REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK:

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final in a five-part series on the efforts of Palm Harvest Church volunteers to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in Pascagoula, Miss.

Volunteers Joe Banning and Lisa Tatman from Palm Harvest Church in Costa Mesa met rebuilding hurricane-damaged houses last year on a church-sponsored trip to Pascagoula, Miss.

They returned to Mississippi this year to work side-by-side as a couple.

Banning packed a ring in his suitcase to give to Tatman in Pascagoula.

“It’s another miracle,” Banning said to me with a twinkle in his eye after Tatman said yes on the last night of the trip.

I’ve tried to keep God and miracles out of much of what I’ve written this week. It’s been hard.

Most of the volunteers I met would tell you it’s impossible. Reporters like facts. I’m not a religious person, or even very spiritual. But I can’t deny that something special happened this week in Pascagoula.

I saw groups of workers who had been up since 6 a.m. work late into the night to finish repairs on homes with severe storm damage using head lamps and flashlights. I saw grandmothers and high school students working next to each other to rip out moldy pieces of drywall and wood paneling in the homes of strangers.

“It’s amazing the strength God can give you,” volunteer Mike King told me.

King worked until 1:30 in the morning one day of the trip to finish electrical work in a battered women’s shelter that was looted for copper wiring in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

I attribute the generosity and kindness I saw in Mississippi to good people working hard together to help others in need. But nearly every volunteer I met would disagree with me.

“It’s a God thing, and you can quote me on that,” volunteer Judy Iott told me.

Iott’s day began at 5 a.m. to prepare breakfast for the army of volunteers that came to Pascagoula to repair hurricane-damaged homes. Her work wasn’t over until after 9 p.m. when the last pots and pans from dinner were scrubbed and put away.

Volunteer Don Peterson told me he came to Pascagoula this year because God wanted him there. He used his expertise to train dozens of volunteers to hang drywall in the homes of people who have been relegated to living in FEMA trailers for the past 26 months.

Doctors told Peterson he needed surgery to fix a torn rotator cuff that left him with a weakened right arm. He plastered walls this week, aware he could injure himself more.

Self-employed in the construction business, Peterson hoped to find an insurance provider that would pay for his surgery when he returned home.

“God will find a way,” he told me.

Felisha Coleman, a single mother and college student whose house sustained severe water damage during Katrina, said she believed God gave her the strength to study and take care of her two young children after the storm. Toxic mold in the walls of her home made her children sick to their stomachs, she said.

“I just thank God for the strength he has given me,” she said.

I met volunteers working to rebuild Pascagoula not just from Costa Mesa this week, but from Oklahoma, Illinois and Florida. All were from churches or other faith-based organizations.

Time and time again, I heard the aid these religious groups provided was often the only help available for many still living in FEMA trailers in Pascagoula.

“The government has done all it’s going to do here,” said Don Edeker, a pastor in Moss Point, Miss., who has helped coordinate volunteer repairs on about 350 houses since Katrina.

When my editor approached me with the idea of traveling to Pascagoula with a group of volunteers sponsored by a local Baptist church, I knew there could be a clash between their beliefs and mine and more than a few awkward moments in which we would eat, sleep and work together for four days.

“I have to ask you, was your faith challenged on this trip?” volunteer Rolando Mendoza asked me as we boarded the plane at the end of the trip.

The pastor of a Spanish-language Baptist church in Gardena, Mendoza came to Pascagoula to repair plumbing in storm-damaged buildings.

I wasn’t born again, but I came away from the trip with a new respect for people dedicated to their faith and helping others in need.

Maybe God is just the thing that happens when people give of themselves and expect nothing in return.

“You might even say it’s miraculous,” as Banning would tell me.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].