Justice

Today was our day of service.  We started out at the dome for worship. Then we boarded a bus with another larger group and went to Holt Cemetery.  Holt is a pauper's cemetery. It is in a high degree of disrepair: missing or broken grave stones, broken glass, trash, weeds, and sunken graves. We found that many people are buried in the same grave. What was once a crematory, is now filled with trash.

Now a cemetery would certainly not be the first choice of most teenagers as a place to do their service work; add in the heat and humidity of New Orleans as well as fire ants, but kids were pushing around wheel barrows filled with soil, filling in sunken graves, picking up trash and pulling weeds and in between, trying to stay hydrated.

And then, what most would find unthinkable, bones were found: parts of one skull, a separate mandible and even dentures.  As the specific grave could not be identified, we gathered around and reburied the bones. Dan prayed over them.  I do not think today is one our kids will quickly forget.

And then there was Bobbiann Lewis.  Bobbiann has dedicated herself to trying to get volunteers to maintain and improve Holt Cemetery.  Bobbiann is a licensed mortician.  When she was to bury someone in Holt, she was embarrassed at the conditions found there.  She decided to do something about it.

Holt started out as part of a plantation. When the slaves were freed, they eventually needed a place to be buried. Samuel Holt provided that land. It is a pauper's burial grounds. A Potter's field. It costs $450 to be buried there. After one year and one day after someone has been buried, the grave can be used again for someone else.  I found one grave with nine people listed.

For me, it has been a difficult day to process emotionally.