wfn.org | Fires force Florida residents to decide what's essential

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 10, 1998        Contact: Linda Bloom*(212)870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{411}

By Susan Kim* 

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (UMNS) -- With wildfires less than a mile away,  the
Rev. Ken Zimmerman, his wife Loreen, and their four teen-agers evacuated
their home. After loading their van, they stood in the driveway, the air
adrift with burning palm fronds, for what could have been a last look. 
            
"At that moment, I couldn't help but think: 'what is essential?'" wrote
Zimmerman in a message to the Tomoka United Methodist Church entitled
"Where There's Smoke, There's Faith." 
            
"This month's newsletter message was originally going to be about
fireworks and freedom," he wrote. "But the fires have affected each of
us. Some are confined to our homes. Some have had to leave their homes.
I think about what Paul wrote to Timothy: 'For we brought nothing into
the world and will bring nothing out of it.'" 
            
The Zimmermans were able to return home in late June, but they still
kept boxes of family photos and precious possessions by the door as
Florida struggled to control the fires. And they are still asking
themselves: what is essential? 
           
Julie Dennis, one of Zimmerman's parishioners, pondered the same
question when she and her family temporarily evacuated their home in
fire-ravaged Volusia County.

"You realize what's essential is your family, your pets, photos,
important papers," she said. "The other things mean absolutely nothing.
We left our home not knowing exactly where to go. We stayed with a
fellow church member. She was an angel." 
            
Countless other Florida residents are also realizing that what's
essential is each other. Volunteers already were working overtime,
aiding people hit by tornadoes earlier this year. They clocked even more
hours through local churches and other groups, including the American
Red Cross, Salvation Army, Lutheran Disaster Response, Halifax Baptist
Association and Seminole Heart, a consortium of county and state
agencies, churches and charity organizations. 
            
Stetson University in DeLand and Embry-Riddle University in Daytona
provided dormitory housing for the firefighters who flocked in from
across the nation to help. More than 2,000 firefighters relied on local
churches and Salvation Army kitchens for meals every day, funded by
special collections taken in now-familiar red plastic firehats passed
during church services and community meetings. 
            
In a letter to more than 200 Seminole County churches, Seminole Heart
asked people for $100 contributions to repair lost or damaged homes,
outbuildings, fences and well casings.

"Three-fourths of homes that have been destroyed in Seminole County were
uninsured. Many of them were trailers," said Major Bruce Williams,
Salvation Army commanding officer and vice chair of Seminole Heart.
"These people have absolutely no recourse. They need immediate help." 
            
The Rev. Phil Roughton of First United Methodist Church in Ormond Beach
said people depressed by constant worry, smoke, and ash gathered to pray
in his sanctuary and others.

"We live in a privileged place here in Florida," he said. "People are
beginning to realize how devastating this can be. They start thinking
about the millennium and the end of the world. This is an opportunity
for teaching, ministry and encouragement." 
            
The intangible gifts people offer each other, such as the courage to
keep going, are just as important as financial contributions, food,
clothing and other donations, said Linda Gunter, office administrator at
the First Presbyterian Church in Sanford.

"When things get tough, you have a church family, and you have a
community family," she said. "We were still distributing funds and
donations to people wiped out by recent tornadoes when the fires
started. So our struggle just seems to go on. At times I ask myself how
much more Sanford can take." 
            
The Rev. Beth Fogle-Miller, First United Methodist Church in Sanford,
said the state has a shortage of qualified volunteer caseworkers.

"It's not a matter of rebuilding homes. It's rebuilding lives," she
said. "It's not just a matter of putting up two-by-fours. A former
social worker from our congregation has her hands full volunteering to
help all the folks who seem to be falling through the cracks." 
            
Volunteer caseworkers from the Christian Sharing Center in Sanford, many
of them retired nurses or teachers, interviewed families and assessed
their needs. Nancy Nolt, director of public relations for the center,
said caseworkers are supporting families involved in the fire crisis as
well as those suffering in the aftermath of the recent tornadoes.

# # #

*Kim is a writer for the Disaster Response Network, sponsored by Church
World Service, National Council of Churches. The network's World Wide
Web site is www.disasterresponse.net