It was a warm sunny day in early October. People used to call it Indian Summer when I was a kid in the ‘50’s. Five Baptist volunteers came from Trinity Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The titles of doctor, wife, engineer, waitress and special Ed teacher evaporated as they were angels working together to shovel mud. Orange Home Depot buckets became the vessels of extraction when they carried them up from my basement, and dumped them next to the driveway where Hurricane Helene had ravined the grass.

I was adjusting my K95 mask which protected me from the black mold when the doorbell rang. I opened the mud speckled door; two clean cut young men in camouflage uniforms were standing on my brick stoop.

“Hello, M’am, we are from the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Would you like us to pick up the debris in your yard?”

“Can you haul it away, too?” I asked.

“No, M’am, we can only stack it up.”

“Ok, thank you very much.” (I wondered, then what will I do with it?)

“I’m grateful”. I said, “My Daddy was a Captain in the Army during World War II. Lieutenant Jeremy nodded.” 

Later that afternoon eleven fit men assembled on a small gray wooden bridge just steps from my front door, as brown water raged over the rocks in the creek under the bridge

. 

“Thank you so much for coming. My voice cracked and I started to cry. I am sorry I don’t have anything to give you. 

I don’t have any water. 

I don’t have any soda. 

I don’t have any cookies.” 

“It’s alright, M’am”, Lieutenant Jeremy said, as he put his hand on my shoulder. “

But, I can give you all a blessing:

“I bless you in the of Jesus. 

I thank you for your service, and for coming to help people after the hurricane. I bless you for taking time away from your families. 

(I want to tell you a story in this prayer.) 

When I met my husband, it was a blind date. We had some friends who wanted us to meet each other. After we all had dinner I left. Gary came back to their home. “I’m going to marry that girl,” he said. “And we were married for 56 years. When it is time and when God finds the right person for you, I bless you with that kind of love.”

“I want you to meet our Captain.” The Captain stepped forward. 

I could hardly believe how young he was and how young my father would have been when he was in command. 

At that moment I thought about how my grandmother had told me “when someone of one generation does something good another generation later on will be rewarded”. 

“Thank you God, thank you Daddy, and thank you U.S. Army.”

Eleven men sawed and worked for three hours making a pile of logs and sticks that was the size of a Volkswagen Bus.

The closest scripture I could find to support my grandmother’s wisdom was: Deuteronomy 30: 9 & 10.

The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands…And turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. 

Amen 

Cheryl Paben