Disciples Churches Partner to Rebuild Destroyed Homes

Carmel Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Speedway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), both located in suburban Indianapolis, have forged a partnership to rebuild hurricane-ravaged homes in the Gulf South region.

Several members of the two churches are spending their volunteer time and resources to rebuild a home in Chalmette, La., belonging to Ronnie and Janet Keller. The home, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, must be rebuilt from the ground up. Volunteers from Speedway Christian and Carmel Christian like the idea of working on one home at a time until it is completely reconstructed, said Jean Brandenburg, a member of Speedway Christian. The two churches have formed the project "One Home at a Time." Their first goal is to restore the Kellers' house.

"We are just one of many" working on reconstruction projects in the Gulf region," said George Smith, who with his wife Dixie were working on rebuilding the Kellers' home alongside a group of six volunteers from 15th Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Rock Island, Ill., the first week January 2007.

"Dixie and I started this disaster relief work in September of 2005," explained Smith. "We were in Louisiana from the last week of September to Nov. 19, 2005." They returned there in January 2006 and stayed April, when they labored as volunteer coordinators at the Covington mission station. During their work trips, the Smiths were often joined by members of their congregation and Speedway Christian for a week at a time.

Many of the Disciples volunteers learned to do construction work on the job. "I just learned how to put on roofs by doing it," George Smith said. When they went down there again this past September, they decided to adopt the Keller home as their sole project. "The September and the October period, that's when we put on their roof and then we went through the process of putting together this partnership between Carmel Christian, Speedway Christian Church and the Kellers," said Smith, who was tracked down at a building supply store in St. Bernard Parish, where he was rounding up construction materials for the home.

Smith and his wife had planned a cozy retirement when they wed in November 2004. But on Aug. 29, 2005, their lives were changed forever. That was the day Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane, slammed into Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. It was one of the most devastating storms on record, pounding the coastal region cities of New Orleans, La., Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss., and Mobile, Ala., along with other towns in their states. The storm surge breeched levees that separated Lake Pontchartrain and several canals from New Orleans leaving 80 percent of New Orleans and parts of local parishes flooded for weeks. There was severe wind damage well inland. At least 1,836 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Katrina caused $81.2 billion in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

"When my wife and I first started seeing the disaster unfold on television, like most other people, we just realized that something was wrong," said Smith. "And at the time, I had just retired and Dixie and I were just learning each other, and we just thought that something happened to us and told us we needed go do something besides just be retired."

A few days after the hurricane struck, the Smiths traveled to Jackson, Miss., with a group from Carmel Christian to deliver a load of goods to the Salvation Army for storm victims. "That was our first trip that we ever made," recalled George Smith, "and it just developed into getting together with the Division of Homeland Ministries and the Office of Volunteering," a general ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Since then, the Smiths have gone back several times.

Beginning in November, members of the Carmel and Speedway churches have been trying to raise $25,000, the approximate cost of rebuilding the Kellers' home, a three-bedroom ranch in St. Bernard Parish. So far $11,000 has been raised. Before the hurricane, the home was valued at about $150,000. Last month, the Smiths were joined by six volunteer workers from Speedway Christian and nine from their own congregation. The Disciples, who stayed a week, helped to rewire the house.

"We've got six people here this week, and next week we've got six or eight more coming from Little Eagle Creek Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)" in Westfield, Ind., Smith said. Workers have rewired the home, installed heating and air-conditioning, boards and overhang, and insulation. Windows were put in the week of Jan. 29, and the volunteers are hopeful they can begin hanging drywall soon.

Although the Kellers have very minimal resources, they have agreed to give part of whatever money they receive in government disaster relief assistance back to the Disciples ministry that is rebuilding their home. Those funds will be used by the Carmel and Speedway churches to help pay for restoring another house, said Smith.

The Smiths say they are motivated by Micah 6:8: "He had shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

By James Patterson
Freelance writer