Katrina vs God's Children (part 1)

Submitted by dmwebmaster on Oct 01,2005
in

Satalite photo of Katrina
Katrina Cat 5: NASA satellite photo of Category 5 Hurricane Katrina August 28, 2005. Photo by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA
On August 29, 2005, we at Discipleship Ministries, like so many others, watched on our television screens Hurricane Katrina slam into the Gulf Coast and destroy many lives. Almost immediately Discipleship Ministries began assembling a relief team. On October 7, 2005 our first team consisting of 17 members, all from different parts of Western Pennsylvania, various walks of life, ages, and Christian denominations left the mountains of Pennsylvania and headed to New Orleans. We had one major goal in mind"…" proclaim the Love and Hope of Jesus Christ thru our work and our actions.

As we drove through Central Mississippi we began to see the effect of the storm; trees broke in half, twisted road signs and we all thought this was a “Big Deal”. Nothing could have prepared us for the vastness of the devastation we would see during the next 5 days.

After Sunday worship at our host church St Matthews UMC we met Roger and Ellen. Their home in Metairie sustained major roof damage, flooding destroyed nearly everything in their one story home, their home was looted and fire caused by a gas leak destroyed 25% of their house. While we stood in their front yard and prayed we could see the sense of hopelessness in Roger and Ellen's faces as they tightly held each other. Over the next day and a half our team was able to clear the house of debris, temporally shore up and tarp the roof. As we said our good-byes you could see a glimmer of hope in Roger and Ellen's eyes still knowing it would be a long hard road ahead. We left knowing that we were able to start them on that road and offer the Hope and Love of Jesus Christ.

Some of our most moving experiences were during our visits to a PRC Compassion Aid Station in Chalmette, Louisiana. The aid station, which was in the parking lot of a destroyed Super Wal-Mart, housed FEMA, the Red Cross and other relief organizations. In conjunction with Christ in Action and the National Guard we were able to distribute several truck loads of relief supplies to God's Children.

During one of our visits to this Aid Station we met a young woman Cynthia who after many years accepted Christ into her heart. What an honor to be part of God's Plan.