WOC Director Visits Hurricane Area

Friday, February 23, A.D. 2007

Dear Friends,

How interesting, perplexing, satisfying, disheartening, energizing...to have spent this week traveling across the Gulf South, visiting communities, churches, pastors, mission stations and hurricane related recovery partners - all while so many of our congregations are in the midst of their 2007 Week of Compassion observances and celebrations. What a multitude of emotions!

It is disheartening to see still so much destruction and so little recovery progress in community after community across Mississippi and Louisiana. It is maddening to see casinos and high-rise luxury condominiums well underway, even completed and occupied, while thousands upon thousands of homeowners have yet to receive their fair insurance settlements. It is perplexing to drive down I-59 from Hattiesburg to New Orleans and see acres and acres of farmland packed fencerow to fencerow with FEMA trailers and then visit with a displaced couple living in the dining room of the still-to-be-repaired home of their grandkids.

And yet, how energizing to visit, for example, First Christian Church, Slidell, LA, and their pastor, Susan Lassalle - a church we might have lost after Katrina but that now is growing, working together, reaching out to the community, hosting work groups week after week, looking to the future with hope and excitement. How encouraging to stop and chat with work groups from all across the church (this week I ran into Disciples from OK, MO, OH, IL, TX and IN) that are repairing homes, building churches, making lasting friendships, enriching the lives of work team members, and even bringing new life to their congregations back home! How deeply satisfying to visit with a director of a local long-term recovery partner, struggling to meet payroll and to pay for the ever rising costs of materials, yet vowing she won't close shop until the last unmet need is met.

Our theme this year is "Who is my neighbor?" I met a lot of our neighbors this week. Some of our neighbors, still in the ditch, needing "oil and wine." Some at "the inn," longing to go home. I met some of our neighbors who have traveled long distances and work hard from dawn to dusk to bind wounds. I met others who are working every day to make the road from Jericho to Jerusalem a little safer so folk won't keep getting knocked down and beaten up. And I keep meeting folk like you all across our church who give their denarii and dollars to Week of Compassion so we Disciples can continue to be neighbors in Mississippi and Louisiana, in Mozambique and Nicaragua, in Darfur and Indonesia - wherever there are people, God's people, whose needs lay a claim on our compassion.

Blessings,

Johnny Wray

(Click here to read a mission trip journal from Palm Lake Christian Church, St. Petersburg, FL)

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Africa Executive Travels to Quake-Stricken Mozambique

And speaking of our neighbors wherever they are, I would like to share this letter with you from Sandra Gourdet, Executive Director of the Africa Office for Global Ministries.

Dear Johnny,
You will remember that last February there was a massive 7.5 earthquake in Mozambique that affected Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. You provided funds to assist our partners in Zimbabwe.

During this recent trip, I visited the areas in Zimbabwe most affected and saw the repair work that had been done to many of the buildings. The money was used as designated. Everywhere I went, people spoke of the frightening experience and the damage caused. However, they mostly expressed thanks for your assistance.

Following the earthquake last year, I tried to get information from our partners in that part of Mozambique, to no avail. The only information that came to us from Mozambique was from partners in Maputo, over a thousand miles away, who were not affected. Therefore, the only request we made was for assistance to Zimbabwe.

While in Zimbabwe, Linda Lawrence and I had the rare privilege of traveling with the head of the UCCZ church to Mozambique to visit the epicenter of the earthquake. It took a lot of stamina to make the trip over the dusty roads through village after village. It took a lot of emotional strength and courage not to break down after leaving the area. What we saw will probably affect both of us for many years to come. It is true that the earthquake erupted in a ìremote and isolated areaî. What the news failed to share was that there were many small villages around, and people were killed and others deeply affected.

The separation of the earth did not strike me as being the essence of the devastation, but it did provide a totally different perspective of the term ìearth shatteringî. Villagers congregate at springs in open places with their dippers to get water. Some of the places are where children swim and bathe themselves. In other places the water is shared with the cattle. The fortunate women, men and children who have bikes are able to carry 40 gallons of water at one time. We found that some travel 17 kms to the nearest hole. The nearest well is 45 kms away.

As we returned to the nearest town, we saw how people were trying to rebuild their schools, churches and homes from sticks. In the midst of it, we felt the resilience of the people as they struggled to make life meaningful. We saw some of the low lying areas that could easily be affected by flooding. When we returned to Zimbabwe, we heard that the heavy rains had started to fall in northern Mozambique. I have now learned that flooding has started in central Mozambique. This includes the area we visited and other areas where our partner churches are located.

Although I prepared this letter in my head a few weeks ago while in Zimbabwe as a report on previous funding, I now come to you to appeal for assistance to Mozambique during this very difficult period. There is need for a well and some rebuilding in the area visited, and there is need for immediate assistance for those now affected by flooding. I would like to make an appeal for $15,000 of which $10,000 would be for immediate assistance to flood victims and $5000 for the village most affected by last yearís earthquake.

I thank you on behalf of our partners in Mozambique as well as Zimbabwe.

Sincerely,

Sandra

(WOC has responded with a grant of $7,500, as has the UCC's One Great Hour of Sharing Office to whom Sandra also made this request.)

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