when in need (friday)

Much of today was spent helping people who stopped by the church in need of help...

the Carnival is coming...

The church along with several other churches in the Baton Rouge area are putting on a Carnival for the evacuees who are staying at the Red Cross shelter in the River Center on Saturday. Much of the last couple of days for me has been spent working with Emily, the Assistant Youth Director, and another youth worker in town on details for the Carnival. It is called the Carnival of Hope! Emily had aquired the blessings of many high level city administrators including the mayor of Baton Rouge. It will take place in a park located across the street from the shelter. It is estimated that there are 4000 people living in this shelter and that one third of them are children. These children have very little to do all day and we are hoping that this will allow them to just be kids for a little while and let them know that there is hope and that people care about them despite the horrors that they have lived through in the past couple of weeks. Check out the church website www.fpcbr.org for more information. Please pray that things come together and that these kids will feel loved and welcomed by the churches of Baton Rouge.

This afternoon we had some evacuees show up at the church in need of some help. More to come on this...

The family that I am staying with were on CNN tonight. More to come on this...

The brakes on the RV might be fixed by tomorrow! Which means all those supplies can go further in to people who are desperately in need!

Wednesday

• went to the River Center to plan out things for the carnival
• became an official Red Cross volunteer
• served dinner at the River Center
• did errands for the Carnival

the larger picture of help

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.

And they gave the RV!

So much to tell and so little time as it was an exhausting day. I will just put some snippets so I remember and will expound later.

I meet a young man at the church that started the website below with some friends to help those in need of a home connect with those who are wanting to share their home. This man is just a little bit younger than me and had such a vision to help others. If you have a home you want to share, please make sure to visit the site!
http://www.shareyourhome.org

Some of the workers at the church accompanied a woman from Algiers who was living in New Orleans down to the River Center, which is where the Red Cross is set up, to help her get some medical care. She was staying with friends over the weekend, but became ill and needed more attention. She has not seen her 16 year old daughter since Monday. Please pray that Nicole will get well and be reunited with her daughter very soon.

There are some relief workers staying at the church. They are leaving everyday not knowing where they will be off to and what they will be doing. Some work for the power company and are helping to restore power to the affected areas. I watched these men get out of their cars and walk into the gym and they are just beat. They are out in the sun all day working some 12/14/16 hour shifts. But they are doing an amazing job. Power was reported in some of the outlying areas of NO yesterday. Pray for them as they are seeing some horrific things and having to put in so much labor in a day, and they just see is as part of their job.

Some of the other relief workers are involved in law enforcement. I really feel safe at the church because we have law enforcement folks rolling in all the time to regroup in addition to those that are being housed there. But some of these people have had the greusome task of collecting those who perished in the disaster. The things they have seen with their own eyes have been horrific. Please keep them in your prayers as well as they go out and do their job and as they process through it in the hours and days to come.

And give thanks for those who are giving literally all they have to those who have none. The parable of the widows purse is illustrated everyday as people give. Today, a man and his daughter arrived from Independence, Ohio in an RV flled to the brim with supplies, water, toys, and so much more that had been collected by the people in their town to bring down to those in need. But not only did they give the supplies, but they signed over the RV to the youth pastor at the church. I will post some pictures tomorrow!

the road to Memphis

saw a convoy on their way to help
lots of gas tankers out there
saw people from Louisiana as far north as the Cairo, IL area!
I think I am the only person at my hotel tonight who is not a hurricane refuge
a couple doors down is a man and his parents and their bird
lots of families
and lots of people helping...tons of fliers in the lobby about how to get items and where to go for help
and they are having a labor day bbq on Monday for everyone here
no room at this inn tonight...i kind of feel bad taking one of only rooms left

Leaving tomorrow

So I am on my way...I have a little more to pack and then I am on to Memphis tomorrow to see Sarah and Jeff (cross your fingers that it will happen) and then on to Baton Rouge on Sunday. I'll let you know when I get there and what life is like down there. Pray that I will be able to get gas...as my parents are worried about that.