Dittos start second year of mission work

Published:  Monday, November 9, 2009 (4 months, 1 week ago)
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Buzz Ditto, back left, and his wife, Ellen, front center, with friends they met in the past year while performing missionary work in the U.S.BY NANCY SPENCER
The Delphos Herald
nspencer@delphosherald.com

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
Ellen Ditto, who along with her husband spent the last year doing mission work in Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland and Ohio, opened a recent talk with this phrase.
Last year around this time, she and her husband, Buzz, were preparing to leave for the Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Ky., a poor Appalachian community.
The couple had always been drawn to missionary work. In early 2008, they sold their country home and moved in with Ellen’s sister until the time for them to depart at the end of September 2008.
They started out in Frakes, where they had planned to spend nine months, and ended up in Slidell, La., in the Shreveport area, helping with Hurricane Katrina relief.
“We fell in love with Louisiana and the people,” Ellen said. “Even after four years, the recovery that needs to be done is awesome. The government estimated it would take 11 years to fully recover from Hurricane Katrina. The hope the people have is amazing. They’ve lost everything and they still give and care for each other, especially family.”
The Dittos said the view of the 9th Ward was one of devastation.
“You would look and there was just nothing — open lots,” Buzz said. “They said that for weeks after the hurricane, all you could hear was chainsaws and generators.”
Buzz led work teams to repair homes and work on new builds and Ellen helped caseworkers, talked with people on the phone to get relief to victims and sometimes, just listened to the stories.
“Families left in caravans and got separated,” Ellen said. “It was so sad to hear of all the families that were split up.”
The couple also spent time in Athens, Ohio, with Goodworks at the Timothy House, the only shelter in a nine-county area. It had 15 beds.
“We would help people earn credits by finding them Samaritan projects to help others. They would clean gutters, rake leaves or mow lawns,” Ellen said. “The credits could be used for appliances, furniture and even cars that were donated.”
In Elkton, Md., they lived in a community with a large number of homeless and helped manage two shelters.
At Clairborn Farms, there was one dorm for eight families, 26 children and 25 adults. They provided transportation three times a week. Buzz did repairs, maintenance and construction and Ellen was the afternoon and evening manager. During her time there, Ellen met a young boy who had been brought in for discipline for hitting another child.
“He was a very troubled young man,” Ellen said. “He said the Lord’s name in vane — a lot. I told him that it hurt Jesus’ feelings when he did it and by the time we left, he wasn’t saying it anymore. The little things like that are seeds you hope you’ve planted to change the way someone thinks.”
The couple also spent some time this past year training with the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission for disaster relief.
“We were not trained as first responders or anything like that,” Ellen said. “We learned how to help with what comes after — the rebuilding of home and spirits.”
After returning to Delphos for several weeks in October, they headed to Sylvania, Ala., in the Upper Sand Mountain Parish. The parish is approximately 1,000 square miles of rural Appalachian poor. Buzz planned to help construct Heart and Hand Homes, similar to Habitat for Humanity Homes. Ellen planned to work in the parish office, thrift store and conduct Bible studies.
Who knows where they’ll end up.
“This last year has been so rewarding and fulfilling. We wouldn’t change a thing,” Ellen said. “We continue to make plans and I’m sure God is still laughing.”

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