We are now almost 9 months after the storm, and living in this region is more than a struggle. You can’t look anywhere without seeing signs of the storm, but very slow progress is being made. The volunteer camp where I have stayed will be open for five to eight years, that gives you some idea of the kind of need there still is here.
Below are letters I have written to my home parish during my trips here in October, November, and March/April.
I have no particular skill or training that prepared me for this work. Just before the hurricane, I left my job of 5 years, feeling strongly that God was calling me to something else… I just didn’t know what the else was. In September I attended a 4 hour disaster training course with the Red Cross, and then I waited to be called up.
The bottom line is, it’s not hard to go, the hardest part is getting over the mental block in your head that tells you “other people do stuff like that not me”. Once you’re there, it changes your life, you realize that you have become a person who goes… and you just want to keep going.
Visit Camp Coast Care’s website, look at the photos, read the stories, and see if it calls to you… if it does, Take just one week off of work, and see how it changes your life!