Geneva Association churches help Mississippi couple rebuild

Geneva Association churches help Mississippi couple rebuild

When Hurricane Katrina came roaring into Pascagoula, Miss., it left Janice Burnett, 79, and her 82-year-old husband standing in their home in water above their shoulders, taking turns holding their small dog above their heads.
   
“The water kept rising and they didn’t have anywhere to go. They thought they were going to die,” said Billy Max Peters, a member of Christian Home Baptist Church, Slocomb.
   
But the Burnetts lived and when the waters receded, nothing was left but the couple, their dog and a rotten house.
   
That’s when Peters and several men from other Geneva Baptist Association churches happened upon the couple. “We worked on five houses after the hurricane, tearing and mudding them out, and when we got to their house, we just decided we would take on the project,” Peters said.
   
Since then, men from six Geneva Association churches have taken more than 10 trips to Pascagoula, installing Sheetrock and new wiring in the house, putting down new carpet and tile and providing furniture. Once or twice a month, a group of them will pack up and leave for Pascagoula early on a Thursday morning and stay and work until Saturday.
   
“We’ve always done ministry when it came to disasters, but this has been our most concentrated effort yet,” said Dicky McAllister, director of missions for Geneva Association. “And the work could go on for two or three more years. We plan to help their neighbors, too.”
   
On the latest trip down in mid-May, the team took a set of professionally made cabinets built especially for the Burnetts — a job that would have cost the couple $14,000.
   
“She had called all her children, grandchildren and neighbors, and they were waiting for us to get there with the cabinets,” said Charles Medley, a member of El Bethel Baptist Church, Chancellor.
   
“They just cried when the men started unloading the cabinets,” Medley’s wife, Carol, said.
   
With the installation of the cabinets and the exception of a few more small projects, the house should be ready for the Burnetts to get back in — if they aren’t already back in it.
   
“They were living in a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trailer, which is nice but so small. You can’t prop your feet up unless you’re propping it on the wall in front of you,” Medley said. “It’s been a joy for me to help. I’ve gotten a blessing out of it.”