What Mercy Looks Like, A Documentary on the Volunteers Rebuilding Houston Post Hurricane Harvey

CYPRESS, Texas - Oct. 9, 2017 - PRLog -- This Woman Knows (TWK) and Prettywork Creative LLC worked together to create a documentary featuring the heroes of Hurricane Harvey—the volunteers. This story is about their selflessness and the organization that coordinated it all, Mercy Response. These volunteers came from across the country to help Texans rebuild their lives. It's the perfect picture of what mercy looks like and filmmakers Elgin and Lisa Alexander share the inspirational story in their first documentary.

Mercy Response, a New Orleans based organization, partnered with Trinity Vineyard Church in Cypress, TX to coordinate relief efforts throughout the Greater Houston area. The organization is responsible for helping families during Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike, the Baton Rouge flood, and the Iowa flood.

The volunteers are responsible for removing tons of debris from homes and churches and tearing down thousands of sheets of drywall. They've become quite efficient performing these tasks and according to Shawn Rich, associate pastor at Vineyard Church of New Orleans stated that a crew was able to clear and gut a home that had 18 inches of water in it just six hours.

Rich and Trinity Vineyard Church pastor, Michael Lehmann were exchanging text messages even as the rain relentlessly pounded the city and a decision was made to dispatch the response group. And Trinity was designated as the group's base camp. The church houses and feeds volunteers, stores supplies and distributes what the organization calls, Boxes of Hope to families in need.

One volunteer, Gerald (Jerry) Barrington of Plauche, LA and member of the Vineyard Church of New Orleans is the organization's oldest volunteer. At 82 years young, he's part of the base camp set-up team and started volunteering at the age of 78. "If you ever get exposed to it [volunteering], you can't resist it," Barrington said. "It just feels good to do good," he continued. So much so, Barrington sold his Grand Marquis and bought a pick-up truck so he could better serve his community.

Filmmaker and TWK editor-and-chief, Lisa N. Alexander says she was absolutely amazed by the organization and the volunteers who traversed through some pretty treacherous roads to help families begin rebuilding their lives.

"I listened to their stories and was amazed at the heart these people had to serve and that's how this documentary came about," Alexander stated.

She went on to say that this story is about the volunteers and that they are the heroes.

"People stopped their own lives to come help people. All people. Didn't matter your race or ethnicity, your social class, your religion or lack thereof, none of that matter. These heroes came to help people put their lives back together," she continued.

The documentary will be released on Thanksgiving Day.

Click here to view the trailer.