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For those directly affected by the storms
of 2005, life is not back to normal, or perhaps “normal” has changed. In the Great River
Region, communities south of I-20 have had new priorities placed before them,
and it’s a blessing to see how our congregations are responding. Communities across the gulf coast (I-10/12)
have varied experiences and are in differing states of recovery… with just as
many reasons why that recovery seems to be moving so slowly.
Today, I’d like to share a few of my
perspectives with you and hope that you will share them within your
congregation. I am back from three
weeks working out of New Orleans. I made an effort to get some pictures
across the city to give you a sense of how massive the recovery effort
remains. First, I’ll start with a
review of where our congregations are in recovery, then I want to share some sensitivities to be aware of, and finally, use some graphics to give you a sense of the devastation that
remains a year after Katrina hit the Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coast.
I.
Review of our Congregations
Starting at the southeastern border of our
region and moving to southwestern border, we start with First Christian
Church of Moss Point, Mississippi. Moss
Point is a community that sits directly north of Pasgagoula, and suffered a great deal of damage throughout
the community. Nearly every family in
the church has faced recovery and rebuilding efforts. Pastor Lester Brooks has shifted his work
from the Naval shipyards where he served as an electrician to working as a
private electrical contractor. Between
pastoring the church and working as an electrican he is busy 24/7. Moss Point
was one of the first mission stations for Office of Disciples Volunteering in
partnership with Week of Compassion and the Great River
Region. Congregations from across the
denomination have been to Moss Point
to help “cut and gut” and rebuild homes there. Rev. Ann Pickett, associate at Moss Point,
serves now as the Vice President of Disciples Women of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ). To read one
congregation’s experience in Moss
Point, check out this website: http://www.indianadisciples.org/missionreflections.php
Meridian MS sits straight north of Moss
Point by several hours, right at I-20 and I-59, near the Alabama border. Katrina was still F2 when it went over Meridian, and though
flooding was not a problem, trees were down and electricity off for several
days. First Christian Church stayed
open throughout the storm and became the official site for feeding emergency
workers. For more than a week, Rev.
Tom Sikes and the congregation fed police, fire, MEMA, electrical and rescue
crews three meals a day. Much of the
work was done using their gas stoves in the kitchen and a generator as there
was no power. No electricity meant
there was no air conditioning. At the
same time, Dr. Randy Nance and others headed south with a medical mission to
Long Beach and began caring for residents suffering from storm related
injuries and caring for ongoing medical needs. Check out www.pavingyourway.com for more
stories from Meridian. They served as a mission station for the
Office of Disciples Volunteering early on, and continue their commitment to
long term recovery efforts. Most
recently they provided a professional crew of steel workers to erect a new
building at Westside Christian Church in New Orleans. We couldn’t have done that job with
volunteers. Thanks FCC Meridian!!
Moving southwest on I-59 from Meridian, Hattiesburg
MS was hit hard with the winds
and rain of the F2 strength of Katrina.
Though the church was not damaged, the town was inundated with
evacuees even though utilities were not restored for weeks. Most members of the congregation lost trees
and some had damages to their homes.
Phones were not back in dependable working order until late September,
and mail was not delivered everywhere until November. Now, the community is struggling with
increased population and strain on its infrastructure. Pastor Norman Sanders has reached out with
colleagues in town to minister to the community. They are celebrating the congregation’s
anniversary this weekend and will have many pastors and former members back
to celebrate with them!
Gulfport,
MS
is still devastated, as are all the coastal communities. The congregation lost several members that
decided not to move back. Our church
was protected from the storm surge by First Baptist
Church, as we sit just
north of their property. However, the
water rushed through our church, damaging everything on the first floor. Carl Zerwick and
a work team from Moss Point
were able to “cut and gut” the first floor, treated for mold and got it dried
out to begin rehab. ODV has had a
mission station there at First Christian Church since early this spring. It will continue to serve as such for up to
three years. The sanctuary is nearly
finished and once the pews, lectern, pulpit and other wood items have been
refinished and carpet laid, the congregation will be back to worshipping in a
beautiful setting. Pastor Nick
Nickerson’s home is still not repaired as they wait for the contractor to get
around to them. They did have flood
insurance, but getting the work to be done is their challenge. The downtown area is coming back slowly,
but is still looks much as it did a year ago.
