Wednesday Night Fundraiser!

Wow! On Wednesday night, the team going to New Orleans hosted a fundraising dinner at St Paul's UMC in Helena. Because it was Spring Break for local schools, the dinner crowd wasn't nearly as big as it usually is. But the food was awesome! Red beans & rice, with sausage slices, garlic bread, praline desserts, and bread pudding with lemon sauce, too. The aroma floating through the church was marvelous!
On display were the items donated from the Ronan United Methodist Church, in Ronan, MT. That church merged with two others a short time back, and the church donated their beautiful alter candlesticks, splendid Bible, shiny brass cross, and other items for our mission team to take to New Orleans and donate to a church there, a church that may have lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. It's a gift straight from the Christian heart, and we're sure the items will find a worthy new home in New Orleans.
Just 29 people signed in. A head-count during dinner yielded about 42 heads in the room, eating the fine fare, smiling, and talking (when they weren't spooning in the delicious food). Now that sounds like few people, far less than for a typical Wednesday Night dinner at St Paul's. But once again, God works in wonderful ways. The dinner yielded $430, the second highest from any Wednesday night dinner ever!!!
These funds will be taken to New Orleans by the travelers, and will be donated to a worthy cause when we get there and identify one. The generous Christian spirit of Montana's people will once again extend far beyond our borders. Thank you so much!!!

Here's a view of Helena, from the hiking trail to the top of Mount Helena. I'll post this picture here in case we forget what mountains look like when we're in New Orleans.

Maybe a picture of the churches attended by our team members can be added to the site.

One more member of the team!

Dave Brown of Covenant UMC in Helena has joined the team! He has construction/remodeling experience and will be riding to New Orleans with Morie Adams-Griffin and Chad Davis of Living Waters UMC in Belgrade.

The Plan: Where and When and Why?

This is a United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) trip to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. We've been organized by our Team Leader, Elinor Edmunds, as a group of United Methodist volunteers from the Yellowstone Conference. (Elinor is the Missions Coordinator for the conference).

The dates for the trip are April 6 through April 13, 2008. Some of us will arrive a day or two earlier.

Our precise destination is Metairie, Louisiana. We’ll be staying it the Metairie United Methodist Church (3741 Pontiac, Metairie, LA 70002).
Once we arrive, we’ll attend an orientation meeting and find out exactly what we’re going to do and exactly where we’ll be doing it. Most of the work is expected to be involved with home repair and light construction.

Team Members for the Yellowstone Conference UMVIM Hurricane Katrina Recovery trip

Elinor Edmunds, Team Leader
Anna and John Jones
Harry and Mary Gottwals
Jan and Frank Grant
Carol Martin
Marcia Eidel
Bonnie and Art Howell
Debbie Irby
Sue McNichol
Morie Adams-Griffin
Chad Davis
JoAnn Schaufelberger
Don Skillman

General Blog Information

I decided to only permit participants on the UMVIM mission trip post things to this Blog.

Anybody can view it, and apparently anybody can leave a comment for viewers to see.

I hope we use it to post daily reports during the trip, and this posting was a trial at putting a photo in the Blog. If internet connections in Metaire are sketchy, then maybe we'll have to post our info and photos after we return. Eventually, the blog might contain a nice report of our UMVIM trip. Cheers!