Katrina - Four Years Later

Fall is in the air again and with the arrival of September comes the annual anniversary of the most important time in my life, the three months I spent on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29th, 2005. I'm reminded of it constantly. Weather Channel shows, documentaries, and stories in print constantly retell those fateful hours. I usually just watch and smile to myself, knowing that those around me could never understand the impact that storm had on my life if I were to mention it. Because for me, everything reminds me of Katrina. There are too many stories to share the meaning of so many simple memories, but any late fall evening, high school football game, cross, smell of gasoline or song in my "Katrina" play list brings me back to southern Mississippi or eastern Louisiana.

Katrina woke me up. For all intents and purposes I was born on September 11th, 2005, the day I arrived in Mississippi. The days that followed challenged me and broadened my life in ways I never imagined possible as I grew to understand suffering, service, and the true joy of following Christ in the face of adversity. There is not a day that goes by that i don't think of someone I worked with or for on the gulf coast; where they are now, how they're doing, and how they themselves have recovered. I have lost track of most, and like all periods of life this is probably inevitable and perhaps for the best. But my heart will forever find it roots in the downed trees of Mississippi and the flooded remains of New Orleans.

I have traveled back to the area several times over these past four years. Its good to see the progress and travel the roads again, but like all experiences, its never the same. Everyone has periods of life that are simply magical, and while I hate that this period for me came at the cost of much suffering, it was a once in a lifetime mix of trial, triumph, and growth in the presence of the most influential people I have ever met. I'll never be able to recapture that, but the effects of that period will reverberate through me forever.

I posted the above pictures intentionally. They are not pictures of destruction, but of endurance. That cross stood beside the remains of towering buildings brought to their knees by a thirty foot storm surge, and yet remained unscathed. That family stood beside the remains of their flooded home, having lost everything, but filled with joy. Hope in the cross, and you will never be shaken.

If you're reading this and you happen to be one of those special people who I encountered on the gulf who radically altered the course of my existence for the better, I thank you. I'll be thinking about you...

RIP Charleston 9

Today is the two year aniversary of the Sofa Superstore fire in Charleston, SC. The fire killed nine firemen, the largest single incident loss of life since 9/11. RIP brothers. Here is the link to the report about the fire. http://firehouse.com/firereport_051508.pdf

Writer

The other day over excessively priced beer and bowl of French Onion Soup, I asked a friend of mine what his brother was up to. He replied that his brother was writing.

I'm jealous. I feel as I've heard the phrase, "Oh, he's taking some time off to write" several times in my life, and I've always wondered what that would look like for me.

I want to take some time off, move to a one room bungalow on the coast of a Spanish Island, you know, the ones with only a hanging sheet for a door. I want to emerge each sunny morning wearing sandals and a loose shirt buttoned up only half way...

And write.

Post-Galveston

Thanks for the support as I traveled to Galveston last weekend in the wake of Hurricane Ike. It was a tough trip, primarily because I came down with the worst stomach virus of my life the first night there that ended me up in the hospital shortly after I landed home in Philly. That said, Galveston was heavily damaged, at least 60% of the city was flooded, maybe more, with many buildings right on the coast suffering structural damage or collapse. It appears, however, that a great deal of work is underway, most of the gutting has been completed and folks appear ready to rebuild. Galveston will be back. Thanks again for your support.

Hurricane Ike Texas Trip

Tomorrow I am headed to Galveston Texas to do a post Hurricane Ike disaster assessment for the Presbyterian Church in America. Hopefully this trip will yield many ministry possibilities and pave the way for volunteer response teams from across the country to come and work. Please keep my team and our productivity in your prayers.

How Soccer Explains the World

I stole the title of this post from a book I'm reading by Franklin Foer. A New York Times' best seller, Foer contrasts the worldwide love of Soccer with modern theories of globalization. While a fascinating book, it focused mainly on the primary professional football clubs and it failed to discuss the idea encompassed by its title that first drew me to it: Soccer is the only activity (besides maybe warfare) that is truly embraced by just about every culture and every demographic within culture around the world.

I took the Photo above on the fringes of the Kibera Slum in Nairobi, Kenya, in June of 2006. I had been playing with some of the school children I was working with, and despite the surroundings of one of the worst slums in Africa, excitement abounded. The 2006 soccer World Cup was in full swing, and if you followed it at all you'll remember that the West African country of Ghana was doing unexpectedly well. Kenya, and from what the media seemed to portray, all of Africa as well was ablaze with excitement and support for a fellow African nation. On a continent known for its division, I was struck by this unilateral transformation of identity. Ghana flags were being sold in the streets and flapped from the roofs of passing vehicles. They didn't make it all the way, falling to Brazil just before the Quarter finals. But their strong showing brought a talented team from Africa to the forefront of the International stage.

