Katrina Recovery

Katrina Recovery nearly four years later...

Volunteers are still coming to Gulfport, MS this Fall and next Spring to help the ongoing Presbytery of MS Disaster Recovery efforts. Thank God for our friends at Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach, CA for providing Grace House for volunteer houseing through June of 2010.

Although the number of volunteers is not what it was three years ago, the volunteers who do still come to help are familiar friends coming to help for their fifth Thanksgiving or Spring Break – this year perhaps, for the last time.

Martha-Lee Bohn has recently been traveling the country on behalf of the Presbytery of MS. She’s been visiting churches and Presbyteries that have sent teams to the Gulf Coast to assist with recovery and rebuilding over the last four years. She was recently in Janesville, WI visiting Rock Prairie Presbyterian Church whose volunteers helped Westminster and the Presbytery build their first new home construction.

Martha-Lee was also a guest in the pulpit at Huguenot Church in Pelham, New York and at First Presbyterian Church in Owatanna, MN; gave a presentation at the Twin Cities, Area Presbytery (MN) and Frame Church in Stevens Point, WI; and delivered the children’s sermon at First Presbyterian Church of Marshfield, WI.

Members of each of these churches have been moved by their experiences as missionaries in our midst and have moving stories to share about their time sharing hope in chaos. Many were motivated to service in the wake of Katrina for personal reasons.

They were all eager for news of the ongoing recovery and will be sending teams to the Coast for at least one more visit in the coming year.

The commitment continues even as time moves on. Could it really have been nearly four years ago? Let’s pray for a tame Hurricane season 2009!