Shattered Hearts and Tattered Doorsteps

by Deborah L. Berry

It was Steven's birthday. He was an evacuee living temporarily at a shelter in Monroeville, Alabama, forced from his home in Slidell, Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina. He lost his XBox, Game Boy, and other toys in the floodwaters of one of the most destructive and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

A team of Nazarenes from Jacksonville, Florida was volunteering at the shelter and at a disaster relief warehouse called His Place, an extension of the Monroeville Church of the Nazarene. Hearts broke as Steven earnestly told his parents that he understood that they had no money to buy him a birthday gift. The volunteers and the ladies of the church surprised Steven with a birthday party and presented him with a new bicycle and XBox. The church caringly hosted three birthday parties for evacuees during their 3-week stay at shelters in that small Alabama community.

The Alabama South District Church of the Nazarene, under the leadership of J. Roy Fuller, served in a pivotal way for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The readiness of the district and the swift disaster response made it possible for large numbers of churches, Nazarene districts, other denominations, and businesses from 42 states to strategically send relief supplies and financial aid to towns and cities in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana that were ravaged by the brute force of the hurricane.

After Hurricane Ivan wreaked havoc on communities in southern Alabama and the panhandle of Florida in September of 2004, the district was intensely challenged to prepare a plan of action for relief efforts in anticipation of future natural disasters. As a result, the Alabama South Emergency Response Taskforce (ALERT) was established. As an impending disaster affects the district, ALERT is activated through a web site, www.alasouthnaz.org/alert. District pastors and Nazarene Missions International (NMI) zone directors refer to the web site to find disaster response opportunities and report the relief efforts of their respective churches to the district NCM coordinator, who in turn updates the site to keep the district informed.

As the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina escalated, Nazarenes nationwide began calling and E-mailing the Alabama South District, interested in ways they could help in the disaster relief effort. The ALERT web site served as a catalyst to pump information to inquiring districts, businesses, concerned Nazarenes, and even non-Nazarenes. District churches, tactically located, served as drop-off points for relief supplies. Tractor-trailer loads of supplies, food, and clothing were transported to and distributed from His Place to the coastal states. Shelters were opened for evacuees in several churches. Drives for food, crisis care kits, 5-gallon buckets of cleaning supplies, and NCM donations were vigorously conducted on the district. A challenge was placed before the people of the Alabama South District and they responded enthusiastically and with a heart of compassion.

As friends, family, businesses, and neighboring churches and communities learned of the district's organized efforts to aid Gulf Coast residents, a snowball effect occurred. Compassion was contagious and far-reaching! Relief efforts centered on the small shrimp-harvesting town of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, where a 12-foot storm surge decimated buildings and left at least two feet of water in many homes as it swept through the streets. The devastation included countless damaged and condemned homes, massive piles of debris, flattened businesses, and hungry, displaced people.

Scores of Nazarenes from Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and several other states were motivated by compassion to join with Alabama South District work crews to offer aid to residents whose homes were either severely damaged or demolished by flood waters, torrential rains, and battering winds.

Truckloads of crisis care kits, water, tarps, canned foods, diapers, clothes, 5-gallon buckets of cleaning products, and financial donations from all over the country arrived at the Bayview Church of the Nazarene. The church served as a NCM distribution center, offering a ray of hope to the hungry, disheartened residents of Bayou La Batre. Remarkable, life-changing stories have emerged from the vast disaster relief effort.

As supplies and materials arrived by the truckloads to His Place in Monroeville, a distressed 64-year-old caller phoned the warehouse manager pleading for help. At first, the call appeared to be a prank, but after further inquiry, it was confirmed that the female caller was stranded in floodwaters on the roof of her home in Louisiana. The coast guard was informed and the woman was rescued. The manager was unable to conclude how the caller got his cell phone number, as he did not know her. One might speculate that God, in His great wisdom, knew of the manager's connection to emergency personnel.

To the astonishment of many, the U.S. became the victim of an unfathomable natural disaster, and as a result, the recipient of an overwhelming compassionate response by numerous faith-based organizations. The Church of the Nazarene was at the forefront, serving as Christ's hands extended to the people of the Gulf Coast.

As Hurricane Katrina's storm surge breached the levees that protected New Orleans and subsequently flooded the city, the Christian community was stirred by compassion and thrust into action. The call of God was heard across America and the restoration began-not only in the demolished coastal communities of the Gulf, but in the shattered hearts of Katrina's victims, as God's people came bringing hope and the love of Christ to their tattered doorsteps.

Deborah L. Berry is Nazarene Compassionate Ministries coordinator for the Alabama South District. She resides in Dothan, Alabama.

 

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