Jan. 10 — Building hope through worship

Local church helps recovery efforts for New Orleans church damaged from Hurricane Katrin

Chris Albert / of the Herald

It’s been more than two years since Hurricane Katrina toppled homes and ravaged New Orleans, but the tragedy still creeps into Pastor Shirley DeLarme’s sermons from time to time.

“I do not believe God caused this to punish these people,” the Puyallup pastor said. “But I think God can work though us to redeem this situation and all is not lost.”

It’s a topic that hits close to home as DeLarme prepares to lead a team of 40 Puyallup United Methodists parishioners on a mission trip to New Orleans this summer.

“That’s pretty ambitious for us,” she said.

It’s the largest group the church will have sent on a mission trip. It will be a combination of two teams, one with youth and their chaperones and an adult group.

The group will help run a vacation bible school and get their hands dirty by helping rebuild the sanctuary of a church devastated by Katrina. Just having more people available to help rebuild is a great plus for the New Orleans church.

“They don’t have enough people power to get it done,” DeLarme said. “There is a long way to go.”

It is a sad reality for all of them.

More than two years after Hurricane Katrina brought massive devastation to the city of New Orleans, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Where there was once vibrant neighborhoods there is nothing but rubble.

While the city struggles to rebuild homes and infrastructure, churches are left to fend for themselves, DeLarme said.

But with the help of churches around the country New Orleans churches are building toward providing ministry that was lost and hope that is needed.

Congregations have been decimated and in many cases churches are grouped together to provide ministry and services to the community, DeLarme said.

Last year, the congregation at Puyallup United Methodist Church decided to help rebuild Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in New Orleans.

Through their efforts they were also able to raise $6,000 for a new sound system at the church.

But money hasn’t been the biggest support the Puyallup congregation has been able to give, DeLarme said.

“Our support was moral support more than anything,” she said, by sending prayers and letting the New Orleans congregation they are not alone in recovery.

The church sits at the edge of the city’s Garden District and was greatly effected by flooding caused by Katrina.

What the church can provide is a sense of hope, DeLarme said. Sure Mt. Zion works to provide a free clinic every week, transforming their make shift worship space to heal, but without hope people are left with nothing, she said.

“When the church isn’t there you can’t get that,” DeLarme said.

DeLarme and PUMC members Joe and Sherry Broussard saw that hope first hand.

DeLarme visited the church this past December and the Broussards visited the Mt. Zion in October for the opening of their education building as a worship space.

They hope to have their sanctuary, that is more than 100 years old, open by the summer, DeLarme said.

Joe Broussard is originally from Louisiana and the trip was the first time he had been back since before Hurricane Katrina.

“It was like a war zone,” Broussard said.

The city he used to know was no longer there, he said.

A board member of the church, who is also a police officer, took the Broussards on a tour of New Orleans. At one stop there was a vacant lot and clear across the street was the house that once stood there.

It hadn’t even been checked yet, Broussard said. The dishes were still in the sink and mud filled the home. Their tour guide told them no one was certain if there were bodies inside the home.

They are still finding bodies, Broussard said.

They drove for miles to see everything they could and everywhere they went there was nothing where there once was something. The places that were still there were boarded up and empty, Broussard said.

“It’s just very eerie,” Sherry Broussard said.

Not enough has been done to help the city recover, he said.

The Broussards worshiped with the congregation at Mt. Zion. The experience included a baptism and a dance by a group of youth.

“That was an awesome experience for me,” Broussard said. “Those folks were so happy.”

“It’s very strengthening for people to gather,” Sherry Broussard said.

On DeLarme’s trip she took a tour to see for herself what the city and its people are still struggling with.

Before the bus tour began, a man she was seated near said he didn’t understand what the big deal was and that the hurricane is old news.

It didn’t take long for him to change his tune, DeLarme said.

Entire neighborhoods are gone, streets are destroyed and a once bustling metropolis is now reminiscent of a ghost town, DeLarme said.

The driver for the bus tour, DeLarme said, helped in the evacuation of New Orleans. There is a mix of emotions for what that driver saw, she said. There is a sense of pride in helping people, a sadness for the loss of life and a bitterness about the poor federal response to the disaster.

“I don’t think most of us realize that because we live pretty comfortably,” she said.

It’s not only the destruction either, DeLarme said. There aren’t many jobs for people and so poverty is all too real.

“If we need something we pull cash out of our wallet and get it,” DeLarme said. “These people don’t have cash in their wallet or a credit card.”

Even while people continue to struggle to survive and a city tries to rebuild, they don’t want people to feel sorry for them, Sherry Broussard said.

They want other people to learn the lessons of Katrina, to be prepared with a plan when disaster hits, she said.

Right now the church is focusing on providing ministry and doing what it can to bring people back into the community.

“That’s what they want to get back into,” Sherry Broussard said.

The experiences that the Broussards and DeLarme took away from their visits brought them closer to New Orleans then they thought it would.

“I guess we all are connected, that’s one of the things I took away from it,” Sherry Broussard said.

On a small scale, the floods that have touched Washington the last two years have brought New Orleans and Washington closer, DeLarme said.

Flood victims in Chehalis, stranded on their roofs waiting for rescue would see dead cows floating by, while more than two years ago flood victims in New Orleans would see dead people floating by.

It’s those shared experiences, though different from one area to the next, that have strengthened a bond and a feeling responsibility.

The connection is not the same, but the sympathy for the plight of the victims of Hurricane Katrina has been strengthened, she said.

“Locally it’s building a bridge,” DeLarme said.

In times of crisis, prejudice washes away and humanity surfaces, he said. Even when government fails, people will do what they have to do to help one another.

“You learn there is still a lot of compassion,” Broussard said. “People do care about each other.

“There’s always something good that comes out of it.”

Reach Reporter Chris Albert at 253-841-2481 ext. 313 or by e-mail at chris.albert@puyallupherald.com.