The Charlotte District will be hosting a Volunteers In Mission (VIM) Katrina Relief Project over the next two years or more with the goal of raising awareness for the continued need to rebuild the homes and lives of our brothers and sisters on the Mississippi Gulf Coast 4 years after Hurricane Katrina hit the area. The project will recruit congregational volunteer mission teams and endeavor to raise between $100,000 and $120,000 to help continue the construction efforts of the Mississippi United Methodist Conference on Relief beyond 2011.

 The District-wide Katrina Relief Project Task Force has begun planning efforts to assist interested churches in the

Charlotte District with fund raising efforts and to inform the congregations about the needs and opportunities to be in mission with the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In the coming weeks, the Task Force will be contacting the churches in the District and making formal presentations. The plan is to schedule at least 10 volunteer congregational building teams who are willing to go to Camp Hope in Van Cleave Mississippi in the next 6-12 months to help with the rebuilding efforts in that area. The Task Force will also develop an informational package that will assist churches to understand the needs in Mississippi, and to plan their mission trips and fund-raising efforts.

The long-range goal of this VIM project is to spread the congregational VIM participation throughout the District and ultimately grow it on a Conference-wide basis so that the Mississippi UMCOR efforts can continue until Gulf Coast residents in Mississippi who are still displaced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina, are once again in safe housing.