Heartland meets Katrina at Synod
Written by Joanne Griffith Domingue June 25, 2007
When Alice Sell and her husband drove from Bippus, Indiana, to Hartford, Conn., they never imagined a New Orleans connection.
But serendipity happens. While standing in a line at Synod, Alice chatted with the woman next to her. They glanced at each other's nametags, and Alice noted that her friend was from New Orleans. The woman looked at Alice, and, with emotion in her voice, said, "Your conference sent my church quilt supplies after [Hurricane] Katrina."
The New Orleans church had had a quilting group for outreach. They lost all their supplies in the flooding and devastation after the storm. In response Indiana-Kentucky had a conference-wide drive to collect quilting supplies to send to this New Orleans church, said the Rev. Carol Barth, associate conference minister for Indiana-Kentucky.
The woman went on to tell Alice that they are now back in their church. They have no electricity. They use a generator. And the 30 or so who have returned to church sit on folding chairs.
Alice was touched to make this connection with a project she had worked on back home at New Hope UCC in Bippus. But that's not the only church or conference project she has worked on.
For her extensive volunteer work in the church and her conference, Alice Catherine Sell was recognized at Synod as an honored lay woman.