A MOST HUMBLING WEEK: MARCH 11 – 17
submitted by Ron Bruni

To tell the story of our week in Pass Christian, Mississippi, carries the same dilemma as cleaning up after Katrina hit .… Where to begin? I guess I’ll begin with our arrival on Saturday afternoon. After locating the “home base” (our cot) for the week, we began by building a crib to hold an immense supply of new tools; rakes of all kinds and sizes, shovels of all kinds and sizes, hammers, and a variety of other tools used for clean-up of yards and other areas.
Our group included 19 adults from St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and the Baraboo area. And after a week of hard work, listening to many accounts of trial and tribulation during the storm, viewing such total and terrible devastation, and sharing such close and Spartan living conditions, our group became a new family to me. Those 18 others in our group are the most caring, concerned, and motivated people that I have been associated with. Because I had a birthday while in Pass Christian, they made my week extra special. So did the hundreds of college students from all over the U.S. Can you imagine having Happy Birthday sung by 250 college students? Amazing and overwhelming and wonderful and unforgettable.But this account is not about me, or our group from Baraboo. It is about all those brothers and sisters in the South and along the Gulf Coast who have endured so much, have lost so much, need so much, and are so positive, appreciative, and thankful. There are accounts of great courage, stamina, heroism, and of unending faith. I don’t believe I have heard “thank you” so many times in such a short time as during the days we spent in Pass Christian. Many times we heard about how in those few hours that were so long, everything one had worked so hard for, for so long, was gone. But we also heard how blessed these same people felt; blessed to have family and loved ones with them, blessed to have assistance from fellow Americans and even from Canada. Blessed also to know God and our Savior. And their faith is strong. But their physical needs are SO great, that it will take several years, probably 10 or more, to remove the scars and devastation of Katrina. And the emotional scars will remain forever.

I was assigned a job to tile two bathrooms and a kitchen floor in the home of Leslie and Charles Brown and their two daughters. We began on Sunday about noon and were nearly completed by Thursday when we had to leave. Dan Hilfiker and I worked as a team on the tiling along with Charles. His company had given him “whatever time it took” to get his home back in order. Pretty compassionate employer. Charles learned to tile so he can do the other jobs required in his home.

A little about the Brown family and their interface with Katrina: Their home is located much higher than those right on the Gulf. Nonetheless, they watched as the water approached from the Gulf, crossing the railroad tracks and being met by water coming from the North from a river that flowed there. Charles was busy moving valuables and papers to higher levels. Since Leslie and the two girls could not swim, they took a position atop a bunk bed. As the water continued to rise, Charles kept moving items he was trying to save to higher locations. When the bunk bed mattress began to float, he knew it was time to get into the attic. He broke through the ceiling, got a mouth full of insulation, and gulped the flood waters to clear his throat. Leslie and the girls got into the attic, but Charles had no footing to help him get up there until, by the grace of GOD, the chest of drawers floated near so he could get some footing and also get into the attic. They remained in the attic for seven hours with the water rising to within four feet of the peak before beginning to recede. The house emptied of water quite quickly and they were able to come out of the dark attic. The girls think their dad is a hero. And who would argue that he is not?

God has blessed me by allowing me to get to know this family quite well. I will not forget them and will think of them always and keep them in my prayers. I hope you will pray for them, too.

We worked hard, long days and perhaps helped in some small way toward the recovery from Katrina’s destruction. But whatever effort we contributed, the reward for being permitted to share and learn and listen is such a greater blessing to me, and others have said the same, that those few days in Pass Christian will forever be indelibly etched in my memory.

Thank you, Lord, for the chance to perhaps make just a little dent.

OPERATION KATRINA
submitted by Marian Licht

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."– Acts 20:35

Never has this verse proved more true than with the generous giving from St. Paul’s members to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

While packing the “mountains” of donations, we were impressed with the quality and beauty of the items.

We imagined the people who would receive these gifts of “love.” What a glorious feeling of Christmas! How pleased they would be to receive such good and wonderful things and to know that “someone cares.” A true blessing to St. Paul’s generosity and a blessing to the people of Katrina!

Pastors Deb and Steve need to have enormous credit for master-minding this entire operation. A very sincere and heartfelt thank you!

My thanks to Doris Johnson and Marge Ahlf for helping to re-pack the gigantic pile of items that were given so graciously. Well-deserved praise to everyone for donating the needed clothing and linens. Thank you!

Our heartfelt thanks to the countless donors whose generous gifts of money, materials, and time made the latest Mississippi mission trip such a big success. Here is a partial list of the donations that St. Paul’s sent to Pass Christian in March:

Brand new items
8 blankets and a comforter
10 sets of bed sheets
90 bath towels
18 washcloths
576 towels donated by McArthur Towels
Handmade quilts
13 baby and 30 adult, from St. Paul’s
18 lap and baby and 10 adult, from another church
10 baby quilts and blankets, from another donor
Countless packages of men’s and women’s underwear
13 duffel bags

Slightly used items
59 sets of sheets
39 blankets, quilts, and afghans
10 comforters, mattress pads, and pillows
53 bath towels
12 flat bed sheets
Mountains of men’s and women’s clothing –
quantity and quality!

And bags and bags of toys ….

Editor’s (Robin Whyte, St. Paul's Office Manager) note: Special thanks to Marian for all of her hard work in sorting, labeling, inventorying, and packing the donations for the March trip to Mississippi. It was a huuuuuge job, and we applaud her for taking it on!

