report to presbytery

Today nine of our 21 participants appeared before the Presbytery of New York City to offer our official report on the trip. Sorrel Ann (who couldn't attend) produced a wonderful photo presentation about the trip:



I also delivered a brief report on the trip which you can read as well.

After many months of planning, twenty-one Presbyterians and friends from eight different congregations, including four minister members of the Presbytery of New York City, set out on Saturday, January 13, for a weeklong work trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Months of planning and expectation culminated in this strange and wonderful journey organized through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the Presbytery of Mississippi Disaster Recovery Office, and Handsboro Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, Mississippi.

When we arrived in Gulfport, we were greeted warmly by Mississippians and Louisianans of all sorts – family and friends of group members, fellow Presbyterians and disaster relief volunteers from Missouri and Minnesota, young adult volunteers at our housing site, even the local residents who worked us with over the course of the week. The warm welcome surrounded us the entire week, even amidst a burst of the coldest weather of the winter so far in that region!

Once we emerged below the clouds over the coast that Saturday at sunset, the challenges before us started to become clear. I won’t attempt to describe what we saw – even the pictures we will share with you cannot do it justice, for they do not capture the sheer volume of destruction, the reality that so little was left untouched by the storm.

Hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. While rebuilding has gone quickly for some, most people still face the challenges of insurance nightmares, long waiting lists for contractors, and limited social support systems. The devastation in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast remains beyond description or imagination, even after 17 months of reconstruction work – and good estimates are that only ten percent of the reconstruction work is completed.

Still, though, we offered what we could in the midst of a place that needs more than any of us can offer – a place scarred by the damage of a storm even as it still suffers from the sinfulness and injustice of our world that began long before August 29, 2005; a place recovering from disaster beyond description as it faces the reality that things will be forever different than they were before the storm; a place with fresh memories of government’s inability to help as FEMA packs up a bungled mess even as other hands from around the world pitch in to do what they can to make a difference; a place coping with despair and in need of great hope.

Our group of twenty-one joined over thirty thousand volunteers who had gone before us to work on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Alongside us for the week living at and working out of Handsboro Presbyterian Church were six men from Kansas City, Missouri, and fourteen men and women from Owatonna, Minnesota.

Over the course of the week, we offered a word of hope and peace as we cleaned out sheds, gutted houses, built fences, removed piles of debris, hung drywall, learned and practiced the fine art of taping and compounding, installed kitchen cabinets, built bunk beds, served and delivered meals, organized office paperwork, worked with children after school, made home visits, interceded on behalf of those in need, and wrote about our adventures for others around the world to read. We took an afternoon off from our work in Mississippi to see the damage in New Orleans for ourselves and to engage in a bit of economic relief work around the French Quarter. By the time our work ended on Friday afternoon, we were exhausted. The direct effects of our work were barely visible in the broad picture, but we hope and pray that a few lives might be changed by what we did accomplish.

We are grateful for the support you offered us along this journey: for the vision and financial gifts you gave that made the journey possible, for the time away to do this important work, and most of all for the prayers which carried us through even the difficult moments. Many of you followed our journey online through our blog, hearing about our adventures, seeing a few pictures, and sharing our trip in spirit even though you could not personally go along.

For all of you, though, we would now like to share a brief photo presentation of our experience made by one of our group members so that you may see for yourself the devastation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans, the hard work of Presbyterians from New York City, and a bit of hope that comes through God’s work in this time and place.



As you can see, there is much still to be done. Reconstruction is not yet complete, but you wouldn’t know that from watching TV or reading the newspaper. Mississippi and Louisiana have been largely forgotten – but we will never forget our experience there. In the coming weeks, those of us who journeyed to Gulfport have plans to get together again, to respond to the things that we have seen, to seek out a faithful way of response even at this distance, and to encourage others to go to Mississippi and Louisiana to assist in the ongoing relief efforts there.

While this is our only report to presbytery, this will not be the last you hear from us! In the meantime, tell others about all that remains to be done. Think about how you and your congregation can respond to the situation in Mississippi and Louisiana by sending volunteers or financial contributions. Consider joining in another work trip. Work to change the systems that allowed such a limited response to seem to be enough. And most of all, keep praying for all those in this region, that they might not just return to their homes but that they might have new and transformed lives as we all await the transformation of our world into the image of Jesus Christ.