January 01, 2006
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year to all of you. As I prepare to leave for the Weathering the Storm conference in Orlando, where CREDO and the national church are gathering the clergy impacted by Katrina and Rita, along with their families, and diocesan support folks for informative sessions, planning exercises, stress management, and some FUN, I thought it would be a good time to catch you all up with our progress.
First of all, I must say how amazed I continue to be by the support of so many people all over this continent. The generosity and deep concern of our supporters has been what has helped us survive to this point. Thank you all for all you do.
Many of you have helped us through the relief center and medical clinic at Camp Coast Care (www.campcoastcare.com). Tens of thousands of people have been served through that center, which will continue to provide food and clothing, as well as clean up support in our area. Each day work crews are sent out, they have literally cleaned up 100s of yards and homes. Eventually this effort will move to more of a rebuilding project, and we will continue to house 100s of volunteers to support that work. See the website above and the website for our diocese, www.dioms.org, for more information on how to help.
The medical clinic will hopefully move to Coastal Family Health clinic, which my wife, Jennifer, who is the leader of our free clinic, is assisting to setup with a medical trailer and staffing in Long Beach near a FEMA trailer park and our relief center. It is important for us to move folks back into the medical community as doctors come back online.
Through the support of our adopting parishes, we have setup our office trailer in the Industrial Park in Long Beach. We were able to fully furnish the office space and as of last week, we finally have electricity! It is such a plus to have an office space again. We hope to have water and sewer hook ups very soon. We do need some more items, especially a high speed copier and some computer stuff. If you can help, please reply to this message or send a new one.
With the opening of Highway 90, the Beach Blvd that our church stood on, to through traffic, it is now feasible for us to return to our grounds and do some cleanup. We have scheduled a Parish work day for Saturday, January 14. This will be a day JUST for our parishioners to begin the cleanup process on our holy spot. I believe a lot of tears will be shed. We will work in the morning and then eat lunch together, followed by Holy Eucharist in our outdoor chapel. This will be the first time we have been allowed to worship on our spot, we are the only destroyed church (of the six) that has not been able to be on their site. This will be a significant time for our Parish. Please keep that date and our folks in your prayers.
We continue to try and gather as much information as possible regarding our options for rebuilding. We have looked at some temporary worship buildings. We are very anxious to make some progress, but it is slow going. We need as much factual information as possible regarding requirements to rebuild on our beach location, if we should so choose. Many of our folks, will of course be drawn to return there. Others are in favor of moving north of the beach. What I have promised the Parish is we will, as a group, talk about these things, answer questions, and allow people to speak their minds. Following that time together, tentatively planned for January 28, the Vestry will enter a process of prayerfully discerning where God would have us go. The attached prayer to the bottom of this email is a prayer we use for all worship services and Vestry meetings. We would appreciate each of your churches joining with us in this prayer whenever possible.
Once we know where we will go we will be able to decide on a temporary worship building. We have to wait until then because some of our options may allow us to place a building on the site, others would require us to use our “borrowed” site in the Industrial Park and then move it later. We want to avoid the moving expense if possible. We will, as soon as possible, post needs for that building (in addition to the building itself) – chairs, tables, etc. If any of you have experience with temporary spaces that you can share with us, the information would be greatly appreciated.
We are four months post storm. Our folks continue to progress, although many have days where they are just as lost as they were August 29. Many are now receiving bad news from their insurance companies. The future is very uncertain. Areas of Long Beach and Pass Christian still look like a bomb went off (including our church site). Some days despair wins, others we are able to fight through it. I still believe we will make it BECAUSE of people like you who are continuing to help us. It is what gives me hope.
I encourage you to visit our web site, www.stpatricks.dioms.org. You will get more information on us and you can even listen to sermons (if you are real bored). The one from today talks about our rebuilding and the need for prayer. We are in a crucial time of discernment, all the while still in recovery mode. It will be a long haul. Thank you for being part of it.
God bless you all. The prayer is copied below my signature info.
David Knight+
*** Please note email address, do not use the bellsouth.net address any more ***
The Reverend J. David Knight
STILL the Rector, St. Patrick's Episcopal Church
P.O. Box 550
Long Beach, MS 39560
(228) 669-4001 (cell)
revdknight@cableone.net
www.stpatricks.dioms.org
O Lord God of Israel, the heavens cannot contain you, yet
you are pleased to dwell in the midst of your people, and
have moved us to set apart a space on which to rebuild a house
of prayer: Send us your Spirit, that we
may learn what you would have us do, and the words and
witness you would have us offer. Guide us as we continue your work;
show us the field in which to plant, that your Kingdom may
come and your power be revealed in this community; to the glory of your Name. Amen.
posted by St. Matthew's Episcopal Church | 5:39 AM
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November Update
Thursday, November 10, 2005
My dear Sisters and Brothers,
Just an update from Camp Coast Care. Our work is progressing well. A few of the larger shelters in our neighborhood have closed in the last few days. Consequently, the numbers of people passing through our distribution tent and clinic are climbing steadily. Yesterday, we served 1,928 people in the “store” and another 140 in the clinic. I know it is hard for people who live away from here to understand that even the “crisis” stage of Katrina is far from over. There are still people who are living in a survival mode from day to day, and sometimes the government’s response to their need creates more harm than good. A few trailer parks are being set up way out in the country away from services and shelters. This creates a new problem of how to get the help we have out to the people who need it. We are using vans to move medical personnel and supplies out to those places of need. (Special thanks to St. Pete's Oxford for the use off a van.)
Our commitment in the Lutheran/Episcopal Network is to continue in relief efforts until the need is met and then to concentrate on the long-term rebuilding for those in need. Once we see the end of the clean out and rake up stage moving toward an end, we will begin stockpiling building materials for the work yet to come. That means I am looking for volunteers well into the new year. And, while our census looks healthy for these next weeks, there is hardly a day when I couldn’t use another 25 to 30 volunteers. Kudos to the wonderful group from Ole Miss who came down last weekend with Ollie Rencher and his team. Thanks as well to a team from Southern Miss that joined in too. This weekend a group from State is with us as well as several individuals and teams from parishes around the state.
When you are thinking of something to do to really help the people of the Gulf Coast, remember that our aim is to return them to something like normalcy as soon as possible. That means enabling parents to care for their children, enabling clergy to care for their congregations, and enabling this economy to bounce back to a healthier place. In the next weeks I will also be looking for a long-term volunteer to do data entry for us, allowing us to update our volunteer files as well as the work orders that have already been processed and those waiting to be processed. (We have cleaned out over 230 homes now and we hit five to seven more each day.) If you know a data processor who might serve with us please call me soon.
In other news, the work here goes on. Every day we are making progress, but we are still a long way from getting through even the crisis and relief stage of this storm’s devastation. It is hard to keep the attention of the world focused on an ongoing process like this. So, our food and supplies caches are dwindling, and we wonder how long we can hold the interest of the church. Keep us in your prayers for the right answers and actions to these questions.
"Together, we can make a difference."
My needs for this week continue to be:
- Canned Foods – cannot keep enough
- Especially soups
- Spaghetti sauces
- Meats
- Ravioli
- Vegetables
- Fruits
- Juices
- Tomato
- Fruit
- Sports drinks
- Shelf milk
- Rice
- Dry Beans
- Breakfast cereals
- New Clothes
- Cleaning Supplies
- Yard Tools
- Gift Cards to Walmart, Home Depot. Lowe’s
What a diocese!
You are wonderful partners in this ministry.
Come see us when you can.
Christ’s peace,
Joe Robinson+
posted by St. Matthew's Episcopal Church | 1:06 PM
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