My mother is one of those rare women who can drive a nail, lay bricks and wire a house for electricity. I've seen her do it all. In her 80s, she's been on three mission trips.

Arnold's mother

My father could do none of the above. I take after him. No matter. I've had the opportunity to spread paint inside and out, and cook a few meals on several mission trips myself. I recommend it. I recommend it for your congregation and I recommend it for you. You don't have to be as handy as my mama. A mission trip is a lot like a round of golf. It gives one a good chance to get completely away from one's everyday cares and routines. Lord knows we need that.

Yet a mission trip is a whole lot different from a round of golf. Golf doesn't matter. Of course it doesn't matter if you play it like Arnold Nelson but it still doesn't matter if you play golf like Arnold Palmer or Byron Nelson. It doesn't matter the way bowling, catch and release fishing, and repelling a mountain doesn't matter. A mission trip offers you a good chance to get away from your everyday cares and routines and lose yourself in things that matter more. The time spent with others, for others, can make all the difference to others. That's exactly the sort of thing that makes all the difference to any one of us.

Not to change the subject, but this continent experienced two of its greatest disasters about a year ago. At the tail end of August, the Gulf Coast was slammed by Hurricane Katrina and followed by Hurricane Rita, a one-two punch. Surely no one is unaware of this recent history. So much of it was all over the news and, a year later, not a day goes by without some mention of it. Not that it always makes it on your six o'clock news.

It took about a month before Disciples hosted the first group of volunteers. They were a group from a church that had to respond to this Gulf Coast nightmare with some physical expression of their Christian faith. Since then, 210 such groups have made the journey south: that translates to more than a thousand Disciples from every part of North America. They were young and old, male and female, from large and small churches, multi-talented and just like me. They went to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Most stayed a few days and a few remain. Most would say they made very little difference, but I think they're wrong. They are making a profound difference in life in the Gulf Coast, in our congregations there, in the congregations from which they came, and in their own lives.

We need more people from more congregations traveling to the Gulf Coast and we're going to need them doing so for the next several years. It will take the next several years to make a real dent in the recovery of that part of the world and it will take that long for God to use these disasters to work a miracle in our church. Miracles that take a few years are miracles nonetheless. That's why we are launching Disciples Recovery Missions.

Who is this "We" doing this and what is it we're doing? "We" are all of us. With your generous gifts to Week of Compassion, Disciples Home Missions is setting up Disciples Recovery Missions in the regions of the affected area. Congregations, including your own, are being called to enlist 750 groups of Disciples from all regions to travel to DHM mission stations operated by DHM in Disciples congregations in the Great River and Southwest Regions of our church, and in cooperation with those regions. Much still needs to be worked out. But what we do know is that DHM staffer, the Rev. Tod Iseminger, will be working with the Rev. Carl Zerweck to facilitate this program and we will have mission station managers in such places as Gulfport, Miss.; Mandeville, Slidell and Lake Charles, La.; and Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, to receive you and make sure you have a place to sleep, a place to work, and as needed, reminders of why we're doing this.

Meanwhile, go play your 18 holes. Bowl a couple of lanes or shoot some hoops. Go to the mall. Have a good time but think about brothers and sisters in Christ who could use you for a few days. Don't even think about cleaning up entire cities; that would overwhelm you. Just think of a house in need of a new roof, dry wall, or even a coat of paint. Think of the younger member who could use your teaching skills or the older one who could use a driver. There's work enough for us all and blessings too. And remember, you don't have to be as handy as my mama.

Glad to be with you in Christian mission,

—The Rev. Arnold C. Nelson Jr., president of Disciples Home Missions, is a native of Clarksville, Tenn., and is a member of Southport Christian Church, Indianapolis.