Katrina Mission Team Departs for Louisiana
St. John’s largest Louisiana Volunteer in Mission (VIM) team since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina departs the Seacoast region on March 14 and returns home on March 22, 2009. We again are guests of Bonsack UMC in Roanoke, VA as we travel round trip on I-81. When we reach the New Orleans area, we will stay deep in St. Bernard Parish at Reaching Out in Love Relief Center. The small community of Violet is 12 miles southeast of our last work site in Arabi. We continue to work under the supervision of the Southeast Disaster Recovery Center, and expect to work in St. Bernard and/or Orleans Parishes.
One thing that sets this team apart from four prior Katrina teams with St. John’s representation is our extensive regional representation. Team members range from Lynn, MA to Belmont, NH to York County, ME. Our reaching out to other UMC churches has especially ignited FUMC in Rochester. The names and location of all 28 team members will be published in April’s Bell-Wether. Our team includes 8 teens from several different schools, even though this is not a vacation week.
The Louisiana Conference estimates that it will take ten years to complete the rebuilding of churches, homes and communities in the southeastern part of the state. We are becoming a mission church by consistently sending VIM teams to this region.
Your financial support, prayers and encouragement are greatly appreciated. Please keep our team and our Louisiana home owners in your thoughts and prayers during our mission week. You can follow our progress on www.stjohnsdover.org.
Patrick Murphy & Mike Willett, VIM Team Leaders