“We are all overwhelmed at the enormity of the devastation and the resulting human needs, both displayed so readily on our televisions and computer screens. Our hearts naturally go out to the countless individuals and families that have suffered loss. Out of all the options to respond, we are suggesting several courses of action-all of which link our efforts to other churches and lift high the name of Jesus. As God so often ordains, he graciously meets desperate human needs through us, his people. We become the hands and feet of God to the world.” Rev. Daniel Meyer September 4, 2005
Rev. Meyer announced on September 4 that the Mission Leadership Team, on behalf of the congregation of Christ Church of Oak Brook, approved grants from our general mission fund to International Aid and to World Relief for their efforts in ministering to hurricane victims. Both organizations seek to provide their help through local churches and in the name of Christ. Within a day, Christ Church members coordinated and completed the delivery of one semi trailer loaded with food purchased with these funds to International Aid. The first truckload of crucial relief items arrived in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on the morning of Saturday, September 10.
Within a week of the Gulf Coast disaster, Christ Church joined hands with thirteen churches in the local area to collaborate in collecting needed food, water, and cleaning supplies for distribution in the Gulf Coast area through International Aid. The LovingNeighbors
Food Drive resulted in a convoy of trucks filled with
needed goods for our neighbors in the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast region.
The Christ Church congregation collected an additional money to support the Gulf Coast churches through World Relief. Empowering local churches, World Relief equips them with the resources necessary to respond to the many challenges faced after a natural disaster. Collected funds were given to our mission partner, Mendenhall Ministries, to repair damaged facilities and homes.
LovingNeighbors EMBRACE PEARLINGTON by Doug Calhoun
LovingNeighbors EMBRACE PEARLINGTON
by Doug Calhoun
I've never been to a war zone, but my guess is it would look somewhat like the Gulf Coast of Mississippi after Katrina. Everywhere I looked, mile after mile, houses and stores lay crumbled in disorderly piles. There would be whole rows of house foundations with nothing left on them but scattered bricks. Then you could see a little further inland from them a huge swath of rubble stacked up almost as high as a house. The sea had taken all those homes, torn them to shreds, tossed them around-until it was weary of the game-and then dropped them unceremoniously in a heap.
But for our team of pastors and lay people from four churches in the LovingNeighbors network, it was the ruined lives of the people who lived and worked in all those buildings that caught at our hearts. We could see the sadness and desperation in the faces of the people standing in line for food or hoping to be a lucky one to receive a generator. We couldn't imagine losing every single possession except what they might have been able to cart away before the hurricane. Beyond possessions there would be the loss of the whole fabric of community, familiarity, and history. Who will return? Who will leave? Do you remember what it used to look like here?
Our team had a mission. As a network of churches from various denominations, we were seeking to find a community or a church that we could come alongside in support and encouragement. Our partner for several weeks now was International Aid. They worked in conjunction with FEMA as the main warehouse center receiving food and other supplies and delivering those to the many "points of distribution" (PODS) throughout the stricken area. Wherever possible, these PODS were in churches or overseen by churches. We toured the area visiting Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Picayune, and Kiln. When we reached Pearlington, we all sensed that this was the community that God wanted us to reach out to. With virtually all of its houses and churches destroyed, it faces a huge rebuilding task.
On
the flight back to Chicago, we prayed and discussed how best to care for them. We came upon the idea of providing families with Home Starter Kits. Their homeswhatever was left of them-would soon be condemned by the county, not only because of the severe damage they had sustained, but because they all suffered from serious mould infestation. FEMA is in the process of providing trailers for such families, but most people have nothing to outfit their new homes. These starter kits would give them kitchen necessities, linens, cleaning supplies, and miscellaneous items to make their trailer a little more like home.
The LovingNeighbors churches are each committing as they are able to raise funds to purchase Home Starter Kits to Pearlington. We are able to ship these goods there through the generous help of one of our members, even as we were able to visit the Gulf Coast through the gift of another member. Through one of the team member's contacts, we also will be able to give each family a small gift of a porcelain cross donated by Robert Kincade. We pray that God uses all of these acts of true charity to bless those who have lost so much and to build up his kingdom in that region.
In the coming weeks, the plan is to walk through the recovery phase with Pearlington and the surrounding communities. We hope to send teams there to work in the community. We plan to partner with the churches as they try to gather their congregations again and figure out how to rebuild their lives. It is hoped that the delivery of the Home Starter Kits will be done with the local Christians or our volunteers, so that together we might care spiritually as well as physically for the receiving families. Please pray for the Lord's leading and for how you might be involved personally. Long after the Gulf Coast disappears from the news, their journey of rebuilding will go on. With God's help, we will be there.
