Mission to Mississippi

 

A group from Nelson Memorial Memorial United Methodist Church made a mission trip to Mississippi to help clean up after Hurricane katrina.  Charlotte, from our church went with them.  She will tell us about it over the next few weeks.

Day One
  
     We got to the Methodist Church at 5 AM and packed up all the tools, luggage, and sleeping bags.  We left soon after.  At noon we stopped at MacDonalds for lunch in Memphis.  While we were there we met another group who were returning home.We got to the Van Cleave Methodist Church around 7PM.  It was time for devotions.  After devotions we had dinner.  This church decided their mission was to provide a place for mission groups like ours to stay and to provide meals  The church was not a large church and we heard that they lost  a lot of their congregation when they undertook this project.  They put beds in their sunday school rooms, built showers , provided all the bedding, towels, etc.  Volunteers came in to cook the meals, and they provided food for our lunches.  Because they had 90 people coming the week we were there, they asked if we would mind staying at a summer camp about 5 miles away.  The camp was different from anything we had seen before.  The cabins or houses were all privately owned.  Many of them had been damaged by the hurricane.  Ours had been recently redone.  It had 7 or 8 bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a little kitchenette.  It was all very rustic.  The heat was two very, very old gas heaters.  We didn't use them much.  There was plenty of hot water, for which I was thankful.
    It was a long day and we were all tired.  All the bedding was there along with plenty of blankets.  We soon went to bed.

Day Two

 Sunday morning we got up early.  VanCleave church served breakfast at 7AM.  We stayed at the church and went to their worship service.  We  had lunch at the church and then the eleven of us drove to the gulf.  The destruction along the beach was bad.The houses that had once been standing there were either completely destroyed or badly damaged.  I"m sure a lot of the rubble had been cleaned up, but a lot of it was still there.  There was debris in the tallest trees.  You could tell how high the water had been by the trash left in the trees.  Many of the large trees had been uprooted.  The safddest thing was to see the things left behind - little dishes, a caqn opener, a spoon etc.  Those were bits and pieces of someones life.  Some of the things had been picked up by people who had come to see.  They were left there for the owners.  At one place we saw a granite counter top broken in three pieces with the faucets still attatched.  One of our team members remarked that it made it evident that we should not put our faith in our possessions.  They could be destroyed in a few minutes.  
    We met a group from Seattle, Washington.  They had sent 2 of their team ahead with their tools.  The rest had flown in.  They were using chain saws to cut up trees that had fallen and brush that had been bulldozed into piles.  As we walked along we saw a car with a missouri license.  They were from the St. Louis area.  This was their third trip.  They had brought some young people with them this time.  The beach was littered with debris.  At one place we saw a doll that was damaged.  A mother and father were there with their small children.  One member of our team talked to them.  The father worked forFEMA.  His wife and children had come to spend the weekend with him.  It was a sad trip back to the church where we had dinner and devotions.
    Monday morning we were up early again.  After breakfast and devotions, the site manager took us to the work site, which was some miles away at Moss Point.  We were assigned to work on a house on Pecan Street.  It was a short street with lots of FEMA trailers in the tiny front yards.  We were going to work on Annette Jackson's house.  Beside the trailers there were piles of rubble from the houses along the street.  Annette's house had been gutted and  some of the insulation put in.  A few peices of sheet rock had been put on the ceiling, but the roof had leaked so we had to pull that down and re insulate it.  The roof had been fixed.  We put the rest of the insulation in and by afternoon they had enough sheet rock up so we could start mudding.  Most of the living room was done when we stopped for the day.  We got cleaned up and went to the church for dinner and devotions.
    A work team from Pennsylvania was staying at the camp where we were.  They invited our team to come and have devotions with them.  Some of our team went, but the rest of us went to bed.

   
Day 3

     It was raining when we woke up Tuesday morning.  It rained and was drippy all day.  Annette came over to see the progress.  She told us her story.  When they were told to evacuate she left.  However her daughter, son-in-law and grandson didn't leave soon enough.  They had to swim.  They were picked up by a boat and taken to a church.  Then the church flooded and they all had to go to the balcony of the church.  It was a very scary time.  When the storm surge from the gulf came ashore it backed all the rivers and wet lands, so the water at Moss Point was river water.  There was 4 to 6 feet of water in Annette's house.  There was enough gulf water mixed in that it killed most of the vegetation.  Annette said that the water came up fast and went down so fast that it took everything with it when it went.  She had french doors at the back of her house and everthing was washed out those doors.  Her refrigerator and wide screen TV were laying on their sides.
    We fixed our lunch and took it with us each day.  The neighbor had a picnic table and benches in front of their house.  They were gracious enough to let us use them.  We had to eat inside Tuesday because of the rain
    We couldn't finish everything in each room because the plumber and electrician had not been there yet.  We worked until 4PM and went back to the cabin to clean up before we went to the church for dinner and devotions.
    Wednesday we worked hard sheet rocking and mudding and sanding.  Annette told us she and a friend had been doing alterations.  They had 10 or 11 machines between them.  They were all washed away.  We decided to buy her a sewing machine.  We all contributed and after work the other three women and I went to Walmart in Pascagoula and bought her a sewing machine.  We were late getting to the church for dinner and had a vegetarian dinner that night.  It was a lot colder that night.  I slept in sweat pants, a sweat shirt, socks and had my sleeping bag and another blanket over me and was still cold!

