So today I went back down to the River Center hoping to serve dinner as it takes a lot of people to do that and in the past they have been scrounging for volunteers to make meals happen...but Rachel (an LSU student who came with me) and I arrived too late. When I walked upstairs to check in, there was a Red Cross volunteer who needed someone immediately and so I went with him to help. I was walking fast behind him trying to figure out what task would have such an urgency...but my mind could not have predicted what it was I would be doing. He took me down to an area at the end of the lobby where they had installed several phones for the residents of the River Center to use. It was pretty chaotic as there were about 30 people all crammed into a little area aroud nine phones only five of which were working at the time. Behind them were another fifty people who were standing in line, some of whom complained that they had been there all day. These people were trying to register for their Red Cross assistance which can only be done by telephone...(surprise! FEMA assistance can only be registered for on the internet or in person!) Many people had been online for hours waiting for someone to assist them. With the help of a National Guardsman and a Baton Rouge Police Officer, we were able to covince people to move back and create some order. After all that, the phone lines then started dying...and then there were none. Many of the people in line had been there all day, just trying to get to the phone. It was such a tough place to be wanting so much to help but knowing that there was nothing I could do. I spoke with a woman while I was there who had been living in New Orleans and had left before the storm. She had two boys--a one year old and a three year old. I asked her how they were handeling everything and she said they were okay, but things could be better. She also said that she was not sure if she and her family would be returning to New Orleans and that they might stay in Baton Rouge. This has been a common thread that I have heard from many of those that survived Katrina.
Earlier in the day, Whitney (the youth pastor at First Pres in BR) and I had made some contact with other churches in the area. We stopped by University Methodist Church which has a new senior pastor that just arrived this summer. There we found out about storm buckets that are put together by the Methodist conference. Our contacts in Mandeville had been asking for us to aquire buckets, mops, and cleaning supplies and so we inquired more about this. Through this contact we might be able to get 1500 flood buckets that come with a bucket, mop, cleaning solutions, masks, and other nessicities for such cleaning that we can have delivered to the areas that are literally mopping up the mud that has been left behind from the flood waters.
Right next store is the University Presbyterian Church which is quite small in comparison to First Pres but has chosen to help by filling the need for housing mothers and newborns. They are able to house five families at a time in their Sunday school rooms. While we were there, we told them about a shipment that we recieved off an 18 wheeler earlier this moring of a lot of baby stuff including strollers and car seats. They said they could use the strollers and car seats and also needed mattresses to give to these families as they moved out of their facility...and low and behold, we had six matresses sitting in the corner of the church gym. We were able to deliver these items later on today.
Across the street is the Chapel on Campus which has been housing resuce workers from the very begining in thei facility who have been helping out with the different rescue efforts being housed on the campus of LSU. Whitney introduced me to several people including Kevin the senior pastor and Josh who runs the college program. Josh was very busy as the college ministry was hosting their own version of a Wal-Mart in one of the classrooms for students who relocated to LSU after their institutions had been closed by the storm. LSU has enrolled 2500 students and added an additional 500 students in their residence halls since Katrina. Many of these students came with nothing, so this was such a gift to them. While we were there, several international students came and went. They were providing them with goods that had been collected as well as gift certificates to places like the real Wal-Mart and Old Navy so they could purchase things they needed.
Gift certificates like that are such a good idea to send if you are looking to send things to a place that had been affected and you don't want to send money. Part of the reason is that it can be used to purchase what someone needs as needs are changing daily. Make sure to ask whoever or where ever you are sending things what they need/want but that is something we have begun to ask for as a church. Clothes are hit or miss with sizes and some used items are too used to be given on. It's been amazing to watch the giving...don't get me wrong, but I have also seen and heard some things from people about wanting to give on things they no longer want, which is dishartening because the people herevwho need deserve the best!
Well, I am hoping to be better about the blogging...I also have some pictures that I want to get up. It just takes a really good internet connection which I can only get at the local Starbucks. Of course, I love my time at Starbucks...but there is work to be done!
