Gulf Coast Mission Trip 2009

The Church of the Redeemer is going to return to

Resurrection House this coming summer from June 24^th-July 2^nd. 

We will be taking a group of no larger than 20 people.  All are welcome: including ages ranging from the upper elementary grades to “impolite to ask.”  While we are down on the Gulf Coast, we will be helping rebuild some of the houses that were seriously damaged during Hurricane Katrina.  Though Katrina was three and half years ago, the storm was so destructive that a great amount of work remains to be done.  Last year’s mission trip was very successful, and we look to continue the good work that the Redeemer started. 

We will be staying in the “new” Resurrection House in Slidell, LA. The facility is a home that has been converted to a dorm.  We will make our own food (in the New Orleans style) in a kitchen to which we have full access.  While we will be doing hard work in the heat of the summer, we will have time to play as well.  We will be visiting the “Rock and Bowl” to hear some classic Cajun music and will also go on a swamp tour.  Our partner church, St. Stephen’s, will be volunteering as well, so we will have new people to meet from the Gulf as well as from Boston.  We will work together, pray together, and have fun together.

            The cost of the mission trip is about $850 per missioner.  This includes meals, transportation, housing, and a direct flight.  Please see the clergy if the cost of the trip is prohibitive.  A $100 deposit is due on March 15^th.  

I have one testimony that I would like to share with you as you decide if a mission trip is for you.  I received an update on a man we helped last summer.  Our original plan was to go to this man’s house in East New Orleans and clean up the outside, so the house would not be condemned and destroyed by the city.  We also cleaned up the inside, removing debris that had been there since the storm.  It was very sad to throw away his wife’s damaged wedding dress as well as ruined theology text books and rosary beads.  Eventually, we scrubbed the whole house and power washed the mold away.  The gentleman came back to watch the work and even started to pitch in.  You could see the transformation from despair for what happened in the past to hope for the future.  Milton Gibson, the director of Resurrection House, visited him later in the summer at the man’s shop.  He shouted to Milton that he had given his life over to Jesus; he had stopped drinking, and was so thankful for everything that Resurrection House had done for him.  This man’s life was saved by the unrelenting grace of God whose ministers, in this case, happened to be “some church in Boston” as he told the news.

Each year the Church of the Redeemer as a whole raises money for Mission Scholarships and other mission partnership work.  The Spring Market is scheduled for March 1^st and will be held in the Undercroft.  A portion of the proceeds of the Market will go to supporting our mission work in New Orleans.  The Gulf Coast Bash is scheduled for May 1^st.  Tickets and auction items will also support mission scholarships.  If you would like to donate an auction item or support the party in any way, please contact the Curate.  Youth ministries will also be supporting the mission trip this year with a special “Sundae School Movie Night” which is yet to be scheduled.   

If you are interested in learning more about the Family Mission Trip, ministry opportunities around the Spring Market, Gulf Coast Bash, or any other fundraising opportunity, please contact Curate Marc Eames at meames@redeemerchestnuthill.org or call the church at 617-566-7679 x 13.