Weekend Mini-Mission Trip April 27-29

GODSquad invites all high school youth of each parish to join us for a weekend at St. Dorothy's Rest, a Camp and Retreat center of the Diocese of California. It is located in Camp Meeker of Sonoma County. St. Dorothy's Rest serves over 300 youth a year through its summer camp programs with a focus on children with serious health issues.

On April 27 through April 29, our group will be servicing the grounds of the center as well as spening time in its beautiful facilities. The cost for this weekend trip is $25 a person. The sign up deadline is April 11 with limited space. Contact your youth minister ASAP to register & coordinate transportation.

40 Ideas for Lent

Click here for 40 Ideas for Lent

An idea a day to get you through the season.

March 17 Mission

The crew after a good day's work. Lots of painting!

On Saturday March 17 our service will be needed at The Bay Area Seafarer's Service center in Oakland

The International Maritime Center is a "home away from home" for seafarers from distant lands, as well as a community center for our local bay area shipping and long shore community. In addition to aiding seafarers, the International Maritime Center works as a good citizen to build community and provide services for waterfront workers, longshoremen, and truckers regardless of religion, race or nationality.

Please wear your painting clothes! Bring a bag lunch, a bottle of water and $5-$10 participation fee. Talk to your youth minster for details on travel.

See you on St. Patrick's Day!

Summer Mission Trip

Registration for the 2007 God Squad mission trip to New Orleans is officially open. We ask all interested youth (entering sophomore high school through freshman college) to complete and return the registration form, along with a $100 deposit by March 4th.

Some trip details:

The trip is scheduled around July 29th through August 10th. Actual dates will be determined by flight cost and availability
$100 reserves a spot; total cost will depend on fund raising and will likely be about $200
Participation in upcoming God Squad events, including fund raising and pre-formation is essential - calendar to be distributed soon

Contact your youth minister for forms & more information!

Mission Cancelled

The GodSquad's participation in the Diocessan Urban Plunge mission for Saturday 1/13 has been cancelled. In lieu of a daytime project you are invited to help support the fundraising efforts for this summer's mission trip.

Youth are invited to help set up & serve at the Youth Homes Crab Feed this Saturday evening, from 6P-9:30P or 10P, at the Shadelands Arts and Crafts Center (http://www.arts-ed.org/rentalinfo.html) Wear God Squad t-shirts, and email Phil Brochard to confirm attendance and get more information: pbrochard@stpaulswc.org

We apologize for the short notice on the cancellation of this mission.

See you in March for the painting of Bay Area Seafarers Service buildings. Watch the blog for more information

Reflecting on December's Service

12 teens & 6 adults spent the day at St. Timothy's, Danville to put our hands to work and open our hearts to the issues of poverty & struggle in the world. Below is a report on the day's activities by Sam H. We hope to see you at the Urban Plunge!

GODSquad this month focused on the United nations Millennium Development Goals. We Teamed up with our old friends at the Monument Crisis Center (we've worked there several times in the past) the GODSquad set itself to work. For the first hour or so we sorted toiletries, emptying bags full of various hotel's complimentary goods into heaping piles of hygienic products. Then we lined up and circled the table. Our task now was to fill Ziploc baggies; 2 soaps, 1 shower gel, 2 shampoos, 1 conditioner, 2 lotions, 1 toothbrush, 1 mouthwash, 1 toothpaste, and floss as long as our stash held out. By the time we ran out of the most essential parts of the pack we had covered the top of the St. Timothy Youth Center's pool table. These kits would be distributed by the Crisis Center to many needy and homeless individuals.

Our next project was "Love Soup". By layering dry good ingredients into jars we made 96 jars of healthy just add water soup. Our assembly line was as follows: bouillon, onion, noodles, split peas, lentils, and pasta, with a few in between that I probably forgot. Add a lid, tie on the directions for preperation, and some snazzy fabric for decoration. Each jar had the potential to feed 8 people. That means the GODSquad had just prepared meals for 768 people.

Then we pulled out our lunches. What a comparison, half of our group had ordered sandwhiches from Quizno's and the rest brown bagged it. After just finishing fixing up dry soup our meal looked like a feast.

