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
|
0 comments
