Bethel Update 12-16

Download PDF doc here.

What a joy to be in this holy place at this holiest time of the year. I walked into our beautifully decorated Fellowship Hall today while still talking on the phone to my daughter. People were all around me. Patients were in the clinic. People needing assistance were completing forms. Volunteers were darting here and there trying to help. Our members were still sorting clothes in the Clothing Room. Our medical staff were rushing about getting ready to go out with toys, blankets and jackets, Wal-Mart cards in their pockets, and medications in their packs playing "Santa Doc". I said to my daughter on the phone, "Now this is Christmas. I wish you could be here. This is the real joy that the Lord has brought to us in these hard times. This is the true spirit of giving. It's about giving of ourselves just as our Lord did two thousand years ago."

Thank you, God, for allowing us to be here,

Judy Bultman
Director, Lutheran Disaster Response

Katrina Victims, Insurance Companies in Wind Vs. Water Dispute

It's the multibillion-dollar debate raging across the Gulf Coast: Was it Katrina's wind or water that caused the devastation?

Said Biloxi homeowner Marvin Hendrix: "I was completely destroyed mentally for a few days, but I said, 'You know what? We should not worry. We have hurricane insurance. Why should we worry?'" Little did he know.

More...

Burnsville couple spends eight weeks giving aid in hurricane-ravaged Biloxi, Miss.

They knew they wanted to help.

That they didn’t have a set destination didn’t matter much.

Tom and Mary Eichen began the trek south to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts before they even knew to which city they were headed.

On Sept. 12, two weeks after Katrina hit, the Burnsville couple packed up their truck with tools, food, water and other supplies and set off for Mississippi.

Calling around to Southern churches via cell phone on the drive down, the couple got in contact with the pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in Biloxi, Miss.

The pastor’s message was clear: Help was desperately needed. So the Eichens headed to Biloxi, where a grim scene awaited them.

Furious winds and 30-foot waves had rocked the Gulf Coast city. Homes that hadn’t been swept away suffered as much as 12 feet of flooding.

Trash, trees and other debris lined the sides of every street. Bridges were out, fallen trees blocked access to many streets, and much of the residential property had been closed owing largely to the rapid proliferation of black mold.

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MISSISSIPPI'S INVISIBLE COAST

As Aug. 29 recedes into the conscious time of many Americans, the great storm that devastated 70 miles of Mississippi's Coast, destroying the homes and lives of hundreds of thousands, fades into a black hole of media obscurity.

Never mind that, if taken alone, the destruction in Mississippi would represent the single greatest natural disaster in 229 years of American history. The telling of Katrina by national media has created the illusion of the hurricane's impact on our Coast as something of a footnote.

The awful tragedy that befell New Orleans as a consequence of levee failures at the time of Katrina, likewise, taken by itself, also represents a monumental natural disaster. But, of course, the devastation there, and here, were not separate events, but one, wrought by the Aug. 29 storm.

There is no question that the New Orleans story, like ours, is a compelling, ongoing saga as its brave people seek to reclaim those parts of the city lost to the floods.

But it becomes more and more obvious that to national media, New Orleans is THE story - to the extent that if the Mississippi Coast is mentioned at all it is often in an add-on paragraph that mentions "and the Gulf Coast" or "and Mississippi and Alabama."

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Casinos ending post-storm help

THOUSANDS OF IDLED WORKERS LOSING PAY, BENEFITS

By Holbrook Mohr
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON, Miss. - Thousands of casino employees on the Gulf Coast are losing insurance benefits and salaries as the companies end post-Katrina assistance to concentrate on rebuilding gambling houses.

Two New Orleans casinos remain closed, as do 12 casinos that once dotted Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Nearly all the companies agreed to continue paying workers on a temporary basis, but that is ending or has already stopped.

Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said Wednesday that nearly 14,000 casino employees remain out of gambling-related jobs. Mississippi coast casinos employed 16,000 before Katrina.

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Laura Bush urges families in Katrina areas: 'Try not to be sad'

(I usually steer clear of editorializing. But 'Try not too be sad' ? That pretty much sums up the federal response to this disaster. How about 'Just say no to saddness', okay? "Buck up. Suck it in. Walk it off. There ya go." -Ed.)

GULFPORT, Miss. - First lady Laura Bush on Monday urged parents here to cling to normal holiday practices even as families face dual hardships - recovering from Hurricane Katrina and coping while family members are stationed overseas for military service.

"There are still a lot of people not spending Christmas in their homes, but I encourage families to have all the same traditions," Bush said to children and parents at a Naval Construction Battalion Center.