We watched the Episcopal One Campaign's video on the Millenium Development Goals and were left speechless. We watched Sarah McLachlan's video World On Fire, a music video thats budget was sent to third world development instead of pruduction. Again we were left speechless. To close our day we held Eucharist. During the service a bell was rung every three seconds reminding us that a child dies every three seconds from malnutrition or AIDS.

Amen.

December 16th Mission

Our work will benefit the Monument Crisis Center. We will be putting together toiletry kits, making Love Soup (a high protien ready to make soup mix to feed a family of four) and discussing the Millenium Development Goals

Everyone can help! Make announcements in your church as we are in need of supplies for our projects.
Encourage donations of toiletries - soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, hand sanitizer etc.
Also needed are dry goods for the ingredients of the soup: beef or chicken bouillon granules, dehydrated onion flakes, split peas, alphabet pasta (any small pasta is fine), barley, lentils, and non-instant white rice tricolor spiral pasta. Cash donations accepted as well.

Contact your youth minister if you wish to participate in this day of service.

Serving a Meal of Thanks

Saturday November 18 GodSquad will host our second annual Thanksgiving Dinner at St. George's Episcopal Church, Antioch.

We will prepare and serve a full thanksgiving meal for the community. The meal is free and open to the community; especially the homeless and lower income neighbors in Antioch.

Each congregation is asked to support this mission by providing cooked turkeys and pies. We will also gladly accept donations to cover the cost of supplies for the day.

There is a sliding scale youth participation fee of $5-10.

Minutes from Mission 2007 Planning Meeting

Held Monday Oct. 30 7pm @ St. Paul's Youth Center
Next Mtg: November 20 at 7:00 PM at St. Paul’s

We began by listing some of the aspects of the 2006 (and earlier) trips we liked. The list looked like this:
• Flying
• Meeting people
• Getting far away from home
• Free time
• Staying at the beach
• Creative expressive worship
• Helping people
• Getting to know God Squad
• Ultimate Frisbee
• RICHARD
• Richard
• Lots of work
• Small groups

There was a fair bit of discussion around some of these items; these items tended to cluster around four ideas:
Service
Worship
Community (within God Squad and reaching out far beyond to new people)
Newness (of place, experience, and people)

We then listed many potential places we might go, along with a short description of what we might do there:
• New York City – work with kids/youth; renovate a park; “inner city” ministry
• San Diego – Head Start; little kids (as done three years ago)
• Los Angeles – same work as NYC
• Navajo lands – work in same area visited four and five years ago; fix & paint a church, etc.
• Alaska – assist in building a camp, and work in that camp; work with native Alaskans
• Hawaii – work in leper colony
• Idaho – assist in building / fixing up a school (as done two years ago, Lilian Vallely School)
• Chicago – Same as NYC
• New Orleans / Mississippi – possibly more hurricane relief, possibly inner city ministry (see NYC)
• Canada (quickly ruled out)
• Mexico: Build houses, migrant worker / immigration issues
• Wyoming – quickly ruled out.
• Taize – The Bishop is taking a group of youth and young adults to Taize France; many are interested in going, but this seemed to be separate from a Mission Trip.
• Florida – Hurricane / Inner city / migrant worker issues

As we discussed each of these possible places and work activities, we grouped activities into four areas:
Social work, especially with inner city youth
Construction
Environmental (inc. landscaping)
Teaching

We also identified potential resources in each location, which I will now misinterpret and misspell:
• NYC: somebody’s new rector?
• San Diego: Episcopal CS
• Los Angeles” Claire’s aunt?
• Navajo lands: Michael Carney’s earlier contact; the Bishop
• Alaska: Shana, the Bishop, Carol Luther, Sarah Crawford
• Hawaii: Michael Carney, Shana
• Idaho: Lilian Vallely School, Richard
• Chicago: Phil, Shana
• New Orleans: ULM, Marc Jones
• Taize: Bishop
• Florida: Katie Taylor’s sister?

After discussing many of these options for location, work, and resources to help in planning, we voted. Everyone could vote for four potential destinations.

