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closeFinding hope by helping
Puyallup United Methodist Church mission group finds the spirit of New Orleans
Chris Albert
This summer, a mission crew from Puyallup United Methodist Church made their way to New Orleans to help rebuild an area still dealing with the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought, three years ago.
“Really our No. 1 task was to say ‘you haven’t been forgotten, you are cared about and we are with you,’” said Reverend Shirley DeLarme, who was also the mission leader for the trip.
The group went to help in the rebuilding efforts of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in New Orleans. The trip was a continuation of support the Puyallup church is providing for Mt. Zion. The New Orleans church has been without the use of its sanctuary since Katrina and continues to operate, but out of what amounts to a one room educational building.
As Mt. Zion deals with its own recovery, the church continues to serve a community in need with a senior center, food and clothing banks, a health clinic, regular church services and a voucher program to provide shelter and meals for a homeless population that grew after Katrina.
“They’re just doing all this ministry out of that one room,” DeLarme said. “I think it makes us look at our own responses more closely.”
During Puyallup church’s visit, the Mt. Zion congregation gave nearly $9,000 in vouchers for the homeless, DeLarme said.
“They’re still giving a lot themselves,” said Loni Stevenson, one of the Puyallup church’s adult missioner
The Puyallup group was able to see the destruction first-hand and toured the area.
“We had to wear face masks to go into the sanctuary,” DeLarme said, explaining that the mold was so bad.
The damaged building at Mt. Zion looks like it is frozen in time, she said. There are bulletins still on the walls from before the hurricane and the damage is still evident and even growing with the onset of mold in damaged and abandoned buildings.
“That was quite shocking to see how things were tossed around from the storm,” DeLarme said.
But through all the hardship the people of New Orleans have felt, they were some of the most welcoming and thankful people the group has ever encountered.
“The thing that stood out the most is how welcoming the people in the city were,” Stevenson said.
Their hospitality cannot be matched, said Ruth Marston, PUMC adult missioner. Throughout the city there are constant reminders of what happened. Next to immaculate homes are abandoned ones overgrown by weeds and vacant lots where homes once stood.
“Even though they still see all that they are still warm and welcoming,” Marston said. “It’s certainly inspiring to see the passion of these people.”
Marston has been on mission trips to other parts of the country and people are always somewhat thankful, but everyone they came across in New Orleans completely embraced the group.
“The warmth and the generosity of the people still blows me away,” she said.
And it began before the group even arrived in New Orleans, said Montee Windsor, PUMC adult missioner. The mission crew had a stop in Houston before continuing on and in the airport people would come up to them and thank them for going to help, he said.
“I never felt like we were outsiders at all out there,” he said. “We were treated, I guess, as an honored guest immediately.”
DeLarme recalled how once they arrived in New Orleans two women who she first encountered started going over places the group had to eat. As a mission trip, restaurant stops weren’t part of the budget, but the two women would not be deterred and started dialing the phones finding the group discounts on some Louisiana Cuisine.
“Because of their phoning we got to do that,” DeLarme said.
It’s the spirit of the people there, she said. Although they might not have anything vested in helping a group from Washington score a fine meal amongst their own hardships, it’s something they enjoy.
“They just found delight in reaching out and helping other people,” DeLarme said. “It was really moving.”
“These people are being restored in their spirit in helping other people.”
It was something the group, especially the youth, took a hold of as they helped at Mt. Zion’s senior center, hosted a vacation Bible school and cleaned up the only playground in the neighborhood they were in. Some of the older youth, helped the adults repair home.
“They (the youth) worked so hard,” Marston said. “They had to be almost begged into taking breaks.”
There was broken glass throughout the playground, said Brandon Rogness, PUMC youth missioner. So they picked it all up and boarded up broken windows.
“They were all very thankful for it,” he said.
The city is still a long ways from being fully recovered, Windsor said.
“It’s still just very much an area that feels the impact of the hurricane,” he said.
While the youth on the trip did what they could, the adults painted homes and repaired what they could.
But that wasn’t the most important work they did, Marston said.
“Everyone there has a Katrina story, but we don’t,” she said. “For me listening was the most important work I did there.”
The Puyallup group returned from their trip ready to return to New Orleans and continue a relationship built on hope and recovery, Stevenson said.
PUMC is already planning a return mission trip for next spring, Windsor said.
“Leaving there you felt like ‘I’m ready to go back there next time,’” Stevenson said. “I never experienced something like that before.”
“The more I gave the more I got,” Rogness said.