Christian Relief Efforts Help Bring Hope to Hurricane Katrina Survivors
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
September 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - Christian churches, organizations, and volunteer groups across the United States are coordinating efforts to provide temporary shelter, relief supplies, and recovery assistance to survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the storm that recently devastated much of the U.S. Gulf Coast region. As the outreach to Katrina's victims continues, many are discovering the Good Samaritan is not just a parable -- its an ongoing story. A campaign spearheaded by the American Family Association to provide recreational vehicles and motor homes to Hurricane Katrina victims is already helping people in need. This effort, Operation Hurricane Hope, allows those left homeless or temporarily displaced by the storm to receive an RV to live in while their homes are being repaired or rebuilt.
Shelter After the Storm
David Eldridge pastor of Eastlawn Baptist Church in Pascagoula on Mississippi's Gulf Coast as well as a full-time seminary student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Danielle, will be receiving an RV and will live in it near the church in Pascagoula while their home is being repaired. The damage is severe, and the repair work is expected to take months.
For Danielle, the unexpected donation of the RV was somewhat staggering. "I feel a little bit overwhelmed with the situation," she says, "the generosity of people from all around in this situation -- that people would give of themselves, especially in this way, to provide us a home. I'm very thankful right now."
This gift will not only help the Eldridge family, but will also help them reach out to others, Danielle points out. She says the RV will make it possible for them to live near the church and help its members. "I'm a school teacher," the pastor's wife explains. "I teach at Grace Christian School in Pascagoula, and they are relocating. The building has too much damage right now to bring children into. We're starting school next Tuesday, so it's going to be wonderful for me to have a place to be there and start school."
Organizers of Operation Hurricane Hope are asking those who receive RVs to pass them on to needy families when they are back in their own homes. Of course, there are several times more displaced people than there are donated RVs to go around, and for many of these storm survivors' homes are beyond repair, under water, or no longer standing.
Connie Smith has lived in her house in the lower 9th ward of New Orleans for 12 years. That area was one of the hardest hit when Hurricane Katrina caused two levees to break, flooding most of the city. Smith, along with her son, niece and fiancé, evacuated to a hotel but had to leave after a few days when it was declared unsafe.
The longtime New Orleans resident says she and her family began driving north and ended up in the first city where they could find hotel space and gas -- Tupelo, Mississippi. Eventually, she notes, her family will have to move to Tupelo's BancorpSouth Center, an 8,000-seat arena that is now a makeshift shelter for hurricane victims.
Beyond that Smith's plans are uncertain. "I haven't thought about going back because, right now, there's nothing to go back to," she says, "and I don't know how long it will take them to build it back up. It's scary."
Also scary, the evacuee points out, is not knowing what has happened to friends, neighbors, and other members of her community back home. And she is still trying to find out, she says, whether the church of which she is a member, New Hope Baptist Church in New Orleans, was damaged in the storm. At present, she has had no word as to whether there is any sanctuary to return to or whether, like so much of her city, it too is gone.
Smith says the outpouring of support she's experienced from the locals has made her consider staying in northeast Mississippi. "It makes a big difference," the storm survivor emphasizes, "because, you know what? We're here. We're still alive, and I'm surrounded with good people." That knowledge, Smith says, along with her trust in Jesus Christ, is helping her to "stay strong and keep the faith."
But even as many evacuees from the storm-affected Gulf Coast region are heading north in search of shelter assistance, churches throughout the United States are sending aid south in the form of donations. And in some nearby states, congregations are even transporting relief and recovery assistance personally.
Twelve members of Tupelo's Parkway Baptist Church loaded chain saws, building materials, and gasoline Thursday for a six-hour trip to Pascagoula on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. The Christian volunteers now en route will spend the next two days clearing downed trees from people's yards and roadways, unloading supply trucks and meeting other needs onsite.
Putting the Parable into Practice
Parkway Baptist Church's Pastor Paul Brashier says the trip gives congregation members a chance to lend hands and feet to the gospel. "We do a lot of preaching at my church about not being just hearers of the Word but doers of the Word," he says, "and we're really wanting to make some application to things we teach and preach every week. This is just a modern-day parallel to the Good Samaritan story that Jesus told."
Brashier says he and the other Parkway members involved in the Hurricane Katrina disaster outreach simply want "to be good neighbors to those folks down on the coast. We love them, and we care for them and just want to help them out."
The Tupelo-based American Family Association is urging believers across the U.S. to coordinate with their local churches to reach out to Hurricane Katrina victims, as well as to support the Christian disaster response efforts of organizations like The Salvation Army that are already providing services to storm survivors and first responders in the Gulf Coast states.
The Salvation Army provides an opportunity for donors to give to its Hurricane Relief Fund online. The organization's website notes that a $100 donation will feed a family of four for two days, provide two cases of drinking water and one household clean-up kit, containing brooms, mops, buckets, and cleaning supplies.
