By MIKE HELM

The Christian spirit of some Columbus County residents didn’t end when the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina subsided along the Gulf Coast. Teams of volunteers from the county are continuing to go to hard-hit areas to help rebuild homes.

Trinity Baptist Church is leading an effort, joined by volunteers from other county churches, to rebuild 22 homes in Bayou La Batre, Ala., a shrimping village that was devastated by a 13-foot storm surge when Katrina slammed on shore.

“I’ve never seen that type of destruction,” said Norvan Babson, who is working along with Joyce Mauldin as veteran disaster relief workers and facilitators of the Trinity effort.

“People were staying in family trailers and tents for two to three months,” Babson said. “We saw people sleeping in cardboard boxes and under cars with all that mold. It will never be the same because it’s so devastated.”

Trinity’s efforts began in October with the use of its mobile kitchen to help feed homeless residents, whose homes had been flooded and destroyed. The Whiteville church first contacted the North Carolina Baptist Association but was put on standby. So Babson and Mauldin loaded their vans and mobile kitchen, found a dozen volunteers and went in search of people in need.

“We went to the spot (Bayou La Batre) because they weren’t getting any publicity,” said Mauldin. The community was used as the place where seacoast scenes from Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump movie were photographed.

“Sometimes we go twice a month, Monday through Saturday, depending on whether we can get a team together,” Mauldin said. “The people there are so appreciative of anything they get.”

Once residents’ immediate needs were satisfied and power was restored to the area, the team adopted 22 homes to rehabilitate. Two have been completed.

“This is going to take years unless we get more help and volunteers and money,” Babson said. “The FEMA money will run out soon.”

The Federal Emergency Management Administration gave each victim $12,300 to repair waterlogged and wind-damaged homes.

James Prevatte of Fair Bluff Baptist Church said the extent of the damage is staggering – 90,000 square miles of destruction – and he wasn’t prepared for what he saw the first time he went.

Twenty-five different people have been on the Trinity trips. Garland Patrick has made every one. The volunteers who went on the last trip were Randy Thomas, Herb Harp, Babson, Diane Hammond, Jewel Crumpler, Prevatte, Ann Jones, Patrick, Dale Davis, Joyce and Jim Mauldin, Virginia Lane and Vic Floyd.

“We take a team of 12 to 15 volunteers, two vans and trailers,” Mauldin said. “We now have a senior center that feeds the volunteers. The people are feeding themselves.”

The work can be grueling. Prevatte, a county commissioner, said he was working on rafters all afternoon and was exhausted. He asked the person next to him for some nails. It was 74-year-old Virginia Lane of Delco. The 54-year-old Prevatte said seeing Lane motivated him to continue working.

The people from Columbus County have witnessed great need, generosity and miracles.

“There’s a person in this town that has $500,000 and wants to buy appliances for people who can’t afford it,” Mauldin said. “The Lord put us in the right place at the right time to make contact with him.”

Babson told a story of a one-legged man who came to a distribution center on crutches, where volunteers were passing out clothes and supplies. The man found prosthesis that fit and he left walking.

Babson shook is head, “It was a miracle. Who would have thought of donating an artificial leg?

“This happens every day. All different miracles,” he said.

Babson said volunteers are providing witness to the Lord for many people in the area who are not Christian. Upon returning home, many have been speaking to churches in the area.

Jewel Crumpler spoke to the congregation at New Hope Baptist Church on Baptist Women’s Day. Volunteers from New Hope are signing up to make a one-week trip to Gulfport, Miss., in April as part of the North Carolina Baptist Association relief effort. So far, five members of the congregation are going.

The Baptist Association asks that churches donate enough money for gas for their vans and suggest a stipend of $10 per day per person for food, although volunteers are not required to donate.

The Trinity group has compiled a photo album that shows the utter devastation in the region. Pictures of barges washed a half-mile inland and shrimp boats sitting in roadways give some indication of the extent of damage.

The album also chronicles the work, fellowship and Christian spirit of the people of Columbus County who have given so much of their time, money and energy in witness of the Lord.