The results were:
• New York City: 11
• Alaska: 9
• Hawaii: 7
• New Orleans / Mississippi: 6
• (Nowhere else got more than 4 votes, most got 2 or 3)

We decided that these four offered plenty of diversity, and there was good enthusiasm for each of them, so we assigned people to look into the following:
• Transportation costs, both to get there and while we’re there
• Where we could stay
• What we could do while there (work, recreation, program activities)
• What potentially good or bad dates there are for that location
The following teams were appointed:
• NYC: Erin, Meghan,
• Alaska: Rob, Rob, and Shana
• Hawaii: Sam and Sam
• New Orleans & Mississippi: Calvin, Richard

We had a discussion about dates as well, during which we discussed date conflicts with BREAD camps, the Bishop’s trip to Taize, and more. The weeks with the fewest conflicts (although there are conflicts for all possible weeks) were the weeks of:
• 7/23
• 7/30
• 8/6
• 8/13
An overall trip of approximately 10 days is the target, depending on budget and dates of availability at the destination.

The next meeting will be held on November 20 at 7:00 PM at St. Paul’s. At that meeting, the four teams will report their findings, and we will narrow down the field of potential destinations, possibly to one.

Elizabeth P's Sermon (St. Anselm's)

I suppose you could say that I’m a veteran of these mission trips now, having journeyed on three separate occasions to do God’s work, and I can definitely say that the phrase ‘third time’s the charm’ applies in this case. Our whole group knit together into one body that laughed and cried and listened. Throughout the trip, it really didn’t matter that there were a few of us who were feeling down at the end of the day, because there was always someone around to lift us back up again. And it was an extremely emotional trip, at times very trying, but I know I am much stronger for having witnessed both the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the reactions of its victims to our help.

It was truly heartwarming to see the faces of those we helped, some of whose houses had been ruthlessly toyed with by insurance companies, or overlooked by FEMA. One such house hadn’t been glanced at by a volunteer since the storm hit nearly a year before. It was the first house we worked on, and had been protected by a mere four feet of brick wall on the coast side. The couple who lived there was older, and the man had been having back problems, but there he was, out there with us in the sweltering heat, telling us stories and gently directing us as to where all the debris could go. His name was Robert James, but he insisted on being called RJ, and his wife, a talkative French woman with a definitive accent, was bubbling over with goodwill and gratitude. We were still adjusting to the heat, and moving bricks in that weather was no laughing matter. The sweat and dirt were layered on us before we’d been at the site even an hour, but I, not wanting to appear idle when all my buddies were slaving away under the heat, kept at it, and after awhile someone noticed my flushed face. That someone happened to be RJ, and as he led us all away from the formidable pile of bricks to take a water break, he asked me how old I was. He seemed really surprised when I told him, and he kept an eye on me for the rest of the time we were there, making sure I didn’t keel over. I didn’t, but it really struck me that we were all out there to care for and help each other—the God Squad wasn’t just brute labor to these people, but friends to be loved and cared for.

It encouraged me greatly to see that both of them were out there with us, really wanting our help. They couldn’t do it alone, but they had been doing their best for months before we arrived. Volunteers and victims were in this together, picking up and putting lives back together.

When I sat back to think about what we had accomplished as a group in the five days we worked, I knew that most of what we had done couldn’t be seen, if one was to travel to Biloxi and inspect the houses. We had painted rooms and moved and bricks and heard stories, but most of the change will stay locked up in our hearts, and in the hearts of those we helped, because now they have hope, and we have newfound love and friendship. I was wishing the entire time we were there that we could have done more, could have stayed longer, because these people are going to need help for years to come. All that aside, I am so indescribably glad that I was able to go in the first place, and give the gift of my hands to RJ and all of the others who are forever linked to ours.

Down there in Mississippi, we were all doing the work that we felt God had called us to do, but you don’t go have to go as far as we did to find this kind of spiritual fulfillment. There’s bound to be a calling for all of you, even just down your street. Take the time to look around, every once in a while. Regardless of age, all of us can be of help to each other, and reach out our hands to make a difference.

