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Revealing Hope
Anita Dinwiddie, Pastor
St. Mark’s UMC
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Our entire community has been blessed by the scores of volunteers who have traveled to this area at their own sacrifice of time, talent and expense. Though fortunate in the lack of damage sustained due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, St. Mark’s has had the opportunity to welcome in our worship services various volunteer teams from around the world, including South Africa, Sacramento, California, South Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, and on several occasions, teams from Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. Most recently, a team of volunteers from Centenary arrived in New Orleans in time to participate in the Mission Zone One joint Ash Wednesday service; and they concluded their trip by joining us for worship and our Fellowship Meal following worship at St. Mark’s on Sunday, February 25th. With their number and our regular worshiping congregation, St. Mark’s recorded its largest attendance in many years -78! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! |
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After the service, I was approached by one of the students, Jennifer Bouso, who had been involved with the other teams from Centenary that had previously worshiped at St. Mark’s. Jennifer asked me if I would be interested in receiving a painting that she had done with St. Mark’s as the subject. I replied that I was both touched and overjoyed by her offer of such a precious gift, and I received it the following week. I also invited her to share the story behind the painting. This is her response:
“I went down to New Orleans six weeks after the storm with Centenary College. I went because I loved mission work and because we were simply responding to a need. I never expected to be so touched as I was, and I certainly never expected to develop such a passion for the rebuilding effort as I have. I took several breaks from school to work in New Orleans and spent the summer of 2006 hosting volunteers in Slidell. I became a part of the work; it was no longer something I just did. As my heart grew closer and closer to the devastation, the harder it was for me to leave. I would return to Shreveport feeling broken and incomplete, as if part of me was missing. I found ways to deal with the frustration, ways to keep the hope alive in my daily life at school. One way was to express myself through my artwork. |
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This piece, Revealing Hope, was inspired by my visits to St. Mark's United Methodist Church of the French Quarter the fall of 2005 and the spring of 2006. Every time I visit St. Mark's, I am captivated by not only the diversity but the genuineness of community. All are welcomed with open arms. The congregation always looks like a collage of people. The painting itself is a collage of pictures taken inside and outside St. Mark's. The rose in the middle, from a picture taken outside the church, represents the hope of new birth amidst the ruin. The unique element of this piece is the streams of paint on the lower half. The painting appears to have gotten wet. I think it allows the painting to cry.
I finished this piece in November of 2006, but just titled it after my visit to St. Mark's last week. My friends and I found so much unexpected hope while working on the Community Center. We were so fortunate to be able to contribute to the revitalization of the facility and to the production of the play. The last day, as we scraped old paint off of one of the classroom walls, we began to reveal a beautifully colorful mural that someone painted over. The colors were so striking and I couldn't help but to compare the scraping away of this dingy paint to our recovery efforts in New Orleans . Both reveal something beautiful… hope.” |
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| The Louisiana Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church |
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| 527 North Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Ph: 225-346-1646 Toll-free: 888-239-5286 Fax: 225-383-2652 |
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Six National Guard chaplains have been operating out of the church, offering protestant worship services and a counseling center.
While in Baton Rouge , Barbara Duke found herself serving in the neo-natal department of Women's Hospital, working with the families of over 100 babies sent to the facility.
“I spent two days, doing ministry with the parents through the hospital's social service office. We offered counseling and spent a lot of time working with agency databases trying to reunite families. It was a joy to see loved ones brought back together,” said Duke.
One particularly touching story involved a woman and her pregnant daughter who had been airlifted out of New Orleans . The daughter, who was actually in false labor, was forced to leave behind four children, ages 13-17 with loved ones. “One of the children was a diabetic, another suffered from seizures,” said Duke.
Social workers at Woman's Hospital made several contacts with authorities and were able to reunite the children with their mother and grandmother.
The Dukes are returning to perform their ministries in a very different town. “Before Hurricane Katrina, we would drive 45 minutes south before we hit the Gulf of Mexico . Now, the ride to the gulf is only 20 minutes.
As it stands now, the towns of Buras and Venice are covered by water. We don't know what the fate of those churches are,” said Jeff Duke.
