So today was a full day...I am still here at the church. But it was a good day. Sometimes it is tough because I am not always busy, but at the same time it has been amazing to see all the stuff coming together here in the city. I had the opportunity to go out to the local presbytery office where the presbyterian disaster assistance team has set up for the time being. The executor [we have all these big names and titles for things in the Presbyterian Church (USA)] of the presbytery is directly involved in the relief effort in the city and is involved in the FEMA planning team. He showed us around the office and oriented us to what is going on there. They are setting up a computer and telephone bank to begin making contact with every pastor in the affected areas. Once that is done, then they are going to start making calls to every member of the congregation to get their location and condition. When they start to find trends geographically in where people are living, they are going to look for space in those areas for these congregations to begin to worship together--to begin to live in community again.
A man stopped by the church today with his three year old daughter Caroline. He and his wife brought his two children out of New Orleans to Baton Rouge to begin life again...at least for the time being. He had secured an office space to work out of and had gotten one of his children signed up for preschool at one of the other churches in town and was looking for a preschool for his three year old daughter. He was talking about how his younger daughter was not adjusting well to the changes and had cried this morning when she was dropped off. Having spent time with my sister and her family this summer I know how important a schedule is for young children. None of the littlest survivors have anything normal to hold on to right now. My mother told me about a little boy in their area who is doing a stuffed animal drive. Such a great idea! The children that I have met have craved these things, because they are comforting. The young adult pastor was telling us about his experience the other day in going out to one of the shelters to hand out homemade blankets to children. He said these blankets were so colorful and brought so much energy and life into the place. One person had brought a Sharpie and was writing the name of the child on the blankets. He said that despite the heat these blankets were being coveted by these children. A blanket symbolizes security to us. And they had something that was theirs...that was marked with their name on it!
I had the opportunity to take another refuge down to the River Center where the largest Red Cross shelter in town is set up. It is always amazing to go down there. This man had been living in Kenner which is right by the New Orleans airport. You may have heard of it because they had the triage unit out at the airport after a couple of days. He had sent his wife and 16 year old daughter further out of the area, but had stayed here in Baton Rouge with his son who attends LSU. He has been trying to get medicine because he is diabetic and has had a stroke in recent years and has been shuffled around the city all week. But praise God, he finally was able to secure what he needed and hopefully soon he will be reunited.
In terms of the donations today...we had a woman stop by this morning with food. She was not a member of the church, but knew that we were housing people here, so she gave us food to help with meal preparation. We also had a palate of socks and shoes dropped off today...do you know how many that is...well, it's a lot! People are doing what they can and more and it's amazing. Things that are needed most are the essentials that people need everyday...undergarmets: men's, women's, and children's underwear, undershirts, bras...those kinds of things! And then came more...the man from Austin dropped of so much! More to come about him.
