I just returned from a week spent doing my best to help a few people in rural Mississippi impacted by Hurricane Katrina. I saw a once middle class family whose house will soon be finished, if they can find the money to buy kitchen appliances, furniture, and carpeting. I saw an elderly man whose world is crumbling just like his house, on which he only let us put a band-aid. I saw a disabled couple with no resources, a condemned house, and a FEMA trailer.

I took no pictures of the people we met or their property. The internet is full of pictures of the devastation of Katrina. I just want you to know that it's been 11 months and people are still living in houses that ought to be torn down and little travel trailers and there is no end in sight. If you gave money before, give more. If you haven't yet, now is the time. The Red Cross is there. Habitat for Humanity is there. But volunteer labor is running thin because the weather is hot and funds are running short as the public has lost interest, or thinks things are better. They aren't. The Presbyterian Church USA is committed to the region through 2013, and I do not find it hard to believe that there will still be need then.


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