Storm Recovery In Depth
How Monumental Is The Challenge
Someone once said, “There are three stages in doing God’s work: 1. Impossible 2. Difficult 3. Done” As someone who has found herself at stage one more than once in her life, let me say a word of encouragement to those of you who now quake at the immense task that lies before our church and our city: fear not!
There will come a day when we will look back on this most challenging chapter in our lives from the vantage point of victory, our mission accomplished. Let us join the ranks of all those “overcomers” who have persevered in faith, trusting that ours is the God of the Impossible:
“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; then suddenly you will be doing what is impossible.”
St. Francis
Plan B, Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott
“We are all faced with magnificent opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”
Unknown
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Genesis 18:14
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Luke 1:37
Mark 10:27
“For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed...nothing will be impossible to you!”
Matthew 17:21
Reaching Out Beyond Rayne
Since our return from the storm, we have been working closely with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to serve the immense needs of our devastated community. Rayne is among many area churches who host volunteers from United Methodist Churches as well as churches of other denominations from across the country. Volunteers are assigned work sites in the city where families are given the critical assistance they need to clean and gut their homes and begin the work of rebuilding. Those who wish to volunteer in New Orleans are encouraged to explore our website for more information, to visit the Louisiana United Methodist Church’s Storm Center website: laumcstormrelief.com or to call Rayne at 504-899-3431 for more information.
UMCOR is the humanitarian relief and development arm of the United Methodist Church and a unit of the church’s global mission organization. UMCOR’s specialty in long-term disaster response is case management—the whole spectrum of listening, documenting, connecting survivors with services, assisting them to make individual action plans, and leading all toward self-sufficiency and recovery. At several UMCOR Storm Stations in the New Orleans area, volunteers from across the country are deployed into the neighborhoods to help with recovery and rebuilding. Storm victims are able to apply for help with an array of “unmet needs.” Rayne will work most closely with our neighboring Uptown Storm Station. For more about this important work, visit the UMCOR website: gbgm-umc.org/umcor . Gifts to support UMCOR may be made through Rayne or online at their web-site.
Rayne Memorial United Methodist Church
