Goshen, Litchfield, Salisbury & Warren Joint Church Youth Group Trip to New Orleans for Katrina Relief

Following is a message delivered by Bob at Warren Congregational Church on June 18^th, the weekend prior to the Youth Groups Departure to New Orleans…….. 

Several Septembers ago, our people where trapped in buildings and airliners when multiple disasters happened one after another, and many people lost their lives.  I remember being at work watching the day play out wondering what was going to happen next.  I remember thinking, “I should be there helping those people”, but could not go for several reasons. 

Since then there have been tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes erupting, and I did not go their either to help the people. 

Last August, the gulf cost suffered greatly again from a hurricane larger than most, devastating New Orleans, and areas of
Mississippi.  After the hurricane headed north from where it made landfall that evening, the people of
New Orleans suffered again when the levies broke and flooded their neighborhoods with water as deep as 12 feet.  Again I said, “I should be there helping those people”. 

At the beginning of this year we heard of an opportunity to travel to the gulf coast with several other churches and I said Yes, we will go.  In the beginning, we did not know much about what we would do, but the details unfolded as time when by and July 1^st came closer. 

We learned that we will be staying at a YWAM facility that you see in the video.  Careforce International is serving as master coordinator for the trip.  I did not know much about either of these groups until I got online myself.  

We do not know what we will be doing from day to day, but I have been comforted in knowing, after talking with the people in these organizations, that things will be taken care of, and that we will be safe.  We only need to go. 

And so we are, 6 days from now our trip will get on a bus to the airport and we will be back the following Saturday.  We would like to thank our families, our friends and our church family for making this possible.   I know that you may have had the same feeling that I did, about being there and helping the people, but it may be impossible for you to go at this time.  Our friends everywhere have supported us in our fundraising so that not only we can get there and participate, but that we will have extra to share.  Yesterday we purchased some items that I want to distribute to the kids from those funds so they can pack them, and we also purchased $2000 in Home Depot Debit cards that will be used to purchase materials to repair homes, mission projects like YWAM, and maybe some churches. We want to assure you that you are as much a part of our trip as the people who are going and will use the money responsibly.  

While we are there, our group will be journaling their activities to share and I will attempt to put some of that information on a Weblog so you can see it.  If you would like more information about our activities, please share your email with us today.