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Table From Katrina Trees
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It’s been almost three years since the worst natural disaster in the U.S., and the cost of Katrina is still being calculated. Along the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, what had once been an important gathering place for African Americans is now just an empty lot. But thanks to some dedicated craftsmen, a part of the past is finding new life. Reed Galin reports. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Waveland, Mississippi)
Voice of Mollie Stewart: “This is how Katrina left it.”
Historic buildings—and a brand new facility at Gulfside Assembly—were
flooded and flattened by Hurricane Katrina’s fury in August 2005.
Mollie Stewart, Gulfside Rebuilding Committee: “We raised the building,
celebrated, and 20 days later it was gone. So God must have a better
plan for this place, otherwise he wouldn’t have swept it clean.”
The United Methodist site in Waveland, Mississippi, nestled between the
Gulf of Mexico and soaring cedar and oak trees, served for decades as a
retreat for African Americans during segregated times.
Although the buildings no longer stand, the spirit of hope is being
restored.
Clay Smith, Hinton Rural Life Center: “It has a life that will continue
and be a thing of beauty that people will enjoy and appreciate.”
Volunteers, including several United Methodist pastors, spent nearly six
months at the Hinton Rural Life Center in North Carolina crafting
symbolic furniture from these logs that once stood as shade trees at
Gulfside.
They’re carefully shaping these pieces of Eastern red cedar into a
Communion table…the centerpiece, literally, of the 2008 General
Conference.
Clay Smith, Hinton Rural Life Center: “People can walk up to it and
touch the Communion table or the pulpit or something and say this was a
tree at Gulfside.”
The pieces represent the rich past—and promising future—of this historic
site. Plans call for the furniture to be returned to a rebuilt Gulfside.
Clay Smith, Hinton Rural Life Center: “It’s pretty amazing what it
symbolizes, I think, that it survived.”
TAG:
A Gulfside Recovery Fund has been set up. For information about the
recovery fund, call 404-529-9715 or contact the Gulfside Assembly at
228-467-4909.
Also, see:
Gulfside trees transformed into Lord’s table