Disaster Relief: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita & Wilma

From Jon, San Antonio

We went to an old Wal-mart which had been set up as an evacuation center for people from Houston fleeing Hurricane Rita. We worked for a few hours setting up a food court for 2000+ evacuees to eat lunch. It consisted of unloading and sorting boxes of food, drinks and household supplies, setting up tables and then organizing plates of drinks/snacks, and helping serve the food during the food line.

The place had just opened that day and was pretty disorganized, so the San Antonio Fire Department, who were in charge and trying to get things organized were very appreciative of us being there to help. Dr. Chris accompanied us as well and was able to greatly assist the medical station. She told us afterward of many lives saved and patients that were grateful of her being there and even the other nurses were thankful for her support and encouragement. (This particular shelter was housing about 250 mentally/physically handicapped people.)

We also met a young college student from San Antonio who was volunteering alongside us for the day. We explained that we are fulltime missionaries with the Family International and told him a bit about lives of service to the Lord. We told him our main goal was to minister to people spiritually and that any physical assistance we could offer was secondary to that.

Later in the day we went to the Kelly shelter and were able to continue ministering to the evacuees there. We witnessed to people, listened to them tell us their stories of how their experience at the evacuee site has been so far as well as how Katrina has effected them. We talked to them about how the Lord as been using this disaster to work in many people’s lives, drawing them closer to Him and reminding them of His promise that “All things work together for good to them that love God”.(Romans 8:28)
People were, for the most part, easy to talk to and willing to tell us about their experiences.

From Suzy, San Antonio

Nick, Joanna and Chris joined Karen, Rose and John to minister to evacuees at the Kelly Center in San Antonio.

We went as teams to the zones that were made up of large rooms where the evacuees are housed. Nick and I visited the evacuees at their cots, spending time with them on an individual basis. Most people responded when we offered to pray for them, and they talked then even more. We prayed with everyone we talked with, listened to them and then gave them a copy of the Activated Magazine, “Why Suffering”. While Nick was talking with one man, a little boy had been following me around so I spent time with him as he was just wandering around unattended. Then a little girl came and sat on my knee holding on to me, and she just wanted to be held. Eventually, after a while she started to talk a little, she just needed some TLC.

The next day Nick called into the center, explaining that we had a missionary doctor, Dr. Chris, who was up on a visa trip from Mexico. When they heard how many volunteers we had and that we had doctor as well, they stressed that more help was needed at a shelter they were just opening at an old Wal-Mart building.

Upon arriving, we found out that these were among the 3 million people evacuating the Texas gulf coast, trying to escape Hurricane Rita. They too had to be taken care of. As we were leaving at the end of our day there, I found out that they were 2,9OO people come into the shelter. The shelter was very new and there was so much to organize, so the young people on our team, Andrew, Chris, Liz and John helped set up the newly formed dining room and food line from a totally empty storage room, while Joanna helped set up the registration place.

Dr. Chris came in and she had quite a few people to take care of, as when we arrived there was no doctor, in fact there wasn’t even a first aid kit, just an empty medical room. Eventually there were some medical students that came in to a help, a home guard doctor later on, and finally medical supplies. Many people came sick, and tired, as the highways were so full for some the drive from Houston took 18 hours.

We had an opportunity to minister to and pray with almost every single person at the Kelly Center. We met one woman who asked for prayer as her young daughter was missing. She has not been able to locate her 5 year old daughter since the first day. Our hearts really felt for her, while words sometimes fail, we know that her faith and prayers will help her through this time. This woman and her other daughter received Jesus along with another 6 children today. Many people today expressed frustration, as they want to leave the shelters but the housing takes time.

From Peter & Topaz:

On Sunday we ran into Denarold & Alaina at the Arena. They are part of the Simon Family that we met on Friday. They were happy to see us and immediately wanted to talk. Denarold had witnessed many terrible events including a murder at the Convention Center in New Orleans and couldn’t get it out of his head. He told us about it in great detail. After we talked and prayed together we read some of the Activated Magazine on why God allows suffering, you could see a noticeable change in him. We gave the Simon family our mailing address to stay in touch. They lost everything in the flood and we want to give them copies of the pictures we took of them to start a new photo album and we also plan to continue sharing God’s Word with them through the mail.

From Peter & Topaz:

Leroy, (below) was full of praise for his delivery from Katrina and shared his great concern for the lost youth of New Orleans. He suffered an unfortunate accident while on the job 2 years ago that left him debilitated. When he prayed to receive Jesus all of his pent up emotion was released and we comforted him as he wept. We read part of the “Why Suffering” Activated magazine with him and left him with a smile on his face that said it all.

