On November 22, 2005, we left Jenison after gathering for a prayer at the Teeple's.  We drove straight through stopping only for food and gas.  It took us 22 hours to get there.  The grounds consisted of the church, (St. Ann's), a Knight's of Columbus hall (our home away from home), an outhouse, a bath house with 5 showers for the men and 2 for the women, a CCD building turned into a Distribution Center (DC) and various other buildings.  People who brought campers, parked them around the perimeter.  There was electric hook-ups.  We began to see the evidence of 175 mph winds about 50 miles from our destination.  The trees were snapped off like matchsticks and the roofs were covered with blue tarps. There was debris along the highways and roads.  When we arrived, we were greeted by fellow volunteers from Newaygo MI., Neon KY., Chase MI., Jenison MI., Wixom MI., Howard City MI., Pataskala OH., Warrenville IL., North Aurora IL., Wheaton IL.,  and Naperville IL.  Those in our group of 10 represented Jenison MI., Haslet MI., Flushing MI. and Grandville MI.

 Inside the Knights of Columbus hall there were two main rooms.  The main dining hall was lined with cots for the men and a seperate room lined with cots for the women.  I was able to sleep in the conversion van. 

 Thanksgiving Day.  We woke up to a huge breakfast, went to Mass and got to work unloading supplies we had brought into the DC.  Afterwards we got our first assignment.  We went to Long Beach, MS.  The entire way the roads were littered with trash.  There were more snapped trees.  We helped a woman named Jo Anna.  Her yard was full of debris.  She was 75 years old and she wanted to bring her 78 year old husband home to their FEMA trailer which was parked in their yard.  Jo Anna told us that she had stayed in her home as long as she could during the storm and then moved into her daughter's SUV on higher ground.  She figured she had survived Camille and this would be the same.  She said "it is a way of life down here".  With electricity and water scarce we were only able to work during the daylight hours.  We got to know the women we helped (Nancy and Jo Anna) and shared some of their emotional loss. It was very hard emotionally at first, but you had to put it aside.  We had to take their things and literally throw their lives/memories to the curb to be hauled away. 

 At one time Jo Anna had 4 feet of water in her yard and home.  I am unable to smell but was told the stench of mold and rotting carcasses was awful.  We wore respirators.  The homes that were left standing were full of mud and had to be gutted down to the studs.  Jo Anna spoke of her neighbor, a mother of small children, whose husband left her the night of the hurricane.  She told Jo Anna she will not come back.  I peeked into her house because the door was off the hinges and everything was the way she left it when she fled...only it was full of mold.  As we were working, a group of 15 or so students from N.C. State pulled up in two vans and went to work on the neighbor's house.  By Saturday, they had cleared this woman's house inside and out and had brought every earthly belonging of hers to the curb for removal.  By the end day, we had hauled 3 piles of debris to the edge of the road that were about 20 feet long and 10 feet high. 

 To get to Joanna's house she had to meet us at a gas station and escort us past the barbed wire protection that surrounded the neighborhood.  We went through a security check point that was manned by military personel who were carrying armed weapons. The houses have insurance information or a "code" spray painted on them.  The code is a huge "X", the number of dead found in the bottom, the left side indicates if the house is condemned and the right indicated how many dead animals were found.  A lot of lots had no house left and the house numbers were painted on trees.  Occasionally we would find a sign that had an insurance company's name or a sign that simply said...."take everything".  You could understand the security once inside the neighborhood.  Everyone's belongings were exposed.  Of the houses that were left standing, doors and windows were gone.  It was mostly just frames and their belongings were scattered outside. 

 Halfway through our day we walked 2 blocks to the Gulf shore.  The closer we got the less standing houses we saw.  There were flattened cars everywhere.  Boats were strewn about like children's cast-off toys.  There was nothing left of the houses closest to the water, only steps leading to nowhere and foundations where houses once stood.  The trees were stripped of their leaves and were just starting to leaf out.  What was left in the branches were personal effects, rugs, linens, draperies etc.  Some of our group went into the Gulf water.  They thought the water was warm.  The military were quickly on us to get out and told us the water was 80% e coli contaminated.  From the shore we could see siding and tires in the water. 

 After a full days work and no lunch we decided to leave because the gnats (or no-see-ums as the locals called them) were biting us bad.  We came back to our "hosts" Karen Parker - the church secretary and Fr. Peter Mockler.  Karen Parker is an amazing woman.  She had a food business and lost it all.  Her ministry is now full time devotion to the parish of St. Ann's and Project Hope and Compassion.  She is donating all her time.  She arranges the volunteers, cooks for them and helps to bring food in.  She is an amazing cook.  We did not have the opportunity to meet Steve Hulst who has given up his job in Michigan and moved to Mississippi to help her in this mission.  Karen had prepared us a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.  She made two turkeys, a ham, mashed potatoes, gravy (with eggs), sweet potato casserole, dressing, pumpkin and sweet potato pie.  We ate with the other volunteers and were joined by 5 seminarians.  Chris and John carried over a plate with candles on it and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me. 

