Hurricane Katrina relief: A first hand account
Nearly 100 college students from South Carolina are spending the week before Christmas working in hurricane ravaged Mississippi. Here are some of their first hand accounts.
Day 1
Bay St. Louis First Baptist Church has taken on a new role--staging area for a major enterprise of ministry. The church decided after Hurricane Katrina they wanted to really be the church to the community. Rather than handle the needs of the facility, the members mobilized to make the buildings a staging area for hundreds of volunteers. A church that was once considered by the city leaders as a conservative hindrance because of their stand on issues now is a church the city leaders are coming to for assistance for the citizens. Even the employees of the city rely on the church to staff many of the labor needs of the town.
Some 90 plus university students from the Baptist colleges of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and the eight campus ministries around the state have come together to provide a special ministry during their Christmas break. Chad Stillwell, the strategist for the collegiate ministry, coordinated this mission experience.
Arriving late on Thursday, December 15, the men and women found a small church with all their walls ripped out about four feet up from the floor, supplies like wire, MREs (military food packs) and a property full of small FEMA trailers for people to live. Shower trailers from Southern Baptist Disaster Relief groups are on site to help with the influx of volunteers. Accommodations are challenging--Men will sleep in the worship center void of all pews and damaged walls? And, how are we going to get all these bed rolls in this one small space? Ladies to the multipurpose room and remember the church will be gathering to worship Sunday –everything has to moved for services before then!
What one word – well, what few words would best describe these students from South Carolina: Awesome, Committed to Christ, Industrious, Inspiring
No task is to demeaning…clean the toilets, “No problem, I’m on it!” Pick up trash along this street, “Sure, and what then?”
Friday night the students will worship together, a worship service staged around bed rolls (ladies sleeping area) and a service the students will lead. Saturday is major projects like ‘mud outs’ and constructing the donated equipment to make a city park a reality. Sunday is worship, rest, and even an ordination service for one of the campus ministers on site, back at this home church just over the state line in Louisianna. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be physically draining as some 20 plus homes will be ripped out sheetrock walls, flooring, cabinetry, -everything to the street.
Making a difference is what First Baptist Bay St. Louis is doing and partnering with them is an awesome group of South Carolina Baptist college and university students. The work the campus ministries and the three Baptist universities in South Carolina is impacting the world today.
Christmas this year for residents in this small Mississippi town may be very different –living in a tiny FEMA trailer park right beside one’s resident that is gutted and many waiting for the Corps of Engineers to come and bulldoze it away, but a spirit is filling the lives of hope, compassion, and Christ’s love due to our students.
-Roger Orman-
Day 2
Today was incredible. We had teams working throughout Bay St. Louis.
Team 1 - Helped a 78 year old lady gut her house and get rid of wet dry rock and clean out her house. She was very grateful and the team finished in record time.
Team 2 - Led by Roger Orman - Cleared 2 lots of debris and prepared them for home owners to be able to rebuild.
Team 3 - Led by Kendal Danford and Chad Stillwell - went to a 2 story house for a couple that is now living in a campground for refugees opened up in rural Alabama. We gutted the house including removing all the dry wall, carpet and cabinetry. We also cleared the yard.
Team 4 - Led by Peter Hyatt - worked on painting a house that had been seriously damaged in the hurricane, but is on it's way to getting back to normal.
Team 5 - Led by Jennifer Danford - worked with a group called Kaboom! to rebuild a city park that was completely destroyed by Katrina. It is the only park in the county and our team worked so very hard. They completed a whole playground for the community with other volunteers in one day including playground equipment, planters and more. They also spent time with kids and people in the community.
Thanks for praying
-Chad Stillwell-
Day 3
On Sunday we worshipped at First Baptist Church Bay St. Louis and invaded the college Sunday School class. We set an all-time FBC Bay St. Louis Sunday School attendance record with 88 in attendance. After Sunday School we worshipped with members of the church and it was wonderful. Two people made professions of faith and a family joined the church. After church our students helped unload and set up toys for distribution to families.
In the afternoon, our group split and went in two directions - some of us (58) or so went to New Orleans. The destruction in New Orleans is terrible especially in the suburbs. We went by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and it looked surprisingly good. The French Quarter is mostly open, but stores close at 5pm and we left New Orleans at 5pm. The Quarter is much calmer than it used to be.
