Family photos in shattered frames, abandoned cars lining the road, clothes hanging from trees, a perfectly preserved wedding dress tucked among devastation: the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was stark for 41 members of the Christ United Methodist Church.
Twenty-one high school students, four college students and 16 adults from the church spent their spring break in Chalmette, La., and Waveland, Miss., clearing debris. Leaving on a bus Friday morning, they worked at cleaning six homes and a state park on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, before making the approximately 22-hour trip back. They unexpectedly had Saturday to enjoy in New Orleans but the rest of the trip was spent serving people they never met before.
The devastation was more than just losing homes or possessions. What bothered many people on the trip was that the families in the houses they cleaned up lost their way of life.
"It was really heart-wrenching to see that a lot of the destruction was still present," said Emma Grettenberger, 16, and a junior at Interlochen Arts Academy. "Two houses were completely destroyed at the state parks, all over the woods were their clothes."
Kevin Knight, 15 and a sophomore at Kingsley High School, said the small towns have had minimal clean up work done in the months since Katrina. Waveland, Miss., at ground zero of the hurricane's landfall, was simply wiped off the planet. To even get into some of the homes they were working on, teams had to shovel through a foot of mud to reach the door.
"We didn't figure it would be that bad so long afterward," he noted. "The places that need it the most are barely touched."
The non-profit National Relief Network based in Greenville, Mich., facilitated the trip. Susan Johnson, a board member with the organization and member of the Christ United Methodist Church, helped set it up and accompanied the crew as a volunteer coordinator.
When she heard of interest in a mission trip, she suggested the church coordinate with the NRN.
"It's a wonderful organization, essentially they just try to help people rebuild their lives after a national disaster, we're in it for the long haul," said Johnson of NRN, who traveled to Louisiana over Thanksgiving with a different group of volunteers. "This was on such a large scale."
Sunday during their second service, members of the church listened to testimony from trip participants and also watched a slide show of pictures.
Pastor Louis Grettenberger, who also went on the trip with two of his daughters, noted this small delegation was just one of many coming down to help people clean up and rebuild their lives. In fact, his small church sent nearly a third of its membership and the experience brought everyone closer together and may spark additional mission trips.
"I was gratified to see that there were thousands of groups like ours from churches, and other organizations working there," he said. "It's hard for them to start all over again but it has to be done."
"There's an emergency need here that we need to respond to," Grettenberger added.
Three generations of parishioners went on the trip as well as seven exchange students staying with church families this year.
Zoya Belmesovan, 17, from Kyrgyzstan, was moved by what she saw on the trip and felt like helping out was part of the American experience.
"I was really sad, almost in every house we found toys, these toys were lying in this mess and all this mess because these little kids had to see all this disaster and run away from it," she said. "I was shocked to see everything, all the ruins, still there after seven months. The only people working there were the volunteers."