My third mission trip to south Louisiana -- to the UMCOR depot

Bayou Teche - Google images.

This is one boundary of the UMCOR Sager-Brown campus

 

                Once again, the missioners from Jacksonville United Methodist Church asked me to be one of their 12 to travel to Baldwin, Louisiana, the home of the Sager-Brown UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) Depot. It is one of two such depots; the other is located in Salt Lake City. Imagine the largest metal warehouse you can, and add more space to it.

                After an 8-hour drive from Jacksonville (AR) UMC on a Sunday, we arrived safely, were assigned rooms, attended an orientation meeting, then enjoyed a team meal of Italian soup, French bread, salad, lemonade and cookies—all brought on the trip by our very industrious and well-organized team leader, Joyce White. (Each of the 12 had paid $300+ to “volunteer” and to pay for gas and food down there and back.)

 

                Monday morning after meeting the other teams and the staff and eating a sumptuous breakfast, we adjourned to Jubilee Hall for a Safe Sanctuary presentation. While we were there, the sky darkened to pitch black. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed and it rained. We weren’t in danger, no sirens were heard, but it was an eerie feeling to look through the blinds at 9 a.m. and see nothing.
 

                We stayed in that room until the storm had moved east toward New Orleans. Then we proceeded to our reasons for being there—our work stations.
 

              Our work schedule at the UMCOR depot was from 8:15 – 11:30, and from 1 – 3:30. The country of Jordan had asked for 7,000 health kits for refugees. That’s what five 6-person tables worked on all week in the large, large area of the depot.
 

            People in the sewing room were busy attaching handles to school bags and cutting/sewing baby gowns for layette kits.
 

          Another group was emptying moldy cleaning buckets (formerly “flood buckets”) where something had leaked while in storage. They were refilled with items having a more stable shelf life.

I worked on health kits that had been sent from local churches. Many of them, however, failed to follow the directions, OR the directions had been changed since they were packed.

          Our job was to open each kit, check on the correctness of the items, change them out where needed, then repack. The kits were to include a hand towel, washcloth, comb (with at least 6 inches of teeth), either nail file or clippers (no toenail clippers, no emery boards),a bar of soap (except for Ivory and Jergens, which had too much moisture and sometimes melted), a toothbrush, and six regular-sized band-aids. Wrapped tightly in the towel, these items were pushed into a gallon freezer bag, the air squeezed out to a near-vacuum, then sealed and placed in a laundry basket to be taken to the packers by runners.

      The week’s kits--repacked, boxed, taped, labeled and sealed into shrink-wrapped containers added up to 6500—not bad for 30 folks’ work in four days—an average of 216 kits per person. In addition, we became friends with other UMs from western Oklahoma, Plano and Wylie, Texas, and our own colleagues from El Dorado.

                This is my only volunteer activity. But I’ll go as often as I get the chance. I consider raising a grandson to age 25 my long-range and life-long volunteer work. 

 



Post-Louisiana UMCOR trip account

 Part of Jacksonville First UMC's team who served at UMCOR recently: left to right:Ursula, Colleen, Maryette (in absentia), Pat, Kathy and Mary. Photo by Joyce White, team leader

by Pat Laster

            On Friday morning, April 26, close to 60 UMC “missioners” finished a week’s work at Baldwin, Louisiana's Sager-Brown UMCOR's warehouse.

            The group from Jacksonville UMC (AR) let me be a member of their team and I enjoyed getting to know them, plus others from Hot Springs Village--31 came from there and called themselves the Village People-- and Portland (area), Oregon, eleven of whom flew down, rented two vans and were hanging around afterwards to see the sights nearby.

           I was one of 12 folks tumping out "verified" school bags--verified somewhere, but not at Sager-Brown--checking them for the appropriate items:  3 packs of paper, either legal pads, spiral notebooks or notebook paper, but only one pack of the latter in each bag; a pencil sharpener; a pair of child’s scissors, blunt or rounded tips; a 12-inch ruler with both inches and centimeter markings; six pencils, unsharpened and with erasers; a box of 24 crayons and a large eraser. The bags themselves had to be at least wide enough to hold that ruler sideways. The handles had to be long enough and sewed in two inches from the sides of the bags. The bags had to be sturdy, the handles double stitched and the seams preferably serged against raveling.

            We refilled and turned in around 4,000 re-verified bags during the week. Several of the Village men put them in boxes—12 to the box—taped and labeled, then dolly-ed them down to the end of the (huge) warehouse to be shelved until needed.

           At other tables, volunteers worked checking “verified” health kits and layette kits. Most all the health kits included items that had to be discarded, especially unwrapped bars of soap. 

          The layette-kit folks could be heard oohing and aahing when one of them opened a kit with a precious knitted or crocheted baby sweater.

           Meanwhile, down in the sewing room, women were busy re-doing the school bags that didn’t pass muster: too thin, straps too short, seams too narrow or already frayed, stitching that hadn’t been tied off (back stitched). Also, those with advertisements on them, plastic shopping bags, bags sold by stores to pack items (without using the ubiquitous plastic bags) had to be discarded.

          All discards were packaged up for use in the local community’s women and children’s shelter, Chez Hope, or in the schools and nursing homes.

          Midweek, folks volunteered to help load two container trucks with the three types of kits. After a circled group prayer and the singing of the Doxology, we watched as the containers left for Houston to be loaded on a sea-going vessel to Armenia. There, after authorities check and approve the shipment, the kits will be processed out into the remote areas where missionaries work.

          Wednesday afternoon was everyone’s day off. Part of our group stayed and worked in the warehouse; the others took the church bus and drove north (an hour away) to see the sights near Lafayette. At the appointed hour, the other half drove up to meet them at Pont Breaux where we all ate Cajun food. Zydeco music from the house band brought many diners to the dance floor--including us.school bags, checking them against "the rules" and restuffing them. As of this afternoon, this week's crew has prepared 3,336 bags that have been boxed, taped and moved close to the doors leading to the loading dock. Earlier this week, two container trucks were loaded and will ultimately end up in Armenia. There they will be dispensed by missionaries around the area.
           On Thursday night during Vespers, I accompanied the flutist and announced the hymns.   If all this sounds interesting to you, either contact me or visit the UMCOR website. It's a great experience.