RETURN TO PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI
submitted by Yvonne (“Trail Boss”) Smith

Why would a person return to Pass Christian, Mississippi? I began to think about this question during my second visit, as hundreds of college students continued to converge into this already crowded space. I asked myself:

Would one return for the creamed gourmet food?
Would one return for the uncomfortable, sagging cot?
Would one return for the not-so-private bathroom facilities?
Would one return for the nocturnal choir concert?

NO, none of the above! I returned because of the people. One, I wanted to be part of those special people who so generously give of their time and talents to those in need. And more important, I returned because of the people in Pass Christian who inspire me. These people, who have lost everything and have survived one of our nation’s worst disasters, display a hope that is contagious. They live in the midst of devastation, destruction, and debris with smiles on their faces and a faith in their heart that Pass Christian “will be back.” They are a persevering people who modeled for me a spirit of hope and resurrection living. Because of them, I hope to return again, for they renew my spirit. They give to me much more than I can ever give to them. Bless the people of Pass Christian and all of the Katrina survivors.

7 am Worship on the dock lead by the group from University of Nebraska. Hear them below. Sorry about the poor audio.

It was a very special moment when Yvonne gave Evie her refurbished lamps. When we were here in February Evie gave us a tour of the area and on that tour she showed us her home ...... or that is what was left of it. Just a slab of concrete and a set of steps and a pile of some of the things she and neighbors found strewn all over the neighborhood. In that pile we saw a couple of table lamps. Of course the wiring was shot because it was all under salt water and the bases were broken and water damaged as well. No shades ...... well you get the idea, but the ceramic bases were not broken which was amazing seeing as one of the lamps was found hundreds of feet from the house under a chain link fence that was knocked down by a fallen tree. The FEMA clean up crews saved the lamp for Evie when they were bulldozing the remains of her house and she put them on the pile of the few last remains of her home. When Yvonne saw that she asked Evie if she could take the lamps back to Wisconsin and return them in a month when we returned in March. She said OK and Yvonne had them repaired, refinished and added new shades and they are like new. When Evie saw them ... Tears and hugs were shared. There is a lot of LOVE going on around here, that's for sure.

Brad Pitt, Bob Holterman and his son Andrew hung a ton of sheet rock this week. They also taught a lot of the eager college students the finer art of measuring, cutting, fitting, hanging, screwing, taping and mudding wall board. Real Mississippi mudders they are!

It is super to see these work crews all over town cleaning up .....and there is so much more to do. This week the city council said about 60% of the debris caused by Katrina in Pass Christina has now been removed. The Army Corps of Engineers reports about 892,000 cubic yards of debris has been cleared to date. The Corps estimates that there are about 608,000 cubic yards left to clear, and that an average of 7,200 cubic yards is being cleared every day.

Dean gets a little care after a long days work on a sheet rock crew.

It's wall to wall in these walls! Just a wee bit more crowded than last time we were down here.

Jack Pitt works every day to keep the library clean and that is no easy task with over eighty people living here in one big room.

St. Paul's has a meeting here tonight! Actualy most every night.

Feeding over 2000 meals a day makes for a long day's work. Lorna Pitt, Kathy Plamann and Nicole Knuth have been preparing and serving over 500 sack lunches for those workers who wish to take a lunch out instead of sitting down at the tent.

Keeping 500+ volunteers busy takes a lot of work. Here is Dale with Travis Todd the director and Grace working on one of the two office computers. Great job you two!

Happy Birthday Ron!

Wednesday was really Ron's birthday, but we went out to dinner tonight (Thursday) to celebrate. Good food, good laughter, good times.

On his real birthday he had over 250 people sing "Happy Birthday" to him at God's Katrina Kitchen at dinner time.

24 - 7 at the Pass!
Now this is neat. The kids......... (I am starting to feel bad calling these students "kids". They all are some of the best young adults I have ever known. They ALL are very mature, hard working, fun loving, energetic, motivated group of people) ...........from Purdue have to leave tomorrow and they are working under the lights at night (it's now after 11:00pm) to get one more storage building done before they have to leave. I hope no one ever underestimates this generation. They are great.

There is a big story down here.

This is a picture of one of the team leaders meetings held every night about 9. Each of the people in the room above are a team leader with a crew of about 6 to 8 other students. More students have been arriving from campuses from all over the country every day. We now have over 500 here at CCC in Pass Christian and we are not the only group! From Now Orleans to east of Biloxi there is an estimated 25,000 Students who using their spring break to help with the recovery efforts here.

Jared And Leah Robertson's house.

Meet Mr. & Mrs Robertson. Like everyone they have had their share of problems and like a lot of people their insurance company would only pay for the roof. Karl, Larry and Al have been repairing the siding, painting and putting in some of the ceilings with a great crew of college students. Do they appreciate the help? Just listen to her Audio Blog below.

Charles Brown and his family were trapped in their home during the hurricane. Below you can listen to his story but what he didn't tell how hard it was for him to keep his head, lead his family to safety in the top of his attic with the water rising to within a couple feet of the peak and not show panic in front of his children. While he is a good swimmer his wife and both children could not swim. To his family he is a larger than life HERO!

Dan Hilfiker Cuts the ceramic tile on a special saw for a custom fit as he and Ron tile three rooms in the Brown's home in Pass Christian.