Debris has been picked up, but not much work has been done on
buildings. Mike Lee is the ODV
volunteer coordinator there, and lives in an RV on the property.
Moving west on I-10, Slidell LA
is next. FCC Slidell had mostly tree
damage to the property, a blessing given the eye of the storm went over Slidell and demolished
much of the community. There was
flooding in Slidell, but not to the extent of New Orleans as this was
hurricane related water surge as opposed to breaches in the levees. In fact, Slidell is a good example of what havoc is
wrecked by a hurricane. A year ago the
businesses along US 190 were ripped up.
They are coming back nicely.
Many members of the congregation still live in FEMA trailers and are
continuing to work on their homes, but the community itself is functioning
much more normally than in Gulfport or New Orleans. Rev. Eric Harris, former minister, and his
wife Lucy have moved to Nashville. His ministry at the church concluded late
last fall. Rev. Susan LaSalle is the
newly called pastor, and the congregation is ready
to serve as a Mission Station for the next
few years.
A few miles west of Slidell
on I-12 is Covington,
on the north shore
of Lake Ponchatrain.
Grace DOC was the first congregation able to get back into their community,
and was opened as our very first mission station just a week after the
storm. The homes of members are mostly
repaired and the community is back up and running for the most part. Grace was between called ministers when
Katrina hit, but their Interim, Rev. Frank Johnson was on the scene. He has been a critical leader and “doer”
throughout the initial and long term recovery efforts. They are now blessed with Rev. Laura Fitt as their pastor.
Her husband, Josh Baird, is the Mission station manager for both Grace
DOC and FCC of Greater New Orleans, across Lake Ponchatrain
in Metairie, LA.
Communities on the “North Shore” of Lake
Ponchatrain
are much like Slidell, Lake Charles and Sulphur LA. The Covington
Congregation experienced more typical hurricane damage and are
recovering from the destruction wrought by wind and rain. It took our moderator John Kirby about a
month to get his home repaired to a stated where he could bring his family
home. Grace DOC has been transformed
by the hurricanes. Just prior to
Katrina, they moved to a new facility and were ready for a new identity and a
new mission. Katrina has bonded them
in both identity and mission… and they have found that their new name of
“Grace Disciples of Christ
Church” describes what
they experience and share within the larger community. Having a new church home, a new church
name, a new identity and a new mission have been real signs of GRACE.
Continuing west on I-12 to Hammond, we
come to First Christian Church of Hammond and find a community that is
functioning much as it was prior to Katrina, but under the strain of
increased population. Housing is at a
premium and traffic is a mess. The
schools have increased enrollment, and the University of Southeast
Louisiana is in full swing. Much like Hattiesburg
and Baton Rouge, Hammond was a staging ground for military
and recovery operations, and the community will bear those memories for many
years to come. Hammond is where I
first experienced a fully militarized zone on my first trip south, 6 days
after the storm. It was very strange
to be watched by armed military personnel on hummers. (Speaking of military
presence, it is still found in New
Orleans. Last
week I made a point to make it to many communities that were flooded with
both Katrina and Rita, and more than once as I tried to take pictures, I was
kept moving bys National Guard troops in Hummers who kept an eye on me.)
Let’s go north from Hammond to McComb,
just an hour or so straight north on I-55.
McComb experienced much damage due to downed
trees, but like Hattiesburg and Baton Rouge, they have swelled with evacuees
who have moved there for “the long haul”.
FCC has spent an entire year assisting every week with food
preparation for the recovery workers, and are very involved with the
interfaith long term recovery organization.
Sara Beth Rials, a member of that church,
helped the regional office from January through August as one of the youth
coordinators who stepped in to see us through the year after Wendi Phillips
resigned last fall to work closer to home.
Rev. Donald Dick says that the entire mission of the congregation and
their sense of calling has changed as a result of
the hurricanes. It has not and is not
easy, but members there continue to care and reach out to those in need. David Welch, a Disciple working for the
Interfaith recovery center there, has joined the church recently, providing a
direct connection to ongoing recovery work.