Episcopal Charities Walk-A-Thon

A small dedicated group from God Squad made it to Grace Cathedral by 7AM for the 12 mile walk through San Francisco. Stops along the route included St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Family Link, Ohlhoff Recovery House, Episcopal Homes Foundation, St. Luke's Hospital, SOJOURN chaplaincy at SF General Hospital to learn about the important work of these social ministries. Following the walk we enjoyed lunch in the Cathedral Plaza, received permission from The Very Rev. Alan Jones to soak our tired feet in the fountain, prayed to close the day's activity and rode BART home. All in all a great day out to kick off the year of God Squad Missions.

We raised close to $1000 to support the many ministries of Episcopal Charities.


Reflection by Liz P:
I wasn't so worried about it at the start, but when you get right down to it, twelve miles is a long way, and all the uphill makes a big difference.

But, blisters aside, I'm glad we were able to see the different agenicies that Episcopal Charities supports, and as we walked, I was reminded again that God Squad is always going to be needed. I was particularly touched by a group that works mostly with single mothers and children who are homeless, finding them education and jobs so that they can move on and up in life. Overall, I'm just glad that there are so many of us who are willing to help.

...Although the numbers seem to drop sharply when 'helping' involves getting up at five in the morning.

Step out to Change Lives!

GodSquad will participate in the Episcopal Charities annual Walk-a-thon on Saturday, October 7 starting at Grace Cathedral. Join us for an inspirational 12 mile walk through San Francisco , and visit the EC partner agencies working on behalf of the homeless, poor, displaced and ill. Funds raised through the walk-a-thon will benefit the social ministries of Episcopal Charities.
* Providing meals
* Building transitional and supportive housing
* Teaching job skills
* Offering recovery programs
* Providing childcare to single working parents
* Creating programs for people with developmental disabilities
* Tutoring at-risk youth

25% of the GodSquad funds raised will return to the GodSquad mission trip budget.

When: Sat, Oct 7; be at Grace Cathedral by 7AM - return home 3PM (breakfast & lunch provided)
Where: Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St , San Francisco
More inforamtion & forms: http://www.episcopalcharities.org/walkathon_06/index.html

Each participant (youth & adult) needs to collect a minimum of $35 in sponsors. Make announcements during Sunday services, ask for a blurb in church e-newsletters, be available during coffee hour to collect sponsorships, ask your family and your neighbors to support you.

Be sure to download the registration and sponsorship forms linked below.

Contact your youth minister by Sunday Oct 1 to confirm participation participation. Travel arrangements will be organized by congregation.

Episcopal Charities Walk-A-Thon Weblink

Each youth & adult must complete the Participant Registration Form

Collect donations & keep track with the Sponsor Form

We're talking the long way - check out the Route Map

If you need help asking for sponsors here's a sample Sample Request for Donation Letter

Post the Flyer of Event around your church!

Reunion!

Mark your calendars! Bring your friends!

What? The Mission Trip Reunion
When? Sunday 9/17 from 4-6p
Where? St. Paul’s, 1924 Trinity Avenue Walnut Creek
Who? All Mission Trippers (open to friends in high school)

Bring a snack or beverage to share - it's a community thang (aka potluck)!

The Mission Trip Leadership Team agreed that leftover money from the budget will be donated to a charity of Dr. George & The Rev. King's choice. You are invited to contribute cash to increase our gift of gratitude for the time we spent with these two civil rights leaders. We'll pass a collection plate at the party!

Also - GodSquad Mission Trip Blog is being promoted on www.episcopalbayarea.org - check it out!

Sammy F's Sermon (Church of the Resurrection)

Response to the Epistle

Faith. Hope. Religion. Community. Love. Service.
These are a few reasons why 35 individuals took the journey to Biloxi, Mississippi to help rebuild the houses and lives of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. We began our trip with good intentions, but I don’t think any of us knew what was actually in store for us. We got the opportunity to touch the lives of so many people, and when that opportunity arose, we did not hesitate to take it. We looked at this mission trip as a privilege, not as a right. I believe we truly experienced the difference between giving charity and giving yourself through service. Charity is given when someone feels they need to contribute. Service is based on love, and a want to personally help the cause. I, myself, feel that the God-Squad lead their mission out of service. By the end of our trip, it was obvious that our motives were clear to all of us. We had come to do the work of the lord, with our own two hands. Not only did we make friends, and have fun, but we gave all of our love through service.