Ron Bruni is our Master tile instaler. He and Dan installed tile in two bathrooms and the kitchen and breakfast area, but more importantly he showed Charles Brown "how to" and when we go Charles (according to his wife of twenty years!) is going to tackle putting the tile in the laundry room. Teaching a man to "fish". That's what it's all about. Charles is made a vow that after he gets moved back into to his refurbished home he is going to seek out ways to help others like so many people have helped him and his family.

Al hangs a new front door in the Brown home. When the house is gutted everything has to be replaced.

Larry and Karl install hardware in the Brown's new front door.

The Brown's living room gets a new look.

Painting at the Brown's.

Our crew with Leslie and Charles Brown.

Meet Judy James. It is her home Karl Kasper worked on to fix the underground leak in her water main. Her house is has been gutted but no other work has been started except the new roof. We also fixed some plumbing leaks in what was her old bathroom. After the house dries it will need to be totaly rebuilt, everything under the roof is gone. You can listen her story on her audio blog below.

Sunday started out with church as it should. Some of us went to Trinity Episcopal Church where Pastor Marcia debated with Reverend Chris about repainting the front doors of his church from green to red and the ecumenical significance of such a move, then deciding oak doors were a good compromise. Many others of our group joined a large number of the students at 7 am in a service and breakfast at the dock on the Gulf.

Then we broke into various groups and started our work assignments for the week. There was a little confusion getting things going but with this many people and so much to do it was understandable. I’ll try and move around this week and cover everyone’s work site and keep you up to date on who is doing what.

Dan Hilfiker and Darrell Smith were painting in one house while Ron Bruni was tiling a floor. Jim Semsar and Karl Kasper assessed three homes for plumbing repairs and after going to Biloxi to pick up parts and supplies started one of the jobs by replacing a broken water main. Tomorrow I’ll outline some of the other jobs and include an audio interview with one of the homeowners.

Dean arrived just before dinner, exhausted but very happy to be here. Several of the guys helped him unload his truck and trailer at the distribution center. Boy, were they happy to see towels, toys, quilts and all we sent.

Grace Schellenberger, Marcia, and Yvonne joined 23 students to go to New Orleans Sunday night to see Billy Graham.

These are the spires Reverend Chris spoke about. What he didn’t tell you was the students found them in the woods over a half a mile from the church. Also in his sermon he told us that when he went to the site to look for more pieces of the church he found a board with writing on it, his grandmothers hand writing. It was the bottom of his desk at the church alright, but that desk once belonged to his grandfather. He went on to remind us that there will be more storms and they will destroy more buildings even church buildings, but The Church is not a building and Christ’s Church cannot be destroyed.

It's our Pastor Marcia with the Reverend Christopher Colby of Trinity Church, Pass Christian. Listen to Reverend Colby's audio clip from Sunday. Oh, yes that's Yvonne Smith in the background.

We are all here. Now let’s define all and here. Our group from Baraboo all arrived safely. Yvonne and were the first ones here about one in the afternoon. We cleared an area and set up the cots etc. for our 18 people and they were all here before dinner. Lance brought 3 people with him in two cars but, about an hour from Pass Christian, his car’s rear wheel bearing didn’t want to play any more. Long story short, Brad P. had to go pick him up and they didn’t get here until about 10 pm. Frazzled but safe.

Now it’s about 11pm and everyone’s all tucked in and …… more incoming! About 52 students from University of Nebraska pulled in to join us in the library. Oh, I forgot to mention there are over 400 students from over 15 universities spending their break time here with us, or maybe it’s us with them, helping the people of Pass Christian. Of course they are not all in the library. Campus Crusade for Christ has set up huge tents for most of the crowd. For those of you that were here before, yes they also quadrupled the bathrooms and added some port-a-potties. (But the same number of showers!)

Some of the schools represented here this week are: Miami Universitiy, Baylor, Arizona State, U. of Mississippi, Purdue, Universitiy. of Iowa, Cleveland State, Case Western, Universitiy of Georgia, Universitiy of Southern Calif., Daemen College Universitiy of Texas and of course the newly arrived Universitiy of Nebraska plus maybe some more I missed.

18 more people leave today from Baraboo to Pass Christian, MS. Stay tuned we will be there soon and posting often.

You can still help.

Meet Bill. Bill builds storage sheds and gives them away to those who need them at the Pass. He sells t-shirts he designed and for every 15 shirts he sells he can build and give away another building. He has a great story, but you can read it for yourself on his web site. See the link to the right on this page. He has a long list of those who need his sheds; he can’t build them fast enough. The only prerequisite for a building is that you have no permanent building on you lot already. The sad part is there are so many that qualify. Keep up the good work Bill.

Looks like we are getting some good press for our missions.

http://www.wiscnews.com/bnr/news/index.php?ntid=74191&ntpid=-1#

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/moe/index.php?ntid=74131&ntpid=2

The following is a newsletter that Jordan Peterson wrote for St. Paul’s church. I'm republishing it here for those of you that haven't been to his blog yet. Please feel free to share this report to inform others of the inportant work that was done and still has to be done.

St. Paul’s joined other volunteers from southern Wisconsin for a week of hurricane relief and reconstruction in Pass Christian, Mississippi, from Feb. 10th through Feb. 17th. If you speak to anyone from the group, you’ll hear many different stories, but you’ll hear a few things again and again: the experience had a profound spiritual effect on everyone, and you truly must see it for yourself to understand the devastating loss the residents experienced and the phenomenal work of the people who are giving back what the storm took away.

