What did surprise Rojas and most of the other participants in the Latin America work and learn team was that in a country with so many resources, there was still so much work to do, not only in physical buildings, but also in the lives of people.

"We are all vulnerable," Jessica Deras López of Honduras said after seeing New Orleans . "It doesn't matter what we have."

Along with three other Hondurans and five Guatemalans who work with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partner agencies, Deras López worked for one week alongside volunteers from the United States and Canada in Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) housing projects in New Orleans .

In the second week, the group visited the devastated areas of Pass Christian, Mississippi, visited Anabaptist churches in the New Orleans area and met with MCC workers Tim Barr and Monica Barba to hear and share ideas about their work in Gulf Coast recovery.

They also met with Pam Nath, MCC listening and discernment worker in New Orleans , who shared about the efforts of local people to bring about a more full and just recovery. In addition, they visited the New Orleans Worker's Center for Racial Justice.

Although some members of this team had worked on hurricane, work projects in Honduras and Guatemala, this visit to a disaster area in the United States was a first time for them. They had seen images of New Orleans before they came, but their expectations of what they would encounter were varied.

Pedro Hernández Soto expected to see complete devastation with people living in temporary tent cities, but Rojas expected that everything would be pretty and finished with people back on their feet.

During the first week, the teams divided into four crews and went to different houses. They repaired siding, painted, sanded, and put up dry wall. They also installed a sprinkler system and did clean up work in some of the houses.

Noé Galván saw the value of teamwork in a new way in his work with MDS. The crew members worked well together even though they didn't know each other and had to use translators to communicate.

"Teamwork [is] a way to show the Holy Spirit at work," Galván said. "It will be visible in the community."

From their own experiences with hurricane damage, members of the Latin American team were able to pass on messages of hope to the people they visited and assure people that they were not alone in their struggle.

Hernández Soto, a Honduran Mennonite pastor, was especially concerned for the children and youth in the churches. From his experiences, he had seen how hurricane trauma affects children by causing them to associate all events with the crisis. Hernández Soto shared with the pastors how his church had been able to help children return to daily events and normal routines.

In a meeting with MCC and MDS representatives, group members shared their impressions of disaster response in New Orleans and their countries.

In both the U.S. and Honduras , Deras López noted, "the people who suffer the most are the poor and also people from different racial and ethnic groups."

Deras López, a representative from Mennonite Social Action Commission in Honduras , said after a disaster the Honduran government often promises incentives for people to resettle somewhere else. People in need may follow the government's urging so they will have something rather than nothing, but often they have a strong longing to remain at home.

In the small town of Pass Christian, Miss. , she noticed a similar attachment. "Maybe they have economic difficulties in buying a new home. But this is not just any house, it's their home and generations have lived there, and children have grown up there too," she said. "This makes it difficult to think about leaving."

Several group members related stories of how churches and residents in their own countries worked alongside each other to rebuild not only homes but vital communities.

In Honduras , for instance, people from several neighborhoods were relocated to a new, rocky land after Hurricane Mitch. Irma Dinorah Molina Galeas recalled how committees on issues such as health and security created space where people could relate to one another. "Because people helped create community, they felt this was home. We were not only rebuilding homes, but also creating capacity," she said. "Now after three years the community has schools and preschools that they have built with their own hands and through community leadership."

Members of the group noted the differences between the state of New Orleans ' French Quarter and the Lower Ninth Ward. They pointed out that they were struck by the sight of people living in tents under a freeway and asked what MCC and MDS are doing for those who are not homeowners.

Saulo Benjamin Joromocoj Guzmán, who works in a western Guatemalan area hit hard by Tropical Storm Stan, wondered why the U.S. had not accepted some aid offered by Latin American countries such as Cuba and Venezuela . " Guatemala would always accept an offer like this. Is this about pride?" he asked.

In both Guatemala and the United States , when government doesn’t provide what people need, church institutions are stepping in, reaching out a hand to communities.

"I believe we are all people of God practicing what Jesus taught," Joromocoj Guzmán said. "We want to dignify people. We are looking to help people recover so their lives are better than when the disaster happened."

Cathryn Clinton is a writer for Mennonite Central Committee. Tim Barr, coordinator of MCC’s Gulf Disaster Response, contributed to this report.

MDS is responsible to organize disaster response in Canada, the United States and their territories. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is responsible for organizing disaster response efforts in international settings.

The two organizations work together closely in determining how each can help the other in responding when this is beneficial.

DIAMOND, Louisiana— “We are thankful and we praise God for the people he has sent,” Pastor George Reno said of Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers. “They not only built us a house but they spent many hours visiting—we can say now ‘thank you God’ for Katrina.”

On February 20, the Reno’s new house was filled with well wishers who came to the dedication of this new house built by MDS for George and Ruby Reno. George is a Mennonite pastor who has been serving in Louisiana virtually his whole life.