Rob O's Sermon (St. Paul's, WC)

Our trip to Biloxi was life-changing and heart-warming, but I’m not going to lie; we had our fair share of drama on this trip, that’s just what happens when you put 30 teenagers together for an extended period of time.

There were times when youth felt disrespected and ignored by other youth, and some didn’t know what to do with these emotions, until it was too much for them to handle, and they had to let it all out. Paul says “Let no evil come out of your mouths.” But from time to time, again, I’m not going to lie, a few choice phrases, what my mother would call “bad words” and probably what Paul would consider “evil” escaped from more than a few mouths.

On this trip, though, we did help each other out. It helped to vent. Often when someone else voiced the frustration I was feeling, it took the edge off my own. I think it put us all in a better mood and a more receptive mood, where we could help each other out. Out of these same mouths would come good words. We would talk over our problems to other youth and put our own emotions and feelings on hold for someone else’s benefit. This helped us in turn, to turn outward, to focus on the problems of others (other youth and others in the community we were staying in), and to help them out.

On the second day of work, we were told that we would be tilling a lawn and then raking out all of the loose grass and vegetation. It sounded like very tedious and boring work, but we tried to keep an open mind as we drove out to where we would be working. The first thing I noticed when we got there was that it was a very nice neighborhood, many of the houses were the same size or bigger than the ones in Walnut Creek, and except for the lack of grass the homes appeared to be completely unaffected by the hurricane. I wasn’t the only one who noticed either, many of my friends were complaining saying thing like, “we might as well be mowing lawns in Beverly Hills”. So it was clear that from the start that not a lot of people felt very passionate about our new job assignment. The general grumbling, after a morning simmering in the sun, turned into a dull persistent buzz of discontent. The work was getting done very slowly, due mainly to all the complaining. Instead of raking, people were standing around and talking about how they didn’t want to be there. After four hours of accomplishing only a circle of tilled dirt, we went back to Camp Biloxi. Back at camp, the venting continued, but this time a few adults and other youth made some statements that changed everybody’s perspective. “We don’t know these people or their circumstances. Maybe there is a real need for what we are doing here.” “If we complain less, the work will get done faster.” “If you don’t want to be here, work hard, get the work done, and we’ll move on to someplace else.”

We realized that we shouldn’t question what work we are doing or what work needs to be done. That’s not why we went there. We should, as Paul put it in Ephesians 4:25: “Let no evil come out of our mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need….”. So, we went back to work tilling the lawn. Very few people complained and the work got done a lot faster. By lunch time the entire lawn was tilled, front and back.

When we helped each other with the work, as well as mentally and emotionally, we were able to grow more cohesive as a community, get more done, and have a better mindset about what we were doing, The experience, even the struggles we worked though, strengthened our faith in each other and our belief that what we were doing together was for good.

The experiences I had during the ten days on the Mission Trip taught me the following:

We are stronger when we work together. We are stronger when we use our words to build each other up. We are stronger when we trust that what we are doing together is good. And, together and strong, we can do a lot of good for others. Good that could be uplifting, even life-changing for those we helped in Biloxi, and also for us.

The One Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Collect of the Day
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working out of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Suggested Readings and Hymns:
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 10-11 539
Psalm 130
Revelation 21: 2-7 582/583
Matthew 6: 25-33(34) 667/709

Other hymns:
549/550
608
551
564/565

Prayers of the People
We gather before God in faith and hope following the devastation our community has suffered from Hurricane Katrina. To the God of all creation we bring the tears we have cried; but with our hearts set on the future.
Hear us God of creation.

God of Creation and Lord of all seasons, hear the thoughts of our hearts for the year that has passed and our hope for grace and protection in days yet to be.
Hear us God of creation.

Lord God of all seasons, you sustain us throughout the year.
You are the rain that refreshes the earth.

You are the light that shines upon all things.
You are the miracle of birth and growth.
.
You write the times and the seasons on the face of the earth
You set it in motion for the benefit of all.
.
You are the Creator who blesses.
You are the Guardian of all that you have created.