Fast forward to the summer and fall of 2007 when I found myself on two separate disaster response assignments in South and Central America. My first stop was Peru, where 8.0 magnitude earthquake in August had devastated several southern towns. And yet the football games were not stopped, played in refugee camps by the children or with my team of Peruvian Nationals. I came proudly home with Peru Jersey.

Then on to Nicaragua in October after the Category 5 Hurricane Felix nearly leveled the coastal communities on the Northeastern coast. I took the photo to the left one night after completing a medical clinic in the town of Tuara. Despite the destruction, the game lived on.

And thus my interest in soccer has blossomed. Reading a recent post on Ryan's Blog, I was pleased to see the passion continues in Uganda as well. While I'm not sure of Asia's interest in the game and I know the US has a lot to learn, I'm fascinated by how such a simple activity could have so much relevance in seemingly every corner of the globe. If only the gospel had the appeal of football.

Thomas Friedman is Right Again

Anxious in America

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: June 29, 2008

Just a few months ago, the consensus view was that Barack Obama would need to choose a hard-core national-security type as his vice presidential running mate to compensate for his lack of foreign policy experience and that John McCain would need a running mate who was young and sprightly to compensate for his age. Come August, though, I predict both men will be looking for a financial wizard as their running mates to help them steer America out of what could become a serious economic tailspin.
I do not believe nation-building in Iraq is going to be the issue come November — whether things get better there or worse. If they get better, we’ll ignore Iraq more; if they get worse, the next president will be under pressure to get out quicker. I think nation-building in America is going to be the issue.
It’s the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for Americans, not Al Qaeda or Iraq. Anyone who thinks they are going to win this election playing the Iraq or the terrorism card — one way or another — is, in my view, seriously deluded. Things have changed.
Up to now, the economic crisis we’ve been in has been largely a credit crisis in the capital markets, while consumer spending has kept reasonably steady, as have manufacturing and exports. But with banks still reluctant to lend even to healthy businesses, fuel and food prices soaring and home prices declining, this is starting to affect consumers, shrinking their wallets and crimping spending. Unemployment is already creeping up and manufacturing creeping down.
The straws in the wind are hard to ignore: If you visit any car dealership in America today you will see row after row of unsold S.U.V.’s. And if you own a gas guzzler already, good luck. On Thursday, The Palm Beach Post ran an article on your S.U.V. options: “Continue to spend upward of $100 for a fill-up. Sell or trade in the vehicle for a fraction of the original cost. Or hold out and park the truck in the driveway for occasional use in hopes the market will turn around.” Just be glad you don’t own a bus. Montgomery County, Md., where I live, just announced that more children were going to have to walk to school next year to save money on bus fuel.
On top of it all, our bank crisis is not over. Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs analysts said that U.S. banks may need another $65 billion to cover more write-downs of bad mortgage-related instruments and potential new losses if consumer loans start to buckle. Since President Bush came to office, our national savings have gone from 6 percent of gross domestic product to 1 percent, and consumer debt has climbed from $8 trillion to $14 trillion.
My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working.
I continue to be appalled at the gap between what is clearly going to be the next great global industry — renewable energy and clean power — and the inability of Congress and the administration to put in place the bold policies we need to ensure that America leads that industry.
“America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib noted last week. “A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”
We used to try harder and do better. After Sputnik, we came together as a nation and responded with a technology, infrastructure and education surge, notes Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. After the 1973 oil crisis, we came together and made dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. After Social Security became imperiled in the early 1980s, we came together and fixed it for that moment. “But today,” added Hormats, “the political system seems incapable of producing a critical mass to support any kind of serious long-term reform.”
If the old saying — that “as General Motors goes, so goes America” — is true, then folks, we’re in a lot of trouble. General Motors’s stock-market value now stands at just $6.47 billion, compared with Toyota’s $162.6 billion. On top of it, G.M. shares sank to a 34-year low last week.
That’s us. We’re at a 34-year low. And digging out of this hole is what the next election has to be about and is going to be about — even if it is interrupted by a terrorist attack or an outbreak of war or peace in Iraq. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started. Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best. Nothing else matters.