Christian and Other Faith's Response to Disasters

Christian and Other Faith's Response to Disasters

                This year I have been immersed into the disaster assistance world.  I have been to Point Pleasant, New Jersey and Jamaica, New York to help with the Hurricane Sandy recovery (see previous post about that trip if interested). I have also spent a lot of time this year going to Mayflower, Paron, and Vilonia, Arkansas to help with the long term recovery efforts after a tornado hit these three towns on April 27, 2014. I have heard stories from the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance National Response Team members about disasters they have helped with. I have also heard stories from other disaster recovery officials and other people who have helped out after a disaster. So I have definitely learned a lot from talking to these people.   

                The thing that I have found both encouraging and positive is how the Church as a whole and other faith communities handle disasters. Even though there is a lot of theological difference between a lot of the churches involved they manage to put aside these difference to help people who are in desperate need. What’s even more encouraging is that each group has found its niche in the disaster recovery process. Some groups have more glamorous jobs than others but all stay until the work is done.           

Helping fix a trailer that was damaged by the tornado. 

                I have also been encouraged by the attitude of the group. My favorite quote came from a discussion about helping people in a largely Hispanic community. There were several people who had not received FEMA funding. It was pretty obvious that a lot of the community was in the country illegally. However has one member said “That doesn't matter they are people that need help.” There were a lot of people on the committee that applauded this statement. This has been the attitude of the committee they are going to help anyone that is in need.

Alex and I being shown around a rebuilding project in Vilonia  by one their long-term recovery coordinators.
         The long-term recovery effort I am most familiar with is the Mayflower Arkansas Interfaith and Partners Disaster Recovery (IFPA) has several different churches involved. There are Baptist, Lutherans, Methodist, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Nondenominational, and others who make up the committee. What is significant is the work each group has done to help make the long term process faster. At Mayflower the Methodists have put in the money to hire a full time person to help coordinate the effort and another part time person who probably puts in more hours than that for construction management. A Lutheran denomination gave the long-term recovery effort a grant to rent out a warehouse to house materials, tools and anything else that might need to be stored. The Presbyterians have been busy looking for churches that can host volunteer groups and have several other contributions. They also handle spiritual care which includes visiting with survivors and hearing their stories. The Catholic Church has paid for case management workers who help the long-term recovery committee find the needs of the people. Other members have brought their own talents to the group and others have donated a good portion of money to specific houses for people in the area.

                This is fairly common for Churches and other faith communities to work in long term recovery efforts. Several big denominations have some sort of disaster assistance ministry and they all do something a little different. There are several reasons why this is a good thing. One is by having one big effort instead of each group trying to do everything they can save money and give it to people who really need it. Second reason is that when people work together more gets done faster. There are several other advantages to working together including the ability to pool money together when no one organization has the resources to fund a project but to avoid this blog becoming too long I won’t list them.

                I will also say that this blog has focused on the Christian response after a disaster because that is what I am most knowledgeable about. Several other faiths have disaster recovery agencies that also work with others to speed up the recovery process. We have had a group of Muslims and Jewish people have come and worked here in the area. They knew that this wasn't going to be an area where there were a lot of other Muslims and Jewish people but they came anyway. These groups and other faith backgrounds play a big part in other long-term recovery efforts.

                Seeing this process has been encouraging. In a time when a lot of Christians and other faiths can’t agree on things it’s nice to see they can come together and help people out. While this disaster was an awful thing to happen it has been a good opportunity to meet people and to show people Christ’s love through the rebuilding process.

Picture of a housing dedication in Mayflower. Four deserving families were given a new house.