I spoke to Ken Hagmann, the work coordinator, about the staggering number of projects undertaken and the incredible amount of work that was completed by the volunteers this week.

Here is a partial list:

• Removed old roof shingles and installed new ones.
• Hung, mudded, taped, and sanded drywall.
• Finished projects that had been started by previous volunteer groups.
• Painted all the way up to the peak of the sanctuary of the Episcopal church.
• Removed old wiring and devices, nailed new boxes, pulled and stapled Romex, and installed lights and bathroom fans.
• Washed dishes, chopped hundreds of pounds of onions, and hauled food and equipment for God’s Katrina Kitchen (some volunteers started at 6:00 AM).
• Ran the computer to keep records at the local food distribution tents.
• Erected 2 steel-and-kevlar buildings to serve as a day care center for the residents of the FEMA tent city. Caulked to weatherproof the base of the walls, laid flooring, built a 4-foot knee wall to protect the kids from the sharp steel edges inside, roughed in electrical outlets and conduit for lighting, and built a deck between the two buildings.
• Laid tile in bathrooms and kitchens in several homes.
• Hung kitchen cabinets.
• Installed siding.
• Accompanied some Vietnamese residents to Home Depot and helped them find the materials that they would need for their reconstruction projects.
• Visited a nursing home on Valentine’s Day. Bonita Favre was there visiting her mother, and she made a point of telling us how wonderful the people are from Wisconsin. You may have heard of her son; he plays football.
• Visited one of the FEMA trailer parks on Valentine’s Day and distributed valentines to residents.
• Made contacts with the medical clinic, the fire department, and local EMS that will help with future volunteer relief efforts.
• Served as helpers for some of the contractors that have come to live and work in Pass Christian for a few months at a time.
• Organized the tool room, sharpened tools and chainsaws, and made improvements to the front door and other parts of the library.
• Found the communion bells and cups for a local church and used Scotch Brite to clean and restore them.
• Delivered buckets of drywall mud and tape, electrical boxes, wire, ladders…everything that goes into building or remodeling a home.
• Delivered 4′ x 8′ storage sheds to residents. There is a great need for storage space, since a FEMA trailer will barely fit a family of four, leaving no room for their stuff. A gentleman here has been selling screen printed t-shirts and using the profits to build these sheds, which are then donated to residents.
• Helped a resident move some large beams from his mother’s house that had great sentimental value to him. They were in a pile of debris, and without our help they would have been destroyed. He’ll be able to use them when he rebuilds.

Many of the skilled volunteer tradespeople provided training in their area of expertise to the other volunteers. We learned a great deal from each other, and we had a great time helping the residents put their homes and their lives back together.

During 4 full days of work, Ken received only two calls from people that had run out of work and were looking for something to do. Everyone stayed busy all day long, every day. The volunteers showed a great deal of independence, creativity, and perseverance.

About 45 of us slept at the Pass Christian Library, which Campus Crusade for Christ has used to provide temporary lodging for many volunteer groups over the last 5 months. What remained of the books and shelves was removed, and cots and propane heaters took their place. At one point, as many as 200 (a group of Haitians) had used the library for lodging. The library is “central command,” with wireless Internet, CCC’s project-tracking computers, and stockpiles of water, building materials, and tools.

We would have had a hard time finding food without God’s Katrina Kitchen, which serves 600-700 people per meal – an average of 2000 meals per day. Donations are accepted; however, anyone is welcome to eat. Many residents and volunteers rely on GKK for all of their meals.

All of us wish that we could have stayed longer. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the torch must now be passed to other groups. One of the pastors in our group will be returning in April with about 40 youth volunteers. It is likely that some of us will return as well.

The list of work is impressive, but far more significant was the willingness of the volunteers to lend their ears and their hearts to the displaced residents, who shared their stories and tears with them. It is one thing to lose all of your possessions and your home. It is quite another for your entire town – your neighbors’ lives as well as your own – to be obliterated in 12 hours of savage destruction.

Just knowing that people from thousands of miles away put their own lives on hold to help Pass Christian’s people rebuild, shoulder some of their burden, and show their compassion moved them beyond power of speech – but those who found their voice used it to express their sincere gratitude and praise the spirit that brought us there.

Hundreds of photos were taken and thousands of words were written about the week that has had a profound effect on all of us. Two blogs have chronicled the trip:

• http://wikatrinamissions.blogspot.com
• http://johnsonroad.net

As time permits more pictures and stories will be posted. PLEASE if you have any stories to tell just click on any of the "comments" sections and share your memories.

The last of our group left Saturday around 1:15 in the afternoon. Friday Neil Peterson had a lot to do on one of the homes and then they invited us (Neil, Jordan and I) to some good old southern hospitably. A delicious home cooked meal, just a wee bit of liquid refreshment, a lot of stories into the late night, a few tears and enough laughter to make us almost forget the conditions these people are living in, almost, but not quite.

Saturday morning found Neil and Jordan up and still running around trying to close up loose ends. Finally Neil made a long list of what had to be finished on one home and went over details with one of the men from CCC to make sure it would all be done after we left. Monday he will be checking back with more instructions. Neal’s truck and gear may have left on Saturday but his heart and mind are still with the people of Pass Christian.

