A Personal Letter from Courtney Allen, Rebuilding Coordinator , Trinity United Methodist Church, Gulfport, MS

(Many of you will remember that Courtney Allen has ties to Nashville. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and participated in the Wesley Foundation)

Dear volunteers and friends,

We are approaching the 21 month mark of the day Katrina made landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There are still too many FEMA trailers and consequently families without permanent housing with 25,871 temporary housing units in service in Mississippi alone. But, a tremendous amount of progress has been made along the coast, and particularly in Gulfport. At this point, the majority of the debris has been removed, sections of the beach are reopened, and rebuilding has begun. Today the Bay St. Louis-Pass Christian Highway 90 Bridge will be reopened! Although there is progress, a coast resident recently described the process as follows: The scars of the land are healing, but the scars on people’s hearts are even more complex and difficult to heal.

The rebuilding process remains slow for many people. Acquiring building materials, grant money, and labor remain a challenge. But, Trinity United Methodist’s Katrina Rebuilding Program has made positive rebuilding steps on almost 600 homes! We have hosted over 4,940 volunteers in our Christian Life Center! These incredible volunteers have logged over 650,000 volunteer hours! The big impact of this small ministry continues to grow and exceed anything we could have ever imagined! Our motto, “Building Hope, Rebuilding Lives,” continues to be actualized each day through the generous gifts of so many people. To all who have shared their hearts, muscles, time, finances, and spirit with our community, we are forever grateful.

Although rumored that I would be leaving Trinity this summer, I am thrilled to say I will remain at Trinity until the end of the year. I will begin Divinity School at Wake Forest in January.

Regina was married to her new beau on Easter weekend and is still hard at work in the kitchen and scheduling volunteer teams. And, Mr. John is still busy keeping things locked and unlocked, flipping those pancakes, and making all of us smile! The last two weeks of May will be a short break for Regina, John Kelley, and me to rest, get organized, and gear up for a busy summer!

Trinity has committed to host teams through December 2007. We currently have openings beginning in August and throughout the fall. We are in need of skilled labor to hang and finish sheetrock, install cabinets and other finish carpentry work, install flooring, and many other skills. If you are interested in bringing another team our way, we would love to host you at the ‘Hilton’ of volunteer accommodations. There is still plenty of work to be done in our community, and we need all the help we can get. There are many people in the community who would never be able to recover from the storm without organizations like Trinity and the many incredible volunteers who have responded and continue to respond to the call for help. Thank you for the many ways you have supported this ministry and for the ways you have helped ‘build hope and rebuild lives’ on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

In hope,


Courtney
www.trinityumc.com