Joyous workers

Singing broke through the noise of a summer thunderstorm at the Martha Fisher Recreational Park on Kyries Hebert Street around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
The youthful chorus of voices from the shelter in the neighborhood park likely are not the norm for the area, but about a dozen members of the Vineyard Church of New Orleans kept themselves and their new friends entertained as the rain fell, lightning flashed and thunder added accents to the singing.
The youth were among 115 from the church who had arrived Monday at the Acadian Baptist Center in Richard for a mission trip that included doing basic home repairs for Eunice residents.
Tasha Levert, an adult leader and wife of youth pastor Tim Levert, said this was the group’s first mission trip to Eunice.
“We’ve got teams all over Eunice,” she said.
There have been seven youth teams and adult leaders in Eunice doing handyman chores such as painting, building wheelchair ramps and repairing plumbing.
“Some of it is like handyman kind of stuff. They just need someone to come in and fix,” she said.
The students are 11 to 19 years old. The middle school students stayed at the Acadian Baptist Center and the older students were in Eunice doing the repairs.
One reason for coming to Eunice is church leaders have a history with the Acadian Baptist Center, she said.
“My husband went there when he was a teen,” she said.
“It was an easy place to come to and then when we started seeing if there were needs we met such amazing people. So, we just fell in love,” Levert said.
“We were in Grand Isle the last two years. Our group has grown so we kind of overwhelmed the islands,” she said.
The group stayed at a high school, but they “maxed out” its capacity.
The 1,500-member Protestant church is located in Kenner on the west side of New Orleans.
The group is scheduled to leave today, but Levert indicated they will return next year.