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[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Churches minister to evacuees, volunteers amid ruins

Sep. 15, 2005

NOTE: Photographs and related coverage are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

By Ciona Rouse*

GULFPORT, Miss. (UMNS) - When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the
Rev. Ray Stokes and his wife stayed in their home and watched the storm.

"We were fools. We will never do that again," said Stokes, pastor of
Trinity United Methodist Church in Gulfport.

The storm made landfall twice Aug. 29, killing an unknown number of
people, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands, and decimating
coastal communities in Louisiana and Mississippi.

In Gulfport, residents who had remained in their homes found themselves
without power, supplies or food.

Stokes and his wife did not allow Katrina to stop them from ministry. On
the day the hurricane struck, they went to their church and began
feeding people.

"It began with myself, my wife and one lay person," Stokes said. "It
just mushroomed from there to be a magnificent ministry."

Like many United Methodist churches in Alabama, Louisiana and
Mississippi, Trinity learned quickly how to offer assistance during a
disaster. The church became an unofficial distribution center for area
shelters and a place for people in Gulfport to eat lunch, find
toiletries and receive paper bags of nonperishable food. Supplies and
volunteers from across the United States converged on the church.

The Rev. Randy Anderson of Centenary United Methodist Church in
Evansville, Ind., brought a response team of 22 people from the
denomination's Evansville District, in the South Indiana Annual
(regional) Conference.

"We're here because we need to be," Anderson said.

The team arrived on a conference bus toting food, bottled water and
clothes. The district wanted to partner with the Gulfport community and
planned to send more groups when the first team returned to Indiana,
Anderson said.

Many people from around the community came to the church for food,
Stokes said. He saw state representatives, corporate executives, bankers
and lawyers dining with people "who live across the track."

"They're sitting at the same table because all of them are in the same
boat. They've lost everything they own," said Stokes, through tears.
"People's possessions and a lifetime of keepsakes are lying at the
curb."

Though he had not heard from every Trinity member, Stokes said he did
not believe anyone had been killed. Some members had to "literally swim
out" of their homes, he said.

The Rev. Jerry Beam, Seashore District superintendent, was among the
many town residents whose homes were under 5 feet of water. He lived on
an air mattress at Trinity and ate one hot meal a day until he and his
family received a donated travel trailer from a layperson in the North
Alabama Conference.

Other United Methodist congregations in Mississippi and Louisiana opened
distribution centers, feeding programs and shelters. The Rev. Larry
Hollon, top executive of United Methodist Communications, the Rev. Randy
Day, top executive for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries,
and the Rev. Paul Dirdak, director of the United Methodist Committee on
Relief, visited several of the congregations on a Sept. 7-11 trip to the
storm-struck areas.

"The two bishops and their staff and the lay and clergy leaders in the
two states are doing an incredible job," Day said.

The group visited Broadmoor United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, La.,
which was hosting a shelter for Red Cross volunteers.

"We are caring for the caregivers," said the Rev. Amy Mercer, minister
of discipleship and missions at Broadmoor.

In Baton Rouge alone, Red Cross workers were staying in six shelters,
and additional shelters were being arranged as more Red Cross volunteers
arrived in the area.

The first three churches that opened as staff shelters were United
Methodist, and nine other churches were willing to do the same, Mercer
said.

Red Cross volunteers typically take temporary housing and then move to
hotels, said Mike McEuen, a Broadmoor member. Because hotels were filled
with storm evacuees, the church's shelter was used to house volunteers
for as long as necessary.

Members of the church and community stocked the kitchen with food. They
also brought toiletries, towels, linens and phone cards for the
volunteers, and church members signed up to wash laundry for the shelter
guests.

"There's been such a tremendous outpouring of offers to serve from our
congregation," Mercer said. She was surprised that more than enough
people lined up "to wash dirty clothes," she said.

"We see this as a mission to people," said McEuen, who oversees the
shelter operations.

Bob West, a member of Goshen United Methodist Church in Murray, Ky., was
one of nearly 400 volunteers from around the world who spent at least
one night at Broadmoor. His church in Murray was aiding evacuees while
he traveled to Louisiana to help assess damages. It felt good to "see
all the people from all over the (United States) helping," he said.

His days were long as he traveled into damaged parts of the New Orleans
area.

"You see a lot of damage that you don't expect," he said. "You see
sights and smells that you don't expect."

Broadmoor Church provides spiritual care for the volunteers as they go
into the crisis areas each day. Church members set up a prayer table
with different versions of the Bible, a prayer request bowl, copies of
The Upper Room daily devotional guide and a walking prayer guide for use
on the church grounds. Pastors and members are always available to pray
with and listen to the volunteers.

Mercer recognizes that volunteers are seeing difficult things, and she
believes Broadmoor has a role to play in caring for them.

"I can't imagine anything worse than this," Mercer said. "But God's in
it. He's working through it. He's provided all the resources to make it
go."

*Rouse is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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