Sunday, August 27, 2006

Katrina Anniversary

Coming up soon is the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I intend to use this forum to document some of my thoughts and experiences from the past year relating to Hurricane Katrina.

In the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures, the Lord consistently asked His people to remember their experiences by setting up memorials. One example is when Joshua and the people crossed the Jordan River. God told the people to pick up 12 stones (one for each tribe) from the river bed and set them up on the other side to remember how the Lord stopped the flow of the river so that they could cross on dry land. We have a nice box in our home that we call the "Joshua Box" where we write down the ways that the Lord has directed our family so that we will not forget His faithfulness. I would like to take the next week or so to make this a virtual Joshua Box as a testament to His faithfulness to His people.

Since the DFW Metroplex is far inland, typically the main thing that crosses our minds when we hear "hurricane" is that maybe we'll get some rain and we hope it doesn't do too much damage on the coast. Before Katrina's landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi, we were much more aware due to the intensity of the storm and the possibility of having a few people in our area running from the storm. In the aftermath of the storm, however, my family was just like everyone else, riveted to our TV watching in horror how people were flooded out, stranded, in need of rescue, and then in need of the basics to survive.

The first few days, my thoughts were all external -- I hope someone can get those buses to the Superdome, what a tough job for the National Guard and Coast Guard, is the state of Louisiana able to get enough food and water for all of those stranded folks? Toward the end of that first week, we heard of evacuees in our area and my thoughts became internal -- what can I do to help, what food and water can we get to those folks, what other things do they need that we can get?

We sent some of our offering money to national relief that first week, but Sunday, September 4th was our first face-to-face interaction with evacuees. A resourceful church member had started calling hotels and motels in our area looking to see if anyone needed anything. She found some families in a motel and made contact with them. They didn't get out with much and our friend made a list of their needs. After e-mails, phone calls, and announcements in church that morning, they had their list completed in one day. When we went to drop off our donations after a Wal-Mart run, I looked into their eyes, talked with them, and played with their kids. That's when my thoughts became personal. What if this was me and my family? Where would we go and what would we do? How would I feel if I was unable to provide for my family and we had just lost every material possession that we owned?

We had no idea exactly what was in store for us, but my wife and I started talking and praying about what we should do and how we should respond. Little did we know that one year later our lives would be richly blessed by new experiences, new frustrations, new skills, new foods, new perspectives, and most importantly by new friends.

Next Katrina post . . .

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