Disaster Relief: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita & Wilma

From Crystal:

This is Stan. We met him today at the Astrodome, and he told us his horrifying tale of being swept along by the rushing currents. He tried holding frantically to anything passing his way! He managed to grab onto an overhanging telephone wire, which he clung onto for dear life for 8 hours! In this toxic soup, the thought crossed his mind he might die. He said he wasn’t afraid of dying as he knew he would go to Heaven, but didn’t want to die alone! Finally, a canoe came by and took him to higher ground. He stayed for 3 more days in the hot baking sun giving him 2nd degree burns all over his body. Eventually he was transported to the Astrodome in Houston.
On arrival at the Astrodome his feet were very swollen, so he secured himself an area to sleep near the food canteen and bathroom so he wouldn’t have to walk any distance. At last, he was able to show a volunteer his feet which had tripled in size. The doctors fear he’ll lose both feet to gangrene from being submerged in this contaminated brew for so long. After a few days some of the swelling did go down. After praying with him for healing he was moved to tears. Please do continue to pray for him that he’ll fully recover! We left him with some feeding reading to encourage him at this stage.

From Crystal, Ruth & Daniel,

Hurricane Katrina has ripped apart lives, and shattered hopes for 1000’s of souls that survived her wrath. Many escaped without even a pair of shoes on their feet. Blistered feet fled New Orleans, some having lived on their rooftops in the boiling sun waiting for rescue.

An atmosphere of hopelessness permeates the Astrodome in Houston, the new home for thousands of displaced Americans. Little did I know what was awaiting me when coming from my missionary work in Africa to visit a Family International base in New Orleans! Who could have imagined the devastation that was yet to unfold as I watched the daily reports on the news of what was happening? I was considering coming to New Orleans before my visit to my family in another state, but God changed my plans. He speaks! My flight was already booked, so I was rerouted to Houston so I could meet up with the team here to help with the relief effort.

I didn’t know what to expect when arriving as I knew that the missionary team based in New Orleans had to leave their base and flee. I was prepared for living in real tight quarters on the floor with other Family International volunteers in Texas. When I arrived at our location, I was absolutely taken aback at the Lord’s supply and love for this team. A dear woman they met at a shelter donated the use of her fully furnished house. This dear woman had been praying that day who to give the house to, and the team had prayed that same morning specifically for a house.

In New Orleans the Family International missionaries are presently ministering to the military and police officers. These men have been working non-stop, most having lost everything themselves to the hurricane. This Family International team is helping to provide hot meals for the police and military officers, and a team of young people, (Conchi, Karen, Jaz, and Claire) along with Caleb and Becky went to New Orleans to sing for the police, military, and FEMA workers.

Yesterday, we once again were ministering in the Astrodome — people wept in our arms, and we were able to pray with them and leave them with something to read. The children from the Family International in Houston performed at the Astrodome tent for children’s activities. Please continue to pray for our ministry to the evacuees —Jesus is their only hope and peace!

We had another amazing day at the Astrodome & Reliant Center shelters as we were able to help a Radio Station from Miami “Super 96″ who together with The Florida Marlins did an enormous toy drive and collected 3 large truck-loads of brand new toys, games, books, shoes,etc. for the evacuee children. They drove all the way from Miami and even brought a clown with them but were not being allowed to enter with the toys. So because Jeff and & I had already met with many of the organizers & people in charge, we were able to get the authorization for them to enter and distribute the toys.

What a joy & privilege to be a part of this! Just to see the smiles on the children’s faces after all they have been through brought tears to our eyes. It was Christmas in September for them. We were also able to give a poster with a message of comfort and inspiration to the children along with their bags of toys. We were a team of seven Family International volunteers working together with lots of other volunteers until late at night, but it was worth it all.

While singing to the evacuees in the Astrodome, we met precious Cynthia, who lost her home in New Orleans. She is a 53 year old retired military woman whose daughter is presently in the armed forces in Iraq.

Cynthia was stranded on her roof for 2 days with her granddaughter, then they were picked up by a boat and dropped on a bridge on the I-10, where they spent the next two days without food or water. Finally, a bus picked them up and took them to the Astrodome.

When we sang for her she joined in with us with her beautiful voice. After singing Amazing Grace together, she broke down in tears, letting it all out with sobbing from the depths of her soul. I held her in my arms and told her, “It’s ok to cry.” She kept saying, “I just want to go home….” I told her, “I’m from New Orleans too, and we all want to go home, but Jesus has a better home for us, and really this world is not our home…..we’re just a passin’ through!” After sharing some passages from the Bible on that subject we sang her John 14. “In my Father’s house are many mansions…” We left her with the Activated magazine, titled, “New beginnings.”