After we all gave “Mouse” a big hug, waved goodbye to our new friend Neal Wilson, Jordan packed Neil’s truck and strapped good old Jim in a borrowed folding chair and sadly we left. We got as far as Grenada MS where we had to stop and spend the night. Ice on the roads in Mississippi, go figure. It seems we hardy Wisconsinites are not only used to cold and stormy winters; we bring them with us ever we go. That reminds me of the man who, when he was telling us how grateful he was to have all of us from Wisconsin drive all the way down to Pass Christian just to help them rebuild, said he didn’t know if the great lakes overflowed and washed away our homes if he and his neighbors would drive all the way to Wisconsin to help us. After he thought about it he said they would and I believe it. These people have hearts as big as the holes Katrina blew through their homes and lives. God bless them all.

Wisconsin to Katrina Missions

Members of the Southern Wisconsin
Hurricane Katrina Response Team
Thursday evening, Feb. 16, 2005 in the old Public Library in Pass Christian, Mississippi

Left to right, Front Row:

Greg Wilson, Fritz Aschliman, Christine Reynolds, Brenda Schultz, Rev. David Schlieter, Yvonne Smith, Rev. Richard Dowling, Mary Wyss.

Second Row:

Sammie Howard, Ken Hagmann, Phil Crawford, Maureen Tuebert, Alan Green, Katie Green, Laurel Willhouse, Cheryl Lowe, Vicki Hokanson.

Third Row:

Lance Myers, Evie Worland (Pass Christian resident), Barb Fitzsimmons, Janet Cooper, Chuck Steudel, Marvin Rupp, Lannie Howard, Don Nobs, Rev. Deb Ohrtman, Bob Foght, Jim Semsar.

Fourth Row:

Mark Mitchell, Todd Sanford, Fred Hodd, Jordan Peterson, Neil Peterson, Mike Edlinger, Luke Jesse, Bob Pfaff, Rev. Steve Ohrtman, Rev. Todd Lippert.

Missing from photo (in the shower?)
Bill DuWell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE

SNOW, ... WHAT SNOW??

For those of you who are logging in on a regular basis, I apologize for not posting anything Tuesday night, but, ….. I was emotionally and mentally spent.

Tuesday morning started pretty normal, that is if you can call anything normal around here. Pastor Deb, Yvonne and I were going to go into the communinty to meet some of the people affected. The people to people ministry is every bit as important as the brick and mortar ministries. These people have unbelievable stories to tell and desperately need someone to listen …… and give them a big hugs.

We had brought a whole bunch of Valentines the kids made to be given to those here in need of a little love on that day. We also brought a big bag of teddy bears that always seem to bring cheer wherever they go.

It seems Yvonne and I spent an hour trying to find out how to get to a day care center, who to see, permissions and all that stuff. Then Yvonne and I thought we better go back to the Kitchen and get Pastor Deb because we thought she had the Teddy Bears in her trunk. Drove to the kitchen,….no Deb, drove back to the library and …. No Deb. We are starting to get frustrated and as we leave the library, in comes Pastor Deb. She had been to the Day Care center already and gave the bears to some wonderful four year olds and valentines to all the kids. The neat part is she had the exact number of bears as four year olds! The response was overwhelming. Of course she took pictures and they all, I mean ALL wanted to see their pictures. She said she is still trying to clean all the sticky fingerprints off the camera. The Day Care was in several tents, each age in a tent, next to a FEMA tent city. All in all there were about twenty four year olds full of energy and, in not much space, who were thrilled to get a teddy bear. One of the women that worked there, (a Pass Christian resident) said she still hasn’t been down to the beach because she wanted to remember it the way it was…. but, not the way it is.

So now seeing that was done and we took Yvonne to do triage at a relief medical tent run by the Lutheran / Episcopal Disaster Relief Team. She was finally in her element.

Pastor Deb and I are off to visit the nursing home and hand out more Valentines made by the kids. We found it and after figuring out the entry buzzers we were in the lobby and introducing ourselves to the Director. “Good morning I’m Pastor Deb and this is Jim and we are volunteers from Wisconsin and we would like to give some valentines to your residents.” She welcomed us with open arms and before we could even start a lady excused herself and said “Excuse me did I hear you say your from Wisconsin?” We hadn’t even really noticed but in the lobby were two women visiting a woman in a wheel chair. Of course, she has our attention now and she went on to tell us in a very serious way “I want you to know the people in Wisconsin and Minnesota are absolutely the best! I mean you have really been so great. You all have been so real kind to us down here and so generous. You’ve sent so many volunteers and helped in so many ways, I had to tell you how thankful we are.” We gave her and the other two ladies big hugs and valentines the kids had made and they were very touched. “This is my mother and she is recovering from a stroke. And this is my good and close friend.” We sat down with them and had a wonderful conversation for about forty-five minutes. What stories we heard, she told us the story of how the nursing home was spared from the high waters and wind. We talked about her faith and how important God is in her life. She told us stories of Katrina and how it was two days before she could even talk to her son up north. She told us of many trials and tribulations in her life and how her faith gets the family through it all. Her daughter’s house is still not fully restored and how long it is taking to get everything done after this terrible hurricane and how much worse it was than Camille. She talked of auto accident her other son was in and we shared stories all kinds. We hugged, we prayed together; we took some pictures and laughed a lot. These were truly very nice people who wanted so much to tell us how thankful they were for everything we were doing that we almost felt embarrassed.

