Singer Sara Groves Puts Tour Bus in Service of Katrina Survivors
by Mary Rettig
September 19, 2005
(AgapePress) - Christian singer-songwriter Sara Groves says God moved her to mount her own relief mission to Hurricane Katrina victims in Louisiana. She says seeing media images of suffering storm survivors as well as a book she had been reading convicted her of the need to get personally involved in responding to the catastrophe.Groves, in addition to being a recording artist, is a popular women's conference speaker and also performs at many young adult and youth events and at several summer festivals. According to the Minnesota-based singer's website, her career is a family affair with her husband, Troy, serving as manager, while their young sons, Kirby and Toby, travel with them when she is on tour.
After seeing the suffering Hurricane Katrina victims on TV, Groves' heart was moved with compassion. "I guess something just kind of snapped inside me when I was watching another baby dehydrate on TV," she says. "My husband and I have a tour bus, and with the help of our local church and our local Christian radio station, we filled the bus with diapers and wipes and formula; and with a loose connection in Slidell, Louisiana, we began our trip down there."
The couple drove from Minnesota to Louisiana, where they found other Christians helping out with outreach and recovery efforts and with distribution of relief supplies. Groves says it was extremely encouraging to work with believers who were all similarly compelled by the Lord to come help. "I just feel like I've seen the hand of God over and over again in our time there," she says."
Groves recalls that something she was reading helped compel her to get involved. "I just put a book down by Gary Haugen, who heads up International Justice Mission," she notes, "and he said, 'In times of disaster, I've ceased to ask where is God, and I've begun to ask where are God's people.' And I don't think it's a mistake that I put that book down about a week and a half ago."
It was inspiring, the Christian music artist says, to see so many Christians working side-by-side to help bring relief. For Groves, one might say her impulse to go on the road with a bus full of supplies for hurricane victims' infants was her way of adding to what the body of Christ is doing in the region.
Groves will be hitting the road again next month in support of her latest studio project, Add to the Beauty, her fourth recording with INO Records. Starting October 6, the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter will be touring with Jars of Clay and Chris Rice.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
