St. John’s United Methodist Church

2008 Katrina Mission Teams Invite You!

“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins, and will raise up the age old foundations. You will be called repairers of broken walls and restorers of streets with dwellings.” Isaiah 58:11-2

We invite our St. John’s faith community to share a meal and conversation with teen and adult members of this year’s Louisiana mission teams. Bring your place setting, and some food item to share on Sunday, June 22 @ 4 PM in Hartford Hall. Team members will sit at each table so they can share stories and answer your questions during the meal. Following a brief introduction, the 17-minute 2008 Power Point presentation will be premiered. Last year’s turnout exceeded eighty guests, and proved wonderfully encouraging for our volunteers.

Our photos and blogs are still available on www.stjohnsdover.org. The Youth & Adult teams concluded our partnership with Slidell, LA and Aldersgate UMC. This community is about 85% recovered, and regional recovery efforts are now centralized in New Orleans East. Our second week the Adult team relocated to Arabi and Chalmette, in St. Bernard Parish (county). Covenant UMC offered us housing, the use of their facilities, their prayers and the opportunity to share a Wednesday evening meal with survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We found ourselves listening to their members retell their stories of survival and slow restoration.

St. John’s is reaching out to the other UMC Cluster churches, inviting them to join us in St. Bernard Parish. Several churches have already responded favorably, with speaking invitations and individual commitments. We depart the Seacoast on March 14, and return on March 22, 2009. Reservations are confirmed to stay in Covenant’s “Arabi Hilton”, and continue to work under the supervision of the Southeast Louisiana Disaster Recovery Center. We need You!

“Rose, the homeowner, spoke of God like He was her best friend who lived down the street this week and Rose opened up my heart to Him as well. I started to speak to Him for real and feel His presence with me.” Maggie, Youth Team Member 2008

For further information, contact me at murphnyjets10@yahoo or 603-557-2781. In His love & service, Patrick Murphy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 7:05 pm and is filed under All Posts, forallages, outreach, witness, hospitality, opportunities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.