Co-Ed Finds Reward in Returning 'Hidden Treasure' Found in Hurricane-Damaged Home
by Allie Martin and Ed Thomas
March 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Georgia college student Trista Wright says she never considered keeping any of the more than $30,000 in hundred-dollar bills she found while working on a flood-damaged home in New Orleans during her spring break. For her spring break, Wright joined a church-sponsored Hurricane Katrina cleanup trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. While working at raking out an air conditioner vent in one flood-damaged home, she was surprised to find a cash-filled cache and began pulling $100s out of the wall.
The student was caught off guard when she found the stash, but she says the idea of pocketing any of the money never crossed her mind. "That wasn't an option for me," she said in an Associated Press interview. "We were called there to serve people and to be Christ-like, and that's just not something that the Lord would have approved of."
Wright said she knows that, had she taken the money, "it would have been a temporary happiness, and I would have regretted it. Nothing good would have come out of it." Nor, she pointed out, would the rightful owner of the money have received the blessing that God obviously meant for her to have.
The shocked New Orleans homeowner recalled that her late father was suspicious of banks. In light of the losses she suffered due to Hurricane Katrina, the discovery of his hidden treasure was undoubtedly both timely and welcome.
Of the woman whose father had stowed away the small fortune, Wright observed, "I'm not sure where she stands spiritually, but she said that she felt like it was a miracle. And we all believed that it was, because she was in need of the money."
For the college student, being instrumental in connecting the storm victim with the legacy her father had laid away in the walls of the house was truly its own reward. When she heard about the spring break cleanup trip to New Orleans, she says she felt that God had "really laid it on my heart to go."
While there, Wright says she kept on praying, "Lord, please help us to make a difference," and she believes God heard her request to make her small role in the cleanup effort matter. "It was so overwhelming -- there's so much to do," she told interviewers, "but I guess He answered my prayers, and then some."
Ultimately, the Christian college student is convinced she had a better spring break helping out in New Orleans than any of her fellow college students had who opted to spend their vacation days partying or "cutting loose" at wild social gatherings.
"I think I came back with so much more than a hangover and some forgotten night," Wright said. "I came back with a stronger relationship with Christ and with so many friends that I made while I was down there."
Allie Martin and Ed Thomas, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
