Archive for September, 2005

Gulf Relief

Published
by
Mike
on September 3, 2005
in General
. 25 Comments

All over the country, churches will be taking special collections tomorrow to help people in the Gulf Coast area. If you’ve been reading the comments in this blog for the last few days, you recognize how unclear it is right now as to how we can best help. The situation is just so bad that strategies are murky–though there are several agencies and churches that we know we can trust.

Incredible acts of Christian service are going to happen in many places. And we trust that the money given will be used by God to aid the victims.

We’ve identified places in Baton Rouge and Houston where we believe some money can be sent to help immediately. But this is just a beginning. Contributions tomorrow are just a first step.

One of our councilman (a Highland elder) left me a message yesterday that 500 evacuees are on their way to Abilene. Surely this is happening all over Texas, as centers in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio fill up. I received e-mails from members wondering if we could use Highland’s gym and our Southside building (where the Freedom Church outreach is about to take place) to house some of the people. We’ll be looking into all that. As the mayor (also a Highland elder) said in the paper today, it’s uncertain when they arrive or where they’ll stay.

But the main thing is that we have some hard cash ready immediately and that we stay prepared to offer gifts of cash, housing, and labor as the opportunities arrive.

By the way, after what I wrote Wednesday it’s a bit funny to read in this morning’s paper that Sri Lanka has made a pledge of aid–along with Cuba, Dominica, and Venezuela (despite Pat Robertson!).

It’s a time for us to give sacrificially.

Final note: already I’m hearing reports of ministers announcing that this is the judgment of God on the wickedness of New Orleans. Can someone please tell me how they know that? And if God hasn’t explicitly told them that, would they please SHUT UP and get busy with acts of compassion?

Biloxi

Published
by
Mike
on September 2, 2005
in family and memories
. 18 Comments

I have so many childhood memories invested in Biloxi. We went there almost every year until Camille crushed it in 1969.

At the time, my mom’s doctors told her that what was needed to help psoriasis was lots of sun. Of course, doctors now say that the sun is the one thing skin doesn’t need! But we were going with what we were told then.

So off we’d go every year for the Admiral Benbow Inn. (Maybe it led to my Treasure Island obsession.) Since at the time our daily newspaper in Neosho, MO was family owned, my dad could trade them free advertising for a couple weeks of lodging. Why the Admiral Benbow Inn wanted to advertise in Neosho, I don’t know. But apparently it worked.

It’s during those years that my mom taught me the delight of raw oysters (a passion I still have), and my dad taught me to ride the waves (which I passed on to my boys).

When we got married in 1978, we drove to Hot Springs (yes, we heard all the jokes) for a couple days, returned to Harding for my graduation ceremonies, and then took off for — of course — Biloxi.

New Orleans has been one of our favorite spots since we started going to Pensacola Beach in 1989. Each year we’ve built a stop in N.O. into the itinerary. Sometimes we’ve stopped just for a quick beignet at the Cafe du Monde. But most of the time we’ve saved enough time for Preservation Hall (home of New Orleans jazz), the Imax, Ralph & Kakoo’s, the aquarium, and a stroll along the Mississippi. A couple times we’ve splurged with dinners at Nola’s (one of Emeril’s restaurants) or Galatoire’s.

I wonder what’s happened to all these places.

But even more I wonder about all those people we’ve seen through the years. I still can’t wrap my mind around this tragedy.

At Highland and thousands of other churches this Sunday, we’ll be taking special contributions. Our prayer is that God will get that money to people in need as quickly as possible!

Katrina’s Wake-Up Call

Published
by
Mike
on September 1, 2005
in General
. 12 Comments

Just three hours ago, all four of my sons’ grandparents were sixtysomething. But not any longer.

Happy 70th, Dad! A 50th anniversary on Sunday and a 70th birthday today: this is a big week for you.

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Yesterday my son and daughter-in-law lived across the street from a largely-unused sports facility. But today it is becoming the home for a community of 23,000 refugees from New Orleans. There are already amazing stories in the Houston Chronicle.

Just think of all the challenges at the “Eighth Wonder of the World” (Astrodome). How do you feed that many people? How do they all share the showers in four locker rooms? How do you provide medical and dental care to a group that’s been what they’ve been through the past several days? How do you allow the 5000 school-age children to continue their education?

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Please continue leaving comments as you hear about opportunities for individuals and churches to help. A good place to begin if you’re interested in helping those who fled to Houston is with the Impact Church–a church that knows how to help people!

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Please don’t miss the last couple entries from Larry James’s blog.

Here is a sample:

Katrina should serve as a wake-up call to the nation concerning the on-going plight of the poor in America. The most vulnerable among us live fragile lives. Things could be so much better. Our weakest citizens could actually be so much stronger than they are today. But we have lost our national will to attack poverty and to overcome it. We’ve opted for an approach that simply cuts people loose to manage for themselves with few resources and limited options. Then, when a relative handful are successful against great odds, we crown them poster children for the “American Way,” forgetting the 99% who never have even a chance of making it out of such crushing poverty.