| VIM team first on scene after Isabel BOONSBORO On Sept. 19, 13 members of Mt. Nebo UMC and Brook Hill UMC were preparing to depart on a VIM mission to North Carolina to help with the recovery from Hurricane Floyd that hit four years ago. Instead they diverted to Edenton, N.C., becoming the first group there to help clean up from Hurricane Isabel. The VIM group hastily added chain saws, mops and shovels a nd a small bulldozer to the construction supplies they had already packed, and left from their homes, many of which had power outages, reported Katie Smith, Mt. Nebo VIM coordinator. In Edenton, they helped prepare and serve food for emergency workers, cleared trees from homes and put on temporary roof patches to prevent further rainwater damage. The destruction caused by Isabel will require long-term rebuilding, Smith said, VIM teams and other volunteers are desperately needed. Contact the North Carolina agency M.E.R.C.I. at (888) 440-9167 or Sandy Ferguson at (800) 492-2525, Ext. 431. Meanwhile closer to home DEALE Hours after Isabel swept through Deale, which sits on a point between a creek and the Chesapeake Bay, Cedar Grove UMC had its doors open to the community. Peoples homes in the area were moved off their foundations, boulders from rip-rap were washed into peoples yards and some people had their neighbors docks show up on their property, reported Cindy Morgan, the church secretary. Hospitality was the keystone of the storm response. Members with electricity opened their homes for five or six days so people without could take hot showers. The church offered hot coffee and muffins each morning, and in the evening members served dinner for those who were displaced, without electricity or volunteering. This is what Christ calls us to do, help each other, Morgan said. We were the front lines. The Rev. Kevin Baker made arrangements with nearby West River Methodist Center to house several displaced families in the camps cabins. Eds trolley survived the fire SILVER SPRING Nearly half of the irreplaceable relics at the National Capital Trolley Museum were destroyed in a fire Sept. 28, the Washington Post reported. One of the two car barns making up the museum was completely destroyed in Montgomery Countys costliest fire in recent history, causing an estimated $10 million in damage and destroying some of the irreplaceable one-of-a-kind trolleys. Wesley Paulson, a member at Millian Memorial UMC in Rockville, is a trustee at the museum. Conference historian, the Rev. Edwin Schell, a well-known trolley buff, had been instrumental in finally obtaining for the museum the first trolley built with a center door. It ran from 1912 to 1945 in Washington, D.C. Eds trolley was one of 11 cars housed at different sites. The museum will continue to be open from noon to 5 p.m. on the weekends. Paulson said the museum doesnt know yet when trolley rides, which enticed 20,000 visitors a year, will resume. Memory quilt enhances worship HYATTSVILLE As dancers and drummers led the procession at First UMC on World Communion Sunday, Oct. 5, a hand-stitched quilt was unveiled on the Communion table. The 6-foot by 12-foot quilt was made by eight church members who gathered fabrics with memories from throughout the congregation, said Phyllis Ramberg who honchoed the project. Each 12-inch square was made of the fabrics of our lives, many pieces from African fabrics, several from wedding dresses, childrens pajamas, feedsacks from the 1930s, silks from India, favorite neckties, even an emblem from a hat, Ramberg said. | 
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