(This is an article from the Times-Picayune, written by Christine Bordelon. The two women in the story are connected by us. Gloria Twiggs is a longtime member of my church, FBC Kenner, and Karen Adams and we have e-mailed back and forth about her group’s ministry in New Orleans. It ran in Sunday’s paper.)

When Gloria Tiggs suffered a broken heel and fractured scapula after she fell off scaffolding while floating drywall in her Hurricane Katrina-damaged home, the future of her home repairs was in doubt.

As luck would have it, Twiggs, 61, a telephone switchboard operator at the Kenner Police Department, had come in contact with Karen Adams, a former New Orleans resident now living in Pennsylvania, and helped her organize a shipment of donations (paper products, bedding, towels, cleaning supplies, etc.) that were distributed from First Baptist Church in Kenner in February.

Adams and Twiggs remained in contact and when Adams realized Twiggs, too, was in need–her home had a foot of water inside and five feet of mold when she returned–she put her on the list of homes to repair on a special, nine-day ‘Christmas’ mission recently completed.

With 50 volunteers in tow from various churches in Pennsylvania, the mission group left in its wake a restored church, gutted and repaired homes in Metairie, Kenner, and eastern New Orleans and happy children in St. Bernard. For Twiggs, volunteers completed plumbing and roofing work and more at her Kenner home.

“It has been an unbelievable blessing,” Twiggs said. “Just to see them work, they were just wonderful. Everything I asked them, they did. I am just humbled by their kindness and generosity.”

Many of the Pennsylvania volunteers–ranging in age from 14 to 83–were regulars on mission trips, but this one struck a special chord with several.

Jim Miller of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Cumberland, PA, said he immediately jumped on the bandwagon when he learned the trip was to help Louisianians affected by Hurricane Katrina.

For Miller, the timing was right to repay the state for its hospitality when he was stationed not long ago in the Army at Fort Polk for 3 weeks.

“People were so nice. They paid for our meals,” Miller said about his time here. “I’d do anything for Louisiana people. When Katrina hit, I felt I had to do something.”

Miller and the volunteers traveled more than 1,200 miles to and from Pennsylvania (with one stop at Gray United Methodist Church in Gray, TN) as part of the KAREN or Kenner Area Rebuilding Effort Network, created by the United Methodist Committee on Relief Mission Central in Mechanicsburg, PA, where Adams, 34, has launched all her trips.

On this mission, the volunteers brought two, 53-foot tractor-trailer loads of items. One was filled with donations (animal food and supplies, toys, water, cleaning supplies, etc) to throw a Christmas party, complete with Santa and toys at Poydras Baptist Church in Poydras, and another with church supplies for Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in New Orleans, as well as building supplies for the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission effort.

The volunteers stayed approximately a week, based at St. Matthew United Methodist Church in Metairie.

Volunteering was not new to Adams. She had worked with the New Orleans Mission and Food for Families when she lived here. Knowing so many had been devastated by the storm, she realized she could do more good from Pennsylvania and looked for ways to make a difference.

Adams, a Pennsylvania native, lost her Washington Avenue home in New Orleans to Katrina.

She first hooked up with Sue Higgins, a youth leader from the Mission Central team who was organizing an effort to ship 10-gallon buckets filled with supplies to New Orleans in October 2005.

“When I saw the need, I realized that things weren’t going to get better any time soon,” she said.

That resulted in the February trip that brought 46,000 pounds of needed supplies for the New Orleans area.

Adams made another solo New Orleans trip in May to help friends repair their homes.

Adams said she began speaking about her efforts at neighboring churches, and volunteers and donations poured out of the Pennsylvania woodwork. She even received calls from such organizations in Pennsylvania as Habitat for Humanity and the Methodist Church’s Volunters in Mission offering help.

“Response was so overwhelming,” she said. “We had a waiting list of 50 people, but I knew if we had more than 50, we would have trouble with transportation.”

Adams’ wish on this Christmas-themed trip was to help rebuild a church. She and the volunteers were able to fulfill that wish by supplying church pews, choir robes, hymnals, offertory plates, Bibles, and other items to Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in New Orleans.

“The only thing we didn’t give them was the people, but they were already there. They were home,” volunteer John Behel of First United Methodist Church in Mechanicsburg, PA, said. Mt. Zion in New Orleans had been a beacon in the neighborhood serving food and handing out supplies to the needy in the community, Adams and Behel said.

Newlyweds Buzz and Jo Kuhns of St. John United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, PA, made the November mission trip.

“The people are so thankful and grateful that we are here,” Buzz Kuhns said. “There is such a need, and wherever there is a need, you just get such a feeling inside when you help. God touched the hearts of all the people in our group to help.”

Adams already has begun working on the next mission trip down.

Twiggs is certainly grateful for the volunteer assistance.

“They’ve ministered to me so much,” Twiggs said. “I’m not the kind of person to just sit, so it’s hard for me to be the receiver. I like to be the doer. I will make my house available to future mission teams. It will be a comfortable place to stay after a long day’s work.”