The Narrow Gate: Day 152 – Securing Pearlington

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.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Day 152 – Securing Pearlington

By now the governor of Mississippi has declared mandatory evacuation of all people in FEMA housing and in newly constructed homes in the flood zone in Harrison and Hancock counties (basically all the land south of I-10). The governor of Louisiana declared evacuation of all people with disability or poor health. It is only a matter of time before a full evacuation order comes out and then the highways will be plugged with cars.

The National Hurricane Center is still predicting a blow to the Gulf Coast with the “consensus” prediction pointing to landfall just west of New Orleans early Tuesday morning. The models are still ambiguous but there is a growing fear on a rapid intensification to a level 3 or higher storm as Gustav passes Cuba. The potential for a severe surge is great.

I left Gulfport about 7:15AM in order to meet our Village Coordinator in Pearlington by 8AM. Today we have to complete the job Jeremy and I started yesterday – completely disassemble the Pearlington operation and secure all the equipment.

We boxed up all the paper records and load up several pallets of bottled water to bring to the Hancock County EOC (Emergency operations center) in Bay St. Louis. These people will be operating the center through the storm and they will need all the supplies they can get.

About 9:00AM three of our people came in from Gulfport. They had been securing our village in Luling yesterday and got back last night after 1AM. We set them to work removing the cots and mattresses from the pods.

We find we have one large freezer full of food, and a second one about half full. Our plan is to cut the electricity as a safety precaution and the food is going to go bad. We can’t possibly use it all even if we try to take it with us. We decide to load up the freezer and carry it to the EOC, they were unbelievably thankful. It will help them if the situation gets really bad and we’ll get the freezers back. Although there was some debate about taking the food with us, the good thing is we’ve built a strong relationship with a very important recovery organization in Hancock County, and we’ve stayed true to Matthew 6:25-33.

(At 6AM Saturday Gustav is a category 2, a dramatic increase last night. The tank remains the same. We will get a good idea after the storm passes Cuba. The only glimmer of hope is that there are some shearing winds that may keep the storm from becoming a great storm. Increasingly, it looks bad for Louisiana right now.)

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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."