Bush, accompanied by Santa during stops in New Orleans and Mississippi, said in Gulfport: "Try not to be sad. It's very important for your children."

More... (but, please, there's better reading down-thread than this)

News from Bethel December 13

Ministry Update (PDF)

Newspaper article featuring Judy (PDF)

Yo! Shout-out from Alison to all her peeps!

(Okay, so that headline was actually written by me. Below is a note from Alison at Bethel. Drop her an email and wish her Merry Christmas. - Ed.)

"Will you please tell the former volunteers I say hello, and I miss them sooooo much!! Especially the ones who were already at Bethel, and adopted me when I first arrived."

Christmas donations for Biloxi

We are going to be opening up a Christmas 'store' the week of Christmas for people who do not have enough money or a lot of time to spend Christmas shopping because of the hurricane.

We would like to see a lot of Christmas donations come in for the store and the season-the more we have, the more people we will be able to serve. However, Christmas is only about 2 weeks away. The store will be open on the 20th, 21th, and 22nd. We can receive donations up to the 22nd.

Any kind of Christmas decorations will also be very useful donations-both for decorating the place, and also to give to families for their holiday. We also are looking for Christmas candy to put in the reception area.

All donations are greatly appreciated. However, because we don't have enough volunteers to sort through them, we are asking that only new or hand-made donations be sent.

Some ideas for Christmas donations (since some families are living in small FEMA trailers) are:
- Toys and Games
- Smaller, education toys
- Character pillows-Disney, etc.
- Gifts for teenagers (they are sometimes forgotten in Christmas donations)
- Wrapping paper, tape, scissors, ribbon (one of the stations in the 'store' will be pre-made boxes of gift wrapping items to take home-some of those items may be more difficult to mail

Please let everyone know if they have any questions about Christmas donations, or the store, they can contact me: 479.462.1285 (c) AlisonKR@aol.com

Mail gifts to:
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd
2004 Pass Road
Biloxi, MS 39531

360 Panoramas from the sky of Gulf Coast

Incredible aerial photography (360 VR) of Gulf coast and casino district.

- Kent

Health problems abound months after Katrina roared ashore

BILOXI, Miss. - Three months after Hurricane Katrina raked the Gulf Coast, a major health crisis is emerging as residents struggle with the fouled air, moldy houses and the numbing stress the killer storm left behind.

Across Mississippi and Louisiana, people are afflicted with coughs, infections, rashes and broken limbs and they are jittery, tired, depressed and prone to bizarre outbursts, health professionals said.

Burning storm debris, increased diesel exhaust, runaway mold and fumes from glue and plywood in new trailers are irritating people's lungs and nasal passages. Weary residents trying to clean up and repair their homes are falling off roofs and cutting themselves with chainsaws. And stress is fracturing the psyches of countless storm victims.

"It's a cumulative effect here," said Claire Gilbert, a New Orleans surgical technician who works in a Louisiana occupational medical practice and volunteered at the New Waveland Clinic, a tent shelter complex that just closed in Mississippi. "You get a little cough. You get a nose that runs. You get eye irritation. Then you get falls. And you've got the stress. It's not just little things. It's how they all add up."

More...

Katrina's ground zero: 3 months later

WAVELAND, Miss. - She already had scoured the stand of twisted and broken pine trees near her house many times, so to stumble on a new treasure lit Peggy Parker's face with pure joy.

"Babe, look what I found!" she called to her fiance. Clutched to her chest was a mud-encrusted figurine of three festive owls she bought 25 years ago - a worthless piece of kitsch, but beyond value to Parker. "I feel like I won a million dollars."

Every day the hunt for pieces of her splintered life motivates Parker to climb out of bed in the cramped FEMA travel trailer in Biloxi she now calls home and make another foray into her beloved city of Waveland, ground zero for Hurricane Katrina as it savaged the Gulf Coast three months ago.

At 54, this divorced mother of one, grandmother of two, is among the hundreds of Waveland's residents returning home to scavenge for the fragments of their past in hopes of laying the foundations for their future.

In just 12 hours, Katrina washed away Parker's two-bedroom house, her job, her way of life. Almost everyone she loves is uprooted, cast to the winds of uncertainty. Her mother, her son, her brother, her uncle, her cousin all lost their homes, too.

It's no wonder her good nature fades to anger when, after weeks of trying to reach her insurance company, she finally hears a sympathetic voice at the other end of her cell phone.

"I know how you feel," the woman tells her.

Parker explodes.

More...

Bethel Update December 2

News and pictures from the front courtesy of Bethel Lutheran. Download in PDF format. Thanks, Donna (and thanks to all the volunteers).