Western
Jurisdiction
United Methodist Volunteers
In Mission
Sugar Cane, Hurricanes, Nail Clippers, and Shrimp Creole
RMC Mission Trip to UMCOR Sager-Brown
October 5-12, 2002
by Betsy Keyack
UMCOR provides assistance to victims of natural and human-caused disasters, helps refugees, and sponsors projects to address root causes of hunger. The UMCOR Depot is a huge warehouse that accepts, stores and ships relief supplies to people in the U.S. and all over the world. We arrived in Baldwin just three days after Hurricane Lili had swept through the area. Many people were still without electricity and clean water. At the Depot, we helped distribute ice, food, and 3000 cases of bottled water provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross to local people. The Sager-Brown campus also provided shelter to people whose homes were damaged in the storm.
Besides helping the hurricane victims, we participated in the work of processing relief supplies at the Depot. We inspected and packed donated health kits, sewing kits, school kits and layettes, to be sent to people all over the world. We found that some of the health kits were missing the correct nail clippers/files, so one of our accomplishments was to find 400 nail files and 100 clippers at Wal-Mart and the Dollar Store!
From January to early October, 2002, UMCOR had shipped 70,704 health kits, 7,244 flood buckets, 5,319 sewing kits, 10,767 school kits and many other items. Recipients included people in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Brazil, Armenia, Georgia (Eastern Europe) and Azerbaijan. Last year, shipments were also sent to countries such as Serbia, Angola and El Salvador. The Depot currently had orders for 35,000 health kits with more pending. So we felt we were really helping people by checking and packaging the kits! In addition to packing kits, our mission team helped clean up the Sager-Brown grounds and repair roofs, which had been affected by hurricane Lili. We cleaned the interiors of some of the buildings, in preparation for the arrival of FEMA and the Red Cross, who were scheduled to come to Sager-Brown to help hurricane victims. On our team, we also had some very talented seamstresses, who made baby clothing to be included in the UMCOR layette kits.
Like many mission trips, this one was filled with fun, humor and fellowship. Together we experienced Cajun music, dancing and history. The food was a real treat - jambalaya, shrimp creole, red beans, rice and sausage and for dessert - cane syrup cake, bread pudding and French beignets with powdered sugar. At Sager-Brown, we often rested in the gazebo overlooking the bayou, chatting, watching egrets and searching for alligators. This was a life-enriching mission trip. It was tremendously rewarding to talk with (and hug) the people who live in and near Baldwin. We learned a tremendous amount about UMCOR and were gratified to participate in its mission!
If you'd like to learn more about UMCOR, visit the UMCOR web site at <http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/>. To receive weekly updates about natural and man-made disasters worldwide, visit <http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor-hotline/> or subscribe to the weekly UMCOR e-mail by sending a blank message to: join-umcor-hotline@list.gbgm-umc.org.