Loading...While many Kentuckians headed south during spring break to seek a deeper sun tan and the soothing sounds of the waves on the beach, a group of 32 from Louisville headed to southern Mississippi with an additional goal: Find a way to help heal the wounds of Katrina.
The group was comprised of teens and adults from four faith communities: Christ Church Cathedral, St. Bernadette Catholic Church Southeast Christian Church and St Thomas of Louisville, which served as the organizing parish. Sixteen teens, three preteens and 13 adults lived and worked together for a week on the Mississippi coast, learning about one another and deepening their own understanding of the Gospel along the way.
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Long Beach, Miss., served as the host parish for the second year in a row. This lovely coastal church was literally washed to sea during Hurricane Katrina nearly five and half years ago. As the community planned and worked to rebuild the church in a new location, they displayed a unique wisdom in designing the church to host small mission groups, who would inevitably come to heal the wounds of storms yet to come. Our mission group was able to worship with St. Patrick's on the first Sunday and their hospitality was clearly evident throughout our stay.
The first day on the coast, the group worked to build a community garden at St. Patrick's. The teens built raised vegetable beds and helped plow fields that will serve local community members not blessed with the land or proper soil to raise food.
For the remainder of the week, we worked through the Hancock County Housing Resource Center to serve an impoverished area in Pearlington, Miss. This small, unincorporated community was formed decades ago in a relocation effort when Stennis Air Force Base was constructed. Bordered by the Pearl River on one side and the Gulf on another, Pearlington took a very direct hit from Katrina in 2005. Most residents experienced from 8-12 feet of water in their homes. Resident Rick Armstrong noted, "We were almost completely unnoticed after the storm." The town has no mayor or city government. Most of the 1,600 residents left and the remaining 600 were forced to live in tents or under tarps for weeks after the flooding receded. Even now, almost six years after the flood, the scars of Katrina remain evident all around in the abandoned homes and vacant lots.
For most of the teens, working in the area was an eye opener. Teen Sam Watkins, from Christ Church Cathedral, found that seeing so much devastation "helped him understand how much he took for granted." Blake Johnson found meaning in "staining the wheelchair ramp for Mrs. Eddy Lee," a wheelchair-bound octogenarian who was unable to make her own repairs on her home.
The teens learned skills such as using a nail gun safely and caulking like seasoned construction workers. They painted, landscaped and learned finish carpentry techniques. They turned construction sites full of bricks and debris into lawns now suited to grass seed and flowers. More than anything, the teens and adults grew together as they heard the stories of the locals and saw the gratitude in the smiles on their faces.
Late in the week, the group traveled to New Orleans and visited All Souls Episcopal Church in the Ninth Ward. Working out of a renovated Walgreen's store, All Souls is valiantly serving as a beacon of light in a community struggling with the multitude of issues plaguing the urban poor. Combine the existing challenges with floodwaters, and the combination is a human disaster not easily repaired. Sarah Miller, an Episcopal Church Services intern, explained that All Souls' mission is "to break the cycle of poverty by focusing on the education of each child in the community." The vicar of All Souls, the Rev. Lonell Wright, challenged each of us to "find the 'Ninth Ward' in Louisville and work to make it better."
For many in the group, the words of Sarah Bourlakas, from Christ Church Cathedral, summed up the experience. She said, quite simply, "This trip changed my life."
Now both Episcopal churches are exploring ways they can work together to help those in the "Ninth Ward" in Louisville.
