Directions to Camp
St. Paul,
click here.
Camp St. Paul
Camp St. Paul Coordinators
Jack and Dee Boreing
Jack and Dee Boreing of Georgia are working
under the auspices of United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM)
coordinating Hurricane Katrina Recovery efforts at St. Paul United Methodist
Church in Ocean Springs. They are among the thousands of volunteers from
faith-based groups who have come to Mississippi to help the Coast rebuild
post-Katrina. More than 14,000 volunteers have been housed at Camp St. Paul
since the August, 2005, hurricane, and are helping rebuild damaged homes. The
Boreings began their volunteer work at First United Methodist Church in
Pascagoula in January, 2006, before moving to take up the reins at Camp St. Paul
in August, 2006.
The following story about Jack
and Dee Boreing appeared in Jackson County's daily newspaper, "The Mississippi
Press," in late 2005, prior to their relocation to Camp St. Paul.
Faith-based volunteers
are ‘saving Pascagoula’
By JOANNE ANDERSON
The Mississippi Press
PASCAGOULA ─ “Faith-based volunteers are saving Pascagoula,” said
Pascagoula Councilman Keith Belcher, citing as an example the work of Jack and
Dee Boreing of Douglasville, Ga., and Todd Reinert of Dansville, Mich., who have
been here since January at First United Methodist Church (FUMC) coordinating
work teams who have come to help rebuild post-Katrina.
Belcher’s wife Anita agrees. “Jack, Dee and Todd are angels sent from God,” she
said. “They have given and given and given.”
Jack, a
retired Delta Airlines mechanic, and Dee, a small business entrepreneur, had
prayed for two years for a mission assignment to Mexico through UMVIM (United
Methodist Volunteers in Mission), a national church organization that provides
short-term mission opportunities for everyday Christians. Finally, they changed
their prayer asking God to just “send us where we are needed.”
The
very next day UMVIM called and asked them to take an assignment in Pascagoula.
“The only thing we knew about Pascagoula was that it was in Katrina’s path and I
remembered Ray Steven’s song about the squirrel in the Pascagoula church,” Jack
said.
The
couple put their house and embroidery business on the market and both were sold
within two weeks by word-of-mouth. “We did not even have to advertise,” Dee
said.
“What we didn’t
sell, we gave away.” Then they bought an RV, a camper, a jeep and headed south.
They were not prepared for the devastation they met upon arrival, finding
conditions much more serious than they had seen on television and in newspaper
reports.
“When
you drive through some of the neighborhoods, at first glance they look normal,”
Jack said, “but when you look inside you see the damage not only in the houses
but inside the people.”
The
Boreings have already extended their original three-month assignment to August.
Their work day starts at 4:30 a.m. as they visit damaged homes, assess needs,
direct and assign volunteer work teams who continue to come from all over the
U.S. as far away as New York and California, arrange for meals, deliver building
materials and serve in any way they can. Dee and Reinert even sing in the church
choir on Sunday mornings.
They eat most of their meals in the church gym with the work teams and try to
make it to bed by 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. each night. They only have about four
hours off each Sunday afternoon, the time period between departing and arriving
work teams. How do they handle the pace? “We have a slogan in UMVIM, ‘Blessed
are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape,’” Dee said.
At FUMC,
the site averages about five teams and 70 workers per week. In March alone,
volunteers contributed 8,000 work hours (or about $144,000 in labor), repairing
and cleaning storm-damaged houses and yards. Some are skilled laborers; some
help with yard and house cleaning. Some come and leave, only to return for
another stint. All work without pay and eat and sleep in the church complex.
Reinert
is a carpenter and he has also volunteered since January. “I plan to stay here
after the mission work is finished and start my own business,” Reinert said.
Like the Boreings, he finds the people of Pascagoula “gracious, loving, and
hardworking.” Jack added: “The people of Pascagoula are full of grit and that is
the highest compliment I can pay.”
FUMC Senior Pastor Bruce Taylor put the trio’s work in another context. “They’ve
brought something to our recovery that has to come out of their faith and
commitment to Christ and love for people,” he said. “They’ve been a gift to come
and do what they do for us and the community. They have equipped us to be in
ministry we couldn’t have done otherwise.”
Add UMVIM’s contributions to those from other denominations throughout the
Mississippi Coast and Councilman Belcher’s assessment of their effectiveness
becomes very clear.
“Church groups put my house entirely back together in eight weeks, inside and
out, from the roof to the floors,” said Debbie Anglin of Ocean Springs.
Ellen Cole, president of The First Bank of Pascagoula, can’t say enough about
the positive impact of the faith-based groups. “We are much farther along in our
recovery thanks to the faith-based groups,” she said. “I have been amazed at the
number of teenagers and older people who have come to help. They not only work
but they bring supplies and building materials. Countless customers of our bank
have received help from all denominations.”
Jack shared his insight. “We see people who are very depressed and close to
giving up,” he said. “Their knowing there is someone out there willing to help
puts light in their hearts and eyes. We have seen healing but we are also seeing
apprehension as the new hurricane season approaches. There is still so much work
to be done and my greatest fear is that Pascagoula will be forgotten when a new
disaster hits somewhere else calling attention away from here. I’m going to do
my best to see that does not happen.”
