30 Hour Famine
April 26-27, 2008

For the 6th year, the youth from Christ Lutheran Church participated in the 30 Hour Famine, a weekend event designed to bring awareness to the problem of world hunger. The national event, sponsored by World Vision, lets teens experience first hand the feeling of true hunger, by not eating for 30 hours straight. The group spent the time at the church participating in various activities that benefited both the community and themselves. In addition, the group raised over $1,000 for World Vision and their humanitarian causes throughout the world.

Confirmation Class
May 11, 2008

Congratulations to Andrew Claehsen, Sean Larkin, Malory Pascarella, Olivia Pascarella and Frank Pinto.

Hurricane Katrina Servant Trip
March 2007
(by Rob Denicola)

As my flight touched down at New Orleans International Airport, I did not know what to expect. I knew that the people of New Orleans needed a lot of help on its road to recovery, but I also heard of the successful Mardi Gras festivities that took place the weekend prior to my arrival. After a week in the Crescent City, there is no doubt that the majority of the people in New Orleans are in dire need of assistance.

For the duration of our trip we stayed in Highlands Baptist Church, whose congregation was elated to have us as their guests and even more elated that we came to assist in the relief effort. Every day started at 6:30am with a quick breakfast, after which we drove half an hour to the day’s worksite. Our first few days were spent in Eastern New Orleans, at a house whose owners had moved in only a month before Katrina. Very early on it was apparent that the work would be neither easy nor clean. From 8am to 2:30pm we tore out moldy carpets, drywall, furniture, and everything else that did not hold the house up. By the time we finished the house two days later, only the frame remained and it was ready to be reconstructed.

What affected me the most out of my time in New Orleans was the time we spent in the Ninth Ward. Out of the two parts of the Ninth Ward, Upper and Lower, we worked in the Upper Ninth Ward, primarily because the houses in the Lower Ninth Ward were by and large unsalvageable. The tour we took through the Lower Ninth Ward really opened my eyes to exactly how much New Orleans is still in need of relief. For acres and acres there were only house foundations, which were slowly being grown over by grass and which were eerily marked by the remnants of staircases or metal frames that somehow survived the flood.

Yet what heartened me in my time in New Orleans was the unconquerable faith that the people who were affected by Katrina showed. As we carried out the molded items out of one man’s house, the items that were once all his worldly possessions, the house owner recited several Bible verses and preached to us that we would be rewarded for the work that we did in New Orleans.

I am truly grateful that the church funded my trip to New Orleans so that I was able to represent our congregation in an area of the country that indubitably needs as much help as possible.