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HCC mission team
Gulfport, MS
Hurricane Katrina Relief
10-8-07 to
10-13-07
God works in mysterious ways, His
wonders to behold!
Jesus said in the parable of the
Sheep and the Goats, that whoever has done this (fed the hungry, clothed the
naked, visited the imprisoned) has done this for Him.
This story is my reflections on
how God has used the lives of four women and 24 members of Huntsville
Christian Church to work His wonders and to allow us to show our love for
Jesus by showing our love for others.
Sally and her husband spent most
of their married life in Clarksdale, MS. Husband John was a dentist. They
had developed a relationship with Mission Discovery and had gone on numerous
mission trips. As John neared retirement, they looked for places to settle
down and mission fields on which to serve. They had decided that they would
retire to Gulfport, MS and bought a condo just across U. S. Highway 90 from
the beach. They began attending the First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport.
The last week of August 2005
brought yet another hurricane evacuation warning to the Mississippi Gulf
Coast. John and Sally had been in their new condo only 5 months, but they
prepared their RV and headed inland to safety. The morning of August 29,
2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore with a 30-foot surge of water
destroying everything inland for at least three city blocks.
Sally returned to the beach a few
days later. As she and her husband stood on Highway 90 and looked at the
concrete slab that had once been their condo building, they could find
nothing left of their 35-year marriage. It was all gone, destroyed. They
looked around at the destruction and the hopelessness of the people whose
property and lives had been destroyed and concluded that they could stop
looking for a mission field—God had brought a mission field to them. So
they started the process of helping people rebuild their lives in the name
of Jesus. They are still living in their RV and will build a home in
another location in due time.
Lisa Ladner and her husband Brian
are long time residents of Gulfport. Brian is a Postal Carrier and they are
active members of the First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport. Their house was
one block off the beach. Like Sally, they had evacuated several times in
the last couple of years. When this warning came, they thought they would
wait and see and track the storm more closely and not evacuate. The evening
of August 28, 2005 found Hurricane Katrina apparently headed into New
Orleans and points west. The Ladners went to bed. During the night,
Katrina made a slight right turn and in the early morning hours, the
hurricane was not only devastating New Orleans, the eye was passing over the
Mississippi Gulf Coast with Category 5 winds and a 30 foot surge of water.
The Ladners saw the water “coming
down the street” and they went to their upstairs garage apartment behind the
house. As they watched, the water rose to the level of the first floor
ceiling of their home. The house across the street was built on stilts. As
the water rose, it literally lifted the house across the street off the
stilts and crashed it into the Ladners home as they helplessly watched.
Very few of their possessions survived.
The First Presbyterian Church of
Gulfport was likewise destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Several other church
members lost everything they owned and some have never returned to rebuild.
The church is destroyed. Many
homes are destroyed. What’s the first order of business in the face of such
destruction? This particular church decided that while they would
eventually rebuild their building, their first order of business would be to
restore as many lives as possible, whether those lives were church members
or not. They wanted to show the love of Jesus.
Many of the members, but
especially Sally and Lisa, have spent the last two years coordinating
volunteers and/or wisely and diligently dispensing donated funds to help
rebuild lives by rebuilding homes. Their first priority was to help
others. Lisa and Brian have rebuilt their home. Sally and John are still
living in their RV parked at Camp Hope, the newly constructed, temporary
camp for volunteers who go the Gulf Coast to help in this effort. Camp Hope
is a ministry of the First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport.
While I don’t know the particular
financial situations of these two women, I get the sense that while
rebuilding was and will be a hardship, they will be able to accomplish it.
They believe in Jesus and have been showing His love by helping others.
When the 24 of us arrived at Camp
Hope on October 8, 2007 we were told of the two houses on which we would be
working. Our task was to show the love of Jesus to people who may not even
know who Jesus is.
I was with the group who went to
the house of Debra, a divorced mother of three young children. Debra and
her children evacuated to Milton, FL to escape the hurricane. She was
unable to return to her home for two weeks. When she finally returned, she
found her roof gone and her house badly damaged by water. The surge did not
reach her house, but the rain did considerable damage. She was told by her
next door neighbor, who did not evacuate, that the metal roof of a boat
dealership blew off and over the neighbor’s house and crashed into Debra’s
house. The roof and all the dry wall had to be replaced. Her clothing and
household goods were destroyed or badly damaged.
As with any disaster, many
unscrupulous contractors take advantage of helpless and hopeless people.
Such was the case with Debra. What insurance money she did receive was
spent on unnecessary and incomplete work. Two years after Katrina, she and
her three children are still living in a small FEMA trailer next to her
house. Many volunteers have come to help restore the rest of her house so
she too can get back to a “normal” life.
On the two brief occasions that we
met Debra, she did seem grateful, but we know nothing of her faith. But our
job was to plant a seed. We cleaned and cut her yard that had not been
touched in two years, cleaned some of the furniture inside, scraped old
painting, and installed some outside siding. We did so to show the love of
Jesus.
The other team of our group went
to the house of Karen. Her house was located on a bayou and extensive
damage was done to her house. New ceramic tile floors were installed and
other work was completed. Again we know few details of her faith, but for
the last two weeks, Karen has attended a noon Bible study that Lisa attends
and has begun to ask many questions that prayerfully lead her to a closer
relationship with Jesus.
The story of four women--two have
devoted themselves to helping others in the name of Jesus--two who have
received the love of Jesus and hopefully through the efforts of us 24 from
HCC and others, they may draw closer to Jesus.
Respectfully
submitted,
Larry Long
More detail information can be obtained by choosing ‘Hurricane Relief
Info’ at:
http://www.missiondiscovery.com/download4.asp
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