The other group from Charleston area schools made their way to Baton Rouge, LA for the ordination of their collegiate minister, Peter Hyatt, at the church where he was a member before recently moving to Charleston to serve as Baptist Collegiate Minister.
Tonight one team went to the "Wal-mart Express" for some supplies and people throughout the small warehouse-like store (that was only a tent until recently) stopped us and thanked us for being here. Employees randomly stopped students and thanked them for their help.
Monday promises more mud out and lots of clean up. Pray for the team as they prepare for several more days of labor in the mud.
-Chad Stillwell-
Day 4
The sun is shining today in Bay St Louis, MS and close to 90 university students are working on five "mud outs" and three yards. The work is tough as the teams not only gut a family’s possessions -tossing everything to the street; they also seek to give a word of encouragement.
Yesterday being Sunday the teams worshiped at First Baptist. The pastor looked across the congregation and the full room. "This is the way it looked before Katrina and one day it will be like this every Sunday with people from here in Bay St Louis!.” His eyes were moist as he reflected on the thousands of hurting families.
Rise up early and before breakfast you will see the students have clustered into prayer and study groups- not something organized by a schedule but as a result of a personal desire to grow in the Lord and pray for one another.
While meals may not be something to celebrate, you'd never know by the laughter, energy and excitement of those gathered around the tables. Could it be a discovery? Meal time is more than eating - it is a time of fellowship and encouragement.
For this trip, getting ready for the "next day" means cleaning up from the current day. "Let's see, that room has electrical power, I have to shower in the trailer and the toilet- now which one is working?.” Then the assignments for the next day are reviewed and with a small array of tools, the army of Lord will take on smells, trash, wet mattresses, stagnant water, and whatever comes at them.
Oh, Sunday was also a field trip to New Orleans for most of the group and Baton Rouge for the others. The suburbs of New Orleans are "dead" with mainly the down town tourist area is back up and running.
It is difficult for the large buses transporting the teams to their sites to maneuver between building that have been shifted into the streets or the lawn limbs and wires. Even a railroad crossing can be a hindrance -causing the bus to find an alternate route so it will not get hung up on the crossing. We continue to battle the garnet colored bus. First it was an electrical issue and now the radiator -seems like the rough roads shook loose some weak areas. And, the black bus no longer has the toilet -the bottoming out of it knocked a hole in the tank.
All is well. God is blessing and SC Baptists have the greatest students anywhere!
-Roger Orman-
Demolition, Christmas caroling, and tons of muddy fun. That was Monday in Bay St. Louis. This was a truly incredible day in Bay St. Louis. Students worked on mudding out two houses, completely gutted a house that was totally covered in water over its roof, helped city employees work on the roads, cleaned a whole lot for a house to be redone, and helped clean out the "lake" standing at the Baptist Church where we're staying. Today was a happy day and it was full of tears of thankfulness from people in the community. As we prayed with family after family that we had served tears flowed and people here were so gracious and grateful. After a very hard day of work and some amazing chicken bog for dinner (provided by our amazing cooking team from Florence, SC) the whole team went to the local FEMA trailer park and christmas carolled throughout the park. We met amazing people who were so grateful. Today's servant award really goes to our bus drivers who, despite difficult terrain including washed out roads, have steered the team to and from work assignments in places that are very difficult for charter buses to get to.
