Short-term anxiety

Missions | Summer missionaries face rising costs, a falling dollar, and a steady flow of need | Jamie Dean

Just a few weeks before a fresh crop of short-term missions teams were scheduled to begin arriving at his church for summer work projects, New Orleans pastor Jerry Kramer described his mood: "tired, a bit fussy, but exceedingly blessed and privileged."

If Kramer is tired or a bit fussy, it's largely because he's spent nearly three years "living on the run and then the edge" after Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed his home and his Episcopal church in New Orleans' low-lying Broadmoor neighborhood in 2005.

Since then, Church of the Annunciation has been a constant relief outpost and a driving force in the revitalization of a neighborhood with 2,000 homes still severely damaged (see "Bottom up," Sept. 15, 2007).