From rubble come faith
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
MARIETTA DAILY JOURNAL
By Amanda Casciaro
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - When Hurricane Katrina began its tear through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, people were glued to images of despair in newscasts and on the front pages of papers across the country. Today - one year after the storm made landfall on the Big Easy - the interest in rebuilding Louisiana's historic city has all but faded.
Cities in Georgia and beyond have integrated hundreds of thousands of evacuees who chose to settle into a new life in new places, and many of those people who used to call New Orleans home have decided not to look back.
First Presbyterian Church of Marietta hasn't forgotten.
The congregation here has committed the next two years, several thousand dollars and many days of hard work to help the city and its partner church, First Presbyterian of New Orleans, rebuild.
Since September 2005, the Marietta congregation has sent about 140 teens, adults and retirees to New Orleans to tear down drywall and uproot flooring that has collected mold from months of standing water.
They have sweat, shared stories and bonded with each other and with residents of New Orleans in a way no one expected.
"I just felt it was something we needed to do," said Beth Bailey, a church member who took her son on the first mission trip to New Orleans last September. "We had to have typhoid shots before we went and we had to wear masks for breathing the whole time we were down there. I couldn't believe the devastation. It was worse than anything I'd seen on TV and in the papers."
At that time, 11 missionaries worked with Peace Presbyterian Church, which a Marietta pastor originally led.
The building suffered severe water damage, to the point where its 135-year-old organ was found in the church's balcony.
"The smell is something I'll never forget," Ms. Bailey said. "It was awful. The tiles on the floor came up when you kicked them just because they had been under 5 feet of water for four weeks."
When it became clear that most of Peace Presbyterian's congregation wasn't returning, the pastor decided to make his home elsewhere, but the missionaries from Marietta did not. At about that time, the Rev. Cliff Nunn of First Presbyterian in New Orleans issued a call for help.
A long-term restoration
For several months, the congregation had worked without electricity to gut the building and repair damage wrought by Katrina. The progress was slow.
"We went into the streets and found laborers, and paid them cash every day to carry out debris," Nunn said. "Another congregation had helped us pump the water out of our basement, and all this work was being done without electricity."
In early spring, the two churches - Marietta and New Orleans - partnered, and each month more and more missionaries made their way to the devastated city.
"We knew it would be a long-term restoration," said the Rev. John Wells of First Presbyterian in Marietta. "We had made a three-year commitment to be a part of the effort. They were looking for a partner, so we responded. First Presbyterian opened its doors and started housing missionaries, so they became the catalyst for other groups to come help."
In the first year of its partnership, the Marietta congregation raised about $25,000 to help the relief effort, and next year, "I'm sure we'll surpass our goal," Wells said.
The hefty response is due in part to the stories missionaries have brought back with them and just the general desire to help, said Dan Valentine, a deacon in Marietta who serves on the church's mission council.
"We're down there swinging hammers, picking up trash and doing all kinds of dirty jobs, but the reason we're doing it is because of people," Valentine said. "We've had several occasions where people's chins are dragging the ground; it's evident this disaster has just sucked the life out of them, and maybe more accurately, the hope and joy of living. We work with them, and they have a light in their eyes, they were more invigorated. We make a difference in these people's lives."
Community involvement
Apart from enlisting support of congregation members, First Presbyterian in Marietta has gotten the community involved.
Debbie Peterson, a church member who has participated in three mission trips, directed Shirley Fraser of Bravura dress shop on Roswell Road in Marietta to the relief effort when she was searching for somewhere to donate three wedding dresses.
 "It is the most unique donation we've ever gotten," said Nunn, who visited the store Monday with Wells to pick up the dresses. "The church was flooded so our pews are still away being restored, but we'll begin doing weddings again when they get back. We do a lot of weddings. New Orleans is a great place to get married."
And even the church's youth group, which forfeited its traditional year-end ski retreat last year to travel to New Orleans, has gotten into the act. It even returned for spring break, when many teens were making their way to the beach.
"In every situation where we have left, people have wanted to come back," Valentine said. "I think when you see what you do for people, you feel like it's one of the most important things you can do in your life. When you're down here doing it, it gives new importance to your relationships with people."
Ms. Bailey, who took her 15-year-old son, Alex Ball, spent the week of Thanksgiving last year gutting old homes and churches; she has returned two more times.
"Every time you leave you think, 'If I only had one more day,'" Ms. Bailey said. "There's just so much to do you just think, 'Oh, I need one more day.' It's just unbelievable."
Now that most of the clearing out and gutting is complete, Nunn said, the congregation in New Orleans is concentrating its efforts on rebuilding the neighborhood around its church.
"We could close this thing down and become a play church, a virtual church living in the middle of this devastation, but we can't do that," Nunn said. "We'd be ignoring the elephant."
In all the efforts, First Presbyterian of Marietta stands beside its sister congregation, in the mud and rotten drywall that still holds up houses, churches and businesses in New Orleans.
"We just feel a sense of obligation," said Marietta church member Debbie Peterson. "When Katrina happened, the session in our church voted to make this a long-term commitment. We knew it wouldn't have a short-term remedy, so that's why we just keep going.
"When we're down there, we feel like the Holy Spirit is with us, helping us accomplish more than we'd ever be able to accomplish. It's fulfilling, and we feel like we're making a difference."
As of Sunday, when the next trip to New Orleans was announced, 34 people have already committed to make the trek again.
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