The Catholic Church was destroyed, so Heritage invited them to hold weekly masses in their sanctuary; the Buddhists need diapers, so they deliver to them; the Viet Namese need work on their homes, so they have teams dispatched to help.  Heritage, under the leadership of Pastor David, see no boundaries, no color, no denomination:  they see only the need and they respond. 

     Pastor David told me that Heritage had a Fall Festival with the Catholics and the Baptists and that they are planning a Thanksgiving program together as well.  He laughed as he said, “It just took a little ole’ hurricane to bring God's people together."   Indeed, the people of D’Iberville have received many blessings in the midst of this horrific natural disaster, and perhaps the biggest is seeing everyone as children of God and not as people with differing views, cultures, looks, theology.   How this must pleasure God!

       It is the hope of the Raleigh District to have a team in D’Iberville every week until this effort is complete.  So far, we have met that goal.  We are blessed to have churches that have caught the vision and have made the trips possible.  It has been encouraging that some of our churches are combining efforts with other district churches to form work teams, realizing that together we can accomplish greater things for the kingdom than we can separately.  I encourage all of you to use this role model as well.  Please know that I am available to make that happen. 

       Take time to look through the photos that accompany this article.  These were taken October 3-4, 2005.  Please send me articles, stories or photos of your trips to Mississippi so we can post them on both the conference and district websites.

Shalom.
Jo Elaine Harris
Pastor of Missions
Raleigh District of The United Methodist Church
919-787-0544, ext. 19
joelaine@nccumc.org