Story by Rusty Dennen
Photographs by Rebecca Sell

SLIDELL, La.--Across the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, the faithful gather from every corner of the country to help strangers in Louisiana and Mississippi in their time of need.

Among those answering God's call are dozens of volunteers from the Fredericksburg area. They've loaded up church buses and vans, personal cars, business vehicles--even tractor-trailers--to do their part in the biggest disaster-relief effort in American history.

Rebuilding efforts often begin when someone in a congregation has a relative or friend in the stricken areas. Calls are made, supplies purchased, tools gathered, trucks loaded and off the workers go.

The floodwater is long gone and the tense helicopter rescues and body recoveries have been replaced by arguably the most difficult part of the job--cleanup, demolition and rebuilding.

Twelve members of Salem Fields Community Church in Spotsylvania County recently spent a week in this southern Louisiana community, working on several houses in a middle-class neighborhood. A suburb of New Orleans, it's one of the areas thrashed and flooded by the storm. The wind blew so hard that in some places, signs are bent at right angles.

One afternoon the church volunteers were finishing up work on Julie Hymel's two-story brick house, which had been flooded with 31/2 feet of water from the nearby Pearl River. Pointing to the rear of the home, she said, "There's a swamp back there" that flooded the neighborhood, "and we had a tornado in the back yard" spawned by the storm.

A single parent with two daughters, Hymel, 43, is now living with relatives in Kingwood, Texas. She comes back home when she can, and thanks to the generosity of strangers, hopes to be back in her house by Christmas.

Carl Pates, 39, a mechanical engineer from Spotsylvania, headed up the Salem Fields crew.

"We've been putting in insulation and by the end of the day, we'll be doing drywall mud and finishing," he said during a break.

The sound of hammers, saws and battery-operated tools echoed throughout the house. Chalky particles of drywall hung in the air as the workers went about their assigned tasks of measuring, cutting, taping and running into town for supplies. It's hard, tedious, dirty work.

Salem Fields' volunteers arrived on a Sunday earlier this month and left the following Friday.

Most, like Pates, took time off from jobs or used vacation time--all for a week away from family and friends in an area that resembles a war zone.

They slept and ate at nearby Aldersgate United Methodist Church.

"A lot of us, this is our first [mission] trip," said Pates, who came down with his wife, JoEll. She was cleaning up outside with Diana Thompson and Nancy Urbansky.

JR Berry, another Spotsylvania resident, was on his second relief trip to the Gulf. In mid-September, he and his wife, Deanna, spent two weeks as ambulance technicians with Stafford County-based LifeCare Medical Transports Inc.

Berry brought a special level of expertise to the latest effort. He is owner of Rock 'n' Roll Sheetrock & Painting--two things very much in demand. He donated his time, a company truck, and paid two employees, Bo Argenbright and Ray Brookshire, to accompany him. It probably cost him closed to $3,500

"I'm a painter, but I've been doing drywall, plumbing and pulling commodes," Argenbright said.

Everyone can help, no matter their background, he added. The volunteers included homemakers, professionals and tradespeople.

"It's great. Better than I ever expected," said JoEll Pates. "I've met some great people who will probably be lifelong friends. We're already talking about making another trip."

Faith, she says, sustains them all, especially after viewing the devastation and the human suffering first-hand.

"When we first pulled into town, I just couldn't believe what we saw," she said.

The tableau of destruction is everywhere--flooded homes, people's ruined belongings stacked in piles along the curb, stinking mud and mold saturating everything.

The Salem Fields "Dirty Dozen" rose around 5:30 a.m., ate breakfast, were on the job by 6:30, and worked until after dark each day. Some toiled until well after midnight.

Robin Andrews, who recently moved to Spotsylvania and attends Salem Fields, knows Hymel and a neighbor. Within a few weeks, help was on the way.

Churches make connections here in many ways. Even before Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29, large denominations were gearing up to help. The Virginia Baptist Convention and United Methodist Committee on Relief, for example, acted as liaisons between Virginia churches and those in the affected areas to coordinate relief work and have mustered hundreds of volunteers.

And there's plenty of donations supporting them. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy in Washington, charitable giving to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma has reached nearly $3 billion.

Rick White, 46, a member of North Stafford Church of Christ, recently spent two weeks in Slidell helping at Hilltop Rescue & Relief.

Since Hilltop Church of Christ in El Segundo, Calif., set up an operations center shortly after Katrina, more than 450 volunteers from across the country have since fanned out in this bayou country to help families in need.

White has worked mucking out houses--removing mud, sodden drywall and insulation, refrigerators and their putrid contents--and traveled debris-strewn back roads to assess jobs and line up crews to do them.

Over Thanksgiving, 19 people from White's church worked out of the Hilltop site.

"I was amazed. You have people giving up their holiday" and driving 20 hours to do hard labor, he said.

North Stafford Church of Christ has had two groups totaling about 30 people working in Louisiana. The church has only about 80 adult members.

In the four months since the storm, Hilltop has evolved into one of the largest church relief centers in the region. It's on 61/2 acres owned by Robert and Louise Machen, whose son, Robert, is with Hilltop in California and suggested the idea after having a dream about it.

"We've had people from just about everywhere. It's just absolutely amazing," Louise Machen said. Around their brick home and guest house, a tent and trailer complex has sprung up, with warehouses, dining hall, showers, computer center, laundry facility--all to facilitate relief efforts. The Spanish Trail Church of Christ in Slidell helped to place locals needing shelter in donated travel trailers along one side.

Mike Oberschmidt and Ferris Portner of King George County found their spot to help about 100 miles east of Slidell in Gulfport, Miss.

That area, with its moss-draped live oaks, old houses and Southern charm was one of the hardest hit. Along the beach, centuries-old houses are now piles of lumber and brick or foundations wiped clean. And inland, severe wind damage and flooding took their toll.

Oberschmidt and Portner went down to work on a house belonging to the Rev. Jerry Nance, pastor of Gause Memorial Baptist Church in Gulfport, to try to get it liveable again by Christmas. Nance's wife's sister lives in King George.

Oberschmidt attends Gateway Baptist Church in King George; Portner belongs to Oakland Baptist Church.

One afternoon, Oberschmidt was installing doors as Portner finished hanging glass in kitchen cabinets. Other crews had already mucked out the house and replaced insulation and drywall.

Oberschmidt, 69, first arrived shortly after Katrina, worked with the Baptist Mobile Kitchen in Picayune, Miss., and Slidell. He was back in Louisiana after Hurricane Rita.

He smiled, "I've spent more time here than the wife would like." He retired in 1991 from the Dahlgren Navy laboratory.

Oberschmidt, an experienced builder, was moved by the images of destruction.

"You see the pictures, the reports, and everyone's worldly possessions piled up in the street."

Added Portner, 76, "Here, there and yonder, when the call comes, we try to be there. I guess the main thing about this is it lets people know that people are interested in them."

Over the years, Oberschmidt and Portner have put roofs on houses in Africa and been on mission trips in Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

"I like to build stuff anyway," Portner said, "so it's a good outlet."

To reach RUSTY DENNEN:540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com