Joining Together in Times of Crisis
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New Orleans mission trip repairs homes, changes lives

By Jessica Stewart

The only thing hanging on Gertrude King’s finished walls is a picture frame that displays pictures of the people who helped to build her finished walls.

In 2009, Rev. Dairel Kaiser (Keene UMC) and his team helped to rebuild homes that were destroyed or damaged from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. King’s home was one of the many that United Methodist Volunteers In Mission (UMVIM) worked on that year.

In 2010, with the Three Rivers District NOLA Mission, Kaiser was able to revisit Ms. King at her home.

“A special opportunity this year was to return to the homes our team had worked on last year in the ninth ward,” said Rev. Jim Humphrey, district superintendent of the Three Rivers District. Kaiser was able to see King’s completed house and visit with her and see pictures of him displayed on her walls.

In addition to the framed picture of her favorite teams, she also displayed notes and correspondence from those who had written to her. It was a meaningful experience for both Kaiser and King.

New Orleans has made improvements, but there is still a lot to be done. Rev. Tom Scott, a team member from the 2010 Three Rivers District trip, said, “There is still a large need down there.”

This was Three River’s second year in New Orleans. They have seen a lot of progress, but many people are still waiting to return to their home nearly four and half years after Katrina. The volunteer teams helped to rebuild some of those homes. Marcia Bowman, a team member from the trip, was quoted saying, “Through the devastation and lost hopes and dreams, people come back and want to rebuild their home. I am not so sure I would do that.”

The Three Rivers District mission teams did such jobs as dry walling, laying tile and laminate flooring, installing cabinets, painting and plumbing. This year’s team attracted volunteers from the ages of 14 to 78 and with all different levels of experience.

“A lot of the places don’t look damaged but you recognize when you are down there for a little bit that there are Venetian blinds up in all of the windows and they are all shut,” Scott said. “Every time you go past the house you realize that that is an abandoned house.”

For the volunteers that go to New Orleans, the trip creates an instant spiritual effect.“Spiritually, there is a sensitivity I think that raises in us when you go back home and sing the songs, the words mean something different. When you sing ‘Because He Lives I Can Face Tomorrow,’ you know what some of those folks have faced and the words take on a little bit of an extra meaning,” Scott said.