The countdown has begun ...

Donna S. writes:

In a week, Henderson County Methodists on Mission will start packing tools, personal belongings and all the things needed for a week of hurricane relief work, this time in the deep bayou of Louisiana. Departure is Saturday, Feb. 2, and the return is Saturday, Feb. 9.

A 46-member team representing Belleview UMC, Bennett Memorial UMC, Cairo UMC, Chapel Hill UMC, First UMC, Holy Name Catholic Church and Wesleyan Heights UMC (Owensboro) will be working out of the Dulac Station, which is part of the Abbeville Disaster Recovery Station operated by UMCOR's Louisiana United Methodist Disaster Recovery Ministry.

This remote area's population largely consists of Native Americans and Cajuns, and its residents were impacted by major hurricane and major flooding from both Katrina and Rita.

This will be the sixth mission trip for the combined Henderson County Methodists on Mission. The first was to New Orleans in October 2006; three teams traveled to Gulfport, Miss., on consecutive weeks last winter and "the cabinet crew" returned to New Orleans in May 2007 to install kitchen cabinets in the home of Silas Dillion.

Dillion (shown at upper right in his kitchen with the staff of Westbank Station) was able to return to his home later in 2007 and the Westbank Station in New Orleans reported the joyous news to those who had worked on Dillion's behalf. They sent a photo and wrote: "Without your skills, hard work and love, this wouldn't have been possible. To put it simply, you changed his life. From our center here in New Orleans, we want to say thank you for being the hands and feet of God....."