work left to be done

A team from my church arrived back from a short mission trip to Beaumont, Texas this last Saturday night. It was a wonderful time of fun and productivity as we worked on three separate homes that were damaged due to hurricane Rita from two years ago. I have been asked why they still need help since it was "a long time ago". One of the leaders from the Rita Recovery team stationed in Beaumont explained it to us this way: After the hurricane made its presence known on the gulf coast of Texas, over 2100 houses were tarped to aide the homes from sustaining any more damage. If one roofing crew worked all day, every day, all year (assuming that not one of those days had rain to make it unsafe to be up on a roof), they would be able to fix 350 roofs. Of course there are more than one roofing crew working, but that is just Beaumont, and there were other cities that Rita visited without welcome. That is hurricane relief. The next step is hurricane recovery. Relief is focused on safe and dry; recovery is about bringing life back to normalcy and permanent fixes. So our trip mainly consisted of hanging, taping, and floating drywall in place of molded or swelled walls and ceilings. As we drove from a church were we stayed to the different houses, you could still see blue tarps that are shredded and weathered from the years of waiting for just a bit of help. Can we do that - offer a singular moment in the course of our lives to extend a hand up for those that simply have a need that can truly be easily fulfilled? I surely hope so because that is my hope. I am reminded back to an article in a local newspaper in Poland that was shown to us. It asked the question: Is service to your neighbor a shallow expression or is it more? Can we be that witness of grace that says, "I am here for you. I see a need in your life. What can I do to help?"