Front Page, Above the Fold - and the Editorial Page, too!

Chapel on the Hill members Bethany Abrams and Donna-Jean Breckenridge comfort hurricane victim Julia Leddy. Church volunteers cleared debris from Leddy's Waveland, Miss., property to make way for a FEMA trailer. The Cedar Grove congregation is planning another trip to the Gulf Coast in October.

Chapel on the Hill recently made the front page (above the fold) of the local paper, the Verona-Cedar Grove Times, with this picture and caption. In an article entitled "Communities still show compassion," Chapel on the Hill's trips to Katrina-battered Mississippi were highlighted.



The Chapel on the Hill team stop for a picture while cleaning out the Bay St. Louis home of John Roberts, who rode out the storm. Pictured, from left, are Donna-Jean Breckenridge, Chapel's director of ministries; Elisa Fabrazzo of Cedar Grove; Cody, Robert's nephew, of Bay St. Louis; Maria Hangge of Cedar Grove; Debbie Capolino of Little Falls; Arleen Zimmerman of Cedar Grove and Bethany Abrams of Parsippany.

We enjoyed being interviewed by Jennifer Blenner, who interviewed us back in the fall for a front page article about our first trips to Mississippi.

But it was the editorial page that was so unexpected.

It's titled "When $4 billion is not enough." It starts out like this:

No one should be surprised that the devastated Gulf Coast, slammed by Hurricane Katrina one year ago, is still, well, devastated. A strong Category 3 storm (its strength when it hit the coast) always leaves its mark for years, no matter where it lands. And this one performed a double whammy by breaking the levees in New Orleans, leaving about 80 percent of the city uninhabitable.

The editor wrote about the blaming over the slow response that followed - and still follows - the hurricane. And then this:

We bet if the federal, state and local governments - and other groups around the country for that matter - had half of the initiative as the local Chapel on the Hill mission, the Gulf Coast reconstruction, if you will, would be further along today. While many sent off their checks last fall, Cedar Grove church members have made several trips to the region, lending physical support to help those in need. Another trip is planned for October.

We thank God for the privilege of doing our part in this effort, and we are very grateful for the kind words about us by the Verona-Cedar Grove Times.