The eyes of all look to you, O Lord.
You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
.
We have faced and endured the might of the winds, thunderous rains, and surging waves;
Hear us God of Creation.
.
We have known uncertainty, and we carry concern for our brothers and sisters who have stood in harms way;
Hear us God of Creation. .
.
We seek the gift faith that can move mountains and remove all fear;
Hear us God of Creation.

We give you thanks for your holy strength that has sustained us in the year that has passed;
Hear us God of Creation.

You are the God of hope; grant us the grace of your Spirit in the seasons to come;
Hear us God of Creation.

We give you thanks for the courage to rebuild and renew the face of our communities;
Hear us God of Creation.
.
Be our light in the darkness, our hope in the storm and the calm, our serenity in the chaos and peace, and our hope and trust in the future;
Hear us, O Lord of life.

Almighty and ever living God, we bring our grateful hearts to you in thanksgiving and praise for bringing us through the year that has past. Yet we are mindful of those who have suffered injury, damage or loss and ask that you would comfort them with your healing love. Guard as well those who yet remain in harm’s way. As we continue through the days to come, help us always to place our hope, our fears, and our trust in you, for in you alone is life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Suggested Preface
Dedication of a Church, BCP pgs. 567-579

Alissa's Sermon (St. Paul's, WC)

On our third day working in Biloxi, our group arrived at eight a.m. at two newly reconstructed homes just feet away from the coastline. While the homes appeared simple in construction, they looked inviting and comfortable compared to the mere foundations surrounding them. Our group was introduced to the owner of one of the homes, a man in his seventies named Willis, who explained that the house next to his which we would be landscaping belonged to his daughter Barbara and her husband. While our group raked soil and pulled weeds, preparing the earth around Barbara’s house for sod, Willis kept a watchful eye on our work, offering stories, advice and bathrooms when needed. Like her father, Barbara showed her gratitude to us by opening her home and her heart, offering us her story of destruction and showing us pictures she had taken of her and her father’s homes before and after Katrina destroyed them. Barbara explained that at one time many generations of her family had built homes on the surrounding property, and each structure was destroyed by Katrina. Not only had Katrina ripped apart the family homes, but also the family, as other relatives living on the property had decided not to return after the hurricane.

At one point during our working day, Willis explained to me that his and Barbara’s houses had been built from the group up in only four weeks by volunteers from Nebraska, and he was extremely thankful to have been blessed by their generosity as many of his neighbors had yet to receive help. He told me that he had recently realized that staying at a volunteer camp was costing us money, and questioned why anyone would spend their own money to come to the Gulf Coast just to help reconstruction.

At the time I wasn’t sure how to respond to Willis, why had I spent two hundred dollars plus numerous hours of fundraising and planning to come to Mississippi, a place far away from my community at home.

Besides my love and investment in the God Squad, I came to recognize several reasons why helping in the wake of hurricane Katrina was important to me. Firstly, if a natural disaster, such as an earthquake were to rattle the Bay Area, I would hope that we would receive help from unaffected people from all over the country, as the people along the Gulf are. Also, I knew from stories in the news before heading down South that many residents were complaining about the lack of help they have received from the government, that we are putting time, money and energy into foreign affairs when there are still many families living in FEMA trailers on American soil; obviously government aid is needed on a large scale, but going down to help with my own two hands was something I could offer if the government couldn’t. Working on the Gulf, I heard many stories from residents about the abuse they are receiving from insurance agencies. As if having all personal items and a shelter stripped from you isn’t traumatizing enough, many people are having to battle insurance companies who refuse to honor damage claims because flood insurance doesn’t cover floods caused by water moved by wind or massive amounts of rain. If insurance companies aren’t going to give money to their clients to help them rebuild, then people in the place to donate money or time need to help those people get back on their feet. My final reason for spending my time and money to rebuild on the Gulf Coast is because that is what God called me and the God Squad to do. As we heard in todays’ reading from Ephesians, we are all members of one another and we are to live in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a sacrifice to God. Although sometimes sacrificing for one another includes time or money, when we do make sacrifices for each other we are acting as imitators of God, loving one another as God calls us to do.