Moving back to the south, take I-55 back
through Hammond toward New Orleans.
There are three ways to get from the
“North Shore” to Greater New Orleans:
I-55 south from Hammond to I-10 which transverses Greater New Orleans,
the Causeway Boulevard which cuts the lake in half and connects with I-10
mid-city, or going southwest from Slidell on either I-10 or US 11 cutting
across the eastern side of the lake.
All of these roads are on pilings, and if there is any kind of a burp in
traffic, one will sit for a very long time with no place to go. (Hint:
make a rest-stop before heading south!)
Picking back up with my east to west
narrative, I-10 from Slidell to New Orleans is one of
the most sobering drives I think I’ll ever experience. There is still total destruction the entire
20+ miles, much of which has only had debris picked up. When you hear that “electricity is back to
90% of the city”, it does not mean that homes and businesses have access to
it. It is a very dark drive at night
through New Orleans East, which sits between
I-10 and the Lake. It was hit by both the flooding of storm
surge and by breaches in the levees.
We do not have a church there, but this is one of the places where
“cut and gut” will go on for many, many months if not years.
Continuing west on I-10, we drive through Gentilly, Lakeview, Bucktown,
Metairie and Kenner on the north of the Interstate and the 9th
Ward, Lower 9th ward, St. Bernard Parish below that; then mid-city
and downtown, and then out to Metairie and Kenner which are on both sides of
the Interstate. Believe it or not, the
Mississippi River sits higher than New
Orleans, and those levees are not the ones that were
breeched. Thus, the communities in
Greater New Orleans
that back up to the river on the north side of it (OK they call it the East
Bank but it’s north of the river at this point on
the map) experienced wind and rain damage, but were spared the flooding of
the rest of the city. St. Charles
Avenue Christian Church is in this strip of the city,
and much of that community is looking even better than before the storm. Wind damage has thinned the neighborhood
trees and some of the beautiful homes on St. Charles Ave are easier to see. Newly painted buildings and pickup of
debris made me feel welcome and at home.
The trolley is not running, and there is damage to the tracks, but
that will come in time. In February,
the neighborhood still smelled awful due to the proximity of flooding, but
even that has abated. I had coffee at CC’s at Jefferson and
Magazine and had a hard time imagining the state of things a year ago. This is the ONLY place I felt that
way. The future of St.
Charles Avenue CC is no different than
before the storm: the same four
members live nearby and it is rented to a Presbyterian church that meets
there Sunday mornings. Various
community groups use the building, and appreciate its hardwood floors and
stage in the auditorium.
Still on the north side of the river (aka
“east bank”) the next congregation is FCC of Greater New Orleans, on Airport Highway. The neighborhood around the church was hit
hard with hurricane wind and rain damage, but it was not subject to the
flooding as the 17th street levee breached toward the east, not
the west. Nearly every member of the
congregation has had a struggle this year getting back into their homes or
finding new homes. Their pastor last
year, Rev. Michael Oberlender, was in the process
of seeking a new congregation when Katrina hit, so he was in his last 60 days
with them with them and did a superior job of bringing the congregation
together following the storms. I know
it was tough on one hand for him to leave, and a relief on the other to move
his family where struggles with school, daycare, and other givens of life were
not as difficult. Late in the fall, David
Coleman was called to be the full time pastor. He served that congregation in various
positions over the last 20 years, and had evacuated to Shreveport during the storm. They lost their home, though it was a
rental. They are now renting a lovely
home owned by a church member, which gives them plenty of room for grandkids
to come and visit. Two of their adult
children had babies born in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. FCC of Greater New
Orleans provides housing and serves as a Mission
Station for ODV as well. They
anticipate continuing in this role for the next year or two at least.
Crossing the river to the West Bank (south
of the Mississippi River from downtown) and going east on US 90 to Algiers, these
communities also suffered wind and water damage due to the hurricane. Katrina’s strength was F3-4 through those
communities, so there is still much repair to be done, but the communities
have come back far quicker than their sister communities across the
river. The primary reason is that it did
not flood on that side of the river, and access to housing that could be
repaired was/is much easier to find.
