Day 5 The Dawning of a New Faith Journey

Day 5: The Dawning of a New Faith Journey

Friday, March 21, 2009 was our final service day in New Orleans. Although we only worked a ½ day at MISS MINNIE’S house we surely made an impact. Therese slaved away at finishing up Minnie’s landscaping and garden. Sister Pegge and Kathy, the lay associate from Fargo shampooed inside the house cleaning carpets and furniture, while Katie wrapped up with painting the exterior of the house. We finished the house around noon and that is when Miss Minnie showed up! All the hard work that we all put into the house paid off a thousand times over when we saw the look on Miss Minnie’s face when she saw her new home! She was so grateful and thanked each of us for all we had done. And even though someone from the outside would just see a beautiful new home, it was much more than that. One must realize we were in a difficult neighborhood, where people are hesitant to warm up to newcomers. Yet, each day the neighbors were out on their porches, watching us work, and even getting up to clean around their yards! Everyday when we left, the neighborhood waved in such a way, we could feel the gratitude. In conclusion to our service project on Miss Minnie’s house, we blessed Miss Minnie and the whole neighborhood. It was sooo powerful! We packed up our supplies, said our farewells to Miss Minnie and Tom and headed to Café Reconcile.

Café Reconcile was packed when we arrived, but Mary Lou (a Presentation Sister who helps manage the café) found us a place to sit right away. The food was out of this world great! After our bellies were full, Mary Lou gave us all a tour and history of Café Reconcile. The Café was founded in 1996 by Craig Cuccia, the late Father Harry Thompson, S.J. and Tim Falcon. The goal was and is “to help revitalize Central City.” Central City was drug infested along with the whole scene of crimes and murder. It was so hopeful to see the little but mighty reconstruction development going on in the neighborhood. Now people from throughout the city are drawn to the area – revitalizing historic sites, building new housing complexes, renovating old buildings for office space! We were all so amazed by Café Reconcile because, not only was the food amazing, but it’s non-profit and welcoming; it also is set up to help at-risk youth learn “work, interpersonal and job skills.” Words cannot describe the abundant respect we all gained for the Café and anyone who works for Reconcile.

Later in the day Pegge led the entire volunteer group in a beautiful prayer service Jesus our model for service! We each painted a piece of a mosaic that when assembled together became the face of Jesus! We each shared a little part of what we gained from our experiences, how we grew spiritually and new realizations that we came to know over the week.

After our wonderful prayer and discussion, we headed over to the Presentation Sisters house for dinner. We had salad, pizza, cupcakes (Katie mistook a mini pecan pie for a candle – haha!) and of course, life-giving conversations with one another. Each person was then presented with a little flashlight which symbolized the “light of Christ” and a simple blessing was prayed over each person. After saying our farewells, we all journeyed back to our humble dwelling place where we began packing for our return home. Katie, Brianna and Natalie took one last stroll through the local area taking in all the sites and enjoying the time they had left with each other. After stepping outside ourselves and really looking at how we had changed over the week, we came to see that even though our journey in New Orleans was finished, it was the dawning of a new faith journey for all of us.