Overlake Park Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, Washington, volunteers make a third trip to serve in D’iberville, Mississippi

Volunteers do drywall work. Photo by Linus Tumbleson.

Overlake Park Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Wash. made three trips to D’Iberville Miss. to work on Katrina damaged homes. When we were thinking about how we could help those affected by the hurricane, the first place we went for suggestions was disaster assistance on the Presbyterian (U.S.A.) Web site. God lead us to the D’Iberville PDA camp. Our first trip was in April of 2006. We were ready to go but were not at all sure what we would be doing or even if we were capable of doing what needed to be done, we left it in God’s hands and prayed we would be helpful to those in need of assistance Eighteen members and friends of our congregation flew to Gulfport, MS and drove to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Camp #2 where we were greeted by the camp manager, Kathryn Renton. She was so pleasant as she got us nametags, assigned us to our corrugated plastic huts and gave us a quick orientation. We felt better already.

What a life changing experience the week turned out to be for our team. We received our assignments Sunday evening and Monday morning, with our clipboards and maps and equipment from the tool tent, we set out to meet the home owners we would be helping and to assess the work to be done, hopeful that we had the skills to be productive.

We had been cautioned to be sure we took time to listen to the victim’s stories, which we did. And what stories some of them had. Those were very emotional exchanges for all of the members of our team. What they had been though made it easier for us to get up each morning, stiff and a little sore but ready to do what we could to help them resume a normal life by getting back into their homes.

PDA volunteers in D’Iberville, Miss. Photo by Linus Tumbleson.

The people of D’Iberville thanked us many times for our help but it seemed like we received as much or more from them than we gave. At the end of the week we were tired but at the same time a bit frustrated that we were leaving with so much work yet to be done. The good news was, Kathryn assured us there were more volunteers arriving the next day and would take over where we left off just as we had done by following those who had been there before us.

When we returned to Bellevue Wash., we knew we had to go back!! And back we went for two more trips. In 2007, we had 29 volunteers and in 2008 we had 24 people make the trip. For those of us who went multiple years, we expected repeat trips to be somewhat anticlimactic as we had “been there and done that.” But we were so overwhelmed each time by the needs of the community and the gratitude of the home owners that each experience was very positive and emotional for each member of our team.

We would like to thank the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for providing the opportunity for us to do God’s work in an area with so much need. This experience has continued with our volunteers now helping to rebuild homes damaged by flooding in our home state of Washington.

Submitted by Linus Tumbleson, team leader for Overlake Park Presbyterian Church in Bellevue Wash.