People have moved to the West Bank and go across the river to work
downtown. Westside Christian Church is
located in Algiers, the bend in the river that forms the eastern edge of the
“crescent” in which is located “Crescent
City” or downtown New Orleans. It is 5 - 10 minutes from Downtown, and has
easy access to all areas flooded.
Further, if you zoom out when looking at an aerial map to where you
can view the gulf coast, Westside CC is smack dab in the middle of the area
from Baton Rouge to Moss Point, the areas most affected by Hurricane
Katrina. Besides FCC Gulfport,
Westside CC was most damaged of our church buildings. The congregation was down to 12 people
before the storm, and had begun to deal with the possibility of closure. With no pastoral leadership, and no one
available to preach on Sundays, the congregation was barely able to keep the
grass cut, let alone take a lead in community efforts for long term
recovery. In January, we began
dreaming with them about creating a long term recovery center, and by March
all obstacles were out of the way and WOC funding was promised for a 3 year
effort to rebuild and re-form the congregation in that location. The Great River
Region and Westside CC are building a volunteer housing facility to serve the
community for 5-10 years as the city of New
Orleans recovers and rebuilds. With no toxic flooding, the West Bank is the perfect place to house volunteer
groups. The Westside
Long Term
Recovery Center
is a project of the Great River Region and Week of Compassion, with partners
including ODV, C.A.R.E., G.N.O.D.R.P., Volunteers of America, and
other groups working in the area for the long term. Thanks to volunteers from ODV and friends
of Westside, the sanctuary building was demolished in June. Thanks to Pinnacle Builders of Cabot, AR, materials
for a steel structure were delivered July 25, and thanks to FCC of Meridian MS,
a steel crew came and erected the building by August 6. I’ll go into detail on this mission in
another report. Thanks to connections
through Frank Johnson, Platinum Advanced Technologies has also donated
materials and a crew to put up a parsonage!
Vance and Jeannie Moore are living in a travel trailer and I would
like to see them in a more adequate housing situation before fall. They’ve spent 4 months so far in the
trailer, and it looks like it will be 3-4 more before they are into a home. Two additional buildings on the campus are
being rehabbed: new roofs on both, new
siding on both, expansion on the “old sanctuary” to refit it for worship and
add a baptistery. The goal is to grow
that church back to a worshipping community of 150 – 200 in three years!
Having “toured” the churches from Moss Point through Greater New
Orleans, let’s move further west along I-10 to Baton
Rouge, Lafayette, Crowley,
Lake Charles, Sulphur, and
Leesville.
Baton
Rouge has taken the hardest hit as far as being
a staging area for both hurricanes.
They were hit by the edges of both in terms of wind, rain, and power
outages, but did not suffer the massive damages of communities that took a
more direct hit. For months, even past
Thanksgiving, military operations worked out of their park, LSU, and other
areas. Baton Rouge has doubled in size
and is now the largest city in Louisiana, but the infrastructure has not
expanded to handle the growth in population.
Traffic is incredibly bad and reminds me of cities in on the east or
west coast. It can take 4-5 cycles to
get through a traffic light. FCC
housed about 40 people through the fall in its Sunday school buildings. Once families were able to either get a
FEMA trailer or move back to their home communities, FCC provided the basics
of shelter and shower facilities. Each
family had a room, which gave some sense of security to them. Rev. Michael Karunas
and FCC have led the Baton Rouge
community in tending to evacuees and volunteer efforts in areas harder
hit. Rev. Michael Elmore, regional
pastor for the southern third of the Great River Region, lives in Baton Rouge
has gone through the power outages, anxiety and recovery efforts along with
everyone else. When I preached in Gulfport
a couple weeks ago, they expressed to me how much it meant that Michael was
not only there for them, but his ability to minister in the midst of
suffering with them gave them much hope.
“We figured if Michael can keep going, so can we”
an elder told me.
