Two years since Katrina

Two years ago, Katrina reared her ugly head. Last summer, I went on a mission trip with the Aldersgate youth group to Biloxi, Miss., for relief work. I met amazing people who vowed to rebuild. I was moved by their faith and their strength. I'm still in touch with one woman I met there (pictured here). She and I e-mail occasionally. She's moved out of her FEMA trailer and into her remodeled home (we painted the interior when we were there), but her brother has yet to rebuild. In an e-mail she sent me Friday, she wrote, "I think about you and your group a lot. Please keep me in your prayers. I have been watching the weather all the time." So when you say your prayers, please drop in a good word for Ann.

Here are some of my favorite photos from that trip:

A bed sheet snagged in a tree right on the gulf.

One of the high school youth (now a freshman at K-State), absorbing the magnitude of the damage.

Three of us spent an afternoon working under a home right on the gulf. We were able to find some of the homeowner's personal items buried in sand under the house. (That's me on the far right wearing the Georgetown shirt and the KU hat. Yes, it was June and warm out. But we wore long pants and shirts to protect ourselves from glass shards and other debris. We also wore safety goggles, gloves and respirators as a safeguard against mold and "Katrina cough.") One cool discovery: I found an old letter a man had written to her neighbor expressing condolences for the death of his father and stating that his father was a wonderful man. Amazingly, we also found unbroken pieces of family heirloom china. Incredible how the hurricane ripped down concrete bridges while tea cups remained whole, waiting nearly a year to be rediscovered.