Update on Katrina Travelers from North Church to New Orleans

Twenty people representing North Church left on Sunday, February 24 for a Habitat-related work project in New Orleans, and returned on March 1. We worked with the St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in its RHINO (Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans) project, which is building homes in partnership with Habitat for Humanity for victims of Hurricane Katrina.  The January-February 2008 issue of Presbyterians Today (pp. 15-18) has an excellent article on how Presbyterian pastors, congregant members, and other volunteers in New Orleans and elsewhere are responding to the events of August, 2005. 

Those of us who went on the project wish to extend a very hearty thanks to all of you at North Church who have contributed in various ways to help finance this trip. While each traveler donated $300 toward the cost of the trip, this did not cover the total costs of the airfare, the $15/person/day for food and lodging, the rental of two vans for a week, and other miscellaneous expenses.  So, we are most thankful for those who have purchased magnets, pins, and Chico bags. 

The following individuals represented North Church in New Orleans:  Ben Alderfer, JoAnne Alderfer, Bruce Barit, Jerra Barit, Ann Eisenlord, Skip Harrington, Bob Henderson, Norma Henderson, Erin Kahler, Linda Koenigsberg, Marlon Koenigsberg, Kathy Lash, Ellie McConnell, Jim McConnell, Nancy Reidy, Mary Soom, Lauren Stirling, Rob Stirling, Beth Vandenberg, and Sue Wishart.  We were also joined by a group of people from the First Presbyterian Church of Royal Oaks, Michigan.

The group prepared and conducted both the 8:30 a.m. and the 10:45a.m. worship services on Sunday, March 30, 2008.  The message of the services was focused upon three topics:  1)  Lamentations for New Orleans, which describes the similarities between conditions in New Orleans and those in Jerusalem, as reported in Lamentations 1;  2)  a section on the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast (from Matthew 13), which suggests that the work undertaken by North Church in New Orleans is but a small contribution to the work others have been doing and to the enormous amount of work that remains to be accomplished;  and 3) a section on Hope, using selected versus from Revelation 1, to suggest that "all things can be made new," and to hope that "volunteers from all over the nation will continue to go to New Orleans to build houses, that our government will do what is right for the citizens of this great city, that eventually the people of New Orleans will be able to return to the place where their hearts are to find safe homes and good jobs and decent schools and health care.  What a welcome sound it would be to be able to say to all of those who are displaced and yearning to return--Come home!  Come home!"

Click here for a gallery of photos taken in
New Orleans by the Rhino work group.