[Dialogue] addendum to Suzanne Heilman's message-Pace, MS

[Lynda Cock]

Thanks, Lynda, for responding.

Back to the Big K Hurricane, if you can easily cut and paste the first
paragraph onto the listserv, I would be grateful. I heard from Catherine
Welch that my messages wern't coming through, as well. I did try again
to cut and paste, but something went "wonky" and it didn't work again. I
hope you have time to do this for me.  I also wanted to add the
following to the listserv message:

For those of you connected to the United Methodist Church and who may
not be aware, you can give to Katrina through UMCOR, United Methodist
Committee on Relief. UMCOR is the UM version of Red Cross, but they
specialize in longer-reach recovery, working in concert with other
churches. They have quite a respectable track record, as it has been in
existence for quite some time and has had plenty of experience all over
the world. They were and are there for all natural and manmade disasters
(war, etc.), such as 9/11, starvation in the Sudan, Iraq, Afganistan,
Hurricanes Ivan... As local co-chair of our church's (Pine St. UMC in
Wmspt. membership 700) Global Ministry Committee, I had to put in my 2
cents. By the way, 100% of what you give, the people get! Administrative
costs are cared for by an annual, designated offering-One Great Hour of
Sharing. 

 While I was assigned to the Memphis Region in the late '70's, we seemed
to be working primarily with Pace HDP and setting up and facilitating
Town Meetings in Mississippi, through a grant from the Gov.'s Office of
the Aging.( Incidentally,has anyone heard if Pace was hit as well?) I
was assigned to the New Orleans Region to help with their TM setup for
about a month, I believe. 1st Priors there were Mollie and Jessie
Clemens. I remember also working with Eloise Patton and Bill Gooch, but
the other names have faded-I know if I saw them I'd probably remember!
Any way, I fell in love with New Orleans. It was Mardi Gras time, so I
went to a parade. We celebrated with "King Cakes" (?). I was assigned to
inkind at the French Market by myself. Dressed in my homemade plain blue
dress and plain "Protestant" cross, I would go up and down the aisle of
wholesale distributors telling our community development and Town
Meeting stories and asking for donations. Since alot of the men were
used to Catholic nuns asking for stuff for their projects, I was
repeatedly addressed as Sister-"Hey, Joe, 'ya got anything for the
Sister?" they would yell! I do recall  getting quite a bit of stuff,
particularly boxes of tomatoes, which of course meant an evening
"blitzing" cutting up tomatoes for salads, canning, etc. I remember
visiting Bourbon St. and Preservation Hall, in particular, and being
swept away by the music and ambience of welcome, history, and
comeraderie generated there. I met Father Winus Wroeten (sp), one of the
regional colleagues. Our teams spent a heck of a lot of time
strategizing and planning those TM campaigns. Anyway, I hope what
happened there has not been lost, and that it will help those
communities know how to rebuild for today and tomorrow!  

The above was cut and pasted from Suzanne's message after she had
repeated trouble getting it through.  Where in relation to all that is
going on is Pace, MS.  Has anyone heard from that area?  

Lynda and Suzanne