GRACE YOUTH WORK CAMP IN GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI
During the week of 16-22 July 2006, 6 adults and 8 youth from Grace Lutheran Church traveled to Gulfport, MS for youth work camp. The youth making the trek were Janice, Joy, Jeri, Katelyn, Tyler, Colin, Keith, and Kelli Jo. The adults accompanying them were Stacy, Fred, Mark, Nita, Kathy and Kevin.
Nita and Jeri spent the week working at God's Katrina Kitchen (www.godskatrinakitchen.org) in Pass Christian, MS. This volunteer-run organization serves meals to all the other volunteers and some of the local population as well from two big circus tents. The rest of us ate breakfast and lunch at this facility as well. Besides serving up to 1000 or more volunteers and others per meal, God's Katrina Kitchen also performs reconstruction work through its own network of volunteers. Check out their website to get a feel for the scope of activities surrounding God's Katrina Kitchen.
The rest of the group worked at St. James Baptist Church Disaster Recovery Ministry in Gulfport where we dry-walled in two different new homes. The work was difficult and challenged us to creatively manage our shortage of tools, electricity, and height. Given that it was mid-July in Southern Mississippi, our group certainly contributed to the overall volunteer "sweat equity" in both houses. Pastors Eddie Hartwell of St James and Amos Marshall of Gulfport Missionary Baptist Church (destroyed) collaborate on the St James Baptist Disaster Relief Ministry. And what a collaboration it is! Pastor Eddie is a dynamic publicist and front man while Pastor Amos is a general contractor by trade.
Both ministries we served are funded in part by Impact Ministries (www.citiimpact.org). The local directors of that agency's Gulf Coast recovery efforts, John and Sandy Blake dropped by St James Baptist on Wednesday night to visit. John and Sandy left their call in Washington state and bought a gutted house in Waveland, MS from which to supervise Impact Ministries' operations from New Orleans to Biloxi. Talk about commitment to the cause (www.jsblake.org)! We ate our evening meals at St. James Baptist and slept in their sanctuary. The meals were graciously prepared by women from the church who volunteered to cook for us (and two other groups) often after working a full day themselves. It was southern cooking at it's finest.
This work camp was different from other youth work camps that our youth participate in. In other places we've gone, the need for volunteers is well scattered throughout the local area. In coastal Mississippi the devastation is complete, and even farther inland from the coast you can't travel more than a block or two before noticing damaged structures, and many apparently undamaged structures are actually gutted on the inside. It seems pretty overwhelming, and it also seems like not much progress has been made in the year since Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Yet our group knows it made a difference in the lives of two families. We witnessed the presence of the Holy Spirit everywhere around us in the graciousness of the volunteers, our hosts, and those whom we were serving. We especially noticed the Holy Spirit present in Stacy, simultaneously leading both youth ministry and social ministry--two facets of ministry about which she is both passionate and accomplished. We will miss her gifts tremendously. Talk to one of our youth about their experience and visit the websites above to learn about other opportunities to serve this deeply afflicted area.