New Orleans-The French Quarter

One of the benefits of a mission trip is to see places you might not otherwise visit. Because airfares tend to be less expensive through New Orleans we have tried to provide every one with the opportunity to spend some time in the city. Here are pictures taken on previous trips:

Travel

Normally we have each individual make their own travel arrangements. Prices for even the same flights can vary wildly, even day by day. Group fares have the advantage of being able to substitute volunteers up to the last few days although they can cost a little more. Volunteers have taken advantage of booking their own flights to add an extra night or two or even a week to expand their trip. An extra 24 hours in New Orleans gives a volunteer a good chance to see New Orleans. This trip we have two volunteers who are returning to New Orleans for a week to work on a project there.


For those not staying extra time, we recommend that they arrive as early on Sunday as possible. We then group them and send them down to Jackson Square in the French Quarter. They then have three to five hours to eat lunch and visit the most famous part of the city. At four p.m. we meet at a river boat landing behind Jackson Square on the Mississippi, fill the vehicles and head to Vancleave-140 miles to the east.

What We Do

In addition to building a house we will do rehabilitation work on other houses. In the past we have

Where We Stay

We stay in the United Methodist Church in Vancleave, MS. They have been housing up to sixty volunteers a week since the hurricane. This includes two hot meals, fixings for lunch, and a dorm for sleeping. These are pictures of the church:

Where is Three Rivers, MS?

Three Rivers, where the home we will build will be located, is near the Mississippi-Alabama border, north of Moss Point. It is 10 miles east of Vancleave which is where we stay. By road it is 20 miles.

It is about 110 miles east of New Orleans.

The Churches

The following are the home churches of the volunteers:

1st United Methodist Church, Burlington
Church of the Apostles, Marietta. GA
Elmore United Methodist Church
Enosburg United Methodist Church
Federated Church of East Arlington
First Congregational Church, Burlington
Mt. Mansfield U.U. Fellowship
New Hope United Methodist Church, Waitsfield River
North Ferrisburg United Methodist Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, West Des Moines, IA
Shelburne United Methodist
Sheldon Methodist Church
South Hero Congregational
Williston Federated Church
Worcester United Methodist

The Old House

We have been given the name of the family whose house we will be building. It is a grandmother and two high school age youth. They are located in Three Rivers, Mississippi which is just north of Moss Point, sister city to Burlington, Vermont. The old house was damaged by a falling tree during Katrina and has fallen into such disrepair as to be uninhabitable.

These are pictures of the exterior:

The Beginning

In December of 2007, while clearing a job site in Moss Point, Mississippi, Tony, Ken and Sharon met the woman who owned the house. She was living in a trailer at the time. Needing a saw to cut some of the debris they asked if she had one. She rummaged through an abandoned car and came up with a skill saw. They asked if she had an extension cord. She looked through another car and her trailer, but could not find one.

They asked how long she had been living in the trailer, "two months" she replied."Where did you live before that?" they asked. She just gazed into the backyard at a four person tent. She had in fact been living in that tent for the two years since hurricane Katrina. Her house was later finished in the spring of 2008.

It is difficult to know how to respond to that kind of suffering. Tony, Ken and Sharon decided they neeed to build a house.


They contacted Charlie, who was experienced in building Habitat Houses and he agreed to lead the construction. He suggest 20 workers for two weeks. Larry suggested we call it the Vermont House.

The response has been overwhelming. We now have 75 volunteer and have raised almost $45,000. We plan to arrive in Vancleave Mississippi the week of October 19, 2008 to begin construction.

We will be working with the United Methodist Disaster Response team of Mississippi to find a family to build for.