February 2007

Helping Mississippians to help others

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study asks the question, “How does it work for a presbytery that had been very active in mission to be on the receiving end?”

That was the very question taken up by the members and churches of the Presbytery of Mississippi on August 30, 2005, the day after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

That same question also resonated with the members of Grace First Presbyterian Church, Long Beach, Calif., when in the fall of 2005 they made a bold decision to pledge $1 million through the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands — along with hands-on resources — to support the rebuilding and redevelopment of churches in the Gulf Coast region.  Through their Building Churches — Building Lives campaign, Grace First has already taken 9 mission trips to the Gulf to date, involving some 72 people.

Grace First partnered with at least two redevelopment churches in the Gulf region, including Westminster Presbyterian Church, Gulfport, Miss.  The strong working relationship forged between Grace First and Westminster has enabled the latter to operate a 24/7/365 mission field base to house and support in excess of 6,500 volunteers, who have worked in the poorest neighborhoods with people who might have otherwise fallen through the cracks.  “This work, which God calls us to do,” wrote George Bloss, III, Westminster’s clerk of session, “is against the backdrop of approximately 40 percent of our congregation losing their homes or jobs or both.”

Throughout the ongoing process of restoration and return in the Gulf Coast region, Westminster has been strengthened in its own mission-minded identity.  On December 29, 2006, the church made a gift of $5,500 to the Medical Benevolence Foundation (MBF), Houston, Tex.  In a cover letter to MBF, Bloss wrote, “We were determined not to let our own difficulties or our call to local mission outreach cause us to reduce that portion of the church budget allocated to support mission work, including MBF.  The support from Grace First has supplemented other parts of our church budget and financial obligations and enabled us to completely fulfill all of our benevolence support at pre-Katrina levels.  For this we are most grateful.”

The $5,500 gift from Westminster was dedicated in memory of Marilyn Saul, the late wife of Bill Saul, who serves as co-chair of Grace First’s Joining Hearts & Hands committee and is a former co-chair of the campaign’s national steering committee.

Saul, deeply touched by the tribute, called Westminster’s gift “a beautiful thing.”  “Through our partnership, Westminster was able to meet their own mission obligations,” he said.  “By us helping them, they were able to do the mission work they wanted to do for others.” 

The Rev. Steve Wirth, pastor of Grace First, has used the term “incarnational mission” to describe the congregation’s approach to its work in the Gulf.  “Incarnational mission, where we embody our Lord in our sacrificial gifts, always expands and grows the mission,” he said.  “All the blessings that have come out of our mission partnership to the Gulf prove yet again that people give to people. Compassion shared leads us to share compassion. What a touching tribute from friends in Christ!”