Hoosier United Methodist together, October 2006

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Hoosier
United
Methodists
www.inareaumc.org together
open hearts, open minds, open doors.
The people of The United Methodist Church
October 2006
Volume 36
Number 8
www. inareaumc.org
HOOSIER UNITED METHODISTS
By Daniel R. Gangler
DEGONIA SPRINGS, Ind.
(UMNS) – Remembering their
fallen comrades who died Sept. 11
five years ago, 20 New York City
firefighters joined a group of oth-er
volunteers and residents in
framing the new building of Bak-er
Chapel United Methodist
Church.
The firefighters worked side by
side with 30 Amish and Menno-nite
volunteers, local residents,
rescue personnel, and 20 disaster
survivors from San Diego, Utica,
Ill., and Slidell, La. The former
century-old Baker Chapel build-ing
in this rural area was destroyed
by a Nov. 6 tornado that claimed
the lives of 25 area residents.
The Sept. 8-10 effort was part
of an annual campaign by the New
York Says Thank You Foundation,
which organized in 2003 as a way
to repay the kindness shown to
New York in the aftermath of the
9/11 terrorist attack on the World
Trade Center. Foundation Direc-tor
Jeff Parness accompanied the
firefighters, who came from Man-hattan,
the Bronx, Queens and
Brooklyn.
The weekend event kicked off
with a Sept. 8 welcome breakfast
at Main Street United Methodist
Church in nearby Boonville,
where Parness spoke to more than
400 area residents and guests.
“On Sept. 12, 2001, people
from all over the country poured
into New York City to show their
support and help where they
could,” he said. “No words can
adequately describe how we felt
(about their response). New York-ers
will never forget their gener-osity.
This is just a small way we
can say ‘thank you.’”
The church is people
At the breakfast, Indiana Gov.
Mitch Daniels shared his expe-rience
of landing near the dev-astated
Baker Chapel building
and comforting members and
neighbors near the church Nov.
6. He reflected on the courage
and determination of DeGonia
Springs and the members of
Baker Chapel.
Daniels said he will always re-member
the moment when he was
expressing sorrow for the loss of
the church and an elder of the
New Yorkers join Hoosiers in rebuilding church
church said to him
with a smile: “That
was a building. You
are talking to the
church.”
“What a great
expression of the
faith that unites us,”
Daniels said. “It’s
the people that con-stitute
great church-es,
great communi-ties,
great cities and
great states.”
He also reflected
on his deep sense of
loss viewing
Ground Zero short-ly
after the 9/11
tragedy in New
York City as part of
President Bush’s
administration.
While at the
breakfast, Daniels
talked with families
of the Nov. 6 torna-do
victims. Each
victim was remem-bered
with the ded-ication
and planting
of a tree in his or her
name. Trees also
were dedicated to
each of the New
York City firefight-ers
remembered.
‘Not victims’
Steve Holden, head of the U.S.
Emergency Chaplains Corps
based in Decatur, Ill., led the ded-ication.
It’s never easy to deal with
disaster, he said, but we need to
realize that “God’s people are ev-erywhere
in the midst of the trag-edy
or disaster.” After quoting
from Psalm 1 – “They are like
trees planted by streams of wa-ter…”
– he declared, “we need
planting.”
Indiana Area Bishop Mike
Coyner also greeted the crowd.
“Today we are going to make
something good out of the bad of
life…,” he said. “We are not vic-tims
but survivors.”
Evansville United Methodist
District Superintendent Glenn
Howell called the weekend gath-ering
the “intersection of human
hurt and human hope.”
Following the breakfast, volun-teers
drove 10 miles east to the
Baker Chapel building site in De-
Gonia Springs.
By day’s end on Friday, the
Rev. Randy Anderson, with the
Long-Term Recovery Committee
of Southwest Indiana and senior
pastor of Centenary United Meth-odist
Church in Evansville, said
he was amazed that the building’s
outer walls were completely
framed and sided.
“We are already more than a
week ahead of schedule,” he said.
On Saturday, volunteers
framed inside walls and began lay-ing
trusses for the roof. The build-ing
is scheduled to be completed
next spring.
Baker Chapel building com-mittee
member Keith Shelton led
20 local volunteers in efforts to co-ordinate
activities with the New
York foundation.
Other weekend activities in-cluded
a community barbecue and
softball game at Boonville High
School between local and New
York first responders. The week-
Together photo
To the cheers of bystanders, New York Firefighters, Amish, Mennonites, Indiana rescue workers and other volunteers raise
in place the first framed wall of Baker’s Chapel United Methodist Church in place on Friday afternoon, Sept. 8. By day’s end,
the entire perimeter of the building was framed. By the end of the weekend, all the building’s walls were framed.
“What a great
expression of
the faith that
unites us.”
– Governor Mitch Daniels
end culminated on Sunday
morning with a 9/11 me-morial
parade from Boon-ville
to a closing worship
service and ceremonies at
the Baker Chapel site at-tended
by more than a
thousand volunteers,
church members and
guests.
Volunteers from Saint
Luke’s United Methodist
Church in Indianapolis
prepared meals for the
more than 1,500 guests and
volunteers during the weekend
build.
For more information about
Baker Chapel, log on to
www. i n a r e a u m c . o r g o r
www.bakerchapel.org.
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels shares his
experience with Baker Chapel during a wel-come
breakfast at Main Street United
Methodist Church in Boonville, Ind. attend-ed
by more than 400 volunteers, mem-bers
and guests.