Like so many others, her home was completely destroyed by hurricane Katrina, so she really can’t go home. It is very hard for people to adjust to the aftershocks of what has happened. Thank God we can help by giving them the water of God’s Word!

We really want to thank Activated Ministries for donating tens of thousands of pieces of Christian literature and books for us to give to all. We really appreciate it. The response has been terrific and because of your generosity we have been able to reach out to a lot of people who are in great need of comfort and encouragement — and we have also led many people to receive Jesus as their Savior.

Family International Volunteer Peter at the Houston Astrodome:

Yesterday we had about 15 Family International volunteers split between the convention center and the Astrodome area in Houston. We also had another team in the Salvation Army center in Pasadena. In the Astrodome area, we had three teams of young people who had a guitar, and went singing from bed to bed. We are still working on getting an area where we can have an educational set-up for the children.

We spent time going from bed to bed in the Astrodome. There was one couple who, like so many, were still searching for their relatives. They had their little nephew with them, and were very positive about their situation; even though they weren’t sure what would happen to them didn’t know how they were going to find their relatives. We spent time talking to them, encouraging them, praying with them, and then left them some reading material. We also spoke to a couple of ladies, an older lady and her relative, who had been totally separated when they evacuated from New Orleans, and just walked into each other in the Astrodome. They were praising the Lord and were very happy.

We then spent some time in the medical center. There is a lot of sickness now erupting among the evacuees. In the medical center they’ve had to set up an area of isolation. When people are sick, they put them in there for 48 hours and watch them and check them and won’t release them until they are sure they are free from contamination. We spent time helping there, controlling the desk at the entrance of people going in and out. They all had to wash their hands going in and wash them when going out. They had to register going in, and register going out, so that there is a record of who’s been in there and why they were there. Tomorrow we’ll start again.

One interesting thing is that the number of evacuees in the Astrodome area is reducing significantly. There were about 16,000 yesterday in the Reliant Arena. Today it is down to about 8,000. They are moving people out very rapidly.

From Peter & Topaz:

This is a dear couple Christopher and Pamela Mistich and their nephew Tray, from Poydars, New Orleans.

They are looking for their family. We thought we could put their picture on the site and see if any of their friends or family might visit our site and see them. If so they are at the Astrodome and are registered there. They both were rescued by a neighbor and were helping to rescue others using a friends boat. They can’t find Tray’s mother and other relatives. We prayed with them and they were so grateful. We comforted them with the simple fact that not only does God help them that help themselves, but God helps those that help others. We have seen time and time again that prayer is the one thing that seems to calm troubled hearts. We also gave them some comforting literature.

From Topaz:

This is a little update on Day 6 here in Houston. It’s been just wonderful to see all the progress that’s being made in every way, each and every day. There is no end to the suffering, yet every day we can see a great outpouring of love and cooperation that’s bringing solutions to all the problems that are existing here. What we did today was mainly coordinate a lot of efforts to get a children’s center open, a place where we can put on shows, lay out our books, show videos, have the parents there with the children and make it a wonderful educational and spiritual experience to give comfort and get their minds off their problems. We did a lot of work on that today.

Also, during our time at the Astrodome today we bumped into Jason Kidd and B G:

From Shad, Family International Volunteer:

After spending time at the Houston Astrodome helping the evacuees, our team of two adults and four teens went to the George R. Brown Convention Center where the most recent evacuees had arrived. Many of these people had not necessarily been flooded out of their homes but as one man told us, he was with his wife and three children with no lights, water or food and with all the stores closed they had no choice but to leave. We saw some tearful reunions - one in particular of a father and mother finding their young daughter. The mother cried and was loudly giving thanks to Jesus while dozens of people nearby gave them a standing ovation.

These two nurses recognized our shirts and came up to us saying that some of the Family International had volunteered in the medical section where they were working and gave them high marks for their efforts.

An elderly man describing how the floodwaters took over his home.

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My name is Karen, I’m a full-time Family International missionary in Mexico, and I came up to Houston for a short visa trip, when Katrina hit Louisiana. Since I love to sing and perform, I was invited to join a group of “crazy clowns” to go and cheer up the refugees with some happy music, skits and lively songs. And it’s been a blast. At first I was only going to stay for a few days, but then I felt that the Lord was asking me to delay my return to Mexico and continue visiting all the shelters for a couple of weeks.

On Sunday we first visited a church converted into a shelter for 300 people. They were so thankful we had come as they were swamped with extra duties and did not know what to do with the children to keep them entertained and happy. After our clown and magic and singing show we prayed with all the children and their parents.

We then spent some time encouraging the parents who are going through great despair coming to grips with the fact that they have lost their homes. We shared with them how the Lord is our greatest strength in times of trouble like these.

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