BUILDING ON FAITH, an interfaith religion special about the ongoing role of religion in bringing post-Katrina Mississippi back to life, will be broadcast Sunday, June 17 on the CBS Television Network. Check your local station for exact time.

             This program reminds the audience that the Gulf Coast, especially Mississippi where the storm made a direct hit, has barely begun to recover. As the broadcast points out, thousands of vacant lots and concrete slabs remain where once there were communities. Poor homeowners have been particularly hard hit. Uninsured or underinsured, they have been unable to restore or rebuild their homes without a great deal of help from faith-based disaster recovery organizations and charity groups. One estimate is that fully nine out of ten homes rebuilt or restored in the state's poorer communities would have been abandoned but for such help and the volunteer labor provided by religious congregations around the country. The broadcast concentrates on Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist disaster relief organizations, but other volunteers also  have participated in the almost two years since the storm hit on Aug. 29, 2005.  The danger now is that volunteers will stop coming in the belief that the problems of restoring Mississippi have been solved.

            The broadcast covers rebuilding activity in Biloxi, Moss Point, Gulfport, Waveland and elsewhere in the coastal counties, where Katrina completely destroyed more than 65,000 homes and damaged 90,000 more. The United Methodist Disaster Relief, Catholic Relief Services, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi, along with a variety of other charitable groups have been the main support of these people. We meet volunteers from all over the United States and some from Canada, who share the belief that the inspiration they receive from the homeowners is far greater than the labor they give to them, which includes hard work hanging sheet rock or laying carpet.

             The homeowners, no matter how strapped financially, exhibit an unyielding will to survive and recapture their former lives -- some make lifelong friends of the volunteers from Arkansas, Toronto or Seattle whom they meet, perhaps for only a week. Above all, there is a plea from homeowners, case managers, and volunteer supervisors that people need to keep coming down to these areas to help. They are still building on faith, but will need many hands for some years ahead before Mississippi is anywhere near normal.  

            John P. Blessington is executive producer of the special; Ted Holmes is the producer.  The special is produced with the cooperation of the national Council of Churches, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Islamic Society of North America, and a consortium of Jewish organizations.