The Narrow Gate: Day 2 - Sunrise! A new beginning

The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Day 2 - Sunrise! A new beginning

By the end of the day Sunday, after a seven hour drive under a sky that couldn’t make up its mind, changing repeatedly from overcast and blustery to sunny, I arrived at the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program (PDA) village at Orange Grove Presbyterian Church on the north side of Gulfport, Mississippi and had connected with the Interim Village Coordinator. I got the keys to my trailer from her and checked it out. It’s really not too bad, a bed on one end, a modest kitchen with a microwave in the middle with a sofa and bench seats at the table that fold out into beds and the bathroom at the other end.

The Village Coordinator saved me a small piece of barbequed chicken that I ate while talking to her. I met the Village manager and her husband who came by the table while I ate.

Monday morning ready to start my new job, I rode over to the office with the Village Coordinator, met the case manager again and her assistant, a youth volunteer. The finance coordinator was there as well. The logistics manager who I’d met on an earlier trip had a bad cold and stayed in. By Tuesday evening, I’d gotten a fair feel for the personnel situation. We have a small core of people, maybe 40 of which most are volunteers - college-aged people on 3-6 month stints as well as a few retirement-aged folks working as volunteers on an hourly rate. The few salaried people who run the operation have their work cut out for them. They have to manage the stress of the effort to identify work to do, to be sure Village Managers know and plan for the influx of volunteers, and be sure everything is in order at the work sites. We expect over 4,000 volunteer hours in April, more or less evenly distributed between Orange Grove in Gulfport, Pearlington in Hancock County, Olive Tree and Luling north of New Orleans and Houma, southwest of New Orleans. Add to this the challenge to manage the interpersonal situations that arise within a very small group of people managing a very large job stretched over the two states where Katrina hit. Even the best can manage the stress for only a couple of years mostly due to their dedication, before exhaustion wears them out.

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Gates

The gate pervades the Good News. Peter entered the temple gate after the Jesus’ arrest to deny him. Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate, longing for the crumb's from the table, while dogs licked his sores. The blind, lame and paralyzed lay at the Sheep Gate at the Jerusalem temple waiting at the pool with five porticoes for healing water. Jesus warned of the easy road and wide gate to material ease and spiritual destruction and calls us to the hard road and narrow gate to the waters of life.

necessary disclaimer

This blog is created solely to communicate to my brothers and sisters how one person sees adversity bringing out the greater character of humanity. It's early part relating connection to the volunteer relief effort in Mississippi after Katrina and later work with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program and the Presbyterian Church(USA) is solely through my participation in them; this blog does not carry any sponsorship from these fine organizations or purport to speak for them. All original content is that of the writer who holds the copyright to all original writings and art or other works (See Creative Commons License above). Every effort is made to identify content from other sources which have been obtained from open internet sources. It's more recent content contains sermons and lessons used in preaching and teaching. The url to scripture are obtained via http://bible.oremus.org unless otherwise indicated.

Texts quoted from oremus bible viewer are from "New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved." and "New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."