 Friday - Today we worked around St. Ann's.  We got up had breakfast and made a list of things we needed from the hardware store.  Sue, Jordan and myself went.  It was a lesson in patience.  The first store we went to was out of most the things we needed so we headed to Lowe's.  The line of trucks and trailers just to park was amazing.  Every department we went to was jammed with people.  The wait just for electrical wire was 20 minutes.  This trip which should have taken us an hour, took 3. 

 When we got back, we got to work in the DC.  The DC serves food to about 400 people a week.  At the beginning of the day the tables were full of food.  At the end of the day a lot of supplies were gone so we restocked what we could and made a list of things they need. 

 John and Chris worked doing some things around St. Ann's that Karen really needed done like wiring and porch rails.  A 23 y.o. Texan named "Sam" came and helped us.  He had taken a hiatus from University of New Mexico to come do disaster relief.  He was making it a work study.  The girls (old and young) were pretty smitten with him.  The people who worked in the DC and who came in were people just like ourselves.  Some were elderly and said that the only way they could get food was here as the lines at Walmart were still 3 hours.  One woman said "it is not that we don't have money, just that we cannot stand in line for so long".  The topic of conversation always came back to "when do you get your (FEMA) trailer?"  We felt a little less productive the second day (not going into the field) but were reminded of the beginning of our trip when we prayed and John said "let us remember there is no job too small or too big".  By helping out around St. Ann's we were helping to support the DC and also to help support the volunteers that worked from there. 

 That night we were treated to a catfish dinner by Glen (Karen's husband).  Like all the other food it was simply amazing.  As always when dinner was finished we helped clean.  We watched a couple of DVD's of the devastation and of St. Thomas Church and School.  Seeing the faces of the little kids in the video made us choke up.  Then Victor came around with popcorn (for movie watching) and made everyone grin. 

 The last day, Saturday, we went back into the field.  John and Chris stayed back to finish things around St. Ann's and the other 8 of us went back to the neighborhood.  This time we helped a woman named "Nancy".  Her back yard needed clearing.  The front yard had a water main break and was too flooded to do anything.  She also needed help getting her cupboards and appliances out.  Kyle (with some help) was able to do all the inside work.  We moved all the debris from her yard into a neighbor's yard.  I was amazed by the spirit and the song of the Teeple's girls here on our third day of work.  The neighbor was a gun collector and did not want anything removed from his yard because he had hopes of finding part of his collection.  His house was one big pile of rubble.  There was nothing that distinguished it.  As I was removing debris from Nancy's yard, I found a 5 inch ammunition shell and two machine gun clips.  I presumed they were from the neighbor's collection.  I also came across 3 carcasses from dead animals.  We were only able to work 3 hours that day but were able to accomplish a lot.  We got her whole backyard cleared as well as the inside of her house.  Before we left Lindsay did a quick interview of her and she asked if she could pray for us.  Her prayer was one of gratitude. 

 We left Nancy and drove around a bit to look at the devastation.  We went back to St. Ann's and just as we got there, it started pouring.  By now 7 of us were itching badly from what we guessed was poison ivy.  We took showers and ate our last amazing meal prepared for us by Karen and Victor.  Karen packed us a lunch for the road.  We cleaned the place from top to bottom including the outbuildings and we were off.  Before we left we took group pictures with Karen, Victor, Sam and Fr. Pete.  Sue made a presentation of $700 in change and small bills collected in a jar that had been collected at Bauerwood. 

 On the way home, the clouds were very ominous looking.  I was in the passenger seat and noticed that there was what looked to be a funnel cloud coming out of the clouds.  I radio'ed John and asked him if he saw it and he said yes.  We learned later that tornados ripped a path through the middle of the country.  I am not sure if what we saw was the beginning of one or not.  The destruction continued for about 50 miles inland.  Even further you could see small areas of wind damage.  It struck me how trees were snapped halfway down and billboards folded over like playing cards.  Sam called and said they were sent into a house that day and the house was full of standing water and water moccasins. They were told to stay away from it and Sam went home and got his gun and shot one of them.  We got off the highway because the sign said there was gas, but when we got off, the gas station was gone.  This was not surprising.  For the ones afflicted by poison ivy, we had jock itch cream and Cruex fungal spray.  21 hours later we returned home tired but pleased by what we had accomplished.

 I will never forget the people's eyes down there or the friendships forged.  You cannot do something like this and not be forever changed.  None of us will ever look at things quite the same way again.  Our trip was one of perspective.  What sticks in my mind most though is the indomidable faith of the people down there.  They all had faith that everything would be okay.  And that....is the message of the cross.