Continuing west on I-10, the communities
of Lafayette and Crowley both have experienced growth and
the challenges it brings. Pastor Ted Standley serves FCC Lafayette as a part time minister
(part time chaplain at the hospital as well), and FCC Crowley is in the
process of determining if its time to sell their building and close their
church. Michael Emore
and Christian Church Foundation are working with Crowley in that discernment process, and our own Bettie Duhon
is working closely with the effort.
Other than wind damage, the communities came through better than
most. At their location, I-10 is quite
a ways in from the coast.
Not so in Lake Charles
and Sulphur. Lake Charles
and Cameron Parish begin the “bend” in the gulf that continues to Houston. Rita came ashore right over Beaumont TX,
and the communities of Lake Charles and Sulphur,
Louisiana and Orange, Port Arthur and Beaumont Texas
were hard hit. Our congregations in Louisiana were not damaged more than a steeple down,
but FCC in Orange TX
and FCC in Port Arthur
were heavily damaged. All these
communities took a double hit as they were housing evacuees from Katrina when
Rita loomed large on the horizon.
Additional people came north from Houston when it looked like Rita was moving
straight for it, but as “she” turned north, those
evacuees were stuck on the roadin towns right in
the hurricane’s path. The Christian
Church in the Southwest did the lion’s share of ministry with and for those
evacuees, especially in light of the fact that the Red Cross and FEMA
evacuated!
FCC Lake Charles was between ministers
when the hurricanes hit, and they called Rev. Mona
Lisa Garrett of Bossier City
to serve as acting minister and then as the installed pastor this
spring. Stacey Eastwood, long term
youth minister at FCC Lake Charles, had her first baby in April, something
which brought the community real joy.
FCC Sulphur had just welcomed Dana Hoover as
their minister two weeks prior to Katrina’s arrival and then Rita’s visit to
their community. The region and
congregation and Week of Compassion have provided care and compassion in
their unique situation as well as the rest of the congregation.
FCC
Lake Charles has served and will
continue to serve as a Mission Station for
the next year or two through ODV. The
other Rita related mission stations, Port Arthur
and Beaumont
are in the SW region and the three stations share a mission station manager.
FCC Leesville sits just north of Sulphur
and was inundated with evacuaees from both
storms. Rev. Neil and Mary Early have
been leaders in the interfaith community for recovery efforts from both
hurricanes and for long term revovery issues. Neil is recognized throughout the state for
his leadership and involvement in that community. They rode out Rita with evacuees who were
staying in the church, so as not to abandon those already in their care.
Week of Compassion has been such a
blessing through the year. In addition
to immediate grants to families, clergy, congregations affected, support for
mission stations comes from WOC as does supplemental funding for ministries
at Westside and Slidell
which allows them to focus on long term recovery and revitalization
issues. WOC has provided specific
grants to pastors for relief and care as needed, and has funded two
gatherings of clergy serving in the paths of both storms to assist in
understanding issues in the communities affected. Their website outlines the many ministries
they have provided which have brought help and assistance to our region. (www.weekofcompassion.org) Johnny Wray has been a friend and colleague
throughout, and knows when to check in on us and see what’s going, ask the
right questions, prods our efforts toward greater effectiveness, and
generally shares in bringing the supportive care of the whole church to us.
This tour has not included the many ways
every congregation in this region reached out to those in need, nor does it
discuss the 500,00+ volunteer hours given by
Disciples so far in recovery efforts.
Maybe at the Regional Assembly we can hear the many ways we have all
responded in our own communities to the hundreds of thousands who were
displaced.
II.
Sensitivities
There are many sensitive issues in our
midst on the Gulf coast. I’m going to
share my own perspectives on them and will start with broad issues and narrow
in on more specific concerns hope you be able to hear and honor:
Katrina / Rita: In our region there were two major
hurricanes, both Katrina and Rita.
When we speak of “Katrina” to cover the devastation we experienced in
the storms of 2005, those most affected by “Rita” are in essence
excluded. These communities received
Katrina victims and then turned around and were victims of Rita. In the Southwest region, there was yet a
third hurricane that hit them, “Wilma”.
Katrina:
MS/LA: The two different states
have responded differently, and in some cases MS came out better, in some
cases LA came out better. Governmental
issues are different, building and licensing issues are different, permit
issues and processes are different.
