“What an experience!” “I’ll be going on the next trip.” “It’s humbling to see how much people lost and then help to give back.” These were the comments from members of three churches in Dan River Baptist Association who traveled together January 31 to February 7 to Port Sulphur, Louisiana, to help with the on-going rebuilding efforts of residents of this area still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Team members Vicky Barker, Donna Moorefield, Hugh and Dot Haley, Harrell and Joyce Burton, George and Sara Crump, Woody and Joan Waller and C.J. Womack.
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The missions teams consisted of Vicky Barker and Donna Moorefield from Clover Bottom Church in Nathalie; Hugh and Dot Haley from Alton Baptist in Alton; and Harrell and Joyce Burton, George and Sara Crump, Woody and Joan Waller and C.J. Womack from Bethel Baptist in Scottsburg. The team worked on three separate homes in partnership with Virginia Baptists and the Committee for Plaquemines Recovery. Construction included framing doors and windows, laying flooring, installing baseboard molding, putting up insulation and setting toilets.
Team members met a couple who will live in one of the homes on which they worked and heard how they had invested their life savings to purchase their dream home only to have it washed away by Hurricane Katrina just a few weeks later. The team gave a Bible to the couple and extended hope that soon they would have a new home built with love. Team member Walter Waller summed it when he said, “God has been so good to me and all the rest of us that we’re glad to go and help others.”
Barbara Francis is a staff writer for the Virginia Religious Herald.
