Indiana parishioners provide relief

Volunteers from Indiana work on St. Peter  parishioner's home in Rockort.

Deacon Richard Longoria, for South Texas Catholic
 

The day after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Father Mike Keucher called his mentor Msgr. Mark Svarczkopf and asked, “How can we do something to help people in Rockport?” This was not a randomly placed phone call. Msgr. Svarczkopf had helped with disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina and had significant experience organizing relief efforts. His reply to Father Keucher was, “Come with us when we go there in December.” Neither pastor knew there were connections to Rockport within their communities.

 

Within days, a plan was in place in the Indiana towns of Shelbyville and Greenwood where Father Keucher and Msgr. Svarczkopf are pastors, respectively. Father Keucher is pastor of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Joseph and Msgr. Svarczkopf is pastor of Our Lady of the Greenwood.

The three parishes worked together to form a team to provide help in Rockport without knowing what they would do when they got there. They chose Christmas break because there would be more people off work and available. The timing also made it possible for some of the parish teenagers to participate.

There were about 40 parishioners signed up for the trip in the first two weeks. Approximately one fourth of the signups were teenagers. The oldest parishioner on the trip was in her late 80s. The youngest was 14.

A woman came forward saying she owned a condo in Rockport and the team could use it. Others had been to Rockport for both summer and winter vacations. Some said they had fished here. The project took on a more personal tone.

The parishes were funded in part by Catholic Charities in their area and in Corpus Christi, but they also had their own disaster relief fund to use. They were in contact with Deacon Richard Longoria, the Harvey Volunteer Coordinator for the Diocese of Corpus Christi. Plans progressed, but were not finalized. The deacon told them to contact him when they arrived.

Although, some of the team came by air, most of them traveled together in vans. After more than 20 hours of driving time, they arrived in Rockport where the temperatures were in the 40s and 50s. Team members commented that the weather was nice.

“You should see winter in Indiana,” saud one volunteer.

Msgr. Svarczkopf called Deacon Longoria to say the team was here and ready to work. Longoria encouraged them to drive around the communities of Rockport and Fulton and let him know what they felt led to do.

Gaye Makenney said, “When we drove into the parking lot (of St. Peter’s Catholic Church), our hearts broke. We knew what we were supposed to do.”
The team stayed a week, although some stayed for a week and a half, and helped clean up the grounds of the church property. They also worked alongside parishioners making repairs on their homes. By the end of the week, the team had deepened their connections to Rockport because of new friendships. Gifts were exchanged between the families and the workers and there was talk of coming back.

“We received so much more than we gave,” Makenney said. “We could smell the egg rolls cooking while we worked. It blessed us. And, they were delicious.”
Jennifer Vu, Thim Nguyen and Long Cao (all of Rockport) said they would be grateful forever. “Our only way to say thank you was to cook for them,” one of them said.

However, Jeremy O’Connor said he wanted a translation of a Vietnamese song that was sung during Mass. “That sound was so beautiful it made me cry,” he said. So there were other ways to express gratitude, after all.

Father Keucher explained that, “Grace reveals itself in ways we least expect. We have experienced so much grace this last week. It’s a perfect way to begin the New Year.”

“The people of Rockport have been friendly and helpful everywhere we went. We all had a fantastic time, working hard in the cold, and getting to know some beautiful people. Some of us are talking about another trip at spring break. We will see how funds are when we get back home,” Denise Defenderfer said.

It started with a phone call, continued with some previously unknown connections to Rockport, and ended with tears and hugs and team members saying they were not ready to leave…because they were connected to Rockport.

Photos contributed by Deacon Richard Longoria.

Indiana volunteers get briefing before start of their work.


Father Mike Keucher goes through chow line at St. Peter.