We moved on to the three wings of the home and greeted all kinds of wonderful people. Some of the residents told us that someone had been by yesterday and gave them Valentine candy, of course they told us it was the sugar free kind, but their faces were full of smiles when they got their valentines. I think it was because they were hand made, obviously, by little kids and I could see some flashbacks to fond memories of their youth and possibly even a long ago love. One Valentine we gave to a woman who sitting with her dying husband. I can’t even imagine what was going through her mind then. The feelings of gratitude and love generated from such a simple gift were almost too much to bear. We certainly were receiving as much as we were giving and more. It was hard to keep it altogether.

I almost forgot to tell you, the kind lady that stopped us in the lobby …was Bonita Favre.

Yep, Bret’s Mom and his Grandmother. You know, we didn’t talk football, I would have loved to, but this just wasn’t the time or the place. It wasn’t about Bret, it wasn’t about football, it was about a kind lady recovering from a stroke, her daughter and her friend and all they have gone through lately. Katrina is a great leveler. Not only of buildings. This destructive force didn’t discriminate between the poor or the rich, the no-bodies or the some-bodies, the little league team or even the Mom of a future Hall of Famer. Sure when we left I was pumped, I got to meet the Mom and Grandmother of my football idol. Sure I wished I had asked the million or so questions about this great player and his life. Sure I was proud to be from Wisconsin and hear those wonderful things she said. But I sure was thankful I was able to bring a little joy and love into a few seniors lives.

With still a lot more Valentines in hand we moved on to a FEMA trailer village. Rows and rows of little white tin boxes, not the kind of place where you would choose to live. We were determined to go from door to door and just give out our Valentine greetings and remind these people they were loved and in our prayers. This door to door thing was at first just a little daunting but we knew we were doing the right thing. A lot of people weren’t home, probably at work, so we just left them in the door. We kept thinking how nice it would be if we came home from a hard days work to such a home and find an anonymous little love card stuck in our door. One of the first trailers we approached we did so with just a little more than tribulation. The door was open a little and we could hear a very loud argument inside. “I know your cheating, you bum I know you are….” I told Pastor Deb I thought it sounded like a domestic fight of some kind. I know I watch too much Law and Order! Determined we knocked on the door. “Wat ya want!” “Were here to give you a Valentine from Wisconsin.” “Come in.” We opened the door a little bit more and there we saw two big men playing video games! Much to my surprise they paused the game and were really touched by the cards. We moved on but later that day as we were in another part of the park we saw one of those guys again and he still had his card! A few minutes later we were going to a trailer with a handicapped ramp and woman struggled to answer the door with the help of a small boy we later learned was her grandson. She was really touched by the cards and just as we were leaving she softly asked if it were possible for us to bring her and the boy something to eat. That stopped us dead in our tracks. We told her we would be back in an hour. We wondered as we left how many promises she’s heard have been broken? We had a job to do. Back the God’s Katrina Kitchen we went. Good thing Pastor Deb was washing dishes and serving meals yesterday because she knew just who to see. Four Hot meals and two huge boxes of food staples later we showed up on her door step. What I am sure about was that her gratitude was genuine and her grandson had a bottle of orange juice gone before we could leave. Those of you that know me may find it hard to believe but you won’t find a picture of her here. You know, I had a camera around my neck at the time but it just didn’t seem right at the time. I just didn’t want to impose on this nice lady in her darkest time of need. I’m sure if I had asked her for a picture she would have said “yes” but I’m thinking she also might have thought “so this is what I have to do to get some food for my family…have my picture everywhere in my old clothes…..” Nope! No pictures of this moment, just a lot of great memories of good feelings.

I have to tell you it was extremely exhausting and rewarding receiving all the love we did that day. So …. again I apologize for not keeping up the posting that night.

The following comments are added by Lance Myers, Belleville, WI, Group Leader of the Southern Wisconsin Hurricane Katrina Response Team, in the wee hours of early morning, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2005.

Wednesday was another awesome day of activity for the 38 Wisconsin volunteers down in Pass Christian, Mississippi, with teams spread out literally all over The Pass working on various work projects, including three teams installing, mudding and sanding drywall, and others up on roofs putting down new felt and shingles, helping cook and do dishes at God's Katrina Kitchen, providing several electrical wiring assessments, rough wiring half of one home and installing fixtures in another, building two portable daycare classroom structures for homeless children living in "The Village" tent city in downtown Pass Christian, visiting and working in a nursing home, working as a triage nurse in a Relief Medical facility, painting the inside of the Trinty Episcopal Church, and a few other important tasks. It is difficult to express how proud Wisconsin can be of these ambitious and caring Badger State volunteers, hailing from such areas as Mineral Point, Baraboo, Dodgeville, Stoughton, Madison, and Belleville. The day also saw Pass Christian Ward One Alderman, Lou Rizzardi stop by the group's lodging quarters in the old Public Library building, just before the supper hour, and address the Wisconsin volunteers on what Hurricane Katrina has done to his city, and how the recovery process is proceeding. Alderman Rizzardi had significant praise and appreciation for the Wisconsin volunteers and their mission in Pass Christian, and commented that without the caring recovery assistance of the volunteers and literally thousands of others like them, the recovery process would still be back at the two month stage instead of at the six months stage. Rizzardi added that the volunteers were making significant contributions this week to the citizens of the community, who were truly touched by their hard work and caring attitudes.

