Malcomb McLeod of First Presbyterian Church and Dave Moody of Grifton. Jim Privette, Larry Landry, Bud Bradshaw and Roger Brown of the Kinston First Presbyterian Church joined them en route.

This journey had been five months in the making and five of the participants had traveled to Louisiana in September 2005 to assist Hurricane Katrina/Rita victims. It was during this first trip that Dick Carney first visited the small coastal bayou community of Pointe Aux Chenes, Louisiana. While there he became enamored by the strong faith of the members of the local church, “Our Father’s House of Fellowship and Restoration”. The congregation of this church is made up mostly of the descendents of the Houma Indian Tribe who have lived, fished and faced many storms in this area for most of 400 years. They live along the bayous and coastal islands where land turns to water at the end of Louisiana Hwy. 665. They are mostly commercial fishermen and the labor force of the many refineries that dot the Louisiana Coast. Over the years the hurricanes have battered their homes, and for years they have been told to find higher ground to live on, but few have left what has been home for generations.

Hurricane Katrina had dealt them a fierce blow with her strong winds, and many homes were damaged from her wrath. The cruelest blow however, came three weeks later from Hurricane Rita which flooded the entire area under 6-8 feet of brackish water that hung around for over a week before it finally receded behind the levies and into the wetlands throughout this area. Only the homes elevated above 10 feet escaped the soggy mess that seemed to penetrate everything within reach. Some of the elevated homes seemed to bear the blunt of Katrina’s winds and it was one of these and its owner that touched our hearts and prompted us to travel nearly 1,200 miles to help him claw his way back to a near normal existence.

This recipient of all this good will is Craig Neal, 44-year-old lifelong resident of Point Aux Chenes; shrimp fisherman, seasoned Cajun, church elder and man of God. He is the spark plug of the local church, loved by all and always the first to help out those in need. Ten years ago he turned from a life of alcohol and crack cocaine, outlaw poaching and illegal fishing. While at sea one night with a burned up engine he was touched by the spirit and promised the Lord if he would get him back to shore he would devote his life to Him. True to his word, he started attending church, witnessing to others, and gradually rose through the ranks of the church to become the head elder. When the doors open at this small church Craig greets you with a warm smile and a helping hand. Thursday nights each week he travels to the prisons in southern Louisiana and conducts a prison ministry. He has worked non-stop since Katrina and Rita came ashore, helping the members of his congregation cope with the destruction of these storms.

After returning from our first trip to Louisiana we met and discussed what type of project we could undertake to best assist this small community. After talking with the pastor and many other members of the church it seemed apparent that Craig Neal and his destroyed home where on everyone’s mind. Without exception they all said “help Brother Craig and you will help the entire community”. And so it was that our group set out to raise the money to travel south again and help Brother Craig rebuild what had once been his home.

We arrived on Sunday, March 5 to find 10 utility-pole-size pilings in the ground at a height of 11 feet. They were spaced evenly in a 16’ by 54’ rectangle that would be the dimensions of his new home. Louisiana law requires dwellings to now be 14’ above flood level, which meant we had to have an elevation of 12 feet at the base of the structure. Atop the pilings were 12x12 cypress timbers obtained from a local mill. From that point we constructed a floor base and outer band of 2x12’s and in doing so reached the required height of 12 feet. After that this was just standard construction of 2x4 wall studs, 2x6 rafters and ceiling joists and many boxes of nails. To tie the whole package together we installed metal bands every 4 feet around the base and a total of almost 400 hurricane straps to the studs. The hardest part of this effort was the chore of passing up all the material to the base platform by hand. We had no mechanized equipment available to ease our backs. Needless to say we all slept good at night. Most of our days started around 7 a.m. and continued until around 6 p.m. Each night the innkeeper’s mother prepared us a hot meal of Cajun food and we slept with full bellies.

At week’s end we had the exterior walls and interior walls completed, the roof trusses in place and 2x4 purlins ready for a metal roof. The outside walls were covered with plywood, door and window headers in place and this effort was beginning to seriously resemble a home. Brother Craig’s face beamed with joy as he joined in each day’s efforts. Needless to say his faith in God’s helping hand was even stronger. The last day brought stiff winds and prevented us from putting the metal roof in place. We were able to get promises from other church groups working in the area to help get this phase completed to protect what we had done from the rain that in southern Louisiana is sure to come.

Our departure for home was both happy and sad. We too, had come to love Brother Craig and his undying faith and found ourselves hesitant to leave the project incomplete. At the same time our sore backs, sunburned arms and necks were eager to head back to Tar Heel soil. The younger members, 66 and below, decided to put the hammer down and drive straight through while the older guys roosted in Augusta for the night. Our arrival home around midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning was met with welcome spouses and, in my case, about a million dog licks from Maggie, our Border collie. As we reflect back on this effort and plan our next trip I must say our faith in good deeds has been rekindled and our admiration for these strong folks in bayou country has grown even more. If you are eager to help on a good cause, don’t mind long hours, no pay or benefits, tons of travel, a bunch of bug bites and a week or so away from home then you need to join in on the next chapter of the Cajun Country Convoy.