Just another day in New Orleans...

          The temp. rises over 99 degrees and sweat drips down over my lips, but when I go to wipe my mouth off with my arm the strikingly tangy and posionous flavour of bug spray fills my mouth. Quickly I run over to my waterbottle and splash down something that won't kill me, but instead of the cold icewater I was expecting, burning hot water scorches the back of my throat. An unfortunate sequence of events on my part, but really it's just another day in New Orleans...
          It's day number two on the jobsite and once again the team and I find ourselves busy tearing down drywall, pulling out rusty nails, tripping over snake-like vines, and breathing in unheathly amounts of dust and grime. One room in particular had a curious effect on me. Broken bits of the wall big and small covered the floor, not to mention piles upon piles of dust! Never have I swept so much. My father would be proud, as sweeping is his favorite chore and sady (Florida home) floors his bigest pet pieve, but back to the point. This was the room my friends and I had been attempting to make spotless since we first laid eyes on it. After spending all day yesterday in the room and half the day today, this project had gotten personal. Not only were we tired of dusting and shoveling, but it was beginning to offend us that no matter how many times we carried our buckets of to and fro, it never seemed to get any cleaner. Our feeling (and our arms) were hurt.
           Closing in on our last hour of work, we still had not left the room, but we had finally began to see some progress. As we neared the back of the room with shovel in hand, we noticed a large,long piece of wood nailed to the ground and blocking any further achievment. We pulled and proded at the the wood with our shovels and with our hamers, but to no avial. It wasn't budging. Weak-armed and tired legs we trudged to the front of the house. We were losing faith, but suddenly the amazing crowbar cought our sight and hope filled our eyes. Finally after a half hour of trying to move this piece of wood, it came out! Proudly we shared a round of high fives and took an early, yet well deserved water beak.
           After our short, but sweet celebration, I began to think agian about that stupid piece of wood. It kept coming up in conversation, but not for nothing. This piece of wood was a symbol. A symbol of distration. Just like in life and in our Christian faith, we hit roadblocks. They get in our way and sometimes it just seems impossible to move them aside. Today this piece of wood was our roadblock. Although it may seem insignificant, it really ment a lot to me today. It put into perspect the struggles I have been facing recently and showed me just how much they can block my reationship with God. Pushing and pulling doesn't always work. For this job, we needed something bigger, just like in Christianity we need somthing bigger than our good works to get us through hard times. We need Christ to get past it all. Christ is our crowbar.

              Written by Allison Green