Mississippi mission trip team

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina passes, most Pennsylvanians probably don’t think about the devastating storm often, but its victims are still coping with the aftermath.

Twenty-one congregants from four local churches witnessed the devastation first-hand during the summer.

The group traveled 1,080 miles to Gautier, Miss., to help Hurricane Katrina victims rebuild their homes in July.

“We went down hoping to make a difference in the lives of the people affected by Hurricane Katrina but for a lot of us it was our lives that were changed,” said the Rev. Colin Yuckman, pastor of the United Presbyterian Church in New Kensington.

The churches that participated in the trip were Pine Run Presbyterian Church in Markle, The United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington, The Vandergrift Presbyterian Church, and the Patton Presbyterian Church in Patton, Pa. The 21 group members ranged in age from 16 – 84 most with little experience but a lot of heart.

For a week they lived in corrugated plastic huts in a field at a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance village. The group was split into three teams and worked on four houses, finishing two to the point that the families could move back home.

The work consisted of installing windows and drywall, plumbing and electrical work, replacing siding, painting, and cleaning.

“It was in the 90s with the humidity at the max, the days were long, the work was hard; it was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” said Lauren Pounds, a member of the Vandergrift Presbyterian Church.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling knowing that what you are doing is making a profound and positive difference in someone’s life,” said Cindy Stratton of the Patton Presbyterian Church.

The group did more than just rebuild houses.

“Even though most of our work was rebuilding the physical structure of people’s homes our presence alongside the homeowners helped in the healing process of their emotional scars caused by the storm,” said the Rev. Lanny Mellinger, pastor of the Pine Run Presbyterian Church in Markle and organizer of the trip.

The group really got a sense of the destruction when it traveled 20 miles west of Guatier to Biloxi. Pounds recalled, “Many houses and businesses were abandoned and have not been touched. There is debris still in the water and the beach is littered with junk and the smell of rot.”

Her sister, Diana Pounds added, “It was very sobering and you have to think, ‘if this is what it’s like 11 months after the hurricane, I can’t even imagine how bad it was last August.”

What affected the group members the most was not the destruction they saw in Mississippi but the attitude of the people still trying to put their lives back together.

Yuckman said, “Unless we see it in the news we seldom think about the hurricane anymore; they deal with it every day and have been for a year. The people are amazing. They’ve been through so much but they haven’t lost their faith or hope. They’re so positive about the future.”

The trip was through the Presbytery Disaster Assistance. The organization sets up programs for long-term disaster relief and enables volunteer teams to make a difference in the lives of people who need all the help they can get all over the world. Presbytery Disaster Assistance is still looking for volunteers to continue the work to help the Katrina victims. Mellinger said that according to the program’s officials help will be needed for the next 3-5 years to clean up and rebuild. More information on updates and what can be done to help can be found online at http://www.pcusa.org/pda. “I think a number of team members are already contemplating another trip to the Gulf during the summer of 2007,”said Mellinger.

*The author of this article was also a participant on the mission trip.