Tierney's Sermon (St. Paul's, WC)

At the Lutheran camp we stayed at in Biloxi, our cultural and theological differences were apparent from the moment we arrived. Outside from stricter dress codes and different graces before dinner though, I think I witnessed one of the biggest theological differences for me in a more subtle way.

One night at dinner the camp director asked one person from the different groups from around the country to share a story about where they saw God in their work. All the stories sounded the same, the workers recounted how those who survived through the storm told of how they were saved by God’s grace from the brink of death or total destruction. One older woman even told of asking God that if she’d done anything good in her life to save her from the storm.

While it was somewhat uplifting to hear stories of these people who were putting their lives back together one brick at a time with our help, I couldn’t help but wonder where God was with the thousands who lost their lives to the hurricane. This idea of a micromanaging God who performed miracles where he deemed fit was completely irreconcilable to me with the scale of the tragic destruction we had witnessed.

I expressed my misgivings about what was said at dinner to Father Michael Carney and we discussed the many different ways the people view God, and the disparities between the way that the haves and the have-nots, even from the same denomination, describe the Christian God.

As a fairly privileged group of people that were staying at the camp, it was generally easy for us to believe that every good thing that happens is the grace of God, and dismiss everything else as some part of God’s greater plan.

Michael explained to me that often people less privileged than us accept suffering as a part of life to a much greater degree, and that this is often what helps them get through their hard times.

These themes of differences between the privileged and the unprivileged also echoed the themes of civil rights and social justice that we had a chance to investigate on the trip. In the end of our lengthy conversation in which I came to a better understanding of what I had previously viewed as gaping inconsistencies in religion, Michael asked me what I thought about God, and the only thing I could honestly say was that I believe a higher power exists, but we need not depend on him to perform miracles or dismiss the bad things in life as part of his greater plan, we need to take action with our own two hands and make the little changes where God cannot with him in our hearts.

Michael said that all he knows is that we need to give love wherever we can, and I couldn’t agree with him more. As today’s psalm states, “For with the Lord there is steadfast love”, and I believe we need to take this love and transfer it to others that are suffering instead of glossing over or trying to explain the suffering.

Whether that love is in the form of direct support to individuals like we gave on the trip, or trying on a larger scale to right the injustice and inequality that we witnessed and learned about on the trip, what I am most taking away from my trip is an affirmation that I want to take the privileged life and chance at a higher education that I will have next year and give love in as many ways as I can.

I want to use it to not only help those in need, but examine the system that continually keeps these people in need. And the amazing experiences that I have had for the past two years on mission trips and God Squads, the incredible community that has been achieved and the obscene amount of fun we always manage to have to me is just further proof that we must be doing something right by starting to give love where it is needed the most.

HURRICANE AFTERMATH

Click to read full article: HURRICANE AFTERMATH: A year after Katrina, residents of New Orleans' impoverished Lower Ninth Ward are feeling forgotten / Families crammed into trailers wait for aid to rebuild their lives

Mission Trip Sermon—August 13, 2006 By: Erin Searfus, Samantha Haycock, Samantha Vethavanam of St. George's, Antioch

Planting Seeds originally posted on July 19 by The Rev. Michael Carney, St. George’s
Last summer on our way home from Idaho we stopped in a little park for lunch and frisbee. The youth all filled out evaluations, and every single person said they'd like to go on another mission trip.

Driving along, I wondered how we would decide where to go. There are so many possibilities. It was three weeks before Hurricane Katrina would devastate the Gulf Coast.

In the fall I got to meet a number of times with a group of young people who brainstormed every possibility from a retreat in Alaska to inner city work in New York (and many in-between). They kept coming back to serving in the hurricane area, despite the cost and logistical challenges of going there.

I remember the evening when the youth leaders made their presentation to adult representatives from all the churches in the county. They described their vision--hard questions were asked and answered--the group voted unanimously to approve the plan. Then the adults walked out of the room shaking their heads, wondering how we would ever pull it off.

With God's help (and our participation), nothing is impossible.
~The Rev. Michael Carney

Mission Trip Sermon—August 13, 2006
By: Erin Searfus, Samantha Haycock, Samantha Vethavanam
George’s Episcopal Church, Antioch



ERIN: I can change the world

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: Make a better place

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: Make a kinder place

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: Look at our hands. Think of all the hands we’ve held.