About 3,500 work hours were spent on this home by Canadian and US volunteers.

Among those serving long-term with MDS in Diamond are eight Canadians, including Elmer and Mary Friesen, from Halbstadt Bergthaler Mennonite Church in Manitoba.

The Friesens have served on MDS projects as long-term volunteers in several locations over the last eight years. These terms of service have included two times in North Carolina, responding to Hurricane Floyd. They have also volunteered long-term in Texas after flooding, in Jackson, Tennessee after a tornado, twice in Arcadia, Florida after Hurricane Charley, and most recently they have served long-term twice after Hurricane Katrina, volunteering in Alabama and currently in Diamond, Louisiana.

“We enjoy serving. If anybody receives the blessings, it’s us,” Mary recently said at an evening meal after a long day of painting.

Elmer added, talking specifically about their work in Diamond, “This project has been good because we’ve been able to do everything, start to finish.”

Other Canadians serving long-term in Diamond include Adina Doerksen and Anne Reimer from Winnipeg, who attend Fort Garry EM Church, Denis and Wilma Keating from Landmark, Manitoba, who attend Prairie Rose EM Church, Shelley McNamara of Stratford, Ontario, who attends Niverville Mennonite Church (MC Cananda), and Stefan Dyck from Okotoks, Alberta, who attends First Mennonite (MC Cananda), and who studied at Canadian Mennonite University in 2007.

“We are thankful and we praise God for the people he has sent,” Pastor George Reno said of Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers. “They not only built us a house but they spent many hours visiting—we can say now ‘thank you God’ for Katrina.”

On February 20, the Reno’s new house was filled with well wishers who came to the dedication of this new house built by MDS for George and Ruby Reno.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita both stormed through the area leaving utter devastation in their wakes. “Think, everything you’ve worked for for 30 or 40 years taken away one night.” Asked how he keeps his hope alive, George responded, “Grace.” He talked of the restoration of hope, “Because this was a hopeless place!”

A 17-foot levee was damaged by Hurricane Katrina’s 20-foot storm surge, and Plaquemines Parish was flooded. Hurricane Rita contributed additional damage to the area. Because of levees and storm debris, flood waters from the hurricane remained in the area for several weeks before being released through a levee.

Houses are being built to withstand winds up to 140 mph. Houses in flood areas are typically being built on piers, stilts, to lift them above potential floodwaters. Different parishes and communities set different requirements. As an example, the Reno house is lifted about 10 feet off the ground, and a wheelchair ramp has been added to the outside of the house.

MDS is currently working on eight houses in Plaquemines Parish, and the Reno house is the second that MDS has built for a local pastor and family. Several weeks ago MDS dedicated a house for Pastor Tony and Donna Duplessis.

Phil Maneikis, current director of MDS Diamond, Louisiana project, said, “My goal is to get as many people in houses as I possibly can, and as quickly as I can do it.”

Paul Unruh, long-time MDS volunteer, community worker and MDS board member, had this message for George and Ruby, “This day is long overdue for you and for us, but now it is here. I recall that many times you said, ‘Not yet, our house can be built after the others in the congregation are cared for.’”

Pastor Reno says he came to know the Lord as a result of Mennonite missionaries who came into Plaquemines Parish when he was a child of 12. By the time he was 16, George started preaching, and hasn’t stopped since. All that time George has also been shrimping.

“I’m retired,” George told me a year ago, “I just haven’t stopped working yet.”

MDS and other volunteers have also worked on rebuilding the church Pastor Reno has pastored since the 1970’s.

Pennsylvania drought relief basically complete

Think of the good things that can happen if people get involved,” stated Jonas Stoltzfus, who was attending a recent gathering of people who helped and were helped by Akron, Pennsylvania-based Mennonite Disaster Service’s drought relief project.

Paul Brubacher and David Hoover were two local Lancaster County MDS representatives who helped to steer and facilitate the process. When asked how many people total actually helped, Brubacher replied, “Oh, hundreds and hundreds. I might even dare say thousands.”

As of a week ago, 36,726 bushels of shelled corn, over 840 trucks of corn silage (at approximately 24 tons a load), as well as haylage, bailed hay, and bailed corn fodder were distributed to qualifying farmers in need, from Amish to Old Order Mennonite, to “English” farmers, as well.

Pennsylvania was not the only recipient of the donated silage and the like mentioned above, but parts of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina .

Dan Lapp of Sugar Valley, Pa. , said, “It is quite a blessing to be involved with a group of people helping people.”

Stoltzfus also commented, “If you have the opportunity to be used in this life—take the opportunity.”

While our main focus is on clean up, repair and rebuilding homes, this activity becomes a means of touching lives and helping people regain faith and wholeness.