Mr. Lou's Junkyard of Dreams

Midway through week 1 of serving with Samaritan's Purse doing hurricane relief in New Orleans, LA we had the opportunity to meet a man named Mr. Lou. We showed up at his home and the first thing all of us noticed was beat up yellow VW beetle off to the side. Everyone began to ooooh and ahhhh over it, little did I know what awaited us when we cracked open the gate.

Row after row of VW busses and beetles. Thousands of car parts decked out with the iconic "VW" logo as far the eye could see. I stood mesmerized by the sight.

You see, Mr. Lou is a Collector of sorts. It all started with his business, "VOLKSWAGEN HAVEN, INC" that back in the 60s was a thriving, life giving endeavor of buying anything and everything Volkswagen and selling the parts. But over time his collecting expanded to much more than just vehicles. Tires by the hundreds, hub caps and tin cans, bikes of all sizes, coolers in every shape, size, and color. What once was an organized business had become an uncontrollable, chaotic mess and Mr. Lou was stuck in the middle with no place to turn.

The first thing I remember noticing about Mr. Lou was the deep sorrow in his eyes. Eyes that were surrounded by smile lines and yet, the smile was no where to be seen. As we all gathered around he described to us how he had chosen to stay during the hurricane, a decision that had left him traumatized and haunted by fear. Upon asking further questions I found out that on top of so much tragedy from the many hurricanes, the love of his life had suddenly passed away 3 years ago

Suddenly everything began to makes sense and my heart broke.

Mr Lou wasn't just collecting things because he lacked self control, it was all a desperate attempt to fill the ever increasing void in his life. Maybe, if he surrounded himself with enough stuff, he wouldn't feel alone anymore.

And so what did we do to help Mr. Lou? We began to organize his collection. We carved a walking path through the chaos, stacked tires back in their place, picked up the hundreds of beer cans and set them aside for recycling. Some might see this as a useless task in the face of the bigger picture but I know in my heart the work we did that day isn't what mattered. It was the seeds of hope we planted. Seeds that I pray one day will overrule and choke out the weeds of sorrow and pain and bring new life to a broken yet beautiful man.