Atlanta

Monday we left to go to Atlanta to help with the flood victims. It was, I don't even know because words can't describe. I was there, I saw it, I talked with the home owners and I still can't imagine how I'd react. I can't comprehend it.

This picture was when we first arrived. This guy was one of the pastors we partnered with. He was telling us that we were one of the first groups to arrive. I was really confused to why we were the first groups to arrive. A lot of the people in Atlanta did not have flood insurance which left a lot of people homeless and lost. The pastor here told us a lot of people were so confused on what they should do that a lot of people ended up going back to their homes and sleeping on garbage bags. That means not only are they breathing in mold they're breathing in waste; sewage.

I know this is a funny picture but if you look at the trees you can see the discoloration on them. That is how far the water went up. We were told the water was up at least 30 ft. Crazy..
The two pictures above are what we did all day. We tore people's homes apart and threw their lives out of windows and took them to huge dumpsters. One of the interns said it was awful that he'd ask the home owners something like, "This uh is your family photo it's water damaged but do you want to salvage it." And most of the time they just reply with just throw it all away.
These are what the homes looked like after we gutted them.


Some girls I met and some girls I already knew. Even though it was a traumatic time it was also a wonderful bonding time.

One of the most moving things to me was our last house. It was eight at night and it was dark. I was tired and I was ready to go home. I wanted to be done but we ended up doing one more house in the dark but lit up by two car's headlights. I was so annoyed but as we were busting our behinds I realized that the man who owned the house was sitting outside on his lawn watching us. He was an older gentlemen named, Mr. Leon. He was by himself. I started to think If we hadn't done his house, who would have or at least how long would it have taken for someone to do it? He sat there and watched us rip apart his house. Not just his possessions but his carpet and his walls. Throwing stuff out of the second story window and dragging it out into his front yard for garbage. How would you react to that just sitting there watching your home be demolished? I don't know how I'd feel. I don't know it's things like this that we do in the internship that make me appreciate life so much more. That make me more of a humbled person and become more compassionate towards people, because that's hard for me. The authenticity that we brought helped out a lot. And I think we forget where the glory should go.