 New Orleans, LA. Hello from the Crescent City of New Orleans and the fourth annual RainbowCorps mission service trip sponsored by More Light Presbyterians. Created in 2006, RainbowCorps is the mission service initiative of More Light Presbyterians for LGBT persons and their friends serving together to share God's love and care with others by relieving human suffering. The first two years we worked with the community mission outreach program of First Presbyterian Church, New Orleans rebuilding houses damaged by hurricane Katrina. 80% of the city was affected by the flooding. First Presbyterian Church, New Orleans was one of the first churches in the city to respond by hosting teams and coordinating home rebuilding work. First Presbyterian Church, New Orleans is the first welcoming and affirming More Light Presbyterian Church in the state of Louisiana with Rev. Jayne Ruiz serving as pastor.  This week, like last year's RainbowCorps team, we are working with Project Homecoming of the Presbytery of South Louisiana and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Church (USA). 15 people came to New Orleans to serve this week. Rev. Janet Edwards, Co-Moderator and I had the privilege of working with 11 people from 4 churches in Rochester, New York: Third Presbyterian Church, Downtown United Presbyterian Church, South Presbyterian Church and Laurelton United Presbyterian Church. Third Presbyterian Church and the Downtown United Presbyterian Church are welcoming and affirming More Light Presbyterian churches. Susan Orr served as the coordinator of the Rochester group. Two college students from nearby Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, joined us for a couple days of work. Janet served as the chaplain for our team offering a prayer ritual at the end of the work day on the work site and I offered evening meditations after dinner with all of the Project Homecoming mission volunteers at The Olive Tree Village, the PDA volunteer housing center. 2009 marked the fifth anniversary of Katrina. The need for rebuilding, particularly of homes, continues without question. In previous years we have worked on houses in the lower Ninth Ward, the upper Ninth Ward and Gentilly. This week we are working on Fatima and Jose's home near Chalmette in St. Bernard parish east of New Orleans. Fatima and Jose' moved to Louisiana from El Salvador. 100% of the homes and other buildings in this parish had flood damage because of Katrina. Each day Jose' worked along side us. I was grateful when Jose' intervened to help me with a tough drywall job I was doing in one of the bathrooms. Janet worked with the door-hanging team while I did drywall work, tile grouting and sealing. Other volunteers installed kitchen cabinets, put up shelving in closets, framed windows and laid tile. Some of the volunteers are skilled, some of us are not so skilled, all of us are enthusiastic and want to be of service. Leading each work crew at a home being rebuilt is a Presbyterian Young Adult Mission Volunteer or Americorps volunteer. Our crew leader was Alex and he did an incredible job guiding our work projects. On the last afternoon, he took us on a tour of two special rebuilding projects, the "Make It Right" rebuilding project led by Brad Pitt and the Musicians' Village led by Harry Connick, Jr. One evening we shared an incredible creole meal together at the Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter followed by jazz and piano at Pat O'Brien's. In the Project Homecoming orientation film, one New Orleans resident whose house was rebuilt by Presbyterian volunteers from around the country said that "New Orleans was the city that care forgot" until the Presbyterians showed up to help her rebuild her home. At the end of the film, Andy Greenhow, Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer last year and now a student at Princeton Seminary, encourages Presbyterians to "keep coming back" to New Orleans. And, we will. Please join us in continuing to hold the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and prayers. We will be setting the dates for our RainbowCorps 2010 mission service week soon, so watch for that notice at www.mlp.org To find out more about Project Homecoming call (877) 942-0444 or go to www.projecthomecoming.net. We hope you will join us for RainbowCorps 2010 in New Orleans next year. with hope and grace, Michael Michael J. Adee, M.Div., Ph.D., Executive Director & Field Organizer PS -- Please support the outreach & ministries of MLP. A current matching grant automatically doubles your donation to MLP now. You can make a tax-deductible secure donation online now at www.mlp.org at the top of the home page "contribute." Or, you can mail your donation check to MLP, 4737 County Rd. 101, Box 246, Minnetonka, MN 55345. |
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