Multi-Faith Mission Trip

Officials estimate that Hurricane Harvey inflicted approximately $125 billion in damage across Texas and parts of Louisiana. Harvey dumped over 27 trillion gallons of water over the affected parts of Texas, with some areas receiving over 50 inches of rain. Among the hardest hit was Houston. By early September, the storm waters finally receded. But the clean-up and rebuilding will take years, billions of dollars, sustained response by government and aid agencies, and countless volunteers and fellow citizens who are willing to pitch in.

Three faith communities on Chicago’s north shore will decidedly be a part of that volunteer effort.

Not separately. Not coincidentally. But very intentionally—together.

The three faith communities are: Congregation Hakafa, Muslim Community Center (Morton Grove Campus), and Winnetka Congregational Church.

The idea for a multi-faith mission trip came to Winnetka Congregational Church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Jeffrey D. Braun, very organically. Almost as soon as he asked his congregation to rally a team to help Houston rebuild, the idea arose to do this not as an individual faith community but, rather, as a part of a multi-faith partnership.

As compelling as the desire to help neighbors in Houston was the timely opportunity to make an embodied statement about the power of religion to bring us together and to emphasize what we have in common.

Braun reached out first to Rabbi Bruce Elder of Congregation Hakafa. Elder shared that Congregation Hakafa was also planning to send a team to Houston. Elder loved the idea of going together and of partnering with Morton Grove Muslim Community Center.

Braun’s next call was to Dilnaz Waraich, who is the head of Muslim Community Center’s Interfaith and Outreach Committee. Dilnaz shared that sending a mission team to a disaster area would be a first for Muslim Community Center and would require laying some groundwork. Yet, she was intrigued by the multi-faith opportunity. In short order, MCC was enthusiastically on board, identifying Asif Masood as MCC’s team leader.

The multi-faith format of their upcoming Houston mission/service trip will be first for all three of the faith communities involved.

In Houston, the multi-faith team will be working with SBP (formerly St. Bernard Project). SBP began humbly as two people (Liz McCartney, a teacher; and Zack Rosenburg, a lawyer) deciding to move to New Orleans in 2006 to help folks recover from Hurricane Katrina. Since then, SBP has become an unqualified leader in disaster recovery whose special skills and people-first approach have brought them to the Carolinas; Joplin, Missouri; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; New Jersey; New York; and, now, Houston.

When Houston Texans football star J.J. Watt sought to raise $200,000 post Harvey and wound up raising over $37 million, SBP was one of the four organizations that he entrusted with those funds. (SBP will be using those dollars to help rebuild and rehabilitate housing, alongside the other three organizations which will be focusing respectively on food, family services, and both physical and mental health services.)

For all three faith communities—Muslim Community Center, Congregation Hakafa, and Winnetka Congregational Church—the goals are shared. And clear. Help to serve those whose lives were so profoundly upset by Harvey’s deluge. Partner in every aspect of the trip with their sisters and brothers of the respective faith traditions. And, testify, through action, to the common good and community that can arise when people of different faith traditions observe their respective faiths while, at the same time, honoring and witnessing to the faith traditions of those with whom they partner.

While this trip will be a dramatic first for all three faith communities, the unified (and unifying) hope is that the Houston multi-faith mission trip will deepen their bonds and sense of partnership, fuel future collaborations, and inspire others to join in.