The governors are different as have been their responses. Just be aware that our people the two
states have had different experiences with agency and governmental response.
Katrina:
New Orleans/everyone else: The
city of New Orleans was affected by the wind and water of Katrina, but that’s
not what destroyed so much of the city.
Breaches in the levee system and human failure brought the tragedies
suffered in New Orleans far more than the actual hurricane. When the focus is on “New Orleans” as the
image of hurricane damage and recovery efforts, that focus is misplaced. I am going to refer to the flooding of New
Orleans as “Post Katrina flooding in New Orleans” as it is its own disaster.
Katrina:
Lower 9th Ward / flooding across the entire metro
area. The Lower section of the 9th ward is an area flooded
first, and the first rescues were there.
Storm surge from Katrina pushed water up the canal and over the levees
which caused the first flooding, before the levees were breeched. The lower 9th ward and St.
Bernard Parish have flooded numerous times over the decades, and some people
might think “why rebuild those communities”.
These are tough and resilient communities that choose to stay put. Those communities are portrayed on TV and
primarily poor African American communities, but they are in reality fairly
mixed working class communities, homeowners of a variety of ethnic
backgrounds. The housing developments
that got so much press were not in the 9th ward, let alone the lower
9th ward. Do not assume
that all the flooding happened in the lower 9th and St. Bernard
parish. The 9th ward is
coming back and had far more homes being lived in than did its more northern
neighbors. There is much destruction
there, as there is elsewhere.
Katrina:
“Poor people suffered most”.
This is not the case. The
flooding and devastation affected every neighborhood equally. There is no “most”. How does one rate suffering on a
scale?
What I have seen is that most of those
dependent on government housing and financial support have been displaced and
are now living in similar settings in TX, or LA, or AR or MS other states
that have taken them in. They did not
own property and still do not. They
are usually the ones we stereotype as
“poor people”. Yes, government
assistance has been difficult and woefully lacking. Yet, these folks are now on the “welfare
rolls” somewhere else.
Those who rented homes or apartments and did
not own property have moved and resettled in LA, TX, AR, or other places
where they could find jobs, housing and schools. Rental property has for the most part not
been touched yet in the areas of flooding.
My theory is that in a neighborhood with a few homes restored, a few
with FEMA trailers, and a few untouched since Katrina, it is those untouched
that were rental homes. Apartment
complex after apartment complex sit un-touched. Thousands upon thousands of apartment
dwellers have moved somewhere. I can’t
think of any apartment complexes that have been rehabbed and are open for
business, but I’m sure there are some somewhere. These folks, with marketable skills but no
loss of property in the post-Katrina flooding have been displaced for sure,
but have been able to deal with the stresses of relocating, finding new jobs
and schools and homes. Many of our
communities north of I-20 have welcomed them into our congregations and
communities.
Those who owned property and had flood
insurance or owned their homes outright are generally in the best situation,
but that does not mean their homes have been repaired or that their
neighborhoods are habitable. What it
means is that they own property and have *some* means to live on and / or
protect/repair their property.
Those who owned their property but had
mortgages are in a world of hurt. No
matter what their job or station in life, whatever insurance they had went to
the mortgage company. This means they
probably don’t have any other resources to repair their homes. Further, they are at the mercy of decisions
made out of their control… they may have to raise their house 18 inches above
the flood plane if they rebuild. If
they don’t rebuild, who will buy their damaged house? Another thought I’ve had in seeing some of
the very large homes that have not been touched is how many went into
foreclosure with loans far more than insurance was going to cover and no
assets with which to satisfy the mortgage?
And what about about cars and other items
that were being paid for with loans, but were destroyed in the storms? If I lost everything, I’d be stuck with a
mortgage without much equity and a car that still has two years payment on
it. If I lost my job and my house and
my car but still had payments to make let alone repairs to make in order to
live there, what would I do? Where
would I turn? I have family I’d go
live with. What about those whose families
lost everything?
Katrina/Rita and politics: Don’t even try to comment from afar on such
things as how communities make their decisions, or the role of levee boards,
or who said/did what when. It is not a
helpful venue to venture into. This is
the realm in which outsiders will immediately run into trouble. It was chaos with many mitigating factors,
and it remains chaos with many mitigating factors.
