Articles
KATRINA MISSION
02/21/06
DALLAS TRIP 9/11-9/14/2005
A church member, Chris Conant, approached me on Sunday, September 4th. He had 7 vacant apartments and wanted to open them to 7 families hit by Katrina. His inspired idea set in motion a plan that is still in process. On 9/11 Chris and I flew to Dallas where some amazing things took place.
- Before leaving most of the money to provide 5 months of free rent to these seven families have been provided.
- While in Dallas we received word of a corporate donor giving $10,000 to furnish the apartments through *IKEA who also donated 21 mattresses for the bedding.
- Two Vineyard Churches are adopting the families and three others are coming alongside. These Vineyard pastors: Bob Oliver, Bob Attaway and George LeBeau dropped everything to meet with us and host us for the few days we were there. We experienced awesome fellowship and encouragement.
- Chris was awesome in coordinating and connecting about 100 different tasks and people. His Blackberry was overheating and needed several recharges as emails and phone calls zoomed in and out.
- From the time I hit LAX I was stricken with laryngitis and wasn't feeling too hot, but we kept truckin'. It was only 90 degree and 97% humidity in Dallas, so it was just the way we Californians like it.
THE FAMILIES
The immensity of the challenges surrounding the people involved in Katrina cannot be overstated. Chris was in constant contact the Baton Rouge Vineyard, New Orleans Vineyard and many others. We have about 3000 homeless Vineyard people. Our hope is to offer them help first and possibly even plant a Bible Study in the apartments.
The struggle to select 7 families includes a few things we'd like you to pray about:
- The many evacuees in Baton Rouge are still confused and bewildered. They are not sure if they can go back to their homes or if they have any belongings. In Dallas we met a man who was an optometrist. He lost all his records, his equipment, his home, his office and he lost all his clients. Imagine trying to make a snap decision to move to Dallas or any other city. So although many need immediate housing, they are not sure which direction to go or what their kinfolk will decide. I talked to a woman with 4 kids. She had about 40 family members living in New Orleans. Now, they are spread from North Carolina to Texas.
- We are also setting up a screening process to get the right people into these apartments. We are looking for people who want to relocate to Dallas long-term and are willing to move into a low income, downtown neighborhood. We have Vineyard lay leaders who are heath, business and education specialists who are going to evaluate each family as they move in. They will do a complete workup on them and then orient them to the neighborhood and schools. They are also looking into getting the kids into private schools.
- Byron's Family- I don't know if you saw a picture on CNN of two boys on roof hold a sign that says, "HELP US". One boy was 13 year old Byron. His family goes to the New Orleans inner city Vineyard pastored by Mark Drouin. Byron was rescued and evacuated to Dallas. His family was separated, housed in the Astrodome and extremely distraught. Mark saw Byron on CNN, miraculously located Byron's family in Houston and then miraculously found Byron in a Dallas shelter. While in the shelter, Byron was enrolled in school and was loving the change from his impoverished Orleans school. In fact, he wanted to stay in Dallas. To relieve the overcrowding in Houston, Byron's family has just been moved to a Dallas hotel. They are relocating to Dallas and may be our first family to move in.
IKEA
Chris Conant is one brilliant guy with ideas that actually work. He contacted IKEA here in Burbank and they contacted IKEA in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas. He emailed floor plans to them and one of their employees used her off-time to lay out $10,000 worth of furniture in 7 apartments. She picked over items for quality and durability to squeeze every dollar out of the budget and helped us get 21 mattresses donated for the beds. All this was done before a single dollar had come in for the project.
- The only downside was that we immediately took 7 dressers and 2 tables with us to the apartment. I ended up on my knees for 8 hours assembling the darn things. Do you know how many parts there are to an IKEA dresser?
- The same IKEA employee is going to take her day off to oversee delivery to make sure each item goes to the correct apartment. Then a team of men from the local Vineyard will show up with their drills for "assembly time".
FIRST RESPONSE IN DALLAS
On Wednesday morning we went to the Grand Opening of a shelter run by CCA, a Christian food bank that is supported by about 40 churches and feeds about 15,000 in North Dallas every year. It was a highlight for us because we met some evacuees along with the saints who were serving them. It was awesome to see the Church in action:
- The center was full of food, job counselors, FEMA representatives, legal aid, clothing and more. Each family received a $100 food voucher and a basket and went shopping.
- Most of the people in Dallas were those who had left just before the storm in their cars. They filled up the hotels in the area. As soon as the disaster occurred, a leading Baptist pastor initiated a system where churches adopted hotels and began delivery daily meals and other necessities to the people. This had been going on for two weeks and thousands were involved! The people in the shelter said that the kindness of the saints had been overwhelmed.
- At the opening of the new shelter, they invited the County Commissioner, a black woman named Bobbi to pray. I think she prayed for about 5 minutes. She called on the name of Jesus and gave all the glooooo-ry to God in the Highest. I tell ya', we ere havin' church and people were weeping and praying along with her. I thought, wouldn't it be great if our County Supervisors learned to pray like this here in LA!
- They have also opened a large Baptist Camp north of Dallas to house and feed another 700 people.
THE PEOPLE
Chris Conant, Pastor Bob Oliver and I fanned out in the center talk and pray with people. We didn't spend as much time as we wanted with these people, but we were humbled by their stories and their faith.
- One family had left their rickety home to ride out the hurricane in a local New Orleans hotel. After the wind died down they returned to find their roof gone and the doors all blow off. As they went inside to look around a neighbor yelled out, "There's water coming down the street". They said their first response was to think a pipe had broken. Then someone yelled, "The levees gave way!" By the time all 8 got in the van the water had risen to the wheel wells. As they drove off they could see that most of their neighbor's cars had stalled in the flood. Their friends were fleeing their vehicles and began to climb on roofs. They wept as they said that there was nothing they could except keep going.
- We met one family of 18. Another of 12. Cousins and uncles and grannies had piled into their vehicles and drove away. Their homes were now under 10 feet of water, everything was lost.
- Denise was a graduate student in health sciences working on her masters at LSU. She escaped with her dog and her best friend of 20 years, a single working professional with 4 kids. They were grateful to God and wept when I prayed for them, but they had lost all they owned, every memento, every book, every file, everything.
- Bob Oliver talked to Ruby. She said that Jesus had blessed her with many things in life and that she was grateful to be alive. When all was lost she said that the Lord spoke to her and said, "I've given you many things and many things have been lost, but I gave you joy and you still have my joy don't you". She said, "Yes, Lord, I can still rejoice in you".
EVANGELISM
Chris and I had numerous opportunities to share about Jesus on this trip. Both of us were very aware of the Lord's blessing being with us. I think we accomplished about two weeks of work in less than 4 days. Everywhere we went we were able to talk about what we were doing and how the Lord had put things together. It's amazing how interested people are in your faith when you are not just trying to convert them, but you are serving Christ.
HELP
1. Contact Chris Conant at cc@morecabbage.com to find out more about the apartment project. He may be taking another trip to Dallas soon.
2. I am thinking about taking a work team for one week to Baton Rouge. They need laborers.
3. You can send any donations to the Baton Rouge Vineyard and be confident they will go to a worthy cause. They have overwhelming needs for cleaning supplies, diapers, phone cards, mobile homes, plywood and much more. Go to their web www.brvineyard.org.
Blessings, Bill Dwyer
