.

We have given them and bed and meals and helped them begin to rebuild their lives. Like Sam, they leave here with only what they can carry in their arms but, Lord willing, they leave with a renewed hope. Hope in the Living God, Yahweh, the God of the wandering Israelites who provided their every need one day at a time. Hope that a Father who spared not His only Son will also give them "all things." Hope born of the gospel message that has been bestowed upon them by the hands and feet of strangers who are strangers no more.

Pray for Sam. Pray for others like him. Pray that this opportunity for the Church to be the Gospel incarnate will not be lost or frittered away. The hungry and sick and poor are at our doors. The " least of these" are among us. "

Richard Bailey
Plains Presbyterian Church
Zachary, Louisiana