Katrina Mission Team - Summary
Mission Trip Summary
Well, the team had an uneventful and smooth ride home Saturday and Sunday. It’s a long time to be sitting in a vehicle, but we had good company and great drivers! Thank you to all the drivers for getting us back and forth safely!
What an experience we had! Many of us will probably do this again if the opportunity arises, as it is an awesome feeling to be able to do so much for those who really need it. It was a valuable experience in so many ways. To step out of your own comfort zone to help those who are living in a very different culture, is something you don’t always have a chance to do. It gives you a whole different perspective to experience it yourself instead of just reading or hearing about it from someone else. Yes, there’s plenty of volunteer work in our own neighborhoods, but there’s something to be said for helping others who live in different parts of the country or even the world. We get the opportunity to get to know some of God’s other children and learn how they live and worship.
There are so many people to thank for making this mission trip such a success and we thank God for bringing them all together for this event. We thank Patrick for all of his hard work from the very beginning in organizing this amazing experience. Because of his passion for this cause our team members have gained valuable information, friendships and experiences that we will have for the rest of our lives.
Pastor Rustin and his wife Jeanie, with the Reaching Out In Love Relief Center where we stayed, made our visit comfortable by providing us with our “home away from home” during the week. Jeanie spoiled us all with her cooking, but especially those who had food restrictions. She made sure there were delicious alternatives for them at all times for which they were very grateful.
Skip S. did a beautiful job as our spiritual leader. Those devotions became a favorite part of our day, as we all got together to share our experiences from the day and to praise God for giving us this opportunity to help our brothers and sisters in Louisiana. John (with piano) and Robert (song leader) joined Skip (guitar) with leading the team in music as well. They did a great job!
The foremen, Skip B., Ken, John and Bill, did an awesome job at leading our crews on their individual sites. They were all very talented and skilled and had the ability to teach, as well as lead. The other volunteer positions were filled by Mike, Janice, Cheri, Robert and Kevin Q. who also were great assets to our team and helped to make the week run smoothly and comfortably for everyone. As for the rest of the team, they worked so hard and we can all be very proud of all that we accomplished for these homeowners. The younger members (the teens) of the team blew us away with their incredible work ethic – they did awesome! Their parents should be very proud! What an awesome week! We touched the homeowners we met, along with some extended families and even neighbors with Christian love. We were, just as we had planned to be, all along . . . . Christ’s hands and feet in action!
Thank you so much to all of those family members and friends we left behind who were taking care of things for us back home. We couldn’t have done this without you!
On a personal note, I want to thank the team for giving me this opportunity to be your journal keeper. It gave me the chance to be reflective upon our experiences. I hope I successfully put into words what we were all feeling and experiencing during the week. I had a lot of help from photographers to help put the experiences in a visual perspective for our readers. Robert was a great help in the technical aspects of downloading pictures and sending off everything to Mike back home so that he could post it all to the website for me– thank you all so much!
God Bless!
Lynnette