Salem Katrina Team Report November 23

Paddy-San (from the other Salem), I have not forgotten you. Who could??

We're all home now. I got in yesterday afternoon and slept all day, right through the arrival of our kids home for Thanksgiving. Ed wrote that he was stranded a day enroute but also finally returned to Salem. That leaves everybody back in Oregon except Mary and Wayne, but they're off in their motorhome in Georgia so we can trust that these friends are safe and sound like the rest of us. Turkey or venison for Thanksgiving, Wayne?

It was a high-stress two weeks - actually three weeks for Joan and me with our 2800 mile drive down there, plus the month of the whole church's planning and preparation. We had no team injuries, no other problems to report, and we sure spent every penny we had and more! For me, I somehow came to admire my wife even more than before, and I am in awe of the strength and faith we saw in Salem's finest (Wayne, Ed, Mary, Morella, Rick, Joan, Bubba-San David, and Karen). I still have to complete arrangements for the dentures for one gentleman, but the hangup there is the dentist who is having reduced office hours because of damage to his home. And of course, Joan and I still have to drive the RV back to Oregon in January or February, whenever we decide to wrap up down there.

We're all home, but our Katrina mission is by no means complete. We are sending a couple folks back mid-December to work though February, but the Katrina situation and the desperate needs down there will continue for years. Churches across America continue sending teams, and checks, to give what help they can, and so will First Presbyterian of Salem. Joan and I, plus our son Ben and other friends and family (plus anyone from Salem who wants to join us), have been officially invited to join the volunteers at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs to work over Christmas, a period Gautier Presbyterian will be suspending their volunteer work to allow families to focus on themselves and the holiday. Christus Victor focuses on delivery of relief supplies, running a shelter and feeding three hot meals a day, plus client case work which I'm looking forward to joining. Rev. Chris Bullock asked all available Salem volunteers to then return to work at Gautier with his teams.

What does the Gulf Coast need at this time? They need a continuing stream of volunteer teams coming in to support PDA and other relief agencies, or directly sistering with churches like Gautier Presbyterian for more focused help. Mississippi and Louisiana need money. A fist full of dollars means a set of dentures, a set of replacement glasses, or some other problem solved in a very focused manner. Money means food for the volunteer workers. Money means paint and wallboard for folks who can't buy it before the volunteers show up to rehab their house. Money means help in a most perfect way. Send money. Many times our teams joined for devotions and then in the discussion of the day's work which followed, we raised money between us to cover problems. $100 here, $200 there...problems were solved by using money as a recovery tool.

Send stuff. In Gautier, for instance, about 5,000 homes suffered some damage from Katrina, almost always on the first floor, sometimes the entire structure. These folks need the kinds of items you'd find on your own family's first floor, such as washers and dryers, televisions and other entertainment items, sofas, chairs, bed frames, chest of drawers, dining room tables and chairs, area rugs, microwave ovens and the like. They do not need clothes...too often, clothes are too difficult for volunteers to get to the folks who need them and the need now for clothes has pretty much been handled...except for coats as winter sets in. Please send lots of coats, but first bag them with labels like "Men's Coats - Large" to help with storage and delivery. Please be sure things are clean enough to wear before you shipment, of course. For your reference, the largest trailer from U-Haul cost us around $280. We hauled just over a ton of quilts, tools, stuffed animals, team gear, cooking equipment, household items, televisions, food, diesel, industrial woodworking equipment, computers and printers, copiers and much more. U-Haul trailers and trucks can be returned just a few miles from Gautier Pres, but consider that they can be also used locally as we did to haul wallboard and other items to our work sites. U-Haul gives volunteers a 10% discount - be sure to request it.

Send special stuff, special gifts: For instance, we delivered three hundred or more handmade quilts made by a community group which asked us to transport. Beautiful, warm quilts which warmed the hearts of the recipients. I handed quilts to teachers who'd lost their homes and everything else they'd owned. To kids who'd lost their homes. To social workers who'd lost their homes yet were working to help others just as troubled as they. If you can make beautiful quilts or other things of such wonder, consider sending these special gifts to the Gulf Coast. To Salem Quilt-a-Thon, want to do another shipment? I had no idea of the joy those quilts would bring. Thank each of you for all that hard work!

Send money. Send lots! Please know that money equals "stuff". Money solves many problems in minutes. So if you can, a check or an envelope of cash should go along with your team leader, or sent to volunteers on the ground in the area will quickly be used to resolve problems as they are discovered. Our team used the money we were entrusted with to pay for eye glasses, bus tickets, casual labor (pocket money for Victor), stoves, paint, molding, food, office supplies, signs, printing expenses, dentures, gas, diesel, propane, highway tolls, one team dinner together, tools, modular kitchen counters, plywood, electrical cables, and much more. I will never forget that "our" money, our precious ammunition for this mission, consisted of our own church's mission funds, donations received from our individual team members, plus generous gifts from First Presbyterian Church of McMinnville and First Presbyterian Church of Newberg. That's why we changed our team name into "Presbyterian Churches of Oregon".

I have been to war, and volunteers should be ready for an emotional impact on them very much like that. No bullets flying, no such sense of danger or fear, but this certainly is an event you'll remember all your life. In speaking with other veterans we were surprised at the similar emotions. Experts have been telling us of the post-traumatic stress disorder problems that the residents are experiencing.

Send work teams. A team volunteering for Katrina means a group of people large enough to grab a project, such as a living room or maybe even an entire house, and take care of what needs to be done. A team means a self-supporting group which doesn't need help already scarce in the area. A team means organization and focus. There are individuals going to help by themselves and while they are almost always good folks, some aren't. We need general labor, plumbers, electricians, social workers, cooks, secretaries/administrative assistants, drivers, and more.

Go back. This is a disaster which will need us to return time and time again. If you send a church team, trust me - they'll want to go back. Do your planning in a manner which provides a stream of help, perhaps a couple teams a year or more. Your volunteers are needed so badly.

Send Prayers. Prayers are working, believe me. Maybe I was a church version of Tom Paine's Sunshine Patriot, but no longer. People in my church prayed for me, for my safety and for those we went to help. As a result, I know I'm a better Christian for these past weeks, and determined to look at myself and my faith even harder from now on. The people we pray for, both our teams and our friends we go to serve along the Gulf Coast, are better for our prayers. So stay on your knees, please.