Imagine, Believe, Achieve! Day #9

I made it home! Woo Hoo!
My doggies were so excited to see me, my cats gave me he** for being away so long ( in keeping with cat etiquette of course)and my husband gave be a big hug and kiss and smile. It was truly the best gift...the love of those who know and understand you for who you are. Nothing on earth feels this good. But I'm betting that my bed will feel pretty close to that wonderful when I slip under the covers tonight. Looking forward to that so much that I may take a nap just to lay in my own bed.

It was good to rant yesterday. Thanks for listening. And thanks to Rhonda who emailed me with a few ideas that gave me a few more...and so in keeping with our new Phi Mu corporate theme, I'm actually going to imagine, believe and hopefully achieve something to help Bay St. Louis and Waveland.

IMAGINE
What it would be like if we could each leverage our community, work and Phi Mu resources to help rebuild this area. What if my town of Bound Brook NJ (having lived it's own nightmare of flood disasters in '96 and '99) were to sister city with BSL and WL to help them as a community? How about if my alumnae chapter makes a spouse event out of a week on the road to BSL and WL to work for habitat for humanity to rebuild sisters homes? Since I am a member of the missions committee at church, what if I speak to the committee and have my church run a 2 week program to BSL and WL much like the Appalachian service project to help rebuild the community? And if I asked my State Farm associates to band together to work with Habitat for Humanity~ a State Farm sponsored charity~ and received regional VP approval for employees to have time off from work to help rebuild homes lost in the flood? What if I wrote to Extreme makeover and asked them to consider taking on a whole town? I can imagine all of these things....

BELIEVE
And I Believe it can all happen. There are sisters on this list who know how to do Urban planning. Sisters who know how to help people thru the banking and finance process. Sisters who are attorneys who can help, Sisters who know technology and can aid in our communication, those who have spouses who can build, sisters who are in insurance who can help others figure out policy language, sisters who know Habitat for humanity first hand, and those who are brave enough to make this work. We can call it "The Katrina Project". I believe in these things because I believe in the strength we have as a team. And I believe God can handle the details.
Will it be easy? I do not believe it will be. Will it be rewarding? I believe it will be. Will we disagree, fight and become frustrated when things do not instantly fall into place? YES, I believe we will. But it should not deter us from making a difference.

Remember when I said it was YOU, ME, ALL OF US TOGETHER? I meant it. Time to put the focus on doing...enough talk.

ACHIEVE
We need a strategic plan and a set of volunteers. I'm on board. I'm prepared to give up personal time I could use for a vacation somewhere to make it work. I'm willing to set aside other things in my life to do this. I hope I find some others who will be willing to join me, in Phi Mu, In Church, In State Farm.

In the book of Esther, there is a part of the story when Esther is afraid for her life to approach the king to ask for help for the Israelites. Her brother, Mordecai says to her : " Who knows if you were brought to the kingdom for such a time as this?" and she overcomes her fears and asks the king for the favor of Mordecai's deliverance and is given her request. I believe God has called us for such a time as this. The remaining details I'll leave to him as he seems to have provided for the details all week.

Will any of you join me? If so, you are welcome to dictate the terms of your involvement, as much or as little as you like, using the talents you choose to gift. And if you wish to watch, that's fine too, we will need a cheering section!

The trip is over, the task set to begin. Who knew when I left 9 days ago I would come back to more work than I can think about? I'm scared, overwhelmed at the prospect ahead. But I am excited to do for others what I would they would do for me....which is a very loose translation of the line in our creed " To be to others what we would they would be to us".

Let's get busy.
Audrey

Update: 11/3/05
After much discussion with the various departments at State Farm, a proposal has been sent to Habitat for Humanity International in an effort to help build homes for Gulf coast residents effected by Katrina. Thank you State Farm for restoring my faith in big business. In addition, my church is scheduled to head down to Louisiana in March to have a work crew work on a habitat site for a week! What a wonderful congregation...how did I ever find you?

I am chairing, along with Susan Mahn and Ed Mahn a State Farm committee in New Jersey to raise funds for 2 Habitat for Humanity buildings...did you know it only takes 75k to build a Habitat home? Our proposal to the Morris County Habitat For Humanity is to work with us to build one home in a box to ship to Waveland/Bay St. Louis, and one home locally. Pray that we find generosity in our associates to make this happen. I believe we will.

For those who gave funds to help keep our collegiate members of Phi Mu in the chapters where we know that have a home, I thank you. You will be happy to know we did not lose even 1 member to financial straits after the storm from the Alpha Omicron chapter. They all remain part of the chapter with a new view of what sisterhood really means. Initiation is in 2 weeks...if I were attending, I'm sure I'd need a truckload of Kleenex to make it thru the ceremony. While I always thought I understood sisterhood, little did I know that the lessons of Phi Mu would continue to add to my life well into my midlife years. Sorority is irreplaceable. Sisterhood is precious. Thank you all for your generosity.

Audrey