Faith Based Relief - Times Picayune

I don't know what you all thought you were signing up for when we first got into this, but I imagine, like me, you never considered the long term implications. This article is a front page item in the Times Picayune today. I hope you can all take the time to read it, though it is rather long. Some important quotes:

"We feel changed. We'll go back different than we were going in. We've gained much more than we've given," Hoffman said.

For the present, however, "It's impossible to describe waves of compassion that swept through the Gulf region after Katrina," said Jim Towey, [President's Office of Faith Based Initiatives] director. He called the work "historic and heroic."

The Salvation Army has purchased a warehouse in LaPlace to store food for its massive distribution program. "That's a three-year commitment," spokeswoman Capt. Deb Osborn said.

"This is a major, major catastrophic disaster, and it's going to take five years, minimum, maybe a decade, to get people back into shape," said Gordon Knuckey, an official with the United Methodist Committee on Relief. "I know we're settling in for at least five years."

Thirteen Southern Baptist mobile kitchens working in southeast Louisiana are about to reach a landmark of 10 million meals, four times the previous records, set in the Sept. 11 recovery and after last year's cluster of Florida hurricanes, said Robert Reccord of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Kathy Powers, a staff member at Aurora [Methodist Church] who receives the volunteers, had similar sentiments. "Most people speak of feeling a real compelling call," Powers said. "It's a feeling that this is what God wants me to do, and many say it's so strong they simply cannot say no."

In order to keep answering, our mission requires one thing... More volunteers. Those of us who have gone and many who for very good reasons could not go have felt and continue to hear this call. Absolutely every person who has volunteered that I have talked to since our return has been anxious to go back and heartsick to not be there now.

Life on this planet is practical, however. We can't all up and leave. We have families to support, jobs and employees who count on us, and ministry work locally.

The solution to both problems is to share this experience that we have had. Go when we can, but continually pray for and offer the opportunity to others. This call from God that we are all hearing is to be recruiters and not just doers. If you need any asisstance presenting what we have been doing, seeing, and feeling, where you don't feel you can do so yourselves please contact Brad, Troy, Robin, or I.

Shout it from the mountain tops. God is good! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

Amen.