Evidence of this sincere appreciation among citizens of Pass Christian occured late in the evening Wednesday night, when several of the volunteers who had been painting inside the Trinty Episcopal Church down the street from the Public Library, walked down to the church on a late evening walk. While standing outside the church, one of the Trinity congregation drove into the parking lot, and went inside the heavily damaged church for late-night prayer. When he came out, he stopped to talk for several minutes with the Wisconsin folks who had being painting the church, and said that he could never adequately thank them enough for their kindness and love in helping their community and church in this trying time.

Earlier in the afternoon, as Baraboo electrician Neil Peterson and helpers Jorden Peterson and myself were at the library building picking up electrical wire and other supplies to begin a home re-wiring project a few minutes alter, a very special event took place. As the three were discussing the Mississippi and Pass Christian electrical code, a man drove up in a pickup truck. The three vounteers were inquiring of Campus Crusade Pass Christian Sire Director Travis Todd whether they could use 14/2 wire for home outlets and and lights wiring, of which there was 2500 feet of it in the CCC supplies storeroom, or instead would have to use heavier, 12/2 wire of which there was very little. The home rewiring project the trio would start that afternoon in a few minutes, would require at least a thousand feet of the 12/2 heavier wire. As CCC Director Todd hung up from calling the Pass Christian city electrician for a clarification on the wiring size issue, he advised that we would need to use the heavier 12/2 wire for our project. Withing 45 seconds of this advisory, the man who had just arrived in his white pickup, got out, came over to the four fellows, and and asked: "Say, could you fellows use a 1000 foot roll of 12/2 electrical wire? Some fellow from Virginia left it here with me when he went back home a few days ago, and asked me to find a good home for the wire that he had brought down for his several days of work, but had not use." Well, Neil and myself had our jaws drop down, as we exchanged 'Are you kidding me?' looks, and Travis just shook his head and smiled... Incredible? Yes, and it happened just the way described here, and it is not the first time this week that that type of incident has occured. We will be the first to admit that we have had special help all during this week.

Last evening, Tuesday, after the FEMA shower semi trailer once again had the lighting circuit breaker trip and shut down the lights in the 14-shower setup, Neil Peterson again demonstrated his electrical excellence by tracing down the cause of the annoying breaker shutdown at exactly the wrong time of use of the facility. Neil carefully and thoroughly examined the entire electrical system of the trailer and discovered the cause of the problem: a loose wire in one of the ceiling flourescent fixtures. This troublesome problem had plagued CCC volunteers trying to use the shower trailer for many weeks, and had gone unsolved by other, supposed electrically-wise people trying to find the cause of the problem, but no one was able to solve the puzzle but Neil! Thanks, Neil!!!

Dining at the volunteer food tent, "God's Katrina Kitchen", has been an incredible experience for our group this week, where they have literally broken bread with volunteers from all over the U.S., Canada, and even Italy! Many of the volunteers have also served shifts as volunteers at the Katrina Kitchen, helping in the serving line, doing food preparation and washing dishes and pots and pans. Their help has been greatly appreciated by the faith-based volunteers who operate the kitchen for local residents and volunteers who come to Pass Christian to help with the recovery process.

Already, the week is widing down, and we will be heading back to Wisconsin Friday evening, after spending one last work day helping families in Pass Christian to know that their plight is important to others, who wish to help as they can. After enjoying temperatures near 70 degrees Wednesday, and those forecasted to be above 70 for Thursday and Friday, we aren't really looking forward that much to arriving back in Wisconsin to snow and a temp below zero! Oh well, it has ben very nice to enjoy a taste of what we hope will be warmer weather coming very soon to Wisconsin.

Thanks so much to Jim Semsar for providing this amazing means of communicating this week's mission activities to families back home and to folks all over. Thanks also to all of the caring 38 Wisconsin volunteers for dedicating a week out of their busy lives to reach out to so many families in the Pass Christian community who have been affected so adversely by Hurricane Katrina. Hopefully, they will consider returning again to help with the recovery, and inspire others by their leadership and dedication, to do the same.

~Lance Myers

These three sunrise photographs were taken right outside our door here at the old library on Monday morning. The thing of it is they were all taken from the same place just different focal lengths. When I zoomed in on the sunrise it was beautiful....when I zoomed out you can see the sun was realy rising over rubble and signs of the recovery.

It’s been a busy day down here today and since we worked today every one is pretty tired. It’s 11:30, lights out and real quite, that is except for the soft drone of several snorers and a couple of late night computer nuts working on blogs…

Everyone broke up into small groups of four to five and went different ways on “job” assignments after breakfast of course. Each team had different tasks, basically these were help requests that people have ask of the CCC group to provide. Some went to a home and painted, some went to a home and worked on repairing a brick wall, some went to help the city erect a large tent, Neal was out looking for ways to make electric work for someone, yet another group went to God’s Katrina Kitchen to help wash dishes and prepare food and serve it to the hundreds that come in every day, three times a day. I’ll post a lot of pictures again, you pick them out.

Tonight when we all showed for dinner (we usually work until around 5:30) we were pleasantly surprised to be entertained by a live trio of Scottish musicians. They were very good and played until about 7:30.

