St. John's Episcopal Church

New Orleans Et Trés Jolie! 

St. John’s was well represented on our first New Orleans mission trip from November 16-21, 2008!  Three of us ventured down there to join up with 12 others from Grace Church, Brooklyn, and we had a joyful week of work, laughter, and helping others. Jeanne Farrer, Tom Smith, and Joanie Smith all enjoyed the week and felt that it was a successful first event to the Gulf Coast for our church. (It was Grace Church’s ninth trip). 

The group as a whole engaged in many activities to help New Orleans recover from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina as well as the more recent Ike.  We painted inside and out, measured and installed molding, and were able to almost finish a home for an elderly woman who will be able to move back into her home within the week!  In addition, one person from our group volunteered as an intake counselor at a mobile medical unit, and many of us worked with Beacon of Hope clearing lots and yards to restore neighborhoods to a degree of neatness not seen since 2004!  Several of us also volunteered at The Dragon Café, a free food service to displaced, homeless, and street people run by St. George’s Episcopal Church.  It was an amazing experience to not only learn how to fix some real New Orleans food, but also to serve over 125 people who literally became a family in the church hall while we welcomed and served them.  The stories in New Orleans of people who have “slipped through the cracks” of insurance and government bureaucracy are endless.  

It was very exciting to see the changes that have occurred in New Orleans in the past year.  About two thirds of the residents have moved back, businesses have returned to neighborhoods, and there are far fewer vacant houses than was the case for several years after Katrina.  We all attended an event at the brand new All Souls Episcopal Church in the Lower Ninth Ward.  We all felt the experience of a Phoenix rising from the ashes, as this group of people have reclaimed an old Walgreen’s Drug Store that was completely destroyed in the hurricane, and have worked through volunteers, donations, and their hard work to create a fellowship hall, a chapel of sorts, and a “can do” spirit in that particular neighborhood that was so hard hit by the storm.  We ate red beans and rice and Andoille sausage with this small congregation and sat on donated folding chairs amidst fresh plaster and electric cords to hear a wonderful brass funeral band play for over an hour!   Music in New Orleans is truly as much a part of mortality as it is of life! The tuba player had an old, dented, and tarnished tuba, but could he ever play!  

The team from St. John’s would like to thank the Mission and Outreach Committee and Father John for their support and encouragement in our first ever New Orleans trip, and we look forward to discerning what our next steps should be to help our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in this charismatic city that is such an amazing blend of people and culture.

Joanie Smith

11/24/08

With apologies to L. Frank Baum, there are many people in New Orleans for whom it is still unsafe or impossible to “go home”.  We all know what occurred in terms of Hurricane Katrina, but what many of us do not realize is that there is still much to do to help people who have been unable to recover.  

I have been to New Orleans on two mission trips, the first in November 2007 and the second this past June 2008.  These have been with my former parish, Grace Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, New York. This congregation is incredibly mission driven, and has sent teams down to New Orleans and Gulf Coast Mississippi on seven trips. The trips to New Orleans are in conjunction with the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, where Bishop Charles Jenkins has dedicated resources to responding to the needs of the people. The work of rebuilding has been accomplished primarily by volunteer groups, mostly church related. 

These trips have been amazing parts of my spiritual journey. Prior to the first trip, I assumed that all of the images we saw on television were what occurred, and that people in poverty were the only individuals affected by the terrible flooding from this storm. (It was the flooding that caused the most damage and destroyed the most homes, not the initial storm, and all of the damage was not located in the Lower Ninth Ward). 

Damage occurred in Gentille and many other areas, and those homeowners with affluence rebuilt quickly. Many middle class people and poorer people never received insurance payments or the much touted “Road Home Money”. One family we helped had run a successful catering business, but the storm wiped out all of their equipment, their kitchen, and freezers full of supplies. They were just never able to rebound. Their courage, resilience, and patience and ability to laugh and adjust were amazing. 

On the first trip, we helped gut 14 houses, and I spent the whole of one day listening and counseling the daughter of the homeowner of one of these houses.  She was devastated, not only in seeing the home and contents of four generations of her family with the corresponding memories of holidays and special events celebrated in that home destroyed, but also the experience of being totally abandoned by every level of her government in the midst of the tragedy—and this was two years after the hurricane.  What I learned from this woman about life pre- and post-Katrina has stayed with me and made a deep impression.  The thankfulness and sense of God’s blessing through the work of the volunteers that she expressed cannot be explained adequately. 

On this, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, there are two opportunities available to us. First, there is another trip with the Brooklyn congregation during the period November 16-21, 2008. The cost to the participant is airfare and dinners; housing and transportation while in New Orleans are covered, as well as most breakfasts and some lunches. If interested in that trip, contact me at joan.hilles@gmail.com or 616-607-9834. 

Also, the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan has a trip to Camp Coast Care in Long Beach, Mississippi, September 19-28 (the Brooklyn group has been there twice as well).  They have 41 volunteers going, and might be able to accommodate a couple others. What they really need are donations to help fund their trip, and we can forward any contributions to the Diocesan Center in Kalamazoo.  The contact for questions at the Diocese is Tammy Mazure, email tmazure@edwm.org .  I look forward to participation from our parish for this important work!

Peace,

Joanie