pass christian, ms

My last week was spent in this little coastal town which was devastated by the eye of Hurricane Katrina. The trip was very good. Hard work. Good food. Lots of laughter. Huge campfires (there's plenty of wood lying around). Deep friendships.

Eight people from my church choir went down together. Guy, Maureen and I mudded and sanded the house of a couple named OlteRay and Virginia Swanier (Swan-yay). They're in their late 70s and she has stage 4 lung cancer. She was in the hospital most of the week with pneumonia. On Saturday before we left, we were able to visit her in Gulfport Memorial Hospital. We sang "Amazing Grace" to her. Their house made it through the hurricane, but the next day they watched it burn to the ground as it was struck by lightning.

One of the highlights of the trip was when an Apostolic electrician got their electricity working. OlteRay went into a bedroom and turned on the lights and yelped with delight. He then switched them on and off like an excited little boy.

Most of the rest of our group worked at the home of Mr. Favre, hanging and mudding drywall. His wife had cancer and altzheimer's, and he had to stay home with her during the hurricane. When the flooding got too high, he took her to the attic, and when it continued to rise, he put her on an air mattress and floated her out the window, and they waited out the storm on the roof. Their home suffered serious water and mold damage, but they were able to keep it. However, it has all new walls now. We noticed that the floors were wet when it was really humid, so that's something that will need to be fixed.

We stayed at Bible Fellowship Church in Pass Christian. This church was flooded by the creek that runs behind. A trailer onsite was destroyed, and another double-wide that houses a kitchen, eating area, two other rooms, and bathrooms was refurbished. The church itself suffered some damage (about a foot of water throughout), but they were able to save the pews and amazingly enough, the pianos (they still need a good tuning!). We had mattresses, showers and air conditioning. And hot meals nightly. That was a resort compared to what most of the relief workers who are down there experience.

On Wednesday evening, we went to New Orleans to eat supper and see the French Quarter. That was fun. We had po' boys at a restaurant called Mother's and beignets at the Cafe Du Monde. Bourbon Street was something I never need to see again. On the street by the cafe, there was a movie crew setting up to film Deja Vu with Denzel Washington. We didn't see him, but we did talk to his driver. The sombering part was when we drove over the 9th Ward on the way into the city. The streetlights were on, but houses were completely dark. It was eerie.

I got up between 5:30 & 6:00 every morning (can you believe it?) for a meeting at 7:15, then we worked until 5:00ish. At night we hung out, played cards, and sat around a campfire. Friday night we were invited by a couple from the church to their home for gumbo (I had alligator!) and bread pudding.

On Saturday, we toured the more devastated parts of Pass Christian, and drove down I-90 (runs along the beach) from Bay St. Louis to Gulfport. Basically, there's nothing there except a few restaurant signs, a concrete house, and the steel structure of a Wal-Mart. The thing that hit me was how widespread the devastation is.

There's much more to be said, but this is long enough already. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I get them back. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go and help this couple. We all left feeling like we hadn't done much, but we were reminded that there are thousands of people helping, and each person has his or her own part to play. And thousands of people makes a big difference!