As she entered New Orleans in June 2007 with a work crew of 60 teens from the New Wilmington Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Lisa Nichols Hickman was appalled at how little the city had recovered from Hurricane Katrina nearly two years earlier.

The crew worked in a wasteland, with houses moldering in abandonment or stripped to the studs for rebuilding. A steel wall hung in a tree.

"The grief and the suffering is raw," said the Rev. Hickman, the associate pastor, who returned with more volunteers this year.

Hers is among hundreds of southwestern Pennsylvania congregations and religious groups that have sent thousands of volunteers to the Gulf Coast to rebuild and to offer comfort. Participants say they feel they made a difference, and that their own faith was deepened.

No one knows the total of local volunteers. The Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has sent 521 from scores of churches since the hurricane struck on Aug. 29, 2005. The United Methodist Conference of Western Pennsylvania has sent 800-900.

Aid groups say 10 more years of rebuilding are needed. Only 25 percent of wrecked homes have been rebuilt.

The need was so overwhelming that the Rev. Rick Nelson, now pastor of White Chapel United Methodist Church in New Wilmington, took a two-year leave to serve as a case manager for Katrina survivors. He worked for Katrina Aid Today, a program funded by overseas donations to Katrina relief and channelled by the federal government to the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

"The faith-based groups help through the longest period of time, and that's true for every disaster," he said. "They're the first in and the last out."

Hillel International has sent more than 2,500 Jewish college students on "alternative spring break," about 80 of them from Pittsburgh in 2006 and 2007, said Aaron Weil, executive director of the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh.

It's an exercise in tzedek, a commandment to make things right, he said.

"It was an amazing, transformative experience. We can talk about changing the world, but to give somebody the means to do it is something you can't teach in a classroom," he said.

On the Rev. Hickman's first trip, the teens slept on the floor of a church. Every survivor told them: "Tell our story."

In January, 30 of them returned with a video camera. While continuing to repair houses, they took a writing workshop to learn to craft the stories they heard. They gave their own writing workshop for fourth-and fifth-graders, producing six children's books.

"It makes a difference in the life of a kid who's gone through trauma to just come and be their friend, not questioning them on their 'Katrina Experience,' but rather letting them run over to you at lunch, rip out your hair tie, and start braiding your hair," wrote high school senior Addie Domske, the teens' video editor.

"It makes a difference to the people here in New Wilmington to actually see the work we did in New Orleans."

One who saw was Jim Moose, 51, a builder of custom furniture.

Moved by a Bible passage about giving one's labor and income back to God, he had a vision of building tables similar to those that pioneers took west in wagons. They are easily dismantled for compact shipment.

Thus was born the Table Project. He bought red oak, a flooring wood whose price had plummeted in the housing slump. The owner of Riethmiller Lumber offered to cut and plane it into kits from which hobbyists could easily build tables.

Working through churches of many denominations, Mr. Moose organized 75 volunteers, mostly retirees. One was battling prostate cancer.

"He told me that for the first time in over a year he got up and didn't care how he felt because he had something more important to do," Mr. Moose said.

In eight weeks they produced 100 tables, which fit into the rig that PI&I Trucking of Sharon donated. Mr. Moose made his first trip to the Gulf for the delivery last month.

In the New Orleans area alone, up to 18,000 families need furniture. Mr. Moose was present when the first table was delivered to an 81-year-old retired Greyhound driver and World War II veteran.

"It has been almost three years since he has had a meal in his own home," his daughter wrote in a thank-you letter. "Prayerfully, the table will remain in our family for years to come and we can pass the history of the table to our future generations."

Mr. Moose has volunteers at work on benches and is collecting wooden folding chairs.

"For the first time in 51 years I feel like I'm making a difference," he said.

Returning to the Gulf Coast year after year allows many volunteers to see that difference. The Rev. Stephen Morse, pastor of Unionville United Methodist Church in New Sewickley, twice took members to Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss. In 2007, they contacted a family in whose home they worked the year before.

The father -- who had since been hired to maintain kitchen equipment in a casino -- insisted on inviting the 16 volunteers to the casino for a seafood buffet.

"He was beaming as he sat back and watched all of us eat," the Rev. Morse said. "I had worked in his home the year before, and he looked beaten. The difference in his demeanor was like night and day."

Even small churches sponsor trips. Christ Community Church of the South Hills, an independent church that meets in Eisenhower Elementary School, Upper St, Clair, has sent four crews to Biloxi, starting in December 2005.

They stay at a "village" the Salvation Army runs for volunteers in a former stadium, with living quarters under the bleachers, said Marlaena Cochran, director of spiritual formation.

Early trips required little skill. But by 2007 volunteers needed to know how to hang drywall. The church approached the Home Depot at South Hills Village, knowing that it offered home repair clinics. The store held several sessions to instruct the volunteers.

Most volunteers raise money from friends and family.

Christ Community Church raised money for plane tickets, the Salvation Army provided lodging and food, while other donors supplied drywall. But church members raised enough extra to buy carpet for one house and siding for another.

About 30 students a year from Carlow University raise at least $750 each to spend spring break in New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward, said Sister Mary Pellegrino, director of campus ministry.

This year, one team painted a Catholic school built by a contractor who took the sisters' money and left without finishing.

The Carlow students had raised enough to buy the $1,000 of paint they used, plus paint for the next volunteers.

The students acquired a healthy skepticism about the government's care for vulnerable citizens, she said. Many were inspired to embark on careers to help others. Above all they were moved by the faith of people who had lost everything.

"That was the greatest witness, for our students to see that and reflect on how they want to behave in their own lives when they are confronted by challenging circumstances," she said.

Among the best bargains are trips sponsored by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Next year, the round trip bus fare to Ocean Springs, Miss., is $150. Food and lodging totals $25 per day at Camp Victor, an old factory that the Lutheran and Episcopal churches of Mississippi converted into a volunteer center.

In the United Methodist conference, an early example was set by Bishop Thomas Bickerton, who mucked mud out of houses in January 2006.

Dick Craig, 65, a retired postal worker and member of First United Methodist of New Castle, made his first Gulf Coast trip at about the same time, traveling with a Presbyterian church. He returned to help run the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camp where volunteers lived. In 2007 and 2008, he helped United Methodist crews among Houma Indians in Dulac, La. Most could not get federal help to rebuild because their homes were in such disrepair before Katrina.

Like many volunteers, he was deeply moved by the gratitude of the Gulf Coast people. On one trip a volunteer driver caused a collision with a truck driven by a resident, badly denting it.

"The first thing he said when he came over to talk to us was, 'Thank you for coming down here,' " Mr. Craig said.

Volunteers can register for Camp Victor at 228-282-3754. The Table Project will go online soon at www.westernpatableproject.org and Mr. Moose is at 724-652-6731.