A group of 23 people from St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Loganville made a mission trip to Biloxi, Mississippi last month. Leaving on Easter Sunday. While they were gone just a week, they made memories that will last a lifetime.

That was very obvious Sunday when members of the group made a presentation on their trip at their church. Many of those who spoke choked up with emotion as they spoke of the people they met and the devastation that remains in Mississippi, long months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

Making the trip were Pastor Chris Miller, Dale Meyer, Roy Schroeder, Sue Wobschall, Jim Gregory, Arlene Gregory, Monica Haefer, Pauline Deitrich, Harvey Meyer, Marvin Kruse, Ron Kruse, Kim Leaving, Linda Behn, Don Hamilton, Ruth Roecker, Pam Judd, Marlene Schmidt, Ann Krueger, Laurie Muchow, Charli Muchow, Evelyn Reusch, Marian Bergman and Pastor Dave Farina.

It was group ranging in age from high school student Monica Haefer to senior citizens, all with one purpose: helping others. Members took on tasks in Biloxi suitable to their skills, helping rebuild a home for a woman named Diana, hanging doors for another family, helping out at a medical clinic, helping at a homeless shelter, and working at a distribution center.

Along the way they worked along side church members from all over the Untied States, forming new friendships with them and with the Mississippi people they helped.

“It was hard to come home,” says Roy Schroeder. He said the gratitude shown by the people they helped was deep, “Maybe some of God’s light shone through us,” he said.

The group stayed at Bethel Lutheran Church in Biloxi. Churches in Biloxi are serving as temporary housing for volunteer workers and for those displaced by the hurricane.
Don Hamilton said until you see it, it is hard to imagine the hundreds of miles of hurricane devastation. “I’m still processing all that devastation.” Like others who made the trip, he went out of a sense of duty that he needed to do something to help.

Kim Leaving said even with all the devastation, it was still reassuring to see life beginning anew in the form of flowers coming up through the rubble and blooming. “There’s still so much to do,” she says of the relief effort.

Pam Judd said the lasting memory is the people they met. “They were so thrilled we were there to help them.” Some members of the group were concerned that as Northerners they might feel unwelcome in the South, even though they were there to help.

However they could not have been made to feel more welcome.
The volunteers wore name tags during the trip. Many people would see the tags, and come up to them and tell their hurricane stories. “I felt like a sponge for people. they wanted to share their experiences with us,” said Ron Kruse. “Hopefully we were sharing some of their burden for them.”

Arlene Gregory, who helped work in a kitchen, said one day some hungry children came by. “It was the first time I ever saw little kids crying because they were hungry,” she said. They gave them some food. “Their eyes got as big as saucers when they saw those apples. I had to walk back into the church and cry.”

Jim Gregory talked about meeting so many people who wanted to move back into their houses so very badly, but couldn’t, because they were not fit for habitation. He talked of seeing the eyes of an 80 year old woman light up when he gave her one of the quilts that was brought along.

Many area groups and businesses donated items for the St. Peter’s group to take along on their trip. Ruth Roecker spoke of how people at the distribution center were so happy to receive clothes brought along by their group from Lands’ End. “I felt I was part of something special,’ she said.

Others spoke of the bond they formed with other members of their group as well as volunteers from others areas during the trip. Sue Wobschall said, “The people I worked with were a wonderful group of people and they worked hard.”

The sheer volume of the amount of reconstruction is making the hurricane recovery difficult. Dale Meyer said when they sent people to a store for building supplies, they were often gone for hours, waiting in line.

Marge Schmidt and Evelyn Reusch helped process paperwork in a free medical clinic. Some of those who came were caught in bureaucratic limbo, because they had owned businesses and thus had assets that made them ineligible for some relief programs. But they still had no money.

Marge also helped out at a homeless shelter that had recently reopened. The person who ran it told her that 80 percent of the people they had served prior to the hurricane have never come back. Some probably fled and some probably died. But they will never know for sure.

Dale Meyer said he was happy to be working along side other brothers and sisters in Christ. He said for many down there, the only help was coming through the churches. He was also impressed with everyone who made the trip from the Loganville church. “I couldn’t have picked a better crew if I had hand-picked them myself.

Marvin Kruse spoke of how it was a pleasure to help get Diane’s house back in order. Pauline Deitrich said the hurricane showed how fleeting material things were. She saw ocean front homes where just iron gates and a couple of statues remained, but the home that had been behind the gate was completely gone.

After seeing all the devastation, they saw a sign for a multi-million dollar lottery. It was feeling of everyone in her group that if any of them won that lottery, they would give all the prize money to hurricane relief. Pauline’s granddaughter, Monica Haefer, said she was glad she had the chance to go and to help others.

Charli Muchow, another of the younger members to make the trip, said the experience brought her closer to God. “You feel so much more whole when you are helping people.”

Hurricane relief efforts are continuing along the Gulf Coast. One regret of the group working on Diane’s house is that they had to leave before they could finish the job. Another group of volunteers will take over. Recovery in Mississippi, where the three most southern counties all suffered severe damage, is expected to take six to 10 years to complete.