Columbus Mission to Mandeville, Katrina Relief

Before I came here, my entire idea of this place and all of its
destruction was limited to what I saw on tv and heard on the radio.
But after being here and experiencing the sights of destroyed house,
the families who have nothing to go home to and aal the chaos that has
been caused, it has really opened my eyes to the "bigger picture".
When i'm working in the warehouse or carrying boxes of the trucks, I
feel that i'm not doing anything to help those who really need it, but
when I deliver food and water to people who are homeless and have none
and they just break down in your arms and say "God bless you" and
can't thats when I know I am helping make a difference in someone's
life and to me, that makes being down here helping worth it.

Morgan Yates



Being down in Louisiana has helped me change my perspective. Yesterday
the group went Gulf Port. As we were walking through the street in the
surrounding neighborhood, I kept on thinking how we in America take
everything for granted. Here in Ohio we have homes to live in, food to
eat, our houses have not been flooded to where we have to take our
furniture out to our curbs for trash. But the people in Louisiana have
nothing now in their home, no jobs most likely now, in fact they have
to start a whole new life.

So I tell you, don't worry about everyday life- whether you have
enough food, drink, and clothes. Doesn't life consist of more than
food and clothing? Look at the birds. They don't need to plant of
harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly Father feeds them.
And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Can all your
worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not.

Matthew 5:25-27

-In Christian Love,
Nater J. Barnhardt



I am a senior at Westerville North Highschool this year. The
pressures of applying to colleges and wondering whether you will be
accepted or not. The reoccuring question of what do I want to be?and
what do I want to major in continue to be asked and my constant answer
is dissappointingly "I don't know."There are so many things that I
have the opportunity to be and to do with my life. I am horrible with
decisions.The kind of person who needs help deciding what they want to
eat when they go out to dinner-the more options i am given-the harder
it becomes for me to decide. So as i wonder what it is I want to do
with my life,and how it is I want to spend it,I seem to be getting
more and more confused. I love helping people, working with my own two
hands,music,art,science,understanding how things work,and am
interested in cosmatalogy.So in my head none of those things seem to
fit together to fit into one solid occupation for me.So making up my
mind about what to do with my life is a constant question hanging in
my mind and a steady question that I have been sending up to God
patiently awaiting an answer.

The past five days of my life have been spent living and doing the
ways of Jesus. I am down in Mandeville,Louisianna volunteering with
the disaster relief from hurricane Katrina. Nothing in my life has
ever felt so sure and right. Nothing. While down here we have been
given the chance to organize and pack up supplies for hurricane
victims. We have gone out into the neighborhoods and hand delivered
food boxes,bottled water and juices to people out in their houses
trying to salvage their belongings and save what they have left. It
has been amazing to hear survivors' stories and just to be there for
them and to listen to them talk. I love knowing that every single day
I have been here I have had the chance to make a difference, to help
make a change, and to make a person's day. Seeing a child's face light
up as you hand them a coloring book and a box of crayons is worth
our "14 hour" car ride down here!Just the knowledge of knowing that
you helped someone lets you rest peacefully at night,and gives you
just as much strength and more to rise up the next morning to have the
chance to do it all over again. I have never known what i want to be
when i grow up, but at least now i know what I want to DO. I want to
help people,and by doing so help to spread the love of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. He has never failed me and He never will....for if He leads
you to it, He WILL lead you through it.

Thankyou for this opportunity and God bless!

-Katie Cogswell-