-Chad Stillwell-
And props to all the servants who are diligently serving our Lord and our brothers and sisters in Mississippi—Here are their names:
From College of Charleston and The Citadel
David Collier
Rachel Curry
Cliff Daniels
Joshua Dodson
Travis Gregg
Whit Gulledge
Wes Howard
Peter Hyatt
Shelley Jewell
Dawn More
Austin Neal
Mary Onks
Paige Orman
Lindsay Sandy
Angela Shepherd
Matthew Stuhler
Elizabeth Way
Audrey Witt
From Francis Marion University
Magan Bishop
Vaughn Bowen
Matt Brown
Devon Coward
Kendal Danford
Jennifer Danford
Gabe Felker
Erin Gandy
Lacy Goins
Courtney Keefe
Haynes Lewis
Grant Lyerly
Alecea Manghi
Augustina Olteanu
Meri Parker
Cameron Shepard
Katie Todd
From Furman
Jennifer Wilder
T.J. Cofield
Karrah Leary
Elloa Lee
Anna Lovett
From Greenville Technical College
Jennifer Wade
From Lander University
Rorey Garnett
Jessica Levinson
Kenny Maple
Chissy Wiles
From North Greenville University
Lisa Biggar
Beth Campbell
Nikki Deininger
Sarah Dodson
Karalee Dreyfus
Kayla Ellis
Jason Frady
Tara Goff
Jannelle Gomez
Brent Hardy
Meg Jerolman
Keisha Kohns
John Lamb
Zachary Masdon
Jasmine Mason
Alisha McEnally
Erica Pittman
Joseph Powell
Serena Rimer
Brett Seay
Malia Summer
Joshua Taylor
Kyle Thomas
Jason Vaughn
April Williams
Jerica Woodle
From USC Aiken
Erin Cox
Mamie Foreman
Brian Teague
From USC Columbia
Matthew Bodiford
Brandon Dobson
Ben Whitley
From Winthrop
Jeremiah Coble
Hallie Farmer
Chip Powell
From Lexington Baptist Church's College Ministry
Melanie Blind
Caroline Kosh
Adult Cooking Team from Elam Baptist Church outside Florence, SC
Revenel Floyd
Bill Jones
Lana Jones
Clark Floyd
Day 5
Muscles are tired, sleep has been challenged due to the conditions, and the work is staggering. The students from South Carolina continue to face challenges and heart ache at every encounter.
Every home has a story.
It was the day right after Katrina hit and the homeowner made his way to his house by driving around the trees in the road –sometimes having to drive across his own neighbors yards. In his yard was a section of roof and the dormers from the house four houses down. As he approached his house, with water running down the gutters he notice a book, page open with bold test –COMFORT –retrieving the book it found words from the Lord. To his left were some neighbors who rode out the storm, who miraculously survived by going up into their attic. The neighbors filmed the storm as it came inland…show a wave of water some 9 feet high that lapped against the houses.
Those with flood insurance will rebuild. But not everyone had flood insurance because they had been told they were not in a flood plane. Now everything – literally everything is on the side of the road.
The teams go into a home and remove flooring, furniture, what once were prized positions, now destroyed by water and mud. Nothing is worse than the refrigerator, which has been disconnected from the storm…containing –well, the rancid smell is overwhelming.
Most sites have a FEMA trailer (size of a small camper) along side the house… with just room for one or two people, these trailers are the home for families of five and six. With the home owner the team circles at the end of the work and prays once again for the family, introducing each other and the university from which they are a student. It is said these students gave up a part of their Christmas break. They wouldn’t see it as ‘giving up’ but getting to give. They paid their money to do back breaking work, breathing through a face mask and taking a technaous boaster injection if they get cut by a nail or piece of glass.
Today on one site two of the students got scratched and since there are only two buses handling some 6 teams, you simply have to improvise. So the tail of a T-shirt is torn to wrap the wound after it has been washed out from one of the bottle waters brought along to drink. The temporary wrap will enable the student to continue to work and keep trash out of the opening. No one even thinks about the loss of a t-shirt in the midst of all that so many have loss.
Wednesday the students conclude their work days and head back to South Carolina on early Thursday. In many ways it doesn’t seem like Christmas –at least not the normal way some would expect. Yes, there was Christmas caroling on Tuesday at a park full of trailers. And yes even the midst of all that has taken place, many home owners have lights on their small FEMA trailer –bringing some acknowledgement that December 25th is right around the corner. But what makes this Christmas so, so unique is the understanding that God came to this world –sacrificing His heavenly throne to live among His choice creation. That appearance was simple, yet so profound, it was a babe in a manger. The bright lights were the stars above and the music of the day was a heavenly choir. There’s no doubt the greatest impact on the world are miracles that come without the fanfare and trappings so many expect. The miracles of this Christmas season are the 90 plus students who radiate love in such a profound way.
What a privilege it has been for me to experience all that has taken place. Those who know me would acknowledge the trappings of today’s Christmas season really don’t encourage me or ‘cause the Christmas spirit.’ What I have witnessed, done, and experience really bring to heart what Christmas is all about. The gift of giving ‘love.’
Be humbly pleased with the students who came on this mission endeavor which was made possible by your faithfulness to the cooperative program. Your offerings have gone to a ministry to the hurting and a witness for Jesus the Christ.
-Roger Orman-
