"Knowing that people out there are doing good things won't bring you joy. You have to be part of the story yourself."

It's taken me a while, but I've been meaning to write down some thoughts about our trip to Bayou LaBatre, Alabama a few weeks ago. I think most of us that went down there left a little bit of ourselves with them and brought a little bit of them back home with us.

I kept hearing the same thing over and over again from the people I talked to and from others in our group that talked to people they met. They feel forgotten. Many of them are still living in FEMA trailers, there are still shrimp boats rotting in the middle of town and condemned houses waiting to be torn down - most of them haven't seen a dime of federal money yet. It's caught up in some local bureaucracy somewhere. But what I heard the most was "We've been so blessed by help from churches...we wouldn't have anything if it hadn't been for churches." What a great thing it is, to be a part of the solution. What a great thing it is to see that the Church has left the building. When it comes right down to it, what we're asked to do is BE Jesus to other people. Jesus fed the poor, Jesus healed the sick, Jesus counseled the down hearted, Jesus comforted the sorrowful, Jesus encouraged the distressed.

That's what our youth group did. They encouraged and they comforted. They sweated and painted and cleaned and hammered and swept and hauled. They smiled most of the time, too. It's hard to frown when you know you are helping someone.