Oak Ridge, TN FUMC Serves at UMCOR Sager Brown

Members of Oak Ridge, TN FUMC

With 197 Hygiene Kits in hand, six members of the First United Methodist Church Oak Ridge’s congregation departed Oak Ridge to act as Gods hands and feet at UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, LA on Saturday September 7th. After attending church at Parkway Heights UMC in Hattiesburg MS the team arrived at the depot Sunday afternoon.  They were assigned their dorm rooms and attended a kickoff briefing.  Monday morning, after a great breakfast, the 42 short term volunteers gathered at the Depot to select their assignments for the week. Thirty of the volunteers were sponsored by the Arkansas Methodist Foundation.  They came from six different churches across the state.  Four volunteers were from Texas and two from Kansas City. In addition to the short-term volunteers there were three long term volunteers. There were many opportunities for various types of work ranging from gardening, facility maintenance, ramp construction and of course the main reason for the trip and facility – the verification and staging of disaster relief kits.  With Hurricane Francine looming in the near future, Flood Bucket kits were the disaster relief kit of the week.  Four of the Oak Ridge volunteers verified Flood Buckets, while the other two members worked on building a wheelchair ramp.

By Tuesday morning it became obvious that it was time to depart the lovely Bayou Tech as a possible 10 ft. storm surge was being predicated and the altitude at the Sager Brown facility is 17 feet above sea level. As the team departed Baldwin on their way home, Sager Brown operations were shut down and all staff members were sent home to prepare for the winds and storm surge from Francine.  Sager Brown has sent out over $2 million in kits (flood buckets, Hygiene & Menstrual Hygiene Kits) so far this year.

This was the 17th Team that FUMCOR has sent to Baldwin, LA to work at Sager Brown.  Since starting launching their “Adult Mission Trip” program in 2003 FUMCOR has sent 83 Mission Teams to 5 countries and have worked at seven different disaster sites in the US. Those efforts represent UMCOR’s byline of First In (with disaster kits on the front end) and Last Out (by rehabilitating damaged homes at the back end) as well as showing God’s    love through the efforts of over 1,300 missioners.

The FUMC Team members were: Sarah Lively, Becky Keller, Charlie Keller, Maxine Schultz (Team Leader), Wayne Houlberg and Bob Schultz.