USNA Katrina

USNA and Valor Spring Break Trip March 10-17

By Lara Hannum, Military Ministry Associate Staff

Pass Christian, Miss — Ninety-eight percent DEET bug repellent, sleeping bag, steel-toe boots, work gloves, mask, and protective eye wear. Are these items you’d pack for your college spring break trip?

On March 10, 2007 thirty-nine Naval Academy midshipmen were joined by ten students from Marian College of Wisconsin to serve a community they had never met before. Like hundreds of other college students, they came to help rebuild and restore the south. Unlike many other students, this group came to serve in Christ’s name and to share the gospel.

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

For many of the locals we encountered - those who had lost everything - they spoke of Katrina as being a blessing. If those who experienced Katrina can turn to God and give thanks, those of us that have everything should look on with cheerful hearts. For these Pass Christian locals, Katrina was an awakening to what God wants from us all – to love one another.

From two days after the hurricane, to present day, “faith groups” like Campus Crusade for Christ, continue to come, bless, and ultimately be blessed in return. As these churches of all denominations, communities, and races come together, we become one body, Christ’s body.

Camp Gospel (formerly the Gospel Singers of America) provided us with bunks, showers, and three meals a day. The camp is run by Mennonites, which offered us the opportunity to learn more about their faith and traditions. It was a privilege to have these brothers and sisters welcome and serve us.

Throughout the week we worked at three job sites. First, we gutted and re-landscape a farmhouse on the bayou owned by an elderly couple. Second, alongside 200 other volunteers we built a playground/park coordinated by the KaBOOM organization. Third, we cleared a yard of debris, formerly a beachfront home, so a new house could be built in its stead.

God utilized our group to move mountains during our single week in southern Mississippi. It may not always take great national disasters for us to see our need for Him, but sometimes, in His time, He finds it necessary. In Exodus, God said, “You will know that I am the Lord Your God.” This truth rang clearly in the hearts of those in Pass Christian, MS.