PDA Mission Trip #32 (New Bern, NC) – Day 2

Written by: Laura Wilson

The day began with Fletcher reading the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila: 

“Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. 

Yours are the eyes with which He looks with Compassion on this world. 

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. 

Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world. 

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body….” 

A touching meditation, it spoke to each of us and set the tone for the week’s work. 

Thanks to the delicious and nourishing breakfast that Yvonne and Mary Beth fixed for us, we were energized to start our first work day for Craven County Disaster Recovery Alliance. To prepare us, Kristy and Jeremy Kulberg, the dedicated coordinators of the organization, oriented us to the week’s projects and to the individual homeowners, who are victims of not only the ravages of past storms, but also of severe poverty and family traumas. 

The gray morning was a fitting backdrop for the dilapidated structure we encountered. The aged tree-struck and water-damaged trailer we stepped into this morning was cringeworthy. Cobwebs covered ceilings, walls, and most surfaces (truly a scene from a Halloween movie set – except scarier because it was someone’s real home). The resident has been “couch surfing,” including sitting under a tarp in his yard, since an enormous tree fell on his van, with its branches going through part of his trailer’s roof. 

Our mission this week is to make two of the bedrooms habitable, including doing electrical work, finishing wall paneling and ceilings, preparing one of the bathrooms to reinstall fixtures, cleaning out the cobwebs throughout the house and painting at least one of the bedrooms. And perhaps the most important job was getting acquainted with the homeowner, who has endured so much trauma but was surprisingly outgoing and spirited. 

We are blessed that within our group the individuals have a variety of skills, so that, acting as the body of Christ, we can meet many of the needs of both the renovation work and the compassion work of relating to the homeowner and listening to his stories. So yes, Fletcher, our real job this week is to be Christ’s hands, feet, and heart, and today was a good start!