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January 17, 2008
Gulf blitz
Six presbyteries join to send 130 volunteers to help rebuild
LOUISVILLE — More than 130 Presbyterians from six presbyteries in two synods are traveling this weekend to the Gulf Coast for perhaps the largest multi-presbytery effort since Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in August 2005.
The group will deploy to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camps in Luling, LA, outside New Orleans, and Pearlington, MS, for a week beginning Jan. 19.
“We’ve had this Prairie Think Tank going,” North Central Iowa executive David Feltman told the Presbyterian News Service in a Jan. 17 interview. “We’ve been talking about the future and how to cooperate better and one thing that came out of it was this endeavor.”
The group will split into two work groups. Presbyterians from East Iowa and Minnesota Valleys presbyteries will go to Luling. Workers from North Central Iowa, Des Moines, John Knox and Blackhawk Presbyteries will stay and work in Pearlington.
All the presbyteries represented are in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies except Blackhawk, which is in the Synod of Lincoln Trails.
“The purpose, of course, is to help the continuing rebuilding,” Feltman said, “but we also want our members to get to know each other better, as well.”
The two groups will come together for an evening meal on Jan. 22 at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Metairie — a city across the 17th Street Canal from New Orleans that escaped flooding when the opposite shore of the canal gave way, inundating the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans — and a progress report on the rebuilding by Alan Cutter, executive presbyter for the Presbytery of South Louisiana.
The multi-presbytery undertaking will mark the third trip to Pearlington for North Central Iowa Presbytery and Feltman’s fourth trip overall.
Pearlington was economically deprived before Katrina,” he said. “It’s gratifying to see the progress that’s been made and many in that area credit Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.”
A number of bloggers and photographers are part of the group. Reports and photographs of the group’s efforts can be found on the Web sites of Minnesota Valleys and North Central Iowa presbyteries, beginning Monday. |