I worked on two work groups today. What I’d like to do is shadow all the groups, work with them for a half a day and then move on to another for the afternoon. The object being that way I can take a few minutes to photograph what we are all doing so you will get a feeling of what still has to be done down here……IT IS A LOT! Today I started out with Luke and his crew cleaning up a crumbled brick wall and helped him as he rebuilt it. Then in the afternoon I helped Bob and his gang finish sheet rocking a home started but not finished by the Haitian volunteers that were down here last week.

I have no idea where I’ll be tomorrow but most people will return to the same places they worked at today, except I know the painters finished painting the entire interior of the home they were working on today so they will be going somewhere else.

Ok, I got the time thing set right now, not that it really makes a difference in the sceam of things, compaired to what we are seeing that IS truly trivial. I had it set for LA west coast time, it should work now to the right local time.
Last night I stopped uploading pictures around midnight so now maybe I can add some more before everyone gets up. For now I'm not going to try to caption every photograph, you will just have to ask one of us when you see us, .... who, what and... well we all know why. But for now here are some of the things we saw yesterday (Sunday) on our tour and some of the fellowship which abounds down here even more that the piles of wreckage.

It was good to meet everyone and find they were all civil even after driving for 24 plus hours through snow, ice and fog to get here. First order of day was breakfast at God's Katrina Kitchen. Great food, eggs, bacon, biskets and gravy and a lot more. Then it was off to Church. We went to a great service at Trinity Espiscopal Church a couple of blocks from the library. The Reverend Christopher Colby gave a great sermon which really touched us a lot. It was going to church in the bombed out kind of church you see in the movies. The stained glass was gone and replaced with visquine and clear plastic. Half the altar was unpainted plywood, the walls were raw studs, exposed wiring and the new addition of foil insulation. That initself was a blessing as it is cold down here even for us northerners. Last night it got down to the high 20's and some of us who thought we were going to a warmner climate have been surprised. We were told that this was not just a welcome for us from Wisconsin but a real clod snap. Did I tell you it's cold down here? It is going to get warmer, so they say. Back to the sermon...It was refreshing to find it upbeat and down to earth with a message that was able to find the Grace of God even under these conditions which are shocking us every minite we are here. We meet some great local people at church, even a neat guy the used to live in Green bay before moving down here.
After church Lance took us on an extended tour of the local destruction. We had all seen the photographs and vidios Lance had shown us before BUT there is NOTHING like seeing it all first hand, up close and personal. We stopped and spent a lot of time with Aliva and Herbie Richie from Perlington. Their personal stories we real eye openers to us all. We got to go through their FEMA trailer, very small and although better that nothing, we learned the trailers have to go back to the Gov. 18 months after the date of the storm and lots of people haven't even got one yet!! We saw about 20 in transit on our trip down here and the red tape it takes to get one is no picnic either. We had a good group meeting after dinner tonight. A couple of us worked in the kitchen today instead of the tour. Tommorow we will get work assignments and we all are eagar to get going.
I'll post pictures every day that should relate to my ramblings. It's pushing 11pm. Check tomorrow for more. For some reason the posting times listed are not reality, but so what.

They have arrived! It's Sunday Morning and the are all here and safe after driving for over 24 hours. The unpainted plywood tempory doors of the old libary opened at 12:15 am and one by one the weary tralvers filled in and found an empty cot in the dark unpacked their gear doing the best they could not to make a sound and wake the rest. Around 7 am everyone started getting up.

Neal Wilson
A frendly face at the door.

We made it! We are here. Well.... at least the first nine that left Baraboo early to make it a two day trip. Now we hear the rest are going to get here about 11:00 pm. about 5 or 6 hours late. Word is the had a lot ice and bad weather in souther Illinios. We will wait up for them.

The first person we meet when we arrived at the old library was Neal Wilson. What a great guy and with his big smile made us feel right at home ....right away. We unloaded our gear and then headed for God's Kitchen. Had a wonderful dinner and meet just countless more super people. No pretences here, everyone just seems like they have been your friends for life.

Now I just met another super woman..."Mouse", yep her name is Mouse and you read a lot more about her later. She is living right here in the old Library. I apoligised for the late arrival of the thst of our gang and she said she was so happy to have us we could arrive any time ..day or night! Maybe I'll be able to post her picture soon.

Welcome and thank you for viewing our blog. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church is located in Baraboo Wisconsin and is an ELCA church of about 1600 members. Our mission statement reads, “Nurtured and Equipped to Witness and Serve”. We like our acronyms and this one spells NEWS, the Good News. St. Paul’s does nurture and equip us, and each of us witnesses our faith in different ways, this blog will be but one. This blog will also be about how we and members of several other churches in our area joined together to “serve” those in need. “NEWS” also represents the four parts of the compass, North, East, West and South. Today we are heading south to share our gifts of time, talent, our possessions and Gods grace.

This morning one car, two vans, and a truck left for Pass Christian MS from Baraboo. Tonight around midnight another van will leave Baraboo and meet five other churches near Janesville and caravan to Pass Christian. Our first group will be staying in Cape Girardeau MO to make it a two day drive and we will all meet at God’s Katrina Kitchen

http://www.dad-cam.com/blog/2006/01/gods-katrina-kitchen.html Sat. night to group up and organize the work week. At that time hopefully I will post again with some group pictures of the volunteers and our first impressions. The plan is to add photos and comments every day while we are here.