Mission trip volunteer Betty Hibler shared this story with us as part of National Volunteer Week. It’s been slightly edited by Mission staff. To share your story, please send us an email! The photo is of a different group.
Greetings from Union Church in Berea, Kentucky. Our volunteer trips to Back Bay Mission began in March 2008, when there was still a lot of cleanup and rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina. In the ensuing years, we returned five additional times, participating in various construction projects and campus opportunities for service. In particularly, those of us less skilled in construction enjoyed helping out in the Micah Day Center and in the food pantry. One year, some of us wrapped Christmas boxes to be distributed for the holidays.
A connection that continues to stand out traces back to our first trip in March 2008. One of the projects many on our team helped with was the dismantling of a shop that belonged to ‘Ms. Myrtle’ and was beyond repair. As we took breaks from our work, we enjoyed talking with Ms. Myrtle in her backyard that adjoined the shop. Each year that we returned to Back Bay Mission, those of us who had met her on our first trip continued to make a lunch date with her at a nearby cafe. She shared stories going back to the days when, as a teenager, she helped to integrate the beaches in Biloxi by joining wade-ins as protests against segregated beaches. These personal connections made our trips especially memorable.
Thank you, Back Bay Mission, for your ongoing presence in Biloxi!
