Mission Team, Report #2

Our whole group from Christ Church are working in the town of Waveland, Mississippi, at the home of 75-year-old Bonnie Willingham. Her home ended up under nine feet of water; she and her dog Prince were in the attic when the floods came in. The entire interior of the house needs to be gutted and all of her belongings were ruined. She had some insurance money and donations to start rebuilding her house. UMCOR volunteers have been working on Bonnie’s house for about a month, and (along with the help of the Christ Church mission team) are getting close to having her moved back in. Grant is the master electrician. John is laying floor tiles. Jim and Carol are painting. T. Lewis is the locksmith. Rejoice is working back at the camp helping to feed the crowd of 200 volunteers. All the residents have been giving us great southern cooking for lunch. This is an amazing experience of personal fulfillment and service, seeing what’s been done and helping Bonnie get back into her house.

Most of the 200 volunteers are sleeping on air mattresses at a church in Ocean Springs; some of us are sleeping in tents on the church lawn. Imagine all of these people at Christ Church filling up every room! There are eight showers (four inside, four outside) for 200 people. Don’t ask about the hot water situation!

We all start heading home on Saturday!

John Jaruzel

Mission Team Reporting In

CCUM Members and Friends:

I received the following e-mail from T. Lewis as a first update about their work. Added in a phone message reported that Rejoice is helping with the feeding of the volunteers (sounds like cooking for 200 people!) And that after the first day of work on Monday, the group already felt as if being there for that day alone was enought to make the trip worthwhile!

Keep the volunteers in your thoughts and prayers.

Carolyn

From the team:
Hi All,
I have a brief moment to write to you about our experience so far as volunteers in the Katrina-stricken Gulf Coast. We are thankfully staying in a large church with about 200 other volunteers. We have access to showers, the laundry, and three meals a day. These aspects have made our stay quite comfortable, though the days are long and busy. Sunday we took a tour of the area, passing through several cities and witnessing first-hand the awful power of Katrina and how entire lives were uprooted, cast about, and hurled in broken bits back to the earth. Renewal has begun, but very slowly. Most of the people we have visited still live in FEMA trailers due to their homes being uninhabitable - 7 months after Katrina. Monday we began by cleaning some debris, cutting some dead brush and clearing it, and hauling random large items of junk. We ended the day in the homes of Miss Bonnie and Mr. Leroy who both have homes which have been drywalled and are close to being finished. We begin preparing Miss Bonnie's floor for tile and took up some of the old, damaged tile from Mr. Leroy's. That evening we ate ravenously, then had a short moment of recreation. Luckily, we had a pack of cards! Today we returned to the site to lay Miss Bonnie's tile and prime and paint Mr. Gary's house. Mr. Gary rewarded us with a sumptuous Southern meal of BBQ ribs, "dirty" rice, pasta, salad, and some tasty slices of cake. All of us are holding up well, enjoying our experience, and working hard to try to bring a little bit of comfort to these people who have suffered so much! With our effort, they will be able to move back into their homes shortly. We thank you all for your wonderful support of us during our time here. We will see you again soon, and you will hear from us again before then!

Taize worship / "Ending Hunger Now" guest speaker

Our first Taize worship service of the spring will take place tonight (Tuesday) at 7:00 p.m. in the chapel. If you haven't yet had the chance to attend Christ Church's new monthly worship service in the style of the Taize community, tonight's service is a perfect opportunity! Taize worship is quiet, contemplative, and peaceful, a renewing experience during hectic times.

Taize Worship at Christ Church
Tuesday, March 28, 7:00pm
Christ Church Chapel
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Tomorrow night (Wednesday) the Lenten series on Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith with conclude with a discussion led by Donald Messer, one of the book's authors. Even if you haven't attended other sessions in this series, we encourage you to come this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. to hear what Dr. Messer has to say about hunger as "a challenge to our faith."

Ending Hunger Now discussion with Donald Messer, author
Wednesday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.

April Newsletter

The April 2006 edition of the print Christ Church Connections newsletter is available to download (.pdf format) in the Newsletter Archive.

Adobe Reader is required to open documents in .pdf format -- if your computer does not already have the program installed, you can download it for free here.

Katrina Recovery Mission Team

Today through next Sunday, several Christ Church members are volunteering a week of their time to assist with the rebuilding efforts in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The mission team will be keeping in touch with the church office via email -- check back here regularly throughout the week as we post updates, news, and experiences from the mission team.

Katrina Recovery Work Trip Volunteers:
Grant Lewis, T. Lewis, John Jaruzel, Jim Ricketts, Rejoice Kyei, & Carol Tudor Palazzatto

Online Lenten Resources

I encourage everyone to check out some of these online Lenten resources, which include prayers, poems, meditations, articles, and activities for commemorating the season of Lent.

• The Season of Lent, by Dennis Bratcher
• Meditations and Prayers for Lent and Easter, by Victor Hoagland
• Getting into the Rhythm of Lent, a sermon by Richard Chartres
• From Ashes to Easter, a collection of poems and prayers
• Connecting Worship and Daily Living in Lent, by Daniel Benedict (UMC General Board of Discipleship)
• Heart Prayer during Lent (for children and their families), by Lucille Perotta Castro
• Lent for Little Ones, by Lillian Silver

If any Christ Church Connections readers have other favorite online Lenten resources, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Young couples of Christ Church

Church-member Sue Lawson has begun hosting social gatherings at her home for the young couples of Christ Church. Here are some photos from last month's first get-together. (Click on each photo for a larger version.)

Bob Harmon Memorial Service

The memorial service for Bob Harmon will be held this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. in the Christ Church sanctuary. (Today's regularly scheduled "Lost Christianities" study has been cancelled.)

An Ash Wednesday Prayer

"A Time of Turning Around"

Truly dust we are, and to dust we shall return;
and truly yours we are, and to you we shall return.
Help this to be a time of turning round and beginning again.
Through the forty days of Lent, help us to follow you
and to find you: in the discipline of praying
and in the drudgery of caring--
in whatever we deny ourselves,
and whatever we set ourselves to learn or do.
Help us to discover you
in our loneliness and in community,
in our emptiness and our fulfillment,
in our sadness and our laughter.
Help us to find you when we ourselves are lost.
Help us to follow you on the journey to Jerusalem
to the waving palms of the people's hope,
to their rejection, to the cross and empty tomb.
Help us to perceive new growth amid the ashes of the old.
Help us, carrying your cross, to be signs of your Kingdom. AMEN

(By Jan Sutch Pickard from "Eggs and Ashes")