The Narrow Gate: Day 155

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.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Day 155 - Landfall

I write the story of September 1 today.

We evacuated Mississippi and Louisiana in the nick of time. We brought 7 of our staff from the Gulf and 12 immediate family from Houma.

There is a dramatic difference in the local situation between Katrina and Gustav. During Katrina not only did every one (almost) ignore the NHC predictions, as it hit almost all communication was lost. During Gustav' approach over two million people evacuated Louisiana and Mississippi. In addition, we all kept a real-time update on the approach of the storm by cell phone. Because Gustav accelerated across the Gulf, the storm did not have time to grow into what would have been a storm of historic proportion. That is the only good news.

Here in Meridian inside Trinity Presbyterian Church, on Monday morning at 9AM Kevin got a phone call from a cousin in Houma. Gustav destroyed Kevin's house trailer moments earlier. Within a few minutes his mother, two sisters, and son got the same news by cell phone. They lost everything today; their house, clothes, car(?) utensils-except the big cast iron gumbo pot that I'll bet Katrina couldn't move.

We just stood in stunned silence. He had just recovered from Katrina and now this. His mother was crying and we were trying to console her. Everyone else either was teared up or had that face of stunned and shell-shocked innocent people who have just survived a brutal bombardment in a conflict of war.

Later we hear that the cousin was able during a lull to get to the house and retrieve some critical possessions, a few clothes, his hunting guns and some utensils. Then the storm picked up. They lost everything today (house, clothes, car utensils-
except the big cast irn gumbo pot that I'll bet Katrina couldn't move.

The high school about a mile away caught on fire (electrical?) and burned down. The local shrimp processing plant was obliterated and scattered everywhere. Like Pearlington before it, Houma at ground zero was dealt a smashing blow.

Kevin cooked pizza's for lunch. Jeremy and I had been toying with the idea of going to a movie to blow off some of the stress yesterday, but never did it. We decided to do it today. Kevin's young daughter and his two boys looked pretty stunned to be going through this ls three years and 1 day later. I thought the best thing might be to get the young people's minds off this disaster. We asked the four of them if they wanted to go and they all jumped at the chance.

They watched "Tropical Thunder" while Jeremy and I watched "Traitor." I guess I'll use a twenty out of the mission money Northside sent me for mission-related occasions to cover their tickets.

Our movie finished first so Jeremy headed to Sears to get a tool case and I waited for the others in the food court of the mall. When their movie finished they came out laughing and happy. We sat at a table and talked and watched the crowd while we waited on Jeremy.

It was unsettling to me to sit there and see all the Meridians, young teenagers and parents hustling through the mall, laughing and joking on their holiday outing, carrying bags of items bought in the Labor Day sales ( It hasn't even rained in Meriidian yet) and turn to these four young people who, like me, were watching the crowd. It was if we were living on two parallel universes, each oblivious to the reality of the others' world. One held everything material, the other had only what they had been able to bring with them in their cars and on their backs.

We met at 6PM for a telephone conference with our staff leader who remained in the Gulfport area. I felt so badly about Kevin's family that I had to do something to try to assuage their grief. I ran out to my RV and found my RSV and paged until I found Matthew 6:24-34.

After the meeting we held a short prayer devotional. I concluded with this passage, barely able to read it clearly, but it seemed so appropriate. We promised Kevin we will be there to help him and his family recover.

We will take heart in our blessings and let today's worry be enough for us. We will leave tomorrow's for tomorrow.

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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."