Rob (below), is of Scottish descent, and had been raised by Catholic nuns. For some time he only talked about his new job and money he was owed. We slowly, carefully steered the conversation to spiritual things and eventually he prayed to receive Jesus. Immediately he changed and we spent about an hour answering his questions on salvation, temptation and the end time. When we left he said, “thank you for coming by, I really needed to talk to someone and understand.” His eyes filled with tears and we left him thanking the Lord for another victory!

From Peter & Topaz:

The last weekend of the Astrodome/Reliant shelters was the weekend of September 16th, 17th, & 18th. The residents had been given notice that the shelter was closing and everyone had to be out by Tuesday the 21st. Tensions were quite high over this issue and there had been several incidents. Fema closed its desks early and left altogether.

We had just received the donated Activated Magazines “Why Suffering” and were thrilled to be able to have something really feeding for all the hurting people. So we went bed-to-bed or rather cot-to-cot with the Activated magazines listening, praying with and counseling the people.

One Friday just before everyone was moving from the Reliant Center to the Arena, I met the Simon family (See picture below) They were so sweet but all very sad because during the evacuation of New Orleans, their uncle/brother was being air lifted off of the roof of his house and he had a heart attack and died. His wife and daughter were devastated! He was only in his mid 50’s and hadn’t been sick before. Sheila, his sister, is a real believer & very positive. She said she knew in her heart that her brother was in a better place now. I spent a long time with her and talked to each one of them letting them unload the burden of their grief and the trauma of the events that they had witnessed at the Superdome. I read to them some of the answers to their questions right out of the Activated magazine. God’s Word was so powerful and really comforted their aching hearts. I asked if I could pray for them and we all stood in a big circle right there. First, for their needs, and then they all prayed to receive Jesus as their personal Savior. It was such a beautiful time of emotional healing for them all!

Ruth reporting from Houston

We decided to brave the storm here in Houston. When we prayed together we received the verse, “…and He arose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm!”

We awoke the next day to give thanks to God for keeping us safe and for weakening the storm! Rita was at one time the 3nd most powerful storm in American history and was headed straight for us! Thank the Lord, he weakened it and diverted it!

We were anxious to set off for the shelters with guitar, singers, clowns, posters and Activated magazines! We met the superintendent of over 70 high schools in the Houston area. He had made an instant decision to turn 7 of his high schools into makeshift shelters for evacuees from Hurricane Rita. One in particular we sang at took in over 100 elderly victims! It was touching to see the love and concern shown to these elderly, as they need so much extra care. My heart has been broken as so many elderly have lost their lives due to Katrina and Rita. In New Orleans, whole nursing homes were abandoned during Katrina, leaving the elderly to their fate. Rita took the lives of 25 elderly on a bus inbound to Dallas.

It brought real joy to my heart to be able to pray with all these precious people, knowing their time is short and now they all have their “passport to heaven,” JESUS! One old gentleman brought tears to my eyes, as he held my hand and sang along with us! He knew all the words to the songs, even though they said he had Alzheimer’s disease. Together we sang, “This little light of mine,” “Twist and Shout” and “You are my Sunshine.” He was so funny holding up his “light” (index finger,) and dancing the twist from his wheelchair!

The red cross workers and volunteers enjoyed the show as much as the victims, and we were able to leave them all with copies of the Activated magazine, “Why suffering?” The superintendent said at first he couldn’t believe his ears….as he thought, “Is that music I’m hearing?” He said we just made his day as it had been up for about 40 hours dealing with the crisis. He said a lot of families they took in to the shelters just couldn’t go any further as they ran out of gas, food and water on the highway! One family I talked with personally were in gridlock traffic for 16 hours, from Texas city to Galveston, a trip that would normally take an hour!

From David, Houston

This past week we were able to work with “Harmony for Youth” to help with the Hurricane relief. (See “On the Wings of Love”) A local trucking company agreed to drive the donated goods to Waveland, Mississippi (ground zero for Hurricane Katrina), but because the planes arrived in Houston just before Hurricane Rita was due to hit, the company decided to hold the shipment until next week. At that time, Houston and Texas’ south-east coast were considered the probable entry point for what was then a hurricane as big or bigger than Katrina and they were concerned about the safety of their truck and driver.

With this change of plans we decided to send a small team ahead to get a first-hand view of the situation and prepare a place to receive the donated goods. We had just received 90,000 Activated magazines and thousands of other gospel posters and literature which were donated by Activated Ministries and we were itching to share them with Katrina’s victims. Although our main job on this trip was to prepare the way for the shipment, we also wanted to encourage the hearts and minds of the Katrina survivors we met.

The drive from Houston to Mississippi went quickly. We met people all along the way that were still reeling from the experience they’d just had with Katrina and anxious about what this new hurricane might bring. Although 3 weeks had transpired and the immediate need for care and protection was past, the future still held many questions that only God could answer.

