A group from LOPC returned to Gulfport on February 4-10, 2007.

The following is a report from the trip:

Miles of decimated shoreline still littered with hundreds of FEMA trailers, eighteen months after the storm. Families living in campsite conditions as they wait their turn for the rebuilding of their home. A turn that for many, is still years away. On February 4-10, 2007 a team nineteen of us from the Lake Oconee and Madison communities joined hands on a rebuilding mission to Gulfport, MS. Members from Lakeside church, Lake Oconee Presbyterian Church(www.lopc-pca.org), First Baptist – Eatonton, and First Baptist – Madison, caravanned to Gulfport to rebuild broken homes and repair broken dreams.

“The only people doing any work down here in Gulfport are the Christians,” said one bleary-eyed gentleman, “And everyone knows it. If it weren’t for the Christians, nothing would be done around here.” The government has focused so much attention on New Orleans that Mississippi has been virtually abandoned. Left, still bereft and decaying from the storm surge waters. Gulfport has been forsaken, standing on the leveled foundations of their home sites with no aid and no workers to help them rebuild. In a culture that is obsessed with fast-food fixing’s and micro-waved answers, this build-back has been anything but immediate.

But there is a glimmer of hope among the wreckage. The churches are responding. Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and all of God’s people have linked hands and hearts to begin the rebuilding of the community. They have come together not simply as Baptists and Presbyterians, but as Christians – God’s people – and the community of Gulfport, MS is taking note.

“Some of the churches have doubled in size. We have an unprecedented opportunity to reach this community that we have never had before. Our own church has added over one-hundred members,” said Pastor Guy Richard of First Presbyterian – Gulfport, the church that has housed hundreds of workers from all over North America at Camp Hope and in April of 2006 won the Governor’s prestigious GIVE award for volunteer excellence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. “As we have given families back their hope and their homes, they are responding to Christ’s love shining through us.” Christians have chosen to make an active and tangible difference in Gulfport and it has helped a community find life again.

Across the street from where we worked, First Baptist – Gulfport had just finished a home. Down the street we saw signs from the local Lutheran Church that had contributed to the rebuilding effort. The group from Camp Hope worked on 10 different homes putting paint, sheetrock, insulation, windows and doors in and on homes in Gulfport, Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis. Work was started on preserving the steeple of First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport also. God’s people are responding to God’s kingdom agenda and healing, help and a greater understanding of Christ’s love can be seen through the streets of Gulfport. This effort has not been about individual churches or people. There have been no heroes, just invisible hands and workers who have come to offer their lives to make a kingdom contribution. In the end, Gulfport will remember the Katrina-rebuild as the coming together of God’s people to magnify God’s name… Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts (Isaiah 26:8).

For more information about Camp Hope and the rebuilding opportunities available in Gulfport, MS see: www.fpcgulfport.org