The following is a newsletter that I wrote for St. Paul’s church, the church that provided the opportunity for my dad and me to participate in this hurricane relief effort:

St. Paul’s joined other volunteers from southern Wisconsin for a week of hurricane relief and reconstruction in Pass Christian, Mississippi, from Feb. 10th through Feb. 17th. If you speak to anyone from the group, you’ll hear many different stories, but you’ll hear a few things again and again: the experience had a profound spiritual effect on everyone, and you truly must see it for yourself to understand the devastating loss the residents experienced and the phenomenal work of the people who are giving back what the storm took away.

I spoke to Ken Hagmann, the work coordinator, about the staggering number of projects undertaken and the incredible amount of work that was completed by the volunteers this week.

Here is a partial list:

• Removed old roof shingles and installed new ones.
• Hung, mudded, taped, and sanded drywall.
• Finished projects that had been started by previous volunteer groups.
• Painted all the way up to the peak of the sanctuary of the Episcopal church.
• Removed old wiring and devices, nailed new boxes, pulled and stapled Romex, and installed lights and bathroom fans.
• Washed dishes, chopped hundreds of pounds of onions, and hauled food and equipment for God’s Katrina Kitchen (some volunteers started at 6:00 AM).
• Ran the computer to keep records at the local food distribution tents.
• Erected 2 steel-and-kevlar buildings to serve as a day care center for the residents of the FEMA tent city. Caulked to weatherproof the base of the walls, laid flooring, built a 4-foot knee wall to protect the kids from the sharp steel edges inside, roughed in electrical outlets and conduit for lighting, and built a deck between the two buildings.
• Laid tile in bathrooms and kitchens in several homes.
• Hung kitchen cabinets.
• Installed siding.
• Accompanied some Vietnamese residents to Home Depot and helped them find the materials that they would need for their reconstruction projects.
• Visited a nursing home on Valentine’s Day. Bonita Favre was there visiting her mother, and she made a point of telling us how wonderful the people are from Wisconsin. You may have heard of her son; he plays football.
• Visited one of the FEMA trailer parks on Valentine’s Day and distributed valentines to residents.
• Made contacts with the medical clinic, the fire department, and local EMS that will help with future volunteer relief efforts.
• Served as helpers for some of the contractors that have come to live and work in Pass Christian for a few months at a time.
• Organized the tool room, sharpened tools and chainsaws, and made improvements to the front door and other parts of the library.
• Found the communion bells and cups for a local church and used Scotch Brite to clean and restore them.
• Delivered buckets of drywall mud and tape, electrical boxes, wire, ladders…everything that goes into building or remodeling a home.
• Delivered 4′ x 8′ storage sheds to residents. There is a great need for storage space, since a FEMA trailer will barely fit a family of four, leaving no room for their stuff. A gentleman here has been selling screen printed t-shirts and using the profits to build these sheds, which are then donated to residents.
• Helped a resident move some large beams from his mother’s house that had great sentimental value to him. They were in a pile of debris, and without our help they would have been destroyed. He’ll be able to use them when he rebuilds.

Many of the skilled volunteer tradespeople provided training in their area of expertise to the other volunteers. We learned a great deal from each other, and we had a great time helping the residents put their homes and their lives back together.

During 4 full days of work, Ken received only two calls from people that had run out of work and were looking for something to do. Everyone stayed busy all day long, every day. The volunteers showed a great deal of independence, creativity, and perseverance.

About 45 of us slept at the Pass Christian Library, which Campus Crusade for Christ has used to provide temporary lodging for many volunteer groups over the last 5 months. What remained of the books and shelves was removed, and cots and propane heaters took their place. At one point, as many as 200 (a group of Haitians) had used the library for lodging. The library is “central command,” with wireless Internet, CCC’s project-tracking computers, and stockpiles of water, building materials, and tools.

We would have had a hard time finding food without God’s Katrina Kitchen, which serves 600-700 people per meal – an average of 2000 meals per day. Donations are accepted; however, anyone is welcome to eat. Many residents and volunteers rely on GKK for all of their meals.

All of us wish that we could have stayed longer. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the torch must now be passed to other groups. One of the pastors in our group will be returning in April with about 40 youth volunteers. It is likely that some of us will return as well.

The list of work is impressive, but far more significant was the willingness of the volunteers to lend their ears and their hearts to the displaced residents, who shared their stories and tears with them. It is one thing to lose all of your possessions and your home. It is quite another for your entire town – your neighbors’ lives as well as your own – to be obliterated in 12 hours of savage destruction.

Just knowing that people from thousands of miles away put their own lives on hold to help Pass Christian’s people rebuild, shoulder some of their burden, and show their compassion moved them beyond power of speech – but those who found their voice used it to express their sincere gratitude and praise the spirit that brought us there.

Hundreds of photos were taken and thousands of words were written about the week that has had a profound effect on all of us. Two blogs have chronicled the trip:

• http://wikatrinamissions.blogspot.com
• http://johnsonroad.net