Above: United Methodist volunteer Stan Smith removes rotted closet doors from a bedroom covered in mold at Eugene Mogabgab’s home, which was damaged by Hurricane Ida in Thibodaux, La.

Every night before he goes to bed, Eugene Mogabgab has a ritual.

“I got some cans of spray and I spray the bed really good, spray the hallway, spray the kitchen. The rats don’t like that stuff,” he said.

Mogabgab’s home in Thibodaux, Louisiana, was severely damaged by Hurricane Ida, which struck the state last August. He doesn’t have insurance or the means to pay workers himself, so nothing has been done to his home for months. Now, he has to deal with mold, rats and roaches. Leaks in the roof mean the carpet stays saturated.

“I’m all right,” he said. “I just don’t like to stay in the house too long.”

Help finally arrived in the form of a work crew of United Methodists from across the state, led by the Rev. Danny Gleason, pastor of Thibodaux First United Methodist Church. Gleason said that Mogabgab “has been a fixture at the church forever” and that they’d been trying to get him help since the storm happened.

“Eugene has fallen through so many cracks, we determined that instead of waiting on somebody else, we need to just do it ourselves,” Gleason said. “We want to do what we can because we love him and he’s family.”

Unfortunately, Gleason said, Mogabgab’s story is “one of thousands.”

Though national attention has moved its focus elsewhere, teams of United Methodist volunteers continue to come here to help recovery efforts.

Louisiana has endured a string of weather events that has made recovery difficult. From August 2020 to August 2021, the state was hit by Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Ida, a winter freeze, and flooding caused by over 12 inches of rain. Of course, all of this happened during the coronavirus pandemic, which hampered the work of volunteer teams.

“It’s been 18 months since the storms came through, and you still see all these blue roofs. And if you don’t fix the roof, the inside gets damaged more and more,” said Bill Howell, director of Missional Engagement and Outreach for the Louisiana Conference of The United Methodist Church. He helps oversee the conference’s disaster relief work.

Howell has been working in the Lake Charles area with a multifaith coalition of Mennonites and Amish, all collaborating on repairs.

When the coalition’s work came to his attention, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter told them, “There’s so many out there benefiting from the work you’re doing, and I don’t know where else they’d be getting it.”

Lara S. Martin, UMCOR’s director of U.S. disaster response, called the coalition “a tangible example to survivors that the Holy Spirit is present and the holistic recovery ministry continues.”

The Amish volunteers are housed at University United Methodist Church in Lake Charles, which suffered such severe damage in Hurricanes Laura and Delta that the building wasn’t functional for about eight months.

“It's an existential question: If you don't have your building, can you still be a church?” said the Rev. Angela Bulhof, senior pastor.

Once it had undergone sufficient repairs, the church claimed a role of housing mission teams. They began hosting the Amish volunteers in January.

“We're only six weeks into what could be a two-year partnership for us, and it already is beginning to feel like family,” Bulhof said. “I just feel that God is using this church in a mighty, mighty way.”

In Buras, on the southeastern tip of the state, Michelle Newburn also has been spraying down the walls of her trailer to keep the mold at bay.

Newburn has been unable to work since a bad car accident 18 months ago, and she said the money she received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency isn’t enough to pay for the damage from Hurricane Ida.

“Supply costs are going up while you’re waiting on a contractor to come do the work,” she said. “They say move, but everywhere else is just as expensive or more.”

One day, the pastor of Newburn’s church, Trinity United Methodist in Buras, knocked on her door and handed her contact information for a work crew from Texas — St. Andrew United Methodist in Plano.

“They’ve been a huge blessing,” she said. “I need double shoulder replacement from my accident, so I can’t do much of this work myself.”

Jody Webb, one of the workers from St. Andrew, said he didn’t expect to be called for a “muck out,” which typically happens in the immediate aftermath of a storm.

“I was surprised when our leader said we were going for hurricane recovery; I thought that was months ago,” he said.

The recovery process from a natural disaster is a slow one. Howell said he hopes his work in Lake Charles shows “significant progress” by the end of 2022. But that’s assuming Louisiana gets through this year’s hurricane season unscathed.

“We used to think of recovery in terms of three to five years,” he said, “but now there’s too many back-to-back disasters. Whatever you do, you have to do it quickly.”

Martin said that conferences with seasonal disasters tend to take long-term recovery very seriously.

“Every disaster has its own context but seasonality and patterns require a different approach and recovery is more complex,” she said. “The most important thing we can share is that folks in Louisiana are still hurting and that The United Methodist Church is still here working.”

The Rev. John Robert Black, senior pastor at St. Luke-Simpson United Methodist Church in Lake Charles, can attest to the difficulty of rebuilding before the next disaster comes. His church hadn’t finished repairing damage from Hurricane Laura before the February 2021 freeze and the May 2021 flood took their toll.

For a while, almost every church program had to be run out of the gymnasium, the only unaffected area. Though much has been restored, many repairs remain.

“Nothing would be happening (in Lake Charles) without the church, the people that come from all over the country with no intent other than just to help,” he said.

The slow pace of recovery can take a toll on pastors. They must minister to congregants who’ve been devastated by the disasters while often trying to cope with their own personal losses.

“This has been hard on children, a big pull on marriages, a lot of alcohol and drug relapses. Whatever problems someone had were amplified by this,” Black said.

Despite the challenge, he’s been grateful to be a pastor during such a difficult time.

“It’s pretty easy to offer Jesus when things are good, but to offer Christ in turmoil was a tremendous honor,” he said.

Black said it’s vital for pastors to allow themselves time to grieve and also to be there for their own families as well as their church families — advice he received from others who went through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

The Rev. Michelle Harris, pastor of St. Charles United Methodist Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, said it’s also important to rest when needed. She said even laughing is a huge help — which may sound strange considering that much of her church was severely damaged by Ida and she’s currently living in a camper with her husband and three kids because her house was also hit.

“We, collectively as a congregation, laugh in worship,” she said. “We say, ‘The building might be falling apart, we might be displaced, but we’re still here and God’s still calling us to do good work.’”

Harris said she’s proud that through everything, the church kept several of its ministries active, including its homeless outreach, food pantry and small groups. Children’s ministries are also back up and running, and she’s determined that vacation Bible school will happen as well.

Many other programs have had to be scaled back, and Harris said she has to take into account that the toll of recovery means people don’t have the capacity for more commitments.

“It’s been important for us to constantly reach out to people, love on them and invite them back, but also invite them to join us online or connect in other ways that fit this recovery life they’re living in,” she said.

Black said these are the times when he encourages his congregation to trust in their faith.

“We lost all human strength ages ago; it’s the Holy Spirit now,” he said. “You have to remind yourself of the victory that is ours so people don’t become frozen in their despair.

“I’ve read the last page of the Bible, and we win.”

Joey Butler is a multimedia producer/editor and Mike DuBose is staff photographer for United Methodist News. Contact them at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.