When our little team of 5 (Gary, Jeff, Rory (who’d come all the way from Portland, OR to help), Jono and Michelle) arrived near Waveland, we were informed that there was a 6 pm to 6 am curfew and here it was, 7:30 pm already. Where could we stay? We’d brought tents, as we had been told that 70-80% of the buildings had been destroyed by Katrina but some security guards we met told us that there was a NASA base just a few miles away that had been housing many of the FEMA and EMS workers that were helping in the area. After prayer, we went to see if there might be an open door for 5 more weary travelers too.

In answer to prayer, although they ‘weren’t suppose to’, God touched the heart of the head of security for the base and he sponsored us in, fed us and gave us an air-conditioned room to sleep in. That first evening we were able to witness to and minister to many of the first responders to the Katrina disaster. One of the officers at the fire station said, “In the first 30 minutes that your team was here, I heard more about Jesus and the Gospel than I’ve heard from all the other organizations combined that have been here over the last 3 weeks. We need what you’ve come to give more than anything else right now! Thank
you!”

The next morning, we were up and out early to see the situation and minister to as many as we could. It was such a privilege to bring comfort and salvation to all that we met and we did see that although the destruction was terrible and many organizations and groups were there with material aid, only God and His unfailing promises can give faith to carry on and strength to begin again.

After spending the rest of the day in Waveland and meeting with several relief officials about what the current greatest needs were and where we could be a blessing in our shipment, the Lord told us it was time to get back to Houston, before Rita arrived; to be there in Houston’s hour of need. Less than 5 miles along on our journey home, we had a blow out on the deserted highway with not a car in sight but, after prayer, a Florida State Trooper pulled in, coming along the road in the opposite direction, and he helped us change the tire. He’d been in Waveland for 3 weeks and was going back to Florida the next day. He said that he was on his way back to his station but had decided to take a different way back-when he met us. Isn’t God good? He takes care of everything if we just follow Him.

From Suzy, East Texas

Nick, Joanna, Sonia and Mei helped at the shelter again this week, working from 6am-2pm — and even longer most days. This shelter was the first one open and will be the last and next week they will take in about 5O more people from another shelter closing down. There were about 2O children there on the weekend, and they have been quite bored and in need of encouragement & something fun to make them smile! We spend most of our time playing with the kids and getting them involved in fun activities. Our efforts were greatly appreciated.

By Robert Haskell:

The Lord is wonderful how He engineers so many things through His Spirit. How He unites different groups to work as His hands and His fingers to help the needy. All we did was say, “Yes, we’ll help!” A Canadian children’s charity Harmony for Youth that had helped us in the distribution of the toys that arrived last week from Miami, was approached by Canadian businesses and individuals who wanted to help Hurricane Katrina’s victims. They contacted a medical charity, Hope Air, that arranges medical mercy missions in Canada, and they agreed to deliver those needs thousands of miles away-to Houston.

They delivered them here in Houston as the New Orleans airport is closed, and they asked our Family International team if we could make sure that the supplies reached the needy. It was beautiful to see the Lord’s fantastic timing as we organized the arrival and unloadin. When we arrived one plane had already arrived, and then the 40 ft. container truck arrived shortly afterwards; so we unloaded everything into it. We then unloaded our two vans full of 250 “love buckets” from Global Vision. These “love buckets” are wonderful things to receive if you’ve ever been through a disaster.

They have everything you need (Personal toiletries, snacks, deck of cards, small games for children, writing equipment, religious reading materials.) Then the second plane arrived, we unloaded it and no sooner had we finished but the third plane landed. We were helped today by some teens of Family International that recently arrived from the Philippines. They have been volunteering for the last two weeks in a shelter in Pasadena, Texas. Our team of Family International Volunteers, working together with Harmony for Youth, Hope Air, Global Vision and others was truly a work of God’s hands. We were planning to leave tonight with the truck, but Hurricane Rita is temporarily changing the plans as officials are blocking West I-10 from Houston so people from Galveston can evacuate first. However a small team of five was able to make their way to Waveland, Mississippi to scout out the need and prepare the way. (more…)

Pandita, San Antonio

I have learned a lesson on how all things work together for good. We had been disheartened when we had to move out of our house before being able to find a new one and had ended up staying at a pay-by-the-week motel. It was sufficient, but not really “home”. Then Katrina struck and we got really busy with the relief efforts, visiting the shelters. One goal of our work in the shelters was not to just have a one time impact on people by to continue with them, even as they moved out of the shelters and into other housing. We knew it would take time for them to heal and they needed to know they could count on us. Imagine my surprise when I went by to pay my weekly rent and the motel manager told me he had been looking everywhere for me and really wanted to talk with me. He said, Ï see by your badge that you are working with the Red Cross as a chaplain in the shelters and I really need your help. I am just swamped with evacuees moving in here and asking me all kinds of questions. Can I
send them to you?” The next morning he referred me to Wanda and her family of 18 who had recently moved in.
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