Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study
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  Tuesday, September 25, 2007    
  Gold Divider Rule
  The Presbytery of Mississippi  
             
 

How does it work for a presbytery that had been very active in mission to be on the receiving end? That was the question the 6,271 members of the 46 churches in the Presbytery of Mississippi awoke to on August 30, 2005, the day after Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster ever to strike North America, wreaked havoc on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mississippians have always had a broad streak of independence and self-sufficiency, so when volunteers from many other states and countries came to help them in their hour of need, how did they react? Most were gracious and appreciative but reluctant to accept help. The common response when help was offered was, “Thank you so much, but I’m so much better off than other folks.” And this might come from someone whose house and all its contents had been reduced to a clean-swept concrete slab!

But come around they did! The volunteers came and kept coming by the thousands, offering help. Houses were cleaned of the muck deposited by the giant storm surge; ruined carpets were removed; mold was sprayed; debris was removed from yards; roofs were replaced; drywall was hung, finished, and painted; and the work went on and on, step by step, until families were able to return to their homes.

And the churches were repaired! Presbyteries adopted churches. Other churches partnered with affected churches. Ministers from far away filled pulpits so that Mississippi ministers who had been through so much could have time to rest. Mississippi Presbyterians can say, “Thank God for a connectional church, and thank you to all who prayed for us and to those who came to help.”

 
             
  Gold Divider Rule
  Let us pray for  
 

Elder Carolyn M. McLarnan, member, GAC
Presbytery Staff
Rev. John C. Dudley, stated clerk
Christina Courtney, administrative assistant

Mission Volunteers in the U.S.A.
Young Adult Volunteers, Gulf Coast Mission, Mississippi: Erin Counihan, George Hamilton, Kerry Herdegen, Sarah Ann King, Linda Miranda, Brenna Nickel, Mical Crase, Lauren Grogan, Melodie McDevitt, Dwayne Volckmann, and Rebecca Weaver

PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Nancy Reyes
Elder Craig S. Reynolds
Laverne Rhodes

 
             
  Gold Divider Rule
  Scripture      
  Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8).  
             
  Gold Divider Rule
  Lectionary      
  Ps. 28, 54, 99, 146
2 Kings 5:19–27
1 Cor. 5:1–8; Matt. 5:27–37
 
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