Taking hope, bringing back love

With each trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a group of Culpeper volunteers build homes and friendships.

And three years later, time has not eased the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, said Darryl Lam, a missions volunteer with Culpeper United Methodist Church.

Although the aftermath of the Aug. 29, 2005 storm has slipped from the national radar, Lam said that’s not the case for many.

“You wouldn’t think that people would still live in the conditions that they live in after this length of time,” said Lam, a civilian communications specialist with the Virginia State Police. “I have been on five trips since June 2006, but the conditions down there are still bad.”

“One woman — the coordinator at the camp where we stayed at — said there was a woman living in a tent and that they moved out of the tent into a camper two weeks before we were there in January.”

Lam said the woman had lived in tent since the hurricane.

“A lot of people had fallen through the cracks,” he said.

“I knew I didn’t have any skills, but I knew that there would be something for me to do,” said church member and volunteer Karen Bean. “We gutted a house and I worked on drywall and put down flooring.”

She said working with power tools and installing floors and drywall was a valuable new experience.

“We did have several people that went down that said ‘I don’t even know how to swing a hammer’” said Scott Fellows, a Fairfax County firefighter and volunteer.
But Lam said that’s OK.

“There’s always something for people to do,” he said. Lam and Fellows said listening and supporting people as they continue to put their lives back together is even more important than putting their house back together.

On the trips, most of the crews fly down, while another handful drive the team’s tools and supplies to the work areas.

Scott Fellows, a Fairfax firefighter is not new to home repair and has led work teams on two trips.

“There is definitely something that everybody can do,” Fellows said, adding there were two 80-year-old men working alongside people as young as 15, including Fellows’ son Cody.

“We always bring back more than we ever take,” Lam said. “We have really met some really great people. What they asked us to do is bring back their stories. Listening to them is just as important as what work you do, because it’s a healing process for them,”

“Anytime you go on a mission trip, it’s a time that you can bond with the local people as well as your fellow peers that you go down with,” Fellows said.

“I’ve been on two abroad missions trips,” said Bean. “This was a good opportunity for me to stay in country and help people here.”

In January, the team worked at four different locations in the Gulfport area. Lam said some of people they help get anxious if the job isn’t finished in one shot, but the group assures them that the job will be finished—either by the Culpeper team or another.

Lam said the Rev. Randy Orndorff, pastor of Culpeper United Methodist, arranged the first trip in January 2006 with the assistance of national church organizers.

Tentatively, the church plans to send another team in February 2009 but Lam said that date may change depending on the help requested and how many people are available.
If anyone in the community is interested, Lam said they can contact him at 825-6613 for more information.

“The people in Mississippi were left with nothing—no car, no home, no possessions,” Lam said. But in spite of that, “They are really grateful and they are really amazing.”

Nate Delesline III can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or .

Want to go?
For more information about Culpeper United Methodist Church’s mission trips to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, contact Darryl Lam at 825-6613.