SAM V: I met a girl who eagerly explained to me what a hurricane was. It is three things. One it is very dangerous. Two its two winds chasing each other. Three it changes people’s lives. She told me she stood inside her house behind a sliding glass door and watched the winds raged. Her house was so ruined she had to move to Indiana where she spent the next year. Even though she didn’t want to leave her home, she had to make the best of her situation. She quickly became accustomed to her surroundings when it was finally time for her to return home to Mississippi her class threw her a party and where she received a card from every student but one, who happened to be sick that day.

ERIN: I met a woman named Barbara. She had a husband and daughter who was a senior in high school last year. She had lived in a town in Mississippi her whole life with her parents, grandparents, and aunts & uncle. That is, until the hurricane destroyed all their 70 some year old houses. When returning to the neighborhood several days after the storm, the family was silenced by the sights. Her husbands truck was blocks away from their house, her fathers home was now only a foundation, and her house was torn open to expose her kitchen and other rooms all combined together. She recalled the week before the storm and all her normal monotonous activities. Her family was at a school football game on Friday night and she never could have imagined not having a house on Monday morning.

SAM H: I met a seventy-some-odd-year-old man named Robert James, who went by RJ for short. He lived about two bocks from the beach. When he and his wife found out the storm was coming she decided to seek shelter farther from the coast while he rode it out. In order to protect his house RJ tucked towels along all the doorjambs that led outside. About an hour into the storm he realized how ridiculous this was. RJ watched through his front door as the winds blew debris in and the waves dragged rubbish out. The water rose higher and higher till it reached his chest. In the middle of the storm RJ looked up to the sky and screamed you are God and I am man prove it and God did. RJ’s house was surrounded by a five foot high brick retaining wall which during the storm protected the house from flying debris. The wall eventually crumbled but RJ’s home was salvageable, suffering only from water damage. When the storm died down RJ laid down on his floating bed. When his wife returned to town she found him laying in bed covered in a blanket of mud drinking from a six pack of Heineken next to a squirrel. In RJ’s last words with us he said everything is temporary. That could never be more true.

ERIN: I can make peace on earth

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: I can clean up the earth

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: I can reach out to you

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: Look at our hands. Think of all the tools we’ve held.

SAM V: I worked for four days in Biloxi, Mississippi.

ERIN: I built a brick wall with my own two hands.

SAM H: I painted a porch with my own two hands.

SAM V: I roto tilled a lawn with my own two hands.

ERIN: I raked through grass with my own two hands.

SAM H: I pulled weeds with my own two hands.

SAM V: I leveled a yard with my own two hands.

ERIN: I cleaned up remains of destruction with my own two hands.

SAM H: I spackled, painted, and sanded with my own two hands.

ERIN: I’m gonna make it a brighter place. I’m gonna make it a safer place. I’m gonna help the human race.

ALL: With my own two hands

SAM V: I saw what was left of Hurricane Katrina. The visible changes are still prevalent in every moment of native’s lives. There is still garbage in trees. Toys and personal belongings scatter the ground, not yet claimed. Bent poles and broken signs indicate locations of stores that once stood and now are non-existent. I passed a cemetery every day whose mausoleums were flattened to the ground and whose tombstones were knocked over or shattered in pieces. Blue tarps marked the tops of houses who had been damaged during the storm. Whole floors were missing from buildings. Spray paint marked the doors telling me brief stories of the families who lived within. Water lines reached up over my head showing me where a flood once stood. A thirty day notice warned residents of a FEMA trailer their time was running short.

ERIN: I can hold you

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: I can comfort you

ALL: With my own two hands

ERIN: But you got to use

ALL: Use your own two hands

ERIN: Look at your own hands. Notice all the lines, all the wrinkles, the calluses and soft spots. Think of where they’ve been for the past two weeks. Who have they touched? What work have they done? Who have they held in comfort? Who have they congratulated in joy?

SAM H: What can you do in a world where people are forced into homelessness by others, where the government refuses to take action, where repairing is left up to volunteers? How can you use your own two hands?