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Ministry in Mississippi
Youth spend spring break helping with Gulf Coast recovery

By Chad Senuta
Diocesan youth missioner

Mack Sittnick of St. Paul's, Leavenworth, swings a sledgehammer to tear down walls in a home being demolished in Kiln, Miss. Photo by Chad Senuta

It has been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, so I didn’t know quite what to expect as we set out for a Diocese of Kansas youth mission trip to Bay St. Louis, Miss.

On the morning of March 17, 12 youth and five adults packed ourselves sardine-fashion in two minivans and an SUV and left from the parking lot of St. Michael’s, Mission. We drove through a snowstorm all day as we crossed Missouri into St. Louis and then headed south for Memphis.

After dinner and a good night’s sleep on the gym floor of St. John’s Episcopal Church, we set out for Bay St. Louis, where we would be working for the next four days at Mission on the Bay, a hurricane relief agency designed for youth participants.

When we arrived we saw just how little has returned to normal in the areas affected by Katrina. Trees are broken in half. Forests lack vegetation. Street signs are missing or torn in half, making navigation difficult. Interstate 10 remains closed east of Bay St. Louis, since large sections of the bridge were torn away by high water.

A house lays vacant, with a message spray painted on the front: “Don’t tear down roof. Will rebuild.”

Perhaps the most sobering sight was Christ Episcopal Church, home of Mission on the Bay. Nothing remains of the church but the concrete foundation and, surprisingly, the bell tower, which was completely submerged by 32 feet of water that surged over the coastline.

Homes next to the church along South Beach Boulevard suffered the same fate, and you see one concrete slab after another where homes once stood. Despite this evidence of destruction, the coast retains its beauty, and much of the debris has been cleared.

Our group was excited to see that our home for the next few days was only a few hundred yards from the ocean. Caitlin Canaday from St. Michael’s had never seen the ocean before.

But even those of us who had seen the ocean were excited to dip our feet in the water. Our first moments in Bay St. Louis were spent with pants rolled up, wading in the Gulf of Mexico.

We stayed at Mission on the Bay, where we slept in bunk beds inside barracks-style Quonset huts with shower and bathroom facilities in a separate trailer. The agency provided all our meals, and each morning after breakfast we received our assignments for the day.

Hope and hugs
One group spent the first two days demolishing a house in Kiln, Miss., 12 miles inland from Bay St. Louis, so it eventually could be rebuilt. For two days we attacked the structure with hammers, crowbars and sledgehammers, leading Sarah Brower from St. Michael’s to exclaim, “This makes me feel strong.” I think she spoke for all us.

It also made our group feel good to clear away something so unsuitable for living so it could be replaced by a new, strong house for the elderly woman who owned the property.

We didn’t get a chance to meet her, but I think we all felt connected to her. She was all around us, in the porcelain statues that decorated her front porch and yard, in the flowering bushes that lined the front of her property, and in an old, tattered Bible we found in the floorboards.

We went about our destructive work carefully, mindful that even though we’d been asked to demolish the house, it remained someone’s home.

Another group helped an elderly woman clean up her yard. The rector at Christ Church told us this menial work is restorative to residents, since many of them have spent so much energy repairing the interior of the home they have nothing left for the exterior. She also told us that cleaning the yards gives homeowners a feeling of normalcy and hope for the future.

Some of our group arrived at the home of an elderly woman, Alvina, who lived not far from Christ Church. Upon arrival she hugged the first person through the gate and then informed everyone that they, too, would get a hug before anyone started working.

We experienced this kind of gratitude whenever we met homeowners. Jim shared his story as we worked on his property. He had been a successful engineer and retired in his 40s just a few years before the hurricane.

He had invested much of his savings in four properties in the area, and all four were wiped out by Katrina. His insurance paid him just $7,800, leaving him with nothing. He now works two jobs, and his wife and three children live in two trailers next to their home, which was flooded to the roof by the hurricane.

As our group helped Jim discard water-damaged items from the second story of the house, he thanked us over and over for our efforts.

On the final day of our trip we traveled to Memphis, visited Graceland and paused for Compline before bed. I asked the youth to meditate in silence and asked them where they had seen or experienced God during our trip. One by one they spoke.

“I saw God in Jim.”

“I saw God in the ocean.”

“I felt God in the wind.”

“I saw God in our group as we laughed and smiled with each other.”

God is always near, and this trip made each member of our group a little more aware of that.