Keep in mind that EVERY person you talk to
has had some personal experience with the political realm and
debating/discussion what could have, should have, or would have happened is
only going to be upsetting. What we
all need to focus on is what IS, and what WILL BE.
Michael Emore
has strong feelings. I have strong
feelings, everyone involved in a personal way has strong feelings... not
necessarily the same strong feelings!
What allows us to work together is to see
where God is leading us, to discern where hope and grace reside, and how we
can work together as Christ’s body to bring renewal and hope to a part of our
world that needs that word of grace and that touch of compassion.
These are my thoughts as I look back over
this past year. There is a risk in my
sharing this amid our people in the GRR, let alone beyond our region. On one hand it is a woefully incomplete
summary of where we find ourselves a year out. My words may seem maudlin to some, and some
may think I’m an outsider speaking of that which I do not have right to
speak. To some it may seem that I’m
not sharing anything new.
I have struggled over the past months with
what to say and how to say it. This
last week as I have felt the need to reflect on this past year, I found
myself reluctant to commit any thought or feeling to words, knowing that
someone wasn’t going to like or appreciate what I was trying to say. I pray that my inadequate words can convey
to others that the needs remain dire, the situation remains drastic, and the
mission ahead of us is for the long-term.
I’ve had people say to me “surely we’re
done with Katrina” and we can move on…
No, we are not done with Katrina, nor post Katrina flooding in New Orleans, nor Rita, nor post Rita flooding in New Orleans. And as I write, we know that the pumps are
not working in New Orleans, the repaired
levees will not withstand F3 storm surge, and hurricane Ernesto is over Puerto Rico. Is
there more devastation to come?
One of the realities for the Great River
Region is that God has placed a huge new mission in our lap, and a new
identity: that God needs us to be a
network of care and resources to reach out to a hurting world, whether that
world is where we live, on the Gulf Coast, in New Orleans, or across the
globe in other areas of devastation.
I’m convinced that our call in this time of our life together is to
focus on being Christ’s body, present in a world needing God’s love rather
than being an organization focused on how we are going to structure our
lives. What God has asked us to do is
to NOT worry about logistics, but to show up and be God’s witnesses in “Jerusalem”, Judea and all of Samaria”, “to the ends of the earth”. If we all show up and let God use us where
and however God needs us, God’s love will be proclaimed in this broken world.
End of sermon!
May God bless each of us as we move
forward in mission together!
Barb
Graphics
I took the following pictures in Greater New Orleans in August
2006 that correlate to the following map of flood depths:
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1) Lakeview:
community mostly abandoned, waterlines are near roof on most
houses. Second picture was fresh
"cut and gut". Family was
doing "mom's" house where
She'd lived 50
years. Shared our prayers with them.
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2) GENTILLY:
The first house is Jim and Maida Thokey's
house. They are members of FCC
Greater New Orleans
and now live in an apartment nearby.
Jim served on General Board several years ago. The second house is their next door
neighbor.
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3) NEW
ORLEANS EAST:
This middle class neighborhood is huge, and still nearly completely
abandoned. Water lines are near
The top of
each home. The third one is an
abandoned mall.
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4) 9th WARD AND LOWER 9TH WARD: The 9th ward of Orleans Parish makes the news most
frequently as it was the first place to flood as the surge came in from the
East. As people were rescued from
homes, they were brought to the bridge on St. Claude, which is the middle
picture. It is a drawbridge, and I
took the picture of the canal as David Coleman
Drove me through the
neighborhoods. First is 9th ward,
then bridge, then Lower 9th ward.
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5) ST BERNARD PARISH: Nearly all of St. Bernard Parish was
destroyed, but people are coming back.
Local tv was broadcasting from each school
district my last week in New
Orleans, and the schools were impressive. Though original buildings were destroyed,
they had modular units on cement pads that were very nice and ready for
students. 160 students were back in
grades k-12, all living in FEMA trailers and glad to be home. The following two pics
are from different communities in St. Bernard Parish. The school is in Chalmette.
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