Day 4

  Where did you see Christ today?  This is what we were asked every night at devotions.  I saw Him in the love surrounding us - the work teams, the people of the church, and the people whose homes we worked on.
    George lived next door to Annette Jackson.  His home was a little smaller than Annette's.  He said he raised eight children in that home.  When he came back after the hurricane, he was so discouraged he contemplated suicide. Then the church at VanCleave began to send volunteers to help rebuild his home.  He began to have hope again.  We were told many times our most important job was to give these people hope again.  The work was important, but giving hope was more important.  A team from North Carolina was working on his home.
    We asked Pastor Larry how they determined which homes to work on.  He told us they had a questionaire that each applicant had to fill out.  They could usually tell from the answers given which ones needed help most.  He said as far as they could tell, they had only been fooled 2 times.  However, he said to remember that these people had lost everything.  If some of them asked for help and didn't need it, that was between them and God.  We were all doing what God had called us to do.
    Thursday was a beautiful sunny day.  We were busy again putting up sheet rock, mudding, and sanding.  The ones putting up the sheet rock in the bathrooms decided they should put up some green board to prevent moisture damage.  They measured and thought they needed 4 sheets.  Larry and Bill went to Lowes in Pascagoula to get the green board.  Larry said going to Lowes was like going shopping the day after Thanksgiving.  They looked , but couldn't find any green board .  When they asked at the check-out counter, they were told that there might be some outside.  They went outside and there was 4 sheets left.  Coincidence?  We didn't think so.  
    We stopped work an hour early and drove to Pass Christian on the gulf.  There we saw the full fury of Hurricane Katrina.  For a quarter of a mile inland there was nothing left, but a few trees with a lot of branches gone.  There were no buildings left.  Farther inland we could see blue tarps on the roofs, but weren't close enough to see if anyone was living in them.
    We drove into a parking lot of a Walmart store.  Most of the front of the store was there, but not much was left of the insides.  What was left was discolored all the way to the top.  It had probably been under water.  Some of the debris had been cleared.  We could see up the streets.  We went through an area that hadn't been cleared.  All you could see up those streets was rubble.  All the fast food places along the beach were gone.  Only their twisted signs were left.  One hand lettered sign said, "Waffle House - we'll be back".  As we got closer to Gulfport, there were larger buildings  - probably motels and condos.No one was in them.  Huge casinos were completely destroyed.  There were big machines on the beach sifting the sand.  Piles of debris from their work were piled along the highway every so often.  We could see trees scattered way out in the gulf.  There was probably debris there too.
    The gulf looked so beautiful and peaceful when we were there, it was hard to imagine the fury and destruction that caused so much damage.  We were told there was a 28 foot surge and 40 foot waves on top of that.  We drove back to camp, cleaned up and went to the church for dinner and devotions.  Larry led us in music and Roger gave the devotions again.

Day 5

Friday was our last day.  Everyone worked hard to get as much done as we could.  We weren't able to get it all done.  Some of it had to wait on the plumber and electrician.  We were told not to feel guilty if we didn't get as much done as we wanted to.  Another group would come and finish it  When the wall board and trim were up, the owner had to paint and put any flooring in.  It was tempting while the house is gutted, to want to do some remodeling.  We were told not to do it because we weren't in the business of remodeling.  We were to put it back the way it was.  We did make a minor change in the hallway in Annette's house.  She wanted us to remove a wall, but it was a load bearing wall.  It took a lot of persuasion to convince her it was not a good idea to take that wall out.  She finally was convinced that it wasn't safe to remove that wall.
    Thursday a man came by and thanked us for being there.  The next day he came by with a sheaf of papers and told us we could invest in some cheap property.  Of course some of it didn't have a clear title, but we could buy it cheap.  No one was interested and he was referred to as "the carpetbagger" after that.
    We were all anxious to get home, but it was sad leaving all the work teams and workers at the church.  When we tried to thank the church workers who had fixed our meals and had done everything they could for us, they said, "Oh, no.  Don't thank us, we thank you for coming to help."
    The team from Pennsylvania and some of our group had devotions together and communion when we got back to the camp.
    We were up early Saturday morning, all packed up and ready to start home.  We got started a little after 5 AM.    We met two other teams on their way home, when we stopped for breakfast and lunch.  We arrived in Boonville about 8:30 PM.  The church had a "Welcome home "  sign  out front.  It took a while to sort everything out again.  We had a stray sleeping bag and pillow that found their way home later.  The extra tools that appeared were sent to Van Cleave.
    I would like to close with a scripture that the work team from Pennsylvania shared with some of our team                      
     "This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.  Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.  And in their prayersfor you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"    2corinthians 9:12-15.
       This is the greatest volunteer effort the United States has ever seen.  Most of it is being done through the efforts of churches and caring, loving